[Frederick Douglass escaped slavery via train and ferry, taking
24 hours to travel from Maryland to New York City dressed
as a sailor and using another man's identification papers.]
36 BCE - At the sea-going Battle of Naulochus - fought off the coast of Sicily, oddly enough near Naulochus - Octavian's admiral Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa defeated Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey, thus ending Pompeian resistance to the Second Triumvirate and (not inconsequentially) freeing up a vital portion of Rome's grain supply.
301 CE - The Republic of San Marino was founded by its namesake, St. Marinus.
590 CE - Gregory I was elected Pope to replace the recently deceased Pelagius II.
1189 -England's King Richard I (since better known as 'Richard the Lionhearted') was crowned at Westminster Abbey; not only was his coronation marred by anti-Semitic violence - notably killed in sectarian attacks that day was the scholar Jacob of Orléans - but owing to his involvement in the Crusades, the King would spend a scant ten months of his ten-year reign in his kingdom, allowing his brother John pretty much free reign to hone his already considerable skills as an absolute
1777 - During a skirmish between British/Hessian and American forces at Cooch's Bridge in New Castle County, Delaware - known as the Battle of Cooch's Bridge* - the Stars and Stripes was flown in battle for the first time; while technically an American loss, the battle was an unqualified victory for the nascent nation's propagandists, who've been waving the flag over battlegrounds ever since.
*Incidentally, the only battle of the American Revolution to be fought in Delaware.
1783 - The American Revolution was officially concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by Americans John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay and British emissary David Hartley at the Hotel d'York in Paris.
1812 - 24 settlers were killed by Shawnee raiders near Underwood, Indiana, in what came to be known as the Pigeon Roost Massacre; the location of the killings, which occurred shortly after the opening of the War of 1812, is now a State Historic Site.
1838 - Frederick Douglass stole his freedom.
1870 - Prussia's Second Army under Prince Friedrich Karl undertook the Siege of Metz, which would result in a decisive Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War against the defenses of Metz when France's Marshal François Bazaine finally surrendered on October 23rd.
1878 - Over 640 people died when the crowded pleasure boat Princess Alice collided with the coal ship Bywell Castle within sight of London's North Woolwich Pier; owing to severe pollution in the River Thames many of those who didn't die on that day perished in the subsequent months.
1914 - William, Prince of Albania left the country after just six months due to opposition to his rule.
1925 - The American zeppelin USS Shenandoah crashed near Caldwell, Ohio, killing 14 - including its commander, Zachary Lansdowne.
1935 - Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first person to ever drive a car faster than 300 mph.
1951 - Search for Tomorrow made its TV debut on CBS; it would be broadcast for 35 years, not going off the air until 1986.
1967 - On what came to be known as Dagen H in Sweden, traffic changed from driving on the left to driving on the right overnight; to be more precise, the change-over occurred at 4:50 AM.
1971 - Qatar gained its independence from the United Kingdom.
1976 - The Viking 2 spacecraft landed at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
1995 - eBay was founded.
2004 - Day 3 of the Beslan school hostage crisis ended with the deaths of more than 300 people, over half of whom were children.
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