Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

October 1

• 331 BC – Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela.
• 959 – Edgar the Peaceable becomes king of all England.
• 1189 – Gerard de Ridefort, grandmaster of the Knights Templar since 1184, is killed in the Siege of Acre.
• 1553 – Coronation of Queen Mary I of England
• 1787 – Russians under Alexander Suvorov defeat the Turks at Kinburn.
• 1791 – First session of the French Legislative Assembly.
• 1795 – Belgium is conquered by France.
• 1800 – Spain cedes Louisiana to France via the Treaty of San Ildefonso.
• 1811 – The first steamboat to sail the Mississippi River arrives in New Orléans, Louisiana.
• 1814 – Opening of the Congress of Vienna, intended to redraw Europe's political map after the defeat of Napoléon the previous spring.
• 1827 – Russo-Persian War: The Russian army under Ivan Paskevich storms Yerevan, ending a millennium of Muslim domination in Armenia.
• 1829 – South African College is founded in Cape Town, South Africa; it will later separate into the University of Cape Town and the South African College Schools.
• 1843 – The News of the World tabloid begins publication in London.
• 1847 – German inventor and industrialist Werner von Siemens founds Siemens AG & Halske.
• 1854 – The watch company founded in 1850 in Roxbury by Aaron Lufkin Dennison relocates to Waltham, Massachusetts, to become the Waltham Watch Company, a pioneer in the American system of watch manufacturing.
• 1880 – John Philip Sousa becomes leader of the United States Marine Band.
• 1880 – First electric lamp factory is opened by Thomas Edison.
• 1887 – Balochistan is conquered by the British Empire.
• 1890 – Yosemite National Park is established by the U.S. Congress.
• 1891 – In the U.S. state of California, Stanford University opens its doors.
• 1898 – The Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration is founded under the name k.u.k. Exportakademie.
• 1903 – Baseball: The Boston Americans play the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of the modern World Series.
• 1905 – František Pavlík is killed in a demonstration in Prague, inspiring Leoš Janáček to the piano composition 1. X. 1905.
• 1908 – Ford puts the Model T car on the market at a price of US$825.
• 1910 – Los Angeles Times bombing: A large bomb destroys the Los Angeles Times building in downtown Los Angeles, California, killing 21.
• 1918 – World War I: Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia" capture Damascus.
• 1920 – Sir Percy Cox lands in Basra to assume his responsibilities as high commissioner in Iraq.
• 1928 – The Soviet Union introduces its First Five-Year Plan.
• 1931 – The George Washington Bridge linking New Jersey and New York opens.
• 1936 – Francisco Franco is named head of the Nationalist government of Spain.
• 1937 – The Japanese city Handa is founded in Aichi Prefecture.
• 1938 – Germany annexes the Sudetenland.
• 1939 – After a one-month Siege of Warsaw, hostile forces enter the city.
• 1940 – The Pennsylvania Turnpike, often considered the first superhighway in the United States, opens to traffic.
• 1942 – USS Grouper torpedoes Lisbon Maru not knowing she is carrying British PoWs from Hong Kong
• 1942 – First flight of the Bell XP-59 "Aircomet".
• 1943 – World War II: Naples falls to Allied soldiers.
• 1946 – Nazi leaders are sentenced at Nuremberg Trials.
• 1946 – Mensa International is founded in the United Kingdom.
• 1947 – The F-86 Sabre flies for the first time.
• 1949 – The People's Republic of China is established and declared by Mao Zedong.
• 1957 – First appearance of In God We Trust on U.S. paper currency.
• 1958 – NASA is created to replace NACA.
• 1960 – Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1961 – East and West Cameroon merge to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon.
• 1962 – First broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
• 1964 – The Free Speech Movement is launched on the campus of University of California, Berkeley.
• 1964 – Japanese Shinkansen ("bullet trains") begin high-speed rail service from Tokyo to Osaka.
• 1965 – General Suharto crushes an attempted coup in Indonesia.
• 1966 – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with eighteen fatalities and no survivors 5.5 miles south of Wemme, Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.
• 1968 – The Guyanese government takes over the British Guiana Broadcasting Service (BGBS).
• 1969 – Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time.
• 1971 – Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida, United States.
• 1971 – The first brain-scan using x-ray computed tomography (CT or CAT scan) is performed at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London.
• 1975 – The Seychelles gain internal self-government. The Ellice Islands split from Gilbert Islands and take the name Tuvalu.
• 1975 – Thrilla in Manila: Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines.
• 1978 – Tuvalu gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1978 – The Voltaic Revolutionary Communist Party is founded.
• 1979 – The United States returns sovereignty of the Panama canal to Panama.
• 1982 – Helmut Kohl replaces Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor of Germany through a Constructive Vote of No Confidence.
• 1982 – EPCOT Center opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.
• 1982 – Sony launches the first consumer compact disc player (model CDP-101).
• 1985 – The Israeli air force bombs PLO Headquarters in Tunis.
• 1987 – The Whittier Narrows earthquake shakes the San Gabriel Valley, registering as magnitude 5.9.
• 1989 – Denmark introduces the world's first legal modern same-sex civil union called "registered partnership".
• 1991 – New Zealand's Resource Management Act 1991 comes into force.
• 1994 – Palau gains independence from the United Nations (trusteeship administered by the United States of America).
• 1998 – Vladimir Putin becomes a permanent member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
• 2009 – The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom takes over the judicial functions of the House of Lords.