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Events on October 7 49

Year 1403

Battle of Modon: Genoese fleet under Jean Le Maingre (Marshal Boucicaut) is defeated by the Republic of Venice at Modon in the Peloponnese.

Year 1406

French troops comprising 1,000 men at arms landed on Jersey and fought a battle against 3,000 defenders.

Year 1477

Uppsala University is inaugurated after receiving its corporate rights from Pope Sixtus IV in February the same year.

Year 1513

Battle of La Motta: Spanish troops under Ramón de Cardona defeat the Venetians.

Year 1542

Explorer Cabrillo discovers Santa Catalina Island off of the California coast.

Year 1571

The Battle of Lepanto is fought, and the Ottoman Navy suffers its first defeat.

Year 1582

Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

Year 1691

The English royal charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay is issued.

Year 1763

King George III of the United Kingdom issues the Royal Proclamation of 1763, closing aboriginal lands in North America north and west of the Alleghenies to white settlements.

Year 1777

American Revolutionary War: The Americans defeat the British in the Second Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Bemis Heights.

Year 1780

American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain: American Patriot militia defeat Loyalist irregulars led by British major Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina.

Year 1800

French corsair Robert Surcouf, commander of the 18-gun ship La Confiance, captures the British 38-gun Kent inspiring the traditional French song Le Trente-et-un du mois d'août.

Year 1826

The Granite Railway begins operations as the first chartered railway in the U.S.

Year 1828

Morea expedition: The city of Patras, Greece, is liberated by the French expeditionary force in the Peloponnese under General Maison.

Year 1840

Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.

Year 1862

Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) opens as the first hospital in the Colony of British Columbia

Year 1864

American Civil War: Bahia incident: USS Wachusett illegally captures the CSS Florida Confederate raider while in port in Bahia, Brazil in violation of Brazilian neutrality.

Year 1868

Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; initial student enrollment is 412, the highest at any American university to that date.

Year 1870

Franco-Prussian War: Siege of Paris: Léon Gambetta flees Paris in a hot-air balloon.

Year 1879

Germany and Austria-Hungary sign the "Twofold Covenant" and create the Dual Alliance.

Year 1912

The Helsinki Stock Exchange sees its first transaction.

Year 1916

Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.

Year 1918

The Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland declares independence from the German Empire and forms the Republic of Poland.

Year 1919

KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.

Year 1924

Andreas Michalakopoulos becomes Prime Minister of Greece for a short period of time.

Year 1929

Photius II becomes Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Year 1933

Air France is inaugurated, after being formed by a merger of five French airlines.

Year 1940

World War II: The McCollum memo proposes bringing the United States into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.

Year 1942

World War II: The October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.

Year 1944

World War II: During an uprising at Birkenau concentration camp, Jewish prisoners burn down Crematorium IV.

Year 1949

The communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed.

Year 1950

Mother Teresa establishes the Missionaries of Charity.

Year 1958

President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza, with the support of General Ayub Khan and the army, suspends the 1956 constitution, imposes martial law, and cancels the elections scheduled for January 1959.

Year 1958

The U.S. manned space-flight project is renamed Project Mercury.

Year 1959

U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.

Year 1963

John F. Kennedy signs the ratification of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Year 1977

The adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.

Year 1985

The Mameyes landslide kills almost 200 people in Puerto Rico.

Year 1987

Sikh nationalists declares the independence of Khalistan from India; it is not internationally recognized.

Year 1988

An Iñupiat hunter discovers three gray whales trapped under the ice in Barrow, Alaska, US; the situation becomes a multinational effort to free the whales.

Year 1991

Croatian War of Independence: Bombing of Banski dvori in Zagreb, Croatia.

Year 1993

The flood of '93 ends at St. Louis, Missouri, 103 days after it began, as the Mississippi River falls below flood stage.

Year 1996

Fox News Channel begins broadcasting.

Year 1998

Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming.

Year 2001

The Global War on Terrorism begins as a result of the September 11 attacks. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan initiates with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.

Year 2003

The governor of California, Gray Davis, is recalled in favor of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Year 2008

Asteroid 2008 TC3 impacts the Earth over Sudan, the first time an asteroid impact is detected prior to its entry into earth's atmosphere.

Year 2016

In the wake of Hurricane Matthew, the death toll rises to 800.

Year ?

The epoch reference date epoch (origin) of the modern Hebrew calendar (Proleptic Julian calendar).

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