Historical Events
- Oct 1 A gunman kills 8 students and a teacher at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon
- Oct 1 Cargo ship El Faro goes missing with 33 crew during Hurricane Joaquin near the Bahamas
- Oct 1 Mudslide on the outskirts of Guatemala City leaves at least 131 dead and 300 missing
- Oct 1 NY Yankees record the 10,000th win in their illustrious history, and also clinch wild card slot; beat the Red Sox, 4-1, at a rainy New Yankee Stadium; NY bullpen ties MLB record with their 589th victim of the season
- Oct 2 Actor Randy Quaid and his wife Evi are arrested in Vermont after leaving Canada
- Oct 3 Flash floods on the French Riviera kill at least 19 people
- Oct 3 Host nation England crashes out of Rugby World Cup in pool stage; loses to Australia, 33-13 at Twickenham; Bernard Foley scores 2 tries and kicks 4 penalties & 3 conversions for the Wallabies
- Oct 3 US airstrike hits Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing around 19
- Oct 5 Floods in South Carolina a "1,000-year storm" result in 12 deaths and 9 dams to fail
Right to Die
Oct 5 Governor of California Jerry Brown signs a bill giving terminally ill patients the "right to die"
- Oct 5 Nobel prize for Medicine awarded to William C. Campbell, Satoshi Ōmura (Roundworm) and Youyou Tu (Malaria)
- Oct 5 Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement announced by trade ministers of 12 countries in Atlanta
- Oct 6 Nobel prize for Physics awarded to Takaaki Kajita (Japan) and Arthur McDonald (Canada) for work on neutrinos
- Oct 7 Nobel prize in Chemistry awarded to Tomas Lindahl (Sweden), Paul Modrich (US) and Aziz Sancar (Turkey) for work on cells DNA repair
Event of Interest
Oct 7 US President Barack Obama apologises to Doctors without Borders President and the President of Afghanistan for the bombing of a hospital in Kunduz
Music History
Oct 8 American actress and singer Selena Gomez reveals she has Lupus
- Oct 8 Nobel prize for Literature awarded to Belarusian journalist and author Svetlana Alexievich
- Oct 9 Selena Gomez releases her studio album "Revival", goes to #1 on Billboard 200
- Oct 9 The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- Oct 10 Bombing at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey kills at least 95, injures 200
- Oct 11 Nepal's parliament elects Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, leader of the Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist party, as Prime Minister
President's Cup
Oct 11 Presidents Cup Golf, Jack Nicklaus GC Korea: Zach Johnson and Phil Mickelson go undefeated as US wins for the 6th successive time with a 15½–14½ victory over the International team
- Oct 13 Basketball player Lamar Odom is hospitalised after being found unconscious in a brothel in Nevada
- Oct 13 First Democratic presidential candidates debate, broadcast by CNN and held in Las Vegas, Nevada
- Oct 13 Marlon James is the first Jamaican writer to win the Man Booker Prize for his novel "A Brief History of Seven Killings"
Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo
Oct 17 Amy Schumer's comedy special "Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo" premieres on HBO
Sports History
Oct 17 Star forward Cristiano Ronaldo becomes Real Madrid's all-time leading scorer across all competitions, overtaking club legend Raul with his 324th goal in a 3-0 win over Levante
- Oct 18 Rashid Khan makes his One Day International (ODI) debut for Afghanistan against Zimbabwe
Election of Interest
Oct 19 Canadian federal elections: Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party win a majority with 184 seats
- Oct 19 US scientists from University of California find evidence life on earth may have begun 4.1 billion years ago, 300 million earlier than previously thought
- Oct 20 Migrants arriving in Greece top 500,00 for the year, according to the UN
- Oct 21 Alex Puccio ascends Free Range in Boulder Canyon, Colorado, climbing V13 (8B) after recovering from her knee injury
Event of Interest
Oct 21 German Chancellor Angela Merkel says German view of Holocaust will not change, after Benjamin Netanyahu says idea came from Mufti of Jerusalem
- Oct 24 Even results in Argentine Presidential Election between Daniel Scioli and Mauricio Macrieven trigger 1st ever Presidential run off 22 Nov
F1 World Champion
Oct 25 British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton wins US F1 Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas to clinch his second consecutive World Drivers Championship
Spectre
Oct 26 "Spectre", 24th James Bond film, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Daniel Craig premieres in London
- Oct 26 7.5 magnitude earthquake hits northern Pakistan and Afghanistan killing over 300
- Oct 26 Rashid Khan makes his Twenty20 International (T20I) debut for Afghanistan against Zimbabwe
- Oct 26 World Health Organization classifies processed meat as carcinogenic
Sports History
Oct 27 American soccer star Abby Wambach announces her retirement
- Oct 28 Longest ever 1st game of Baseball World Series (5 hours, 9 minutes); Kansas City Royals beat New York Mets, 5-4; also joint longest by innings (14)
- Oct 28 Research indicating Plague dates back to the Bronze age in skeletons 5,783 years old, published by University of Copenhagen team in "Cell"
- Oct 28 Third Republican presidential candidates debate run by CNBC in Boulder, Colorado
- Oct 28 World Heath Organization ranks Tuberculosis alongside HIV as world's deadliest infectious diseases, killing 1.2 million (2014)
- Oct 29 China announces the end of their one-child policy after 35 years
- Oct 29 Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) is elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives, succeeding John Boehner (R-Ohio)
- Oct 30 Breeders' Cup Horse Racing, Keeneland Racetrack; Day 1 winners: Hit It A Bomb, Liam's Map, Catch A Glimpse, Stopchargingmaria
Sports History
Oct 30 Polish tennis star Agnieszka Radwańska wins the WTA Finals title at Kallang. Singapore; beats Czech Petra Kvitová 6–2, 4–6, 6–3
Rugby World Cup
Oct 31 8th Rugby World Cup Final, Twickenham, London: All Blacks fly-half Dan Carter lands 4 penalties and 2 conversions as New Zealand defeats Australia, 34-17
- Oct 31 Breeders' Cup Horse Racing, Keeneland Racetrack; Day 2 winners: Songbird, Mongolian Saturday, Wavell Avenue, Stephanie's Kitten, Runhappy, Tepin, Nyquist, Found, American Pharoah
- Oct 31 Russian airliner crashes killing all 224 on board in Sinai Peninsula, Egypt - Russia's worst air disaster
Famous Weddings
- Oct 8 Chinese actress Angela Baby (26) weds long-term boyfriend Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming (38) in Shanghai, China
- Oct 10 "True Detective" actress Leven Rambin (25) weds True Blood star Jim Parrack (35) in Austin, Texas
- Oct 10 Actor Victor Garber (66) weds artist and model Rainer Andreesen in Tofino, Canada
- Oct 10 Supermodel Hilary Rhoda (28) weds former pro hockey player Sean Avery (33) at the Parrish Art Museum in Long Island
- Oct 17 Actress Bridget Moynahan (44) weds businessman Andrew Frankel at Wolffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack, New York
- Oct 24 American Idol winner and singer Phillip Phillips (25) weds longtime girlfriend Hannah Blackwell at the Resora Plantation in Albany, Georgia
- Oct 24 Comedian Tig Notaro (44) weds girlfriend Stephanie Allynne in Pass Christian, Mississippi
Jason Mraz
Oct 25 American singer-songwriter Jason Mraz (38) weds girlfriend Christina Carano at Pole Green Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia
Famous Divorces
Ricki Lake
Oct 14 Ricki Lake and Christian Evans divorce after 3 years of marriage
Famous Deaths
- Oct 1 Don Edwards, American politician and civil rights champion (Rep-D-CA, 1963-94), dies at 100
- Oct 2 Brian Friel, Irish dramatist sometimes called the "Irish Chekhov" (Dancing at Lughnasa), dies at 86
- Oct 2 Coleridge Goode, Jamaican-British jazz double bassist (Joe Harriot Quintet), dies at 100 [1]
- Oct 2 Lindsay Kline, Australian cricketer (Australian chinaman bowler Hat-trick 1957), dies at 81
- Oct 2 Steve Camacho, West Indian cricket batsman (11 Tests, 4 x 50; British Guiana) and executive (CEO WI Cricket Board), dies at 69
- Oct 3 Dave Pike, American jazz vibraphone and marimba player, dies at 77
- Oct 3 Denis Healey, English politician (Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer), dies at 98
- Oct 5 Chantal Akerman, Belgian feminist filmmaker (Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, Je Tu II Elle), dies at 65
- Oct 5 Grace Lee Boggs (née Grace Chin Lee), American philosopher, author (The Next American Revolution), civil rights activist and feminist, dies at 100
- Oct 5 Henning Mankell, Swedish playwright and author (Wallander novels), dies of cancer at 67
- Oct 6 Árpád Göncz, Hungarian politician, 1st post-communist President (1990-2000), dies at 93
- Oct 6 Billy Joe Royal, American country and pop singer ("Down in the Boondocks"), dies at 73
- Oct 6 Kevin Corcoran, American actor (Swiss Family Robinson, Babes in Toyland), dies at 66
- Oct 6 Sandra Spuzich, American golfer (US Open 1966), dies of leukemia at 78
- Oct 7 Gail Zappa (née Sloatman), American business secretary and wife of musician and composer Frank Zappa, dies of lung cancer at 70
- Oct 8 Hugh Scully, British TV presenter (The Antiques Roadshow), dies at 72
- Oct 8 Jim Diamond, Scottish singer-songwriter (I Should Have Known Better), dies at 64
- Oct 8 Paul Prudhomme, American cajun chef (K-Paul), dies at 75
- Oct 9 Geoffrey Howe, British politician (Chancellor and Foreign Secretary under Thatcher), dies at 88
- Oct 9 Gordon Honeycombe, British broadcaster/author, dies at 79
- Oct 9 N. Ramani, Indian flutist, dies at 80
- Oct 9 Richard F. Heck, American chemist who discovered the Heck Reaction (Nobel Prize 2010), dies at 84
- Oct 10 Hilla Becher (née Wobeser), German artist, worked collaboratively with husband Bernd Becher, dies at 81
- Oct 10 Saša Britvić, Croatian conductor (Croatian Baroque Ensemble, 1999-2015), and pedagogue, dies at 51
- Oct 11 Dean Chance, American baseball pitcher (MLB All-Star 1964, 67; Cy Young Award 1964; no-hitter 1967; LA / California Angels, Minnesota Twins), dies at 74
- Oct 11 John Berg, American art director, 4-time Grammy Award-winner for album art (Columbia Records, 1961-85), dies of pneumonia at 83
- Oct 12 Armin Kircher, Austrian organist, composer, and conductor, dies of heart failure at 48
- Oct 12 George Mueller, NASA Systems Engineer (managed 1969 Moon landing), dies at 97
- Oct 12 Joan Leslie, American actress (High Sierra, Yankee Doodle Dandy), dies at 90
- Oct 12 Willem Aantjes, Dutch political leader (CDA), had to resign over WWII war record, dies at 92
- Oct 13 Michael Walsh, British Army officer (Operation Musketeer), dies at 88
- Oct 14 Mathieu Kérékou, Dictator and President of Benin (1973-91, 1996-2006), dies at 82
- Oct 16 John Jennings, American guitarist and music producer (Mary Chapin Carpenter; John Gorka). dies of kidney cancer at 61
- Oct 16 Mikhail Burtsev, Soviet sabre fencer (Olympic gold 1976, 1980), dies at 59
- Oct 17 Danièle Delorme [Gabrielle Girard], French actress (Pardon My Affair), dies at 89
- Oct 17 Howard Kendall, English footballer and football manager (Everton), dies at 69
- Oct 20 Cory Wells [Emil Lewandowski], American rock vocalist (3 Dog Night - "Joy to the World"), dies at 74
- Oct 20 Don Rendell, English jazz musician and arranger, dies at 89
- Oct 21 Marty Ingels, American comedian (I'm Dickens He's Fenster), dies at 79
- Oct 23 Bill Keith, American bluegrass, country, and session banjoist, and tuning instrument tuner inventor, dies of cancer at 75
- Oct 23 Jimmy Roberts, Canadian ice hockey defenceman (NHL All Star 1965, 69, 70; Stanley Cup 1965, 66, 73, 76, 77; Montreal Canadiens), dies at 75
Maureen O'Hara (1920-2015)
Oct 24 Irish-American actress (Miracle on 34th Street; The Quiet Man; Only The Lonely), and singer, dies at 95
- Oct 24 Michael Beetham, British Marshall of the RAF (Falklands War), dies at 92
- Oct 25 Basil Williams, West Indian cricket batsman (7 Tests, 2 x 100s; century on debut 1978), dies at 65
- Oct 25 Lisa Jardine, British historian and writer, dies of cancer at 71
- Oct 27 Betsy Drake, French-born American actress and writer (Every Girl Should be Married), dies at 92
- Oct 29 Abe Jan Koldijk, Dutch physician for the Nazi regime (Limburg's family doctor), dies at 94
- Oct 29 Murphy Anderson, American comic artist (DC Comics), dies at 89
- Oct 30 Albert "Al" Molinaro, American actor (The Odd Couple, Happy Days), dies from illness at 96
- Oct 30 Mel Daniels, American professional basketball player (Hall of Fame 2012), dies at 71
- Oct 31 Gregg Palmer [Palmer Edvind Lee], American actor (Scream, To Hell & Back), dies at 88
- Oct 31 Gus Savage, American politician (Rep-D-IL, 1981- 93), dies at 90
