October 10 - Events

Events

• 19 AD – Roman general Germanicus suddenly dies in Antioch under mysterious circumstances. Roman historian Tactius records that Germanicus was poisoned by Syrian Governor Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso under orders from Roman emperor Tiberius.
• 680 – Battle of Karbala: Hussain bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is decapitated by forces under Caliph Yazid I. This is commemorated by Muslims as Aashurah.
• 732 – Battle of Tours: Near Poitiers, France, the leader of the Franks, Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. The governor of Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, is killed during the battle.
• 1471 – Battle of Brunkeberg in Stockholm: Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, with the help of farmers and miners, repels an attack by Christian I, King of Denmark.
• 1575 – Battle of Dormans: Roman Catholic forces under Duke Henry of Guise defeat the Protestants, capturing Philippe de Mornay among others.
• 1580 – After a three-day siege, the English Army beheads over 600 Papal soldiers and civilians at Dún an Óir, Ireland.
• 1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
• 1631 – A Saxon army takes over Prague.
• 1780 – The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000–30,000 in the Caribbean.
• 1845 – In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipman students and seven professors.
• 1860 – The original cornerstone of the University of the South is laid in Sewanee, Tennessee.
• 1868 – Carlos Céspedes issues the Grito de Yara from his plantation, La Demajagua, proclaiming Cuba's independence
• 1871 – The Great Chicago Fire: Chicago burns after a barn accident. The fire lasts from October 8 to October 10.
• 1911 – The Wuchang Uprising leads to the demise of Qing Dynasty, the last Imperial court in China, and the founding of the Republic of China.
• 1913 – President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.
• 1920 – The Carinthian Plebiscite determines that the larger part of Carinthia should remain part of Austria.
• 1928 – Chiang Kai-Shek becomes Chairman of the Republic of China.
• 1933 – United Airlines Chesterton Crash: A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by sabotage, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation.
• 1935 – A coup d'état by the royalist leadership of the Greek Armed Forces takes place in Athens. It overthrows the government of Panagis Tsaldaris and establishes a regency under Georgios Kondylis, effectively ending the Second Hellenic Republic.
• 1938 – The Munich Agreement cedes the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.
• 1942 – The Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia.
• 1943 – Double Tenth Incident in Japanese-controlled Singapore
• 1944 – Holocaust: 800 Gypsy children are murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp.
• 1945 – The Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang signed a principle agreement in Chongqing about the future of post-war China. Later, the pact is commonly referred to as the Double-Ten Agreement.
• 1957 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he is refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.
• 1957 – The Windscale fire in Cumbria, U.K. is the world's first major nuclear accident.
• 1963 – France cedes control of the Bizerte naval base to Tunisia.
• 1964 – The opening ceremony of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite.
• 1967 – The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than sixty nations, comes into force.
• 1970 – Fiji becomes independent.
• 1970 – In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
• 1971 – Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
• 1973 – Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion.
• 1975 – Papua New Guinea joins the United Nations.
• 1980 – A magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurs in the Algerian town of El Asnam. 3,500 die and 300,000 are left homeless.
• 1985 – United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they are arrested.
• 1986 – An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.
• 1997 – An Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashes and explodes near Nuevo Berlin, Uruguay, killing 74.
• 1998 – A Lignes Aériennes Congolaises Boeing 727 is shot down by rebels in Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 41 people.
• 2006 – The Greek city of Volos floods in one of the prefecture's worst recorded floods.
• 2008 – The 10 October 2008 Orakzai bombing kills 110 and injures 200 more.
• 2009 – Armenia and Turkey sign protocols in Zurich, Switzerland to open their borders.
• 2010 – The Netherlands Antilles are dissolved as a country.