In the midst of a chilly and overcast day on October 18, 1867, “Seward’s Folly” finally came to completion. Now celebrated every year as Alaska Day, the date commemorates a pivotal moment in the history of the United States and the far northern frontier…
Read MoreOn October 17, 1907, the world awoke to a quieter revolution—one not of engines or empires, but of invisible waves crossing the Atlantic. That day, Guglielmo Marconi’s transatlantic wireless telegraph service officially began operations, linking Clifden, Ireland, with Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. For the…
Read MoreAl Capone, one of the most notorious gangsters in American history, was convicted of tax evasion on October 17, 1931, marking the fall of a man who had built a criminal empire in Chicago. While Capone was involved in numerous illegal activities, including bootlegging,…
Read MoreMother Teresa, also known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was a remarkable humanitarian and Catholic nun who dedicated her life to serving the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta, India. Born in Albania, she dedicated her life to the destitute, and…
Read MoreOn October 16, 1962, President John F. Kennedy received the news that would bring the world closer to nuclear war than ever before. Two days earlier, on October 14, an American U-2 reconnaissance plane flying over western Cuba had captured a series of high-resolution…
Read MoreOn October 16, 1946, ten senior Nazi officials, convicted by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, were executed by hanging. These executions marked the culmination of the Nuremberg Trials, which ran from November 1945 to October 1946 and aimed to hold leading figures of…
Read MoreOn October 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, met a tragic end through her execution during the tumultuous period of the French Revolution. Her fate was a reflection of the deep-seated discontent and anger of the French populace towards the monarchy and…
Read MoreIn the autumn of 1529, the fate of Christian Europe hung precariously over the walls of Vienna. For nearly a month, the Ottoman army—commanded by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, ruler of a vast empire stretching from the gates of Persia to the Balkans—besieged the…
Read MoreThe adoption of the Gregorian calendar on October 15, 1582, marked a significant shift in timekeeping, revolutionizing how societies measured and tracked time across the globe. Named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it, the Gregorian calendar was created to reform the Julian calendar,…
Read MoreOn October 15, 1878, Thomas Edison, America’s greatest inventor, went into business. His new company The Edison Electric Light Company, played a pivotal role in the development and commercialization of electric lighting technology in the late 19th century. Edison had been working on electric…
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