Historical Events on Wednesday, 8th October

08/10/2020

Second Nagorno-Karabakh War: Azerbaijan twice deliberately targeted the Church of the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots of Shusha.

The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict in 2020 that took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding occupied territories. It was a major escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, involving Azerbaijan, Armenia and the self-declared Armenian breakaway state of Artsakh. The war lasted for 44 days and resulted in Azerbaijani victory, with the defeat igniting anti-government protests in Armenia. Post-war skirmishes continued in the region, including substantial clashes in 2022.

---

08/10/2019

About 200 Extinction Rebellion activists block the gates of Leinster House (parliament) in the Republic of Ireland.

Extinction Rebellion is a UK-founded global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse. Extinction Rebellion was established in Stroud in May 2018 by Gail Bradbrook, Simon Bramwell, Roger Hallam, and Stuart Basden, along with six other co-founders from the campaign group Rising Up!

---

08/10/2016

In the wake of Hurricane Matthew, the death toll rises to nearly 900.

Hurricane Matthew was a powerful and devastating tropical cyclone which caused catastrophic damage and a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, as well as widespread devastation across Cuba, the Bahamas, and the southeastern United States. The deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Stan in 2005, and the first Category 5 Atlantic hurricane since Felix in 2007, Matthew was the thirteenth named storm, fifth hurricane and second major hurricane of the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season. It caused extensive damage to landmasses in the Greater Antilles, and severe damage in several islands of the Bahamas which were still recovering from Joaquin, which had pounded the archipelago nearly a year earlier. Matthew also approached the southeastern United States, but stayed just offshore, paralleling the Florida coastline.

---

08/10/2014

Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the United States to be diagnosed with Ebola, dies.

Thomas Eric Duncan was a Liberian citizen who became the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States on September 30, 2014.

---

08/10/2005

The 7.6 Mw  Kashmir earthquake leaves 86,000–87,351 people dead, 69,000–75,266 injured, and 2.8 million homeless.

An earthquake occurred at 08:50:39 PST on 8 October 2005 in the Pakistani-administered territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, within the larger disputed Kashmir region. Its epicenter was 19 km northeast of the city of Muzaffarabad, and 90 km north north-east of Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, and also affected nearby Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and some areas of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It registered a moment magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale and had a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). The earthquake was also felt in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, India and the Xinjiang region of China. The severity of the damage caused by the earthquake is attributed to severe upthrust. Although not the largest earthquake to hit this region in terms of magnitude it is considered the deadliest, surpassing the 1935 Quetta earthquake. It was the 5th deadliest natural disaster of the decade. Sources indicate that the official death toll in this quake in Pakistan was between 73,276 and 87,350, with some estimates being as high as over 100,000 dead. In India, 1,360 people were killed, while 6,266 people were injured, while four others died in Afghanistan. Nearly three and a half million people were left without shelter, and approximately 138,000 people were injured in the quake.

---

08/10/2001

A twin engine Cessna and a Scandinavian Airlines System jetliner collide in heavy fog during takeoff from Milan, Italy, killing 118 people.

The Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), commonly known as Scandinavian Airlines, is the joint flag carrier airline of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is part of SAS Group and is headquartered in Solna, Sweden.

---

U.S. president George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions involve anti-terrorism, civil defense, immigration and customs, border control, cybersecurity, transportation security, maritime security and sea rescue, and the mitigation of weapons of mass destruction.

---

08/10/1991

Upon the expiration of the Brioni Agreement, Croatia and Slovenia sever all official relations with Yugoslavia.

The Brioni Agreement, also known as the Brioni Declaration is a document signed by representatives of Slovenia, Croatia, and Yugoslavia under the political sponsorship of the European Community (EC) on the Brijuni Islands on 7 July 1991. The agreement sought to create an environment in which further negotiations on the future of Yugoslavia could take place. However, ultimately it isolated the federal prime minister Ante Marković in his efforts to preserve Yugoslavia, and effectively stopped any form of federal influence over Slovenia. This meant the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) would focus on combat in Croatia, creating a precedent of redrawing international borders and staking the EC's interest in resolving the Yugoslav crisis.

---

08/10/1990

First Intifada: Israeli police kill 17 Palestinians and wound over 100 near the Dome of the Rock.

The First Intifada, also known as the First Palestinian Intifada, was a sustained uprising involving violent and non-violent protests, acts of civil disobedience, riots, and terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinian civilians and militants in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. It was motivated by collective Palestinian frustration over Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as it approached a twenty-year mark, having begun in the wake of the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. The uprising lasted from December 1987 until the Madrid Conference of 1991, though some date its conclusion to 1993, the year the Oslo Accords were signed.

---

08/10/1986

An explosion occurred at the Cipel-Marco fur factory in Kwai Chung, Hong Kong, killing 14 and injuring 10.

On 8 October 1986, an explosion occurred at the Cipel-Marco fur factory located on the third floor of Wing Loi Industrial Building on Wing Lap Street, Kwai Chung, Hong Kong. The explosion was followed by a massive fire, which ultimately resulted in 14 deaths and 10 injuries. It is one of the most significant industrial accidents in Hong Kong's history.

---

08/10/1982

Poland bans Solidarity and all other trade unions.

Solidarity, full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity", is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subsequently, it was the first independent trade union in a Warsaw Pact country to be recognised by the state.

---

08/10/1978

Australia's Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 275.97 knots at Blowering Dam, Australia.

Ken Warby was an Australian motorboat racer, who at his death held the water speed record of 275.97 knots, set on Blowering Dam on 8 October 1978.

---

08/10/1974

Franklin National Bank collapses due to fraud and mismanagement; at the time it is the largest bank failure in the history of the United States.

Franklin National Bank was a bank based in Franklin Square on Long Island, New York. It was once the United States' 20th largest bank. On October 8, 1974, it collapsed in obscure circumstances involving Michele Sindona, who was a renowned Mafia-banker and member of the irregular freemasonic lodge Propaganda Due. It was at the time the largest bank failure in the history of the country.

---

08/10/1973

Yom Kippur War: Israel loses more than 150 tanks in a failed attack on Egyptian-occupied positions.

The Yom Kippur War, also known as the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, the fourth Arab–Israeli War, the October War, or the Ramadan War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. Most of the fighting occurred in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, territories occupied by Israel in 1967. Some combat also took place in mainland Egypt and northern Israel.

---

Spyros Markezinis begins his 48-day term as prime minister in an abortive attempt to lead Greece to parliamentary rule.

Spyridon "Spyros" Markezinis was a Greek politician, longtime member of the Hellenic Parliament, and briefly the Prime Minister of Greece during the aborted attempt at metapolitefsi (democratization) of the Greek military regime in 1973.

---

08/10/1970

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize in literature.

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Soviet and Russian author and dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag prison system. He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature". His nonfiction work The Gulag Archipelago "amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state" and sold tens of millions of copies.

---

08/10/1969

The opening rally of the Days of Rage occurs, organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago.

The Days of Rage were a series of riots during three days in October 1969 in Chicago, organized by the emerging Weatherman faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

---

08/10/1967

Guerrilla leader Che Guevara and his men are captured in Bolivia. Guevara would be executed the next day.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, politician, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.

---

08/10/1962

Der Spiegel publishes an article disclosing the sorry state of the Bundeswehr, leading to accusations of treason.

The Spiegel affair of 1962 was a political scandal in West Germany. It stemmed from the publication of an article in Der Spiegel, West Germany's weekly political magazine, about the nation's defense forces. Several Spiegel staffers were detained on charges of treason, but were ultimately released without trial.

---

08/10/1956

The New York Yankees's Don Larsen pitches the only perfect game in a World Series.

Don James Larsen was an American professional baseball pitcher. During a 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he pitched from 1953 to 1967 for seven different teams: the St. Louis Browns / Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees (1955–1959), Kansas City Athletics (1960–1961), Chicago White Sox (1961), San Francisco Giants (1962–1964), Houston Colt .45's / Astros (1964–65), and Chicago Cubs (1967).

---

08/10/1952

The Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash in England kills 112 people.

The Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash was a three-train collision at Harrow and Wealdstone station in Wealdstone, Middlesex during the morning rush hour of 8 October 1952. The crash resulted in 112 deaths and 340 injuries, 88 of these being detained in hospital. It remains the worst peacetime rail crash in British history and the second deadliest overall after the Quintinshill rail disaster of 1915.

---

08/10/1944

World War II: Captain Bobbie Brown earns a Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Crucifix Hill, just outside Aachen.

The Battle of Crucifix Hill was a World War II battle that took place on 8 October 1944, on Crucifix Hill, next to the village of Haaren in Germany and was a part of the U.S. 1st Division's campaign to seize Aachen, Germany. The Battle of Aachen was part of the Drive to the Siegfried Line. The hill was named after a large crucifix mounted on the top of the hill. The objective of the battle was to gain control of the hill, which was laced with a maze of pillboxes and bunkers, so that the main objective of encircling Aachen could be completed. The hill was held by units of the German 246. Volksgrenadierdivision.

---

08/10/1943

World War II: Around 30 civilians are executed by Friedrich Schubert's paramilitary group in Kallikratis, Crete.

The Kallikratis executions refer to the mass execution, by German Army and Greek collaborationist paramilitary forces, of some 30 mostly male civilians of Kallikratis, in southwest Crete, on 8 October 1943. Kallikratis was declared a martyred village in October 2018.

---

08/10/1941

World War II: During the preliminaries of the Battle of Rostov, German forces reach the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol.

The Battle of Rostov (1941) took place on the Eastern Front of World War II around Rostov-on-Don and was fought between Army Group South of Nazi Germany and the Southern Front of the Soviet Union.

---

08/10/1939

World War II: Germany annexes western Poland.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

---

08/10/1921

KDKA in Pittsburgh's Forbes Field conducts the first live broadcast of a football game.

KDKA is a class A, clear channel, AM radio station, licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. Its radio studios are located at the combined Audacy Pittsburgh facility in the Foster Plaza on Holiday Drive in Green Tree, and its transmitter site is at Allison Park. The station's programming is also carried over 93.7 KDKA-FM's HD2 digital subchannel, and is simulcast on FM translator W261AX at 100.1 MHz.

---

08/10/1918

World War I: Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

---

08/10/1912

The First Balkan War begins when Montenegro declares war against the Ottoman Empire.

The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, achieving rapid success.

---

08/10/1895

Korean Empress Myeongseong is assassinated by Japanese infiltrators.

Empress Myeongseong was the official wife of Gojong, the 26th king of Joseon and the first emperor of the Korean Empire. During her lifetime, she was known by the name Queen Min. After the founding of the Korean Empire, she was posthumously given the title of Myeongseong, the Great Empress.

---

08/10/1879

War of the Pacific: The Chilean Navy defeats the Peruvian Navy in the Battle of Angamos.

The War of the Pacific, also known by multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought over Chilean claims on coastal Bolivian territory in the Atacama Desert, the war ended with victory for Chile, which gained a significant amount of resource-rich territory from Peru and Bolivia. The war demonstrated Chile's military-technological superiority over its opponents at the time.

---

08/10/1871

Slash-and-burn land management, months of drought, and the passage of a strong cold front cause the Peshtigo Fire, the Great Chicago Fire and the Great Michigan Fires to break out.

Slash-and-burn agriculture is a form of shifting cultivation in agriculture that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The process begins with cutting down the trees and woody plants in a given area. The downed vegetation, or "slash", is left out to dry, usually right before the rainiest part of the year. The biomass is then burned, resulting in a nutrient-rich layer of ash which increases soil fertility and temporarily eliminates weeds and pests. After about three to five years, the plot's productivity decreases due to depletion of nutrients along with weed and pest invasion, causing farmers to abandon the plot and move to a new area. The time it takes for a swidden to recover depends on the location and can be as little as five years to more than twenty years, after which the plot can be slashed and burned again, repeating the cycle. In Bangladesh and India, the practice is known as jhum or jhoom.

---

08/10/1862

American Civil War: The Confederate invasion of Kentucky is halted at the Battle of Perryville.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

---

08/10/1856

The Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident.

The Second Opium War, also known as the Second Anglo-Chinese War or Arrow War, was fought between the United Kingdom and France against the Qing dynasty of China between 1856 and 1860. It was the second major conflict in the Opium Wars, which were fought over the right to import opium to China, and resulted in a second defeat for the Qing and the forced legalisation of the opium trade. It caused many Chinese officials to believe that conflicts with the Western powers were no longer traditional wars, but part of a looming national crisis.

---

08/10/1829

Stephenson's Rocket wins the Rainhill Trials.

Stephenson's Rocket is an early steam locomotive of 0-2-2 wheel arrangement. It was built for and won the Rainhill Trials of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), held in October 1829 to show that improved locomotives would be more efficient than stationary steam engines.

---

08/10/1821

The Peruvian Navy is established during the War of Independence.

The Peruvian Navy is the branch of the Peruvian Armed Forces tasked with surveillance, patrol and defense on lakes, rivers and the Pacific Ocean up to 200 nautical miles from the Peruvian littoral. Additional missions include assistance in safeguarding internal security, conducting disaster relief operations and participating in international peacekeeping operations.

---

08/10/1813

The Treaty of Ried is signed between Bavaria and Austria.

The Treaty of Ried of 8 October 1813 was a treaty that was signed between the Kingdom of Bavaria and Austrian Empire. By the treaty, Bavaria left the Confederation of the Rhine, which was allied with Napoleon, and agreed to join the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon in exchange for a guarantee of its continued sovereign and independent status. On 14 October, Bavaria made a formal declaration of war against the First French Empire. The treaty was passionately backed by the Crown Prince Louis and by Marshal von Wrede.

---

08/10/1645

Jeanne Mance opens the first lay hospital of North America in Montreal.

Jeanne Mance was a French nurse and settler of New France. She arrived in New France two years after the Ursuline nuns came to Quebec. Among the founders of Montreal in 1642, she established its first hospital, the Hotel-Dieu de Montreal, in 1645. She returned twice to France to seek financial support for the hospital. After providing most of the care directly for years, in 1657 she recruited three sisters of the Religieuses hospitalieres de Saint-Joseph and continued to direct operations of the hospital. During her era, she was also known as Jehanne Mance by the French, and as Joan Mance by the English.

---

08/10/1573

The Spanish siege of Alkmaar ends with the first Dutch victory in the Eighty Years' War.

The siege of Alkmaar (1573) was a turning point in the Eighty Years' War.

---

08/10/1480

The Great Stand on the Ugra River puts an end to Tatar rule over Moscow

The Great Stand on the Ugra River or the Standing on the Ugra River, also known as the Battle of the Ugra, was a standoff in 1480 on the banks of the Ugra River between the forces of Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde, and Grand Prince Ivan III of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

---

08/10/1322

Mladen II Šubić of Bribir is deposed as the Croatian Ban after the Battle of Bliska.

Mladen II Šubić of Bribir, a Croatian leader and member of the Šubić noble family, was a Ban of Croatia and Lord of all of Bosnia. After succeeding his father Paul, he further consolidated the Šubić domain, and brought Stephen Kotromanić to administer Bosnia under his overlordship. His subsequent rule marked the weakening of the Šubić and ended with a mutiny of Dalmatian cities and Croatian nobility in 1322. This further led to Mladen's defeat at the Battle of Bliska and subsequent imprisonment by Charles I of Hungary, whom the Šubićs had previously brought to take the throne in Hungary. Mladen continued to develop the state and court institutions, and his de facto rule led to the further development of the chivalric culture in Croatia.

---

08/10/1200

Isabella of Angoulême is crowned Queen consort of England.

Isabella was Queen of England from 1200 to 1216 as the second wife of King John, Countess of Angoulême in her own right from 1202 until her death in 1246, and Countess of La Marche from 1220 to 1246 as the wife of Count Hugh.

---

08/10/1075

Dmitar Zvonimir is crowned King of Croatia.

Demetrius Zvonimir was a King of Croatia and Dalmatia from 1075 or 1076 until his death in 1089. Prior to that, Zvonimir also served as Ban of Croatia (1064/1070–1074). His native name was Zvonimir, but adopted the forename Demetrius at his coronation.

---

08/10/0876

Frankish forces led by Louis the Younger prevent a West Frankish invasion and defeat emperor Charles II ("the Bald").

The First Battle of Andernach between the West Frankish king Charles the Bald and the East Frankish king Louis the Younger took place on 8 October 876 near Kettig southeast of Andernach and resulted in Charles' defeat.

---

08/10/0451

The first session of the Council of Chalcedon begins.

The Council of Chalcedon was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bithynia from 8 October to 1 November 451. The council was attended by over 520 bishops or their representatives, making it the largest and best-documented of the first seven ecumenical councils. The principal purpose of the council was to re-assert the teachings of the ecumenical Council of Ephesus against the teachings of Eutyches and Nestorius. Such doctrines viewed Christ's divine and human natures as separate and distinct (Nestorianism), or viewed Christ as solely divine (monophysitism). The Council of Chalcedon issued the Chalcedonian Definition, stating that Jesus is "perfect both in deity and in humanness; this selfsame one is also actually God and actually man." The Council's judgments and definitions regarding the divine marked a significant turning point in the Christological debates.

---

08/10/0316

Constantine I defeats Licinius, who loses his European territories.

Constantine I, also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a pivotal role in elevating the status of Christianity in Rome, the Edict of Milan decriminalising Christian practice and ceasing Christian persecution. This was a turning point in the Christianisation of the Roman Empire. He founded the city of Constantinople and made it the capital of the Empire, which it remained for over a millennium.

---