October 1 is the 274th day of the year (275th in Leap years). There are 91 days remaining.

Events

• 331 BC - Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Arbela
• 959 - Edgar the Peaceable becomes king of all England
• 965 - John XIII becomes Pope
• 1701 - Matthieu Garigue received by French Reformed Church of The Hague
• 1788 - Nguyen Hue declares himself emperor of Viet Nam
• 1791 - First session of the French Legislative Assembly
• 1795 - Belgium conquered by France
• 1800 - Spain cedes Louisiana to France via Treaty of San Ildefonso
• 1811 - First steamboat to sail the Mississippi arrives in New Orleans
• 1814 - Congress of Vienna
• 1854 - The watch company founded in 1850 in Roxbury by Aaron Lufkin Dennison relocates to Waltham, Massachusetts to become the Waltham Watch Company pioneer in the American System of Watch Manufacturing.
• 1869 - Austria issues the world's first postcards
• 1880 - John Philip Sousa becomes leader of the United States Marine Corps Band
• 1880 - First electric lamp factory opened by Thomas Edison
• 1885 - United States begins special delivery mail service.
• 1887 - Baluchistan conquered by British Empire
• 1890 - Yosemite National Park established by U.S. Congress
• 1891 - In California, Stanford University open its doors
• 1898 - Czar Nicholas II expels Jews from major Russian cities
• 1898 - The Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration is founded under the name k.u.k. Exportakademie.
• 1903 - Boston Americans played the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of the modern World Series.
• 1908 - Ford introduces Model T car
• 1910 - In downtown Los Angeles, California, a large bomb destroys the Los Angeles Times building, killing 20.
• 1918 - Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence capture Damascus
• 1928 - Soviet Union introduces first five-year plan.
• 1931 - George Washington Bridge links New Jersey and New York
• 1936 - Francisco Franco named head of the Nationalist government of Spain
• 1938 - Germany annexes Sudetenland
• 1943 - Naples falls to Allied soldiers
• 1946 - Nazi leaders sentenced at Nuremberg Trials
• 1949 - The People's Republic of China is declared by Mao Zedong
• 1949 - First rectangular television tubes manufactured by Kimble Glass
• 1957 - First appearance of "In God We Trust" on paper currency
• 1958 - NASA created to replace NACA
• 1959 - Acme Refrigeration incorporated by Adrian Kaiser
• 1960 - Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom
• 1960 - Cyprus gains independence from the United Kingdom
• 1961 - East and West Cameroon merge as Federal Republic of Cameroon
• 1961 - Roger Maris sets new record for most home runs in a single season.
• 1963 - California State Board of Education created.
• 1964 - Free Speech Movement is launched on the campus of University of California, Berkeley.
• 1964 - Japanese bullet train begins service from Tokyo to Osaka
• 1965 - Suharto crushes attempted coup in Indonesia
• 1968 - BGBS taken over by Guyana Government
• 1969 - Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time
• 1971 - Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida
• 1975 - Seychelles gain internal self-government
• 1975 - Ellice Islands split from Gilbert Islands, take name Tuvalu
• 1975 - Thrilla in Manila: Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila.
• 1977 - Brazilian soccer star Pelé retires
• 1979 - United States returns sovereignty of the Panama canal to Panama
• 1982 - Helmut Kohl replaces Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor of Germany through a Constructive Vote of No Confidence.
• 1982 - Epcot Center opens at Walt Disney World
• 1985 - Bombing of the PLO Headquarters in Tunis by the Israeli air force.
• 1988 - Mikhail Gorbachev named head of the Supreme Soviet
• 1998 - ICANN assumes responsibility for selling top-level domain names.
• 2004 - Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki gets his 258th hit of the season, breaking George Sisler's 84-year-old single-season record.

Births

• 1207 - Henry III of England (d. 1272)
• 1760 - William Thomas Beckford, writer, politician (d. 1844)
• 1865 - Paul Dukas, French composer (d. 1935)
• 1881 - William Boeing, engineer (d. 1956)
• 1885 - Louis Untermeyer, author (d. 1977)
• 1876 - Huynh Thuc Khang, Vietnamese politician
• 1878 - Othmar Spann, Austrian philosopher and economist (d. 1950)
• 1890 - Stanley Holloway, British actor
• 1896 - Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan, (d. 1951)
• 1896 - Ted Healy (born Charles Earnest Lee Nash), actor, comedian (d. 1937)
• 1903 - Vladimir Horowitz, pianist (d. 1989)
• 1904 - Otto Robert Frisch, Austrian physicist
• 1909 - Sam Yorty, former mayor of Los Angeles, California (d. 1998)
• 1910 - Bonnie Parker, American outlaw (d. 1934)
• 1920 - Walter Matthau, American actor (d. 2000)
• 1921 - James Whitmore, actor
• 1924 - Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States
• 1924 - William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States
• 1925 - Bob Boyd, Major League Baseball player (d. 2004)
• 1926 - Roger Williams, pianist
• 1927 - Tom Bosley, actor
• 1928 - Laurence Harvey, actor (d. 1973)
• 1928 - George Peppard, American actor (d. 1994)
• 1930 - Sir Richard Harris, actor (d. 2002)
• 1935 - Julie Andrews, British actress and singer
• 1936 - Stella Stevens, actress
• 1945 - Rod Carew, American baseball player
• 1946 - Tom O'Brien, American author
• 1947 - Stephen Collins, actor
• 1948 - Cub Koda, lead singer, Brownsville Station
• 1949 - Isaac Bonewits, American author
• 1950 - Randy Quaid, actor
• 1954 - Martin Strel, Slovene ultra marathon swimmer
• 1962 - Esai Morales, actor
• 1963 - Mark McGwire, American baseball player
• 1968 - Jon Guenther, American author
• 1979 - Rudi Johnson, American football player
• 1985 - Dizzee Rascal, British hip hop artist

Deaths

• 1040 - Duke Alan III, Duke of Brittany, poisoned (b. 997)
• 1404 - Pope Boniface IX (b. c. 1350)
• 1684 - Pierre Corneille, French author (b. 1606)
• 1708 - John Blow, British composer (born 1648)
• 1864 - Rose Greenhow, Confederate spy (b. 1817)
• 1876 - James Lick, California land baron (b. 1796)
• 1901 - Abdur Rahman Khan, Afghan amir (b. c. 1844)
• 1929 - Antoine Bourdelle, sculptor (b. 1861)
• 1955 - Charles Christie, pioneer film studio owner in Hollywood (b. 1880)
• 1980 - George Meany, American trade union leader (b. 1894)
• 1985 - E.B. White, American author (b. 1899)
• 1992 - Petra Kelly, German Green politician (b. 1947)
• 2002 - Walter Annenberg, publisher and philanthropist
• 2004 - Richard Avedon, American photographer (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances

• Nigeria - National Day
• Tuvalu - Independence Day
• People's Republic of China - National Day
• In San Marino, two Captains Regent, elected by parliament, take office for six months.
• Saint Thérèse de Lisieux
• Saint Bavo

September 30 - October 2 - September 1 - November 1 - more historical anniversaries