Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in October 2023 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)
Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)
We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.
1 Oct 1873 – 150 years ago
Death of Edwin Landseer, British artist and sculptor. Known for his animal paintings, and for the lion sculptures at the base of Nelson’s Column in London.
2 Oct 1973 – 50 years ago
Death of Paavo Nurmi, Finnish middle- and long-distance runner. Olympic gold medallist (9 times). He set 25 world records.
3 – 4 Oct 1993 – 30 years ago
Somali Civil War – the Battle of Mogadishu. Also known as the First Battle of Mogadishu, the Battle of the Black Sea, or the Black Hawk Down incident. After the battle, the Somalis dragged dead U.S. soldiers through the streets – an event that was broadcast on U.S. television. This led to a public outcry and is thought to have influenced the USA’s decision not to intervene in the Rwandan genocide.
4 Oct 1958 – 54 years ago
The French Fifth Republic was established.
5 Oct 1948 – 75 years ago
The Ashgabat earthquake, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (now Turkmenistan). 110,000 people were killed (some sources say 176,000). It was one of the deadliest earthquakes in human history. Some have speculated that it was caused by Soviet atomic bomb tests.
6 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
The Soviet Union adopted the ‘Eternal Calendar’. Each week had 5 days, there were 6 weeks to a month, and all months had 30 days. The remaining 5 days were national holidays and were given names rather than dates. In 1931 the calendar was replaced with one with 6-day weeks. It used the Gregorian calendar from 1940 onwards.
7 Oct 1943 – 80 years ago
Death of Radclyffe Hall, British writer and poet. Best known for her controversial novel The Well of Loneliness, which was banned in Britain because of its descriptions of lesbianism.
8 Oct 1873 – 150 years ago
Indiana Women’s Prison opened in Indianapolis (as the Indiana Reformatory Institute). It was the first women’s correctional facility in the USA.
9 Oct 1873 – 150 years ago
Birth of Charles Rudolph Walgreen, American pharmacist and businessman. Founder of the Walgreens chain of pharmacies.
10 Oct 1973 – 50 years ago
U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned after being charged with tax evasion. He was succeeded by Gerald Ford on 6th December.
11 Oct 1983 – 40 years ago
The last hand-cranked telephones in the USA (in the village of Bryant Pond, Maine) went out of service as the local exchange was upgraded to a modern direct-dial system.
12 Oct 1773 – 250 years ago
The first psychiatric hospital in the USA opened in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds is now known as Eastern State Hospital.
13 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
Ankara became the capital of Turkey.
14 Oct 1963 – 60 years ago
The French-language folk song Dominique by The Singing Nun was released. It became a worldwide hit throughout December, while the world was reeling from the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
15 Oct 1963 – 60 years ago
The term ‘Beatlemania’ first appeared in the Daily Mirror newspaper in the UK. It described the intense, frenzied reaction of fans of the Beatles.
16 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
The Walt Disney Company was founded by Walt and Roy Disney (as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio).
17 Oct 1943 – 80 years ago
World War II: the Burma Railway (also known as the Thailand–Burma Railway or the Death Railway) was completed. The Japanese built it using Asian labourers and Allied prisoners-of-war, thousands of whom died.
(One of the railway bridges is the famous Bridge over the River Kwai.)
18 Oct 1958 – 65 years ago
The world’s first video game, Tennis for Two, was introduced. It was developed by American physicist William Higinbotham at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The display screen was an oscilloscope. At the time, it was only known inside the lab, and was shown to visitors on open days.
19 Oct 1943 – 80 years ago
The antibiotic streptomycin was first isolated by Albert Schatz at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. It was the first effective cure for tuberculosis. (The discovery was originally credited to his supervisor, Selman Waksman, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work. The discovery was the subject of a litigation case and they are both now listed as co-discoverers.)
20 Oct 1973 – 50 years ago
Sydney Opera House in Australia was opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
21 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
The world’s first planetarium projector (made by Zeiss) opened at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany.
22 Oct 1983 – 40 years ago
Two correctional officers were killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The prison went into indefinite lockdown for the next 23 years, with prisoners isolated in their cells for 23 hours per day. This inspired the ‘supermax’ model of prisons.
23 Oct 1998 – 25 years ago
Swatch Internet Time was introduced. It divides each day into 1,000 ‘beats’.
24 Oct 1933 – 90 years ago
Birth of Ronnie and Reggie Kray, (the Kray twins), British gangsters who ruled the East End of London in the 1950s and 60s.
(Died 1995 and 2000 respectively.)
25 Oct 1983 – 40 years ago
Microsoft Word 1.0 was released. It was the first version of the popular word processor, and Microsoft’s first full-featured application.
26 Oct 1958 – 65 years ago
The Boeing 707, the USA’s first jet airliner, went into commercial service with Pan American World Airways.
The first flight was from New York to Paris, France.
27 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Roy Lichtenstein, American Pop artist. Known for his comic book-style paintings. (Died 1997.)
28 Oct 1943 – 80 years ago
The Philadelphia Experiment. A U.S. Navy escort ship, the USS Eldridge, was apparently rendered invisible while work was being carried out to hide it from enemy radar. Some claim the ship travelled through time and was seen briefly over 200 miles away.
The story is widely regarded as a hoax, but has been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories and a Hollywood film.
29 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk became its first president.
30 Oct 1983 – 40 years ago
The online videotext service Viewtron was launched in the USA. Although it was primarily a news service, most subscribers used it for email and live chat, and it never made a profit. It was discontinued in March 1986.
31 Oct 1993 – 30 years ago
Death of Federico Fellini, Italian film director and screenwriter.
More anniversaries:
You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025 and 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books. The 2028 edition will be available from 5th April 2023.
How to use the anniversaries:
If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.
It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.