Events:
* 1499 - Publication of the Catholicon in Treguier (Brittany). This Breton-French-Latin dictionary was written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc. It is the first Breton dictionary as well as the first French dictionary.
* 1530 - St. Felix's Flood destroys the city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands
* 1605 - Gunpowder Plot: A plot led by Robert Catesby to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is thwarted when Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, finds Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the Parliament building.
* 1688 - Glorious Revolution begins: William of Orange lands at Brixham.
* 1743 - Coordinated scientific observations of the transit of Mercury were organized by Joseph-Nicolas Delisle.
* 1757 - Seven Years' War: Frederick the Great defeats the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire in the Battle of Rossbach.
* 1768 - Treaty of Fort Stanwix - The purpose of the conference was to adjust the boundary line between Indian lands and white settlements set forth in the Proclamation of 1763 in the Thirteen Colonies.
* 1780 - French-American force under Colonel LaBalme is defeated by Miami Chief Little Turtle.
* 1831 - Nat Turner, American slave leader, is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Virginia.
* 1838 - The Federal Republic of Central America begins to disintegrate when Nicaragua separated from the federation.
* 1854 - The Battle of Inkerman is fought during the Crimean War.
* 1862 - American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln removes George B. McClellan as commander of the Union Army for the second and final time.
* 1862 - Indian Wars: In Minnesota, more than 300 Santee Sioux are found guilty of rape and murder of white settlers and are sentenced to hang.
* 1872 - Women's suffrage: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time, and is later fined $100.
* 1895 - George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.
* 1911 - After declaring war on the Ottoman Empire on September 29, 1911, Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica.
* 1913 - The insane king Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumes the title Ludwig III.
* 1913 - United Kingdom annexes Cyprus, and together with France declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
* 1916 - The Kingdom of Poland is proclaimed by the Act of November 5th of the emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
* 1916 - The Everett Massacre takes place in Everett, Washington as political differences lead to a shoot-out between IWW organizers and local police.
* 1917 - October Revolution: In Tallinn, Esthonia, Communist leader Jaan Anwelt leads revolutionaries in overthrowing the Provisional Government (As Estonia and Russia are still using the Julian Calendar, subsequent period references show an October 23 date).
* 1917 - St. Tikhon of Moscow is elected the Patriarch of Moscow and of the Russian Orthodox Church.
* 1937 - World War II: Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people.
* 1940 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to a third term as President of The United States of America.
* 1942 - The Second Battle of El Alamein is won by the British in El Alamein, Egypt.
* 1945 - Colombia joins the United Nations.
* 1967 - The Hither Green rail crash in the United Kingdom kills 49 people. The survivors include Bee Gee Robin Gibb.
* 1970 - Vietnam War: The United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in five years (24).
* 1979 - Ayatollah Khomeini declares the USA to be "the great Satan".
* 1983 - Byford Dolphin diving bell accident kills five and leaves one severely injured.
* 1986 - USS Rentz (FFG-46), USS Reeves (DLG-24) and USS Oldendorf (DD-972) visit Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China — the first US Naval visit to China since 1949.
* 1987 - Govan Mbeki is released from custody after serving 24 years in prison. He had been sentenced to life for terrorism and treason.
* 1990 - Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, is shot dead after a speech at a New York City hotel.
* 1995 - André Dallaire attempts to assassinate Jean Chrétien; he is thwarted when the Prime Minister's wife locks the door.
* 1996 - President of Pakistan Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari dismisses the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and dissolves the National Assembly of Pakistan.
* 2000 - Emperor Haile Selassie I is given an Imperial funeral by the Ethiopian Orthodox church
* 2006 - Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for the role in the massacre of the 148 Shi'as in 1982.
Births:# 1950 - Thorbjørn Jagland, former Norwegian prime minister
# 1952 - Bill Walton, American basketball