1221: Duke Leopold VI. grants Vienna city and stacking rights.
1356: More than 300 people die in an earthquake in the Basel area.
1566: With the approval of Pope Pius V, the twelve-year-old Duke Ernst of Bavaria is elected Bishop of Freising.
1861: In the castle chapel of Königsberg Wilhelm I is crowned King of Prussia. His brother and predecessor Friedrich Wilhelm IV was declared insane in 1858.
1921: In Vienna, “Der Tanz ins Glück”, an operetta by Robert Stolz, will be premiered.
1926: The American singer Bing Crosby records his first commercial record entitled “I’ve got the girl”.
1936: NSDAP leader and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler entrusts Hermann Göring with the implementation of the “four-year plan”, which was announced on September 9th at the Nazi party rally in Nuremberg.
1941: In Tokyo, the Japanese police arrested the German press correspondent Richard Sorge, who as a Soviet secret agent had built a large spy ring since 1933. He passed on the exact date of the German attack without being heard in Moscow. (He was executed in Japan in 1944).
1981: The parliamentary elections in Greece bring the victory of the opposition socialists, who, under the leadership of Andreas Papandreou, are causing a severe defeat for the previously ruling conservatives. In the government formed by Papandreou, film actress Melina Mercouri becomes minister of culture.
1981: The Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party accepts the resignation of party leader Kania; Prime Minister General Jaruzelski also takes over the party leadership.
1991: The USA and the Soviet Union invite you to a Middle East peace conference on October 30 in the Spanish capital, Madrid.
1991: After a twenty-four year hiatus, the Soviet Union and Israel resume diplomatic relations.
1996: The 21 judges of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea are appointed to their office in Hamburg by UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
2011: More than five years after the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by a Palestinian commando, an exchange of prisoners agreed upon for his release is taking place. In return for the 25-year-old, 1,027 Palestinians are released.
2011: The European Court of Justice (ECJ) sets limits to stem cell research in Europe. Human embryonic stem cells may neither be patented for scientific research nor marketed. If embryos are destroyed in order to obtain them, this violates the protection of human dignity; fertilized egg cells are also legally embryos and human life.
Birthdays: Jesse Helms, US Politician (1921-2008); Charles Edward (“Chuck”) Berry, American musician (1926-2017); Klaus Kinski (eigtl. Nakszynski), dt. Schaupieler (1926-1991); Eduardo César Angeloz, argent. Politician (1931-2017); Martina Navratilova, Czech tennis player Czech. Herk. (1956); Wynton Marsalis, American Musician (1961).
Days of Death: Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor (1847-1931); August Gaul, German sculptor (1869-1921); Arnold Durig, east Medicin; Physiologist (1872-1961); Elizabeth Arden, US cosmetic queen (1891-1966); Giacomo Lercaro, Italian cardinal (1891-1976); Jean Pierre Peugeot, French industrialist (according to other sources October 17) (1896-1966); János Kulka, Hungarian conductor (1929-2001); Michael Staikos, Orthodox Metropolitan in Austria (1946-2011).
Name days: Luke, Justus, Heinrich, Barthilde, Gwendolyn, Florian, Isaac, Paul, Peter.