1806 - British forces lay siege to the French port of Boulogne using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve
1813 - Treaty of Ried between Bavaria and Austria
1973 - Spyros Markezinis forms a government in Greece
1988 - Fire in the Space Needle causes evacuation and results in damages of $2,000 in Seattle, Washington
1990 - Israeli police kill 17 Palestinian protesters
1789 - John Ruggles, American politician, born in Westborough, Massachusetts (d. 1874)
1927 - César Milstein, Argentine biochemist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1984), born in Bahía Blanca, Argentina (d. 2002)
1944 - Ray Handley, American football coach (HC New York Giants 1991-92; Super Bowl XXI, XXV NY Giants assistant coach), born in Artesia, New Mexico (d. 2026)
1959 - Tony Eason, American football quarterback (New England Patriots), born in Blythe, California
1965 - Martin Mayhew, American NFL cornerback (Tampa Bay Bucs), born in Daytona Beach, California
1728 - Anne Danican Philidor, French composer (Concert Spirituel), dies at 47
1985 - Malcolm Ross, American balloonist and atmospheric physicist, dies at 65
2001 - Javed Iqbal, Pakistani serial killer (murderer of 100 boys), commits suicide in prison at 45
2011 - Antonio Iglesias Álvares, Spanish pianist, composer, educator and critic, dies at 93
2023 - Alcides Báez, Paraguayan soccer goalkeeper (16 caps; FC Cerro Porteño, FC Libertad), dies at 76
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 erupts on October 8. The two-day blaze killed between 200 and 300 people, destroyed 17,450 buildings, left 100,000 homeless and caused $200 million in damages.