| Albrecht von Haller, the father of experimental physiology | |
| Noah Webster, lexicographer | |
| Oscar Wilde, wit | |
| Eugene O'Neill, dramatist (Desire Under the Elms) (Nobel 1936) | |
| Paul Strand, photographer | |
| Gnter Grass, German novelist, poet (The Tin Drum) | |
| World Food Day. | |
| Dentist William T. Morton demonstrates the effectiveness of ether | |
| John Brown attacks the armory at Harper's Ferry. | |
| A hotel in Boston becomes the 1st to have indoor plumbing. | |
| Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic, in New York. | |
| Cuban missile crisis begins: JFK learns of missiles in Cuba. | |
| Brezhnev & Kosygin replace Krushchev as head of Russia | |
| China becomes world's 5th nuclear power | |
| Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt, succeeds Gamal Nassar. | |
| Henry Kissinger & Le Duc Tho jointly awarded Nobel Peace Prize | |
| Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla elected supreme pontiff-John Paul I | |
| Shultz warns US will withdraw from UN if it excludes Israel. | |
| Mt Palomar Observatory 1st to detect Halley's comet 13th return | |
| Intel introduces 32-bit 80386 microcomputer chip. | |
By Scott Labrecque version 9.4.0.0