1805 - 45 women meet at Mrs. Silas Lee's home in Wiscasset, Maine, and organize the Female Charitable Society, one of the earliest women's clubs in America
1925 - French General Sarrail bombs Damascus (ends October 20)
1954 - Hurricane Hazel becomes the most severe to ever hit the US, killing 195 in the US and Canada
2000 - Zack de la Rocha announces he is leaving the rock band Rage Against the Machine
2020 - Bolivia elects Luis Arce President and his party, Movement for Socialism back into government
1818 - Edward Otho Cresap Ord, American engineer and Major General (Union Army), born in Cumberland, Maryland (d. 1883)
1878 - James Truslow Adams, American historian (Pulitzer Prize 1921, popularized phrase "American Dream"), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1949)
1898 - Lotte Lenya [Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer], Austrian-American singer, muse and wife of Kurt Weill, and actress (The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone; From Russia with Love), born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (d. 1981)
1956 - Jim Talent, American politician (Rep-R-Missouri), born in Des Peres, Missouri
1990 - Brittany Griner, American basketball center (Olympic gold 2016, 20; WNBA C'ship 2014 Phoenix Mercury; 8 × WNBA All-Star; WNBA scoring champion 2017, 19; detained in Russia for drug smuggling Feb-Dec 2022), born in Houston, Texas
1459 - Jan of Heinsberg, Bishop of Liège (1419-56), dies
1977 - Andreas Baader, German left-wing militant and leader of the Red Army Faction, commits suicide along with other RAF leaders at 34
2013 - Mary Carver [Carvellas], American actress (Simon and Simon, Star Trek: Enterprise), dies at 89
2016 - Phil Chess [Fiszel Czyż], Polish-American record company executive (Chess Records), and jazz record producer, dies at 95
2023 - Dwight Twilley, American power pop singer-songwriter ("I'm On Fire"; "Girls"), dies of complications from a stroke at 72
The U.S. formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million.