| 63 | BC | Catiline began concentrating an army at Faesulae, to overthrow the Roman Republic |
| 0 | | formerly the Feast of St. Ursula of Cologne, Virgin Martyr, Patron of Archers, England, and Cologne, and still that of St. John of Bridlington, Patron of fishermen and women in difficult labor |
| 0 | | Armed Forces Day in Honduras and Navy Day in Egypt |
| 686 | | Consecration of Pope Conon (Oct 21, 686-Sep 21, 687) |
| 1096 | | Battle of Drakon: The Seljuks defeat the "Beggars' Crusade" |
| 1187 | | Albert di Morra is elected Pope as Gregory VIII (Oct 21-Dec 17, 1187) |
| 1600 | | Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated the Toyotomi under Ishida Mitsunari in the Battle of Sekigahara, initiating the Tokugawa shogunate |
| 1639 | | Battle of the Dunes: Tromp's Dutch fleet defeats Quendo's Spaniards |
| 1707 | | the French captured the 80-gun ship-of-the-line HMS 'Cumberland' in the Battle of the Lizard -- Learn More |
| 1797 | | USS 'Constitution' - 'Old Ironsides' - is launched at Boston |
| 1805 | | Lord Nelson won his last victory, Trafalgar, Greatest battle of the Age of Sail -- Learn More |
| 1861 | | Ball's Bluff/Harrison's Landing/Leesburg, Va: Confederate Victory |
| 1861 | | Skirmishing ends, vicinity Frederickstown/Ironton, Mo |
| 1892 | | Pres Grover Cleveland unveils the Soldiers' & Sailors' Arch at Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn |
| 1914 | | Battle of Warsaw: Germans defeat the Russians |
| 1934 | | Red Chinese "Long March" begins (to Oct 19, 1935) |
| 1937 | | Spanish Nationalists capture Gijon |
| 1940 | | President Roosevelt proposed converting merchant ships to auxiliary aircraft carriers, the first, 'Long Island' (CVE-1), was completed in 88 days -- Learn More |
| 1941 | | Germans massacre 7,000 people in "reprisals" at Kragujevac, Yugoslavia |
| 1950 | | Red Chinese forces invade Tibet |
| 1960 | | HMS 'Dreadnought'is launched, Britain's 1st nuclear submarine |
| 1966 | | The Aberfan Disaster: Thousands of tonnes of mining spoil bury a Welsh village; 116 childen, 28 adults die |
| 1967 | | Thousands of Vietnam War protestors allegedly levitate the Pentagon with positive vibes |
| 1971 | | Nobel prize for literature awarded to Soviet apologist Pablo Neruda |
| 1328 | | Zhu Yuanzhang - the Hongwu Emperor of China (1368-1398) |
| 1650 | | Jean Bart, French naval hero, d. 1702 |
| 1725 | | Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy, Austrian field marshal, d. 1801 |
| 1757 | | Charles Pierre Augereau, Marshal of France and duc de Castiglione, looter, d. 1816 -- Learn More |
| 1762 | | Louis Nicolas Hyacinthe Chérin. French Revolutionary general, d/w 1799 -- Learn More |
| 1772 | | Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, sometime soldier, d. 1832 -- Learn More |
| 1803 | | George Wright, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1865 |
| 1833 | | Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, endower of prizes, d. 1896 |
| 1845 | | Pratap Singh, Maharaja of Idar and lieutenant general, d. 1922 -- Learn More |
| 1884 | | Hector Bywater, journalist, novelist ("The Great Pacific War"), d. 1940 |
| 1931 | | Hugh Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton, British historian ("The Spanish Civil War," etc) |
| 1422 | | King Charles VI "the Beloved" or "the Mad" of France (1380-1422), father of Charles VII of France and grandfather of Henry VI of England |
| 1500 | | Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado, 103rd Emperor of Japan (1464-1500), at 58 |
| 1805 | | Horatio Nelson, the greatest admiral, kia, Trafalgar, at 47, along with hundreds of others |
| 1805 | | Cosmé Damian de Churruca , Spanish admiral, kia at Trafalgar at 44 -- Learn More |
| 1837 | | Lt. Gen. Charles-Marie, le comte Denys de Damrémont, 54, Governor-General of Algeria, kia at the siege of Constantine, his funeral becoming the occasion for the premier of Berlioz' "High Mass for the Dead" |
| 1943 | | Alfred Dudley Pound, 66, First Sea Lord (1939-1943) - on Trafalgar Day |
| 2012 | | George McGovern, 90, B-24 pilot with 30 missions and the DFC, senator, presidential candidate (1972) |
| 2018 | | Joachim Holmboe Rønneberg, Norwegian soldier who led the "Heroes of Telemark," at 99 |