1604 - Supernova 1604, the most recent supernova to be observed in the Milky Way.
1635 - 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.
1701 - The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
1919 - Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds "win" the World Series.
1934 - Regicide at Marseille: The assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou, Foreign Minister of France.
1936 - 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, California.
1941 - A coup in Panama declares Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango the new president.
1942 - Statute of Westminster 1931 formalises Australian autonomy.
1942 - 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.
1945 - Parade in NYC for Fleet Admiral Nimitz and 13 USN/USMC Medal of Honor recipients
1962 - Uganda becomes an independent Commonwealth realm.
1963 - 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.
1967 - A day after being captured, Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.
1969 - 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.
1970 - The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia.
1983 - 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.
1986 - The musical The Phantom of the Opera has its first performance at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
1989 - An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.
1989 - In Leipzig, East Germany, 70,000 protesters demand the legalisation of opposition groups and democratic reforms.
1991 - Ecuador becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1992 - A 13 kilogram (est.) fragment of the Peekskill meteorite lands in the driveway of the Knapp residence in Peekskill, New York, destroying the family's 1980 Chevrolet Malibu
1995 - An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.
