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Members of the Pakistani Taliban make a failed attempt to assassinate an outspoken schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai.
First lunar impact of the Centaur and LCROSS spacecrafts as part of NASA's Lunar Precursor Robotic Program.
Mission: Space opens to the public in the Epcot park at Walt Disney World. The opening ceremony included several astronauts from all eras of space exploration.
An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.
Rangoon bombing: Attempted assassination of South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan during an official visit to Rangoon, Burma. Chun survives but the blast kills 17 of his entourage, including four cabinet ministers, and injures 17 others. Four Burmese officials also die in the blast.
Pope John Paul II shakes hands with the Dalai Lama during a private audience in Vatican City.
In Chicago, the United States National Guard is called in for crowd control as demonstrations continue in connection with the trial of the "Chicago Eight" that began on September 24.
A day after being captured, Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.
In northeast Italy, over 2,000 people are killed when a large landslide behind the Vajont Dam causes a giant wave of water to overtop it.
The last day of the October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps forces withdraw back across the Matanikau River after destroying most of the Imperial Japanese Army's 4th Infantry Regiment.
A coup in Panama declares Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango the new president.
World War II: Battle of Britain: During a night-time air raid by the German Luftwaffe, St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London, England is hit by a bomb.
Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begin to generate electricity from the Colorado River and transmit it 266 miles to Los Angeles.
Regicide at Marseille: The assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou, Foreign Minister of France.
Black Sox Scandal: The Cincinnati Reds win the World Series.
World War I: Siege of Antwerp: Antwerp, Belgium falls to German troops.
An accidental bomb explosion in Hankou, Wuhan, China leads to the ultimate fall of the Qing Empire
General Postal Union is created as a result of the Treaty of Bern.
A meeting at the U.S. Naval Academy establishes the U.S. Naval Institute.
American Civil War: Battle of Tom's Brook: Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at Toms Brook, Virginia.
American Civil War: Battle of Santa Rosa Island: Union troops repel a Confederate attempt to capture Fort Pickens.
Opening of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first public railway on the island of Ireland.
Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first head of state of independent Greece is assassinated.
War of 1812: In a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces capture two British ships: HMS Detroit and HMS Caledonia.
Prussia begins the War of the Fourth Coalition against France.
An earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme) causing severe damage and a tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea. Three-thousand people were killed.
Dutch colonists and various slave groups begin massacring ethnic Chinese in Batavia, eventually killing 10,000 and leading to a two-year-long war throughout Java.
The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
Founder of Rhode Island Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident after he speaks out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land.
Supernova 1604, the most recent supernova to be observed in the Milky Way.
The army of the Portuguese Empire is annihilated by the Kingdom of Kandy on Sri Lanka, bringing an end to the Campaign of Danture.
Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
Marriage of Louis XII of France and Mary Tudor.
The Kingdom of Castile conquers the city of Jerez, which had been under Muslim occupation since 711.
James I of Aragon conquers Valencia and founds the Kingdom of Valencia.
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