1600 – Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the leaders of rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, which marks the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, who in effect rule Japan until the mid-Nineteenth century.
1638 - In England, the church at Widecombe-on-the-Moor is struck by lightning during an afternoon service, leading to new scientific research on lightning strikes.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar – a British fleet led by Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain under Admiral Villeneuve. It signalled the virtual end of French maritime power and left Britain navally unchallenged until the twentieth century.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Austrian General Mack surrendurs his army to the Grand Armee of Napoleon at Ulm, reaping Napoleon over 30,000 prisoners and inflicting 10,000 casualties on the losers. Ulm was considered to be one of Napoleon's finest hours.
1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Ball's Bluff – Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war. Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, is killed in the fighting.
1867 – Manifest Destiny: Medicine Lodge Treaty – Near Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas a landmark treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate a reservation in western Oklahoma.
1879 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric light bulb (it lasted 13 1/2 hours before burning out).
1885 - In an assassination attempt, Danish Prime Minister Jacob Estrup is shot.
1888 - The Swiss Social Democratic Party is founded.
1895 – The Republic of Taiwan collapses as Japanese forces invade.
1994 – North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea and the United States sign an agreement that requires North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.
1997 – Hotel owners from the Detroit area meet to discuss Jack Kevorkian's practice of leaving corpses in hotel rooms.
1997 – The government of Singapore announces in a widely publicized "toilet alert" that the drive for toilet cleanliness is a great success; five toilets were selected by citizens as toilet role models.
From 2001
2004 – The Boston Red Sox win the American League pennant, defeating the New York Yankees 10-3 in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, capping off a remarkable comeback from three games to none down to win.
2017 - The government of Spain begins moves to take direct control of the region of Catalonia after the region's disputed referendum on its independence on October 1.