This Day in History - October

Can you guess these things that happened in the month of October?

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Last updated: August 20, 2020

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First submitted	October 9, 2012
Times taken	28,396
Average score	67.7%
Rating	4.41

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Date	Year	Clue	Answer
Oct 1	331 BC	This conqueror defeats the Persians at the Battle of Gaugamela	Alexander the Great
Oct 2	1535	Jacques Cartier arrives at the present-day site of this city on the St. Lawrence river	Montreal
Oct 3	1990	This country is reunified	Germany
Oct 4	1957	This satellite becomes the first human-built object to orbit Earth	Sputnik 1
Oct 5	2011	This technology pioneer dies of pancreatic cancer	Steve Jobs
Oct 6	1973	Syria and Egypt invade Israel on this Jewish holiday	Yom Kippur
Oct 7	1962	Dr. No, the first movie to feature this character, is released	James Bond
Oct 8	1871	Mrs. O'Leary's cow allegedly starts a fire in this city	Chicago
Oct 9	768	This ruler is crowned King of the Franks	Charlemagne
Oct 10	1911	The start of the Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew this imperial dynasty, China's last	Qing
Oct 11	1962	This Catholic council convenes. It would introduce many changes, such as allowing masses to be held in languages besides Latin.	Second Vatican Council
Oct 12	1810	This Munich festival is held for the first time	Oktoberfest
Oct 13	54	This musical enthusiast becomes emperor of Rome	Nero
Oct 14	1066	William the Conqueror wins this pivotal battle	Battle of Hastings
Oct 15	1917	Exotic dancer Mata Hari is executed for this crime	Espionage
Oct 16	1793	This French queen is guillotined	Marie Antoinette
Oct 17	1604	This explosion is first observed from Earth. For weeks, it would appear brighter than any star in the night sky.	Kepler's Supernova
Oct 18	1898	This island becomes a U.S. territory	Puerto Rico
Oct 19	1812	Napoleon retreats from this city. Less than 10% of his troops will survive the long march back to France.	Moscow
Oct 20	1944	General Douglas MacArthur returns to this country after being forced to flee two years earlier	Philippines
Oct 21	1805	This one-armed admiral defeats the French at the Battle of Trafalgar	Horatio Nelson
Oct 22	1836	Sam Houston becomes the first president of this short-lived country	Texas
Oct 23	4004 BC	The world is created, according to James Ussher's calculations based on this book	The Bible
Oct 24	1901	Annie Taylor becomes the first person to go over these in a barrel	Niagara Falls
Oct 25	1415	This English king defeats the French at Agincourt	Henry V
Oct 26	1881	The "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" occurs in this Arizona frontier town	Tombstone
Oct 27	1682	This American city is founded by William Penn	Philadelphia
Oct 28	1962	Ending a crisis, the USSR agrees to remove its missiles from this country	Cuba
Oct 29	1618	This English adventurer, who tried to colonize Virginia, is beheaded	Walter Raleigh
Oct 30	1922	This fascist becomes Prime Minister of Italy	Benito Mussolini
Oct 31	2011	The human population of Earth reaches this number (according to the U.N.)	7 billion

+14

Level 67

Apr 23, 2014

There always seem to be one question in every single one of those long quiz that my eyes apparently skip over and that I realize I never even read only once the answer are posted. This time it was the Puerto Rico one. It's really frustrating because I usually know the answer.

Level 48

May 7, 2014

Same here.

Level 58

Feb 9, 2017

Happens to me all the time. I swear questions are added once I move past to subsequent ones.

Level 84

Sep 18, 2017

This!!!!! Wow, glad to see I'm not the only one this happens to.

Level 48

May 7, 2014

I never knew about the beheading.

Level 60

Oct 1, 2015

I'm surprised anyone gets Sir Walter Raleigh from that description! In the UK he's most famous for importing the first tobacco. I didn't even remember he'd been executed - he packed a lot into his life before that!

Level 83

Dec 11, 2015

I always thought his beheading was pretty famous.

Level 89

Sep 3, 2018

That super femme collar always comes to mind when I think of him getting beheaded.

Level 85

Oct 4, 2021

In the US, he's most famous for the first English attempt to colonize North America - the failed Roanoke Colony. I don't remember ever being taught anything about him that happened after c.1585.

Level 80

Oct 2, 2020

In my experience, he's pretty well known in Britain for being beheaded too.

Level 75

Sep 2, 2021

I thought he was let off because he blubbed on the way to the block?

Level 86

Oct 1, 2021

On "The Unbelievable Truth" (BBC Radio Show), one of the truths about Sir Walter Raleigh was that his wife carried his embalmed head around in a bag after his death.

Level 95

Oct 3, 2015

Personally I think that a question for Oct. 28 (1940) should be about the Greeks denying the Italians asylum in Greece, thus drastically changing the outcome of WW2 in the allies favour.

Level 74

Oct 10, 2015

as opposed to event in the current question, which dramatically changed the outcome of WW3 in everyone's favour?

Level 67

Jun 8, 2019

outcome of a worldwar in everyones favour... something not right there..

Level 75

Sep 2, 2021

The outcome was that the world war didn't happen, so yeah!

Level 76

Sep 17, 2017

Also accept 7000000000?

Level 83

Sep 17, 2017

That is accepted.

Level 75

Oct 1, 2018

It was the one I didn't know so I just started typing each number with lots of zeros and finally got it.

Level 67

Jun 8, 2019

I knew it was billion started with 6 then went down then up

Level 60

Oct 1, 2018

October 14, William the Conqueror was not a "conqueror" before the Battle of Hastings, he was the "Bastard". And October 27, grammatical mistake "William Penn FINDS this American city". Nice quiz overall, though!

+15

Level 76

Oct 1, 2018

"Founds" is correct in this context. When someone establishes or starts something (like a city or a company), it is said that that person founded it. It comes from the same source as the word foundation, meaning the basis of something. "Finds" implies that the city already existed and that Penn just managed to locate it. See the second verb definition here.

Regarding the Battle of Hastings, the question isn't about William before the battle. One could say that at the moment he won the battle (as it is phrased in the question), he became The Conqueror.

Level 88

Aug 23, 2020

please accept "spy" for mata hari

Level 66

Sep 1, 2020

Does anyone else find him/herself mentally responding Jeopardy-style -- in the form of a question -- due to the phrasing of the hints?

Level 65

Oct 2, 2021

Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights are not Israel

Level 60

Mar 3, 2022

Were at the time.

Level 66

Aug 14, 2022

I loved this quiz,,,,and quite happy to have answered 25 correctly. Excellent variety of subjects with clear, intelligent wording of the clues.

Level 77

Oct 14, 2022

Is there a reason you have 30 verifiable events, and one that isn't?

Level 63

Apr 2, 2024

But it is verifiable that Ussher calculated that date based on the Bible. What are you talking about?

Level 21

Nov 16, 2022

yall might think i am lying but i am the 7,000,000,000th person born

Level 39

Jan 17, 2023

Why didn't you put the actual retreat to France in 1813 after the Battle of Nations, also on 19th of October... in 1812 that same date Napoleons army only fell back to Germany, not France.

Level 53

Mar 2, 2023

I think Guam should be accepted as well in the place of Puerto Rico as it was also handed over by the Spanish after the Spanish American war

Level 76

May 15, 2023

But did the US take control of Guam on October 18, 1898?

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