1904 - In the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian fleet took heavy losses when the Japanese blocked its escape from Port Arthur in the battle of the Yellow Sea.

1913 - The Treaty of Bucharest was signed between Bulgaria and the Balkan allies Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania, ending the second Balkan War.

1920 - After World War I, Turkey and the Allied powers signed the Treaty of Sevres, relieving turkey of much of the land ruled by the Ottoman Empire.

1944 - In World War II, U.S. forces overran Pati Point after three weeks of fighting and recaptured Guam from the Japanese.

1964 - Pope Paul VI issued his first encyclical, "Ecclesiam Suam", which stated his willingness to mediate in international disputes.

1966 - U.S. space authorities launched Orbiter 1 from Cape Kennedy. The first craft to transmit lunar photographs of possible landing sights, it crashed into the far side of the moon on October 29.

1984 - U.S. runner Mary Decker crashed out of the 3,000 meters final at the Los Angeles Olympics after a collision with Britain's Zola Budd. Budd was initially disqualified but later reinstated.

1999 - Islamist guerrillas declared Russia's Dagestan Province an independent state and called for a holy war of liberation.

2000 - A Polish court ruled that president Aleksander Kwasniewski had not been an informant of the communist-era security service.

2001 - Up to 252 people were killed when a passenger train was attacked by UNITA rebels south of Luanda, one of the bloodiest incidents in Angola's long-running civil war.