1702 – Battle of Bay of Vigo: Dutch and English fleet destroy and occupy Spanish silver fleet and French squadron
1944 – First Central Kitchen opens in Amsterdam
1952 – Charlie Chaplin’s “Limelight”, starring himself and Claire Bloom, with an appearance by Buster Keaton, premieres in New York City; Not released in Los Angeles until 1972, winning Chaplin his only competitive Academy Award for original score
1953 – WTRF TV channel 7 in Wheeling-Steubenville, WV (CBS) 1st broadcast
1962 – WCIV TV channel 4 in Charleston, South Carolina (NBC) begins broadcasting
1977 – New York City Marathon: defending champion Bill Rodgers wins in 2:11:38; Miki Gorman retains women’s title in 2:43:10
1998 – Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat agree to the Wye River Memorandum, resuming implementation of the stalled Oslo II Accord which established a level of self-government for Palestine; signed at the White House, In Washington D.C.
2022 – Brock Purdy plays against the Kansas City Chiefs, throwing for 66 yards and an interception
Author: gil7
Today in History for 23rd October 2025
Historical Events
1850 – First US National Women’s Rights convention opens in Brinley Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts
1853 – Maastricht-Aken railway in Netherlands opens
1971 – Three Catholic civilians are shot dead by the British Army during an attempted robbery in Newry, County Down
1989 – Browns’ Bernie Kosar sets club record with a 97-yard TD pass
2007 – Rounder Records releases “Raising Sand”, a collaborative album by American bluegrass singer Alison Krauss and British rock vocalist Robert Plant; tops the chart in Norway, peaks at #2 in US, UK, and Sweden
Famous Birthdays
1794 – Joseph Panny, Austrian violinist and composer, born in Kollmitzberg, Austria (d. 1838)
1805 – John Russell Bartlett, American linguist and historian known for his “Dictionary of Americanisms”, born in Providence, Rhode Island (d. 1886)
1941 – Igor Smirnov, Transnistrian politician, President of breakaway region of Moldova, born in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Soviet Union
1945 – Kim Larsen, Danish rock singer (“In the Middle of the Night”), born in Copenhagen, Denmark (d. 2018)
1991 – Mako of Akishino, Japanese former princess of the imperial family who gave up her title upon marriage, born in Toyko
Famous Deaths
1928 – François Victor Alphonse Aulard, French historian, dies at 79
1944 – Charles Glover Barkla, English physicist (1917 Nobel Prize for Physics for X-ray scattering), dies at 67
1950 – Al Jolson [Asa Yoelson], American-Lithuanian jazz singer and silent film actor (Mamie, Swanee), dies at 64
1995 – Gavin Ewart, English poet (Pleasures of the Flesh), dies at 79
2020 – W. C. Gorden, American College Football Hall of Fame coach (Jackson State University, 1976-91, record 119–48–5), dies at 90
Famous Deaths for 22nd October 2025
1494 – Gian Galeazzo, Italian duke of Milan (1476-94), dies
1674 – Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Dutch painter, dies at 53
1707 – Cloudesley Shovell, British Commander-in-Chief of the British fleet, drowns in Scilly Naval disaster at 57
1881 – Janis Cimze, Latvian composer, Father of Latvian choir music, dies at 67
1954 – Oswald de Andrade, Brazilian author (one of the modernist Group of Five), dies at 64
1970 – René Schneider, Chilean general/supreme commander, murdered
1989 – Roland Winters [Winternitz], American actor (Mama; The Smothers Brothers; Jet Pilot; Meet Millie), dies at 84
1996 – Matthew Harding, businessman/football supporter, dies at 42
1999 – Martin Donnelly, New Zealand cricket batsman (7 Tests, 1 x 100, 4 x 50, HS 206; Wellington, Canterbury) and rugby union centre (1 Test England 1947), dies at 82
2006 – Choi Kyu-hah, President of South Korea, dies at 87
Historical Events for 22nd October 2025
362 – The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire
1932 – Charles de Broqueville becomes premier of Belgium
1979 – Deposed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi arrives in NYC for medical treatment
1980 – 4th government of Martens forms in Belgium
1988 – Elton John sells out Madison Square Garden in New York City for a record 26th time
2001 – MLB American League Championship: New York Yankees beat Seattle Mariners, 4 games to 1
2019 – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan agree deal to jointly control former Kurdish territory in Northern Syria
2024 – Construction of the cube-shaped Mukaab skyscraper, designed to be the world’s largest building, standing 400 meters tall and wide, begins in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh
Today in History for 22nd October 2025
Historical Events
1884 – International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) worldwide and creates 24 international time zones with longitude zero at the Greenwich Meridian
1930 – Blake and Razaf’s “Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1930” premieres in NYC
1938 – Chester Carlson conducts the first successful experiment in electrophotography and later sells it to the Haloid Company, now known as Xerox Corporation, which names it xerography
1968 – Apollo 7 returns to Earth
1997 – NHL superstar Wayne Gretzky’s wife Janet is knocked unconscious and gets 2 stitches after plexiglass falls on her watching a game
Famous Birthdays
1894 – Méi Lánfāng [Lan], Chinese opera performer known as “Queen of Peking Opera” for his portrayal of female roles, born in Beijing, China (d. 1961)
1908 – Helmut Gollwitzer, German anti-Nazi theologian and pacifist, born in Pappenheim, Bavaria (d. 1993)
1920 – Timothy Leary, American psychologist and advocate for psychedelic drug use, born in Springfield, Massachusetts (d. 1996)
1952 – Greg Hawkes, American rock keyboardist (The Cars – “Shake it Up”; “Drive”), born in Fulton, Maryland
1974 – Tim Kinsella, American singer-songwriter (Cap’n Jazz; Owls), and visual artist, born in Chicago, Illinois
Famous Deaths
1792 – Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer, dies at 67
1871 – Roderick Murchison, Scottish Geologist (Silurian system), dies at 79
1937 – Frank Damrosch, German-American author and music teacher (founded New York Musical Institute of Musical Art, later Julliard), dies at 88
2001 – Helmut Krackowizer, Austrian motorcycle racer and journalist (“Motorcycle Sport”, “The History of Famous Makes of Motorcycle”), dies from a heart attack at 80
2020 – Matt Blair, American football linebacker (6 × Pro Bowl 1977–82; First-team All-Pro 1980; Minnesota Vikings), dies from dementia complications at 70
Famous Deaths for 21st October 2025
1500 – Go-Tsuchimikado, 103rd Emperor of Japan (1464-1500), dies at 58
1687 – Edmund Waller, English poet (Song: Go, lovely rose) and politician, dies at 81
1861 – Edward Dickinson Baker, British-American attorney, politician (US Senator from Oregon, 1860-61; US Representative from Illinois, 1845-47, 1849-51), and Union Army officer, dies in the US Civil War Battle of Balls Bluff, Virginia at 50
1881 – Eduard Heine, German mathematician known for the Heine-Borel theorem, dies at 60
1944 – Alois Kayser, German missionary to Nauru (b. 1877)
1945 – Henry Armetta, Italian-American actor (The Black Cat, Bell for Adano, Big Store), dies from a heart attack at 57
1955 – Roy Minnett, Australian cricket all-rounder who played 9 Tests, 3 x 50, 11 wickets; NSW, dies at 69
1978 – Mel Street, American country music singer-songwriter (“Lovin’ on Back Streets”, “Lovin’ on Borrowed Time”), dies of a self-inflicted gunshot on his 45th bithday
1995 – Jose Ignacio Cabrujas, Venezuelan playwright and writer ‘Maestro of the Telenovelas’, dies at 58
2019 – Willie Brown, American Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback, coach and executive (Super Bowl 1976, 80, 84; Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders), dies at 78
Historical Events for 21st October 2025
1899 – Battle of Elandslaagte, Natal (Boers vs. British Army)
1915 – First transatlantic radiotelephone message, Arlington, Virginia, to Paris
1947 – Dutch Dakota explodes near Copenhagen, killing 16 people
1950 – Tom Powers of Duke scores six touchdowns
1966 – 116 children and 28 adults die as a coal waste heap slides and engulfs a school in Aberfan, South Wales
2001 – MLB National League Championship: Arizona Diamondbacks beat Atlanta Braves 4-1
2003 – Images of Eris are taken by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz, leading to the discovery of the dwarf planet
2024 – Australian independent indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe shouts at King Charles, “You are not our king” and “This is not your land” during the king’s visit to the Australian Parliament in Canberra
Today in History for 21st October 2025
Historical Events
1568 – Second Altenburg sermon: Philippists/Gnesio-Lutherans
1897 – Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago is dedicated
1959 – Players Association approves two All-Star Games in 1960 to be held in Kansas City and New York
1975 – Mexico City’s first major subway accident takes 26 lives
1982 – Private funeral service held for Bess Truman, former First Lady of the United States
Famous Birthdays
1757 – Pierre Augereau, Marshal of France and duc de Castiglione during the Napoleonic Wars, born in Paris, France (d. 1816)
1827 – Peter Paul Maria Alberdingk Thijm, Dutch historian and writer, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1904)
1926 – Bob Rosburg, American golfer, analyst (PGA Championship 1959), born in San Francisco, California (d. 2009)
1943 – Paula Kelly, American dancer, choreographer, and actress (Night Court, 1984 – “Liz”), born in Jacksonville, Florida (d. 2020)
1995 – Doja Cat [Amala Dlamini], American rapper and singer-songwriter (“Get Into It (Yuh)”; “Paint the Town Red”), born in Los Angeles, California
Famous Deaths
1422 – Charles VI, King of France (1380-1422) known as “the Beloved”, dies at 54
1992 – Jackson Weaver, voice of Smokey the Bear, dies of diabetes
1995 – Shannon Hoon, American vocalist (Blind Melon), dies of a drug overdose at 28
1995 – Linda Goodman, American astrologer and poet, dies from complications of diabetes at 70
2011 – Edmundo Ros, Trinidadian-Venezuelan musician and arranger, dies at 100
Famous Deaths for 20th October 2025
1740 – Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1711-40), dies after falling ill on a hunting trip at 55
1931 – Emánuel Moór, Hungarian composer, pianist, and inventor of musical instruments, dies at 68
1957 – Jack Buchanan, British theatre and film actor, singer, dancer, and producer (The Band Wagon), dies from spinal cancer at 66
1994 – (Charles) Robert Medley, English abstract and figurative style painter, dies at 88
1998 – Franz Tumler, Austrian writer (Cloak, Aufruf), dies at 86
1999 – Ron Smith, English trade union leader (British Postal Workers), dies at 84
2011 – Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan revolutionary, political theorist and dictator (1969-2011), beaten to death in captivity by a Misratan militia at about 69
2014 – Pavle Merku, Italian-Slovene composer and ethnomusicologist, dies at 87
2020 – Bill Mathis, American football halfback (AFL All Star 1961, 63; New York Titans/Jets), dies at 81
2023 – Haydn Gwynne, English film and stage actress (Drop the Dead Donkey, Billy Elliot the Musical, Windsors), dies at 66
Historical Events for 20th October 2025
1839 – Margaret Fuller is appointed editor of new US Transcendental Magazine “The Dial”
1862 – Amnesty is proclaimed for escaped slaves of Suriname
1911 – Helen Hayes Theater (Folies Bergere) opens at 210 W 46th St, New York City
1939 – “All the Things You Are” is recorded by Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
1963 – South Africa begins the trial of Nelson Mandela and eight others on conspiracy charges
1964 – Ann Packer of Great Britain runs a world record 2:01.1 to win the women’s 800 m gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics
1984 – Cleveland Metroparks’ Valley Parkway All Purpose Trails is completed
2023 – Claim that the world’s oldest pyramid constructed by humans is under the Indonesian prehistoric site of Gunung Padang, West Java, and is 27,000 years old causes controversy