1813 – Chilpancingo congress declares Mexico independent of Spain
1860 – Abraham Lincoln (Rep-R-Ill) elected 16th American President
1913 – Mahatma Gandhi arrested for leading Indian miners’ march in South Africa
1917 – The second phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917 began (October 25, Old Style) as the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia.
1923 – USSR adopts experimental calendar, with 5-day “weeks”
1946 – Karol Wojtyla (future Pope John Paul II) holds his first Mass as newly ordained Catholic priest in Wawel Cathedral’s crypt
1978 – Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi places the country under military rule; General Gholām Reza Azhāri forms government
1984 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan won reelection in a landslide victory over Democratic candidate Walter F. Mondale.
1991 – The last oil fire in Kuwait set by retreating Iraqi troops is extinguished
1995 – Israel buries Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated by Jewish extremist Yigal Amir who opposed peace with Palestinians
2012 – American politician Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, became the first openly gay person to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
2020 – King Von [Dayvon Bennett], American rapper and songwriter (“Cazy Story”), dies in a nightclub gunfight at 26
Births & Deaths:
1661 – Charles II, who ruled Spain from 1665 to 1700 and was the last monarch of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, was born.
2000 – American environmentalist David Brower, who spent nearly 70 years working to protect wilderness areas in the United States and was an influential member of the Sierra Club, died at age 88.
2019 – 17 people die in attack on a checkpoint by Islamic State militants on Tajikistan’s border with Uzbekistan
Film & TV:
1947 – NBC’s “Meet the Press” debuts – US’s longest running TV show
1996 – “The English Patient” based on the novel by Michael Ondaatje, directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche and Kristen Scott Thomas premieres in Los Angeles (Best Picture 1997)
2005 – “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, the 4th film based on the books by J. K. Rowling, premieres in London. Goes on to become most successful film of the year, earning almost US$ 900 million.
Music:
1975 – First performance of the Sex Pistols at St Martins College, London
Sport:
1961 – US government issues a stamp honoring 100th birthday of James Naismith (invented game of basketball – actually Canadian)
