date-a-base

You might like to write about some of the following historical anniversaries which are coming up soon.
Dates are given 3 months in advance to allow you time for research and writing.

This is a small sample of the listing for October in The Date-A-Base Book 2015 - there are 50 entries below, but more than 360 entries for the same month in the book. The book covers the whole year, from January to December and includes over 4,000 anniversaries.

Please be sure to cross-check all information as part of your research and let us know of any errors - we give you free stuff if you spot any!

In 3 months (October 2015):
250 years ago (7 – 25 Oct 1765)	The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York City. Representatives from the British colonies in North America met to devise a unified protest against the Stamp Act - the first direct tax on Americans.
200 years ago (13 Oct 1815)	Death of Joachim Murat, Marshal of France, King of Naples (1808-15). (Executed.)
150 years ago (10 Oct 1865)	The first successful oil pipeline in the USA began operating, in Pennsylvania. The Van Syckel pipeline was 5 miles long and could deliver almost 2,000 barrels per day to the Miller Farm terminal.
150 years ago (11 Oct 1865)	Morant Bay rebellion, Jamaica. Paul Bogle led 200 - 300 black people into the town, marking a major turning point in Jamaica's history.
150 years ago (18 Oct 1865)	Death of Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Lord Palmerston). British Prime Minister (1855-58, 1859-65).
150 years ago (27 Oct 1865)	Birth of Charles Spencelayh, award-winning British artist. A favourite of Queen Mary.
100 years ago (3 Oct 1915)	Pleasant Valley earthquake, Nevada, USA. The strongest earthquake ever recorded in the state. No casualties were reported.
100 years ago (4 Oct 1915)	Dinosaur National Monument was established on the border between Colorado and Utah, USA.
100 years ago (14 Oct 1915)	World War I: Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and declared war on Serbia.
100 years ago (14 Oct 1915)	World War I - the Battle of Loos (France) ended. Result: stalemate. This battle marked the first British use of poison gas (chlorine), though it was ineffective and actually gassed more British troops than Germans.
100 years ago (15/22 Oct 1915)	Birth of Yitzhak Shamir, Prime Minister of Israel (1983-84, 1986-92).
100 years ago (17 Oct 1915)	Birth of Arthur Miller, prize-winning American playwright (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, The Misfits). Husband of Marilyn Monroe.
100 years ago (18 Oct - 3 Nov 1915)	World War I - the Third Battle of the Isonzo, Slovenia. Austria-Hungary repulsed an Italian offensive, but both sides suffered heavy casualties.
100 years ago (21 Oct 1915)	The first transatlantic radio-telephone call was made by AT&T from Virginia, USA to Paris, France. (This was the first time speech had been transmitted across the Atlantic.)
100 years ago (23 Oct 1915)	Death of W. G. Grace, British cricketer. Considered the greatest cricketer of all time.
100 years ago (24 Oct 1915)	Birth of Tito Gobbi, Italian operatic baritone.
100 years ago (27 Oct 1915)	Birth of Harry Saltzman, Canadian film producer. Best known for co-producing the James Bond series of films with Albert R. Broccoli.
100 years ago (30 Oct 1915)	Birth of Fred W. Friendly, American radio/TV producer and executive. President of CBS News. Helped establish the PBS network.
80 years ago (3 Oct 1935 - May 1936)	Second Italo-Ethiopian War. Italian victory.
80 years ago (20 Oct 1935)	The Long March ended. Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong and 8,000 followers arrived in Yan'an after a year-long 6,000-mile march.
75 years ago (1 Oct 1940)	The USA's first superhighway, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, was opened.
75 years ago (4 Oct 1940)	World War II: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a war conference at Brenner Pass in the Alps.
75 years ago (7 Oct 1940)	World War II: Germany invaded Romania.
75 years ago (9 Oct 1940)	Birth of John Lennon, British rock singer, songwriter and musician (The Beatles). (Died 1980.)
75 years ago (14 Oct 1940)	Balham underground station disaster, London, UK. A German bomb caused tunnels to collapse while people were sheltering in the station during an air raid. 68 people were killed and more than 70 injured.
75 years ago (15 Oct 1940)	The U.S. première of the Charlie Chaplin film The Great Dictator. (UK première: 16th Dec. Released: 7th Mar 1941.)
75 years ago (16 Oct 1940)	Holocaust: the Warsaw Ghetto was established in Poland.
75 years ago (24 Oct 1940)	The Fair Labor Standards Act went into effect in the USA, limiting working hours, establishing a national minimum wage, and prohibiting oppressive child labour.
75 years ago (27 Oct 1940)	Birth of John Gotti, American organised crime boss. Head of the Gambino crime family in New York City. (Died 2002.)
75 years ago (28 Oct 1940)	The British ocean liner RMS Empress of Britain was sunk by a German U-boat off the west coast of Ireland. There were few casualties, and most of the passengers and crew were rescued. It was the largest liner lost during WWII, and the largest ship sunk by a U-boat.
70 years ago (24 Oct 1945)	The United Nations was formally established, replacing the League of Nations.
60 years ago (26 Oct 1955)	Ngo Dinh Diem became the first President of South Vietnam.
60 years ago (26 Oct 1955)	The first edition of the weekly newspaper The Village Voice was published in New York City, USA.
50 years ago (8 Oct 1965)	The Post Office Tower (now the BT Tower) in London was officially opened. It was the tallest building in the UK until 1980.
40 years ago (11 Oct 1975)	The first episode of the sketch/comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live was broadcast on NBC TV in the USA (as NBC's Saturday Night).
40 years ago (22 Oct 1975)	The Soviet Union's Venera 9 landed on Venus and became the first spacecraft to send back images from the surface of another planet. Its orbiter began surveying Venus on 26th Oct. (Venera 10 also reached Venus on 23rd Oct, landing on 25th.)
30 years ago (1 Oct 1985)	Riots broke out in Toxteth in Liverpool and Peckham in London.
30 years ago (6 Oct 1985)	Broadwater Farm housing estate riot, Tottenham, London. Metropolitan Police constable Keith Blakelock was killed - the first British constable to be killed in a riot since 1833.
30 years ago (17 Oct 1985)	Britain's House of Lords ruled that doctors could prescribe contraceptives to girls under 16 without parental consent. (Gillick case.)
25 years ago (1 Oct 1990 - Aug 1993)	Rwandan Civil War.
25 years ago (3 Oct 1990)	East and West Germany were officially reunified as the Federal Republic of Germany. This day is now celebrated annually as German Unity Day. Germany's reunified parliament held its first meeting at the Reichstag in Berlin the following day.
25 years ago (8 Oct 1990)	Britain joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM).
25 years ago (13 Oct 1990)	Death of Le Duc Tho, Vietnamese communist politician and diplomat. Joint winner of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize (declined).
25 years ago (14 Oct 1990)	Death of Leonard Bernstein, American conductor, composer and pianist. Noted for his flamboyant conducting style and prodigious talent. One of the first U.S. conductors to receive worldwide acclaim. Composed the music for the stage and film musical West Side Story.
25 years ago (15 Oct 1990)	Apartheid: South Africa's Separate Amenities Act was repealed.
20 years ago (3 Oct 1995)	The O. J. Simpson murder trial ended. The American football star and actor was found not guilty of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
20 years ago (16 Oct 1995)	The Million Man March took place in Washington, D.C., USA.
20 years ago (28 Oct 1995)	Baku Metro fire, Azerbaijan. About 300 people were killed and 265 injured in the world’s deadliest subway fire. It was blamed on an electrical fault caused by outdated equipment, but some commentators say it was sabotage.
10 years ago (8 Oct 2005)	Kashmir earthquake. About 100,000 people were killed, 138,000 injured and 3.5 million made homeless in the earthquake which affected Kashmir, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, western China and Tajikistan.
10 years ago (18 - 26 Oct 2005)	Hurricane Wilma, the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, caused massive damage worth $29 billion (£18.1 billion) across the Caribbean, Central America and the eastern USA. 63 people were killed.

Do you want more historic anniversaries?

Then you need The Date-A-Base Book 2015 and The Date-A-Base Book 2016!

Each Date-A-Base Book gives details of thousands of newsworthy and notable historic anniversaries, and covers a whole year from January to December.

You'll never run out of ideas for magazine and newspaper articles, TV and radio features, books, poems, speeches, exhibitions or special events. You'll also have these dates long before other writers, giving you a huge advantage and plenty of time for research and writing. Just one article sale will pay for your Date-A-Base Book many times over!