October 8
314 – The army of Roman Emperor Constantine defeats that of Co- Emperor Licinius, near the town of Cibalae in the Roman province of Pannonia Secunda-modern Vinkovci, Croatia.
451 – The first session of the Council of Chalcedon, convened by Emperor Marcian to reassert the teachings of the Council of Ephesus, begins.
1645 – Jeanne Mance opens the first lay hospital of North America in Montreal.
1793 – John Hancock, preeminent signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, dies at his home, Hancock Manor, in Boston at age 56.
1862 – Around the Chaplin Hills west of Perryville, Kentucky, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg’s Army of Mississippi wins a tactical victory against a Corps of Maj. Gen. Don Buell’s Union Army of the Ohio but Bragg withdraws to Tennessee, giving the Union a strategic victory as it remains in control of Kentucky for the remainder of the war.
1912 – The First Balkan War begins when Christian majority Montenegro declares war against the Ottoman Empire.
1918 – As part of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in World War I, the 328th Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Infantry Division is tasked to capture German positions near Hill 223 along the Decauville railroad, north of Chatel-Chéhéry, France. Coming under heavy machinegun fire, a reinforced squad is detached to flank and take out the guns. During the attack, over half of the detail is killed or wounded and the only NCO left able to fight, Corporal Alvin C. York, single handedly kills 28 German soldiers and forces another 132 to surrender and is later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in combat.
1944 – As part of the Drive to the Siegfried Line in World War II, the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division is tasked to capture Crucifix Hill outside Aachen, Germany. As the 1st Platoon of Charlie Company comes under heavy machinegun fire from multiple pillboxes, the Company Commander, Captain Robert E. Brown, uses Bangalore Torpedoes to destroy several emplacements and continues to draw fire to detect other emplacements even after being wounded and is later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in combat.
1956 – New York Yankees’ Don Larsen pitches the only perfect – no hits/runs/walks/errors – game in a World Series, in Game 5 against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1967 – Guerrilla leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara and his revolutionary force is captured in Bolivia.
1970 – Aleksander Solzhenitsyn is awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.
1973 – During the Yom Kippur War, Israel loses more than 150 tanks in a failed attack on Egyptian occupied positions.
1974 – Franklin National Bank on Long Island, New York collapses due to fraud and mismanagement; at the time the largest bank failure in the history of the United States.
1990 – During the First Intifada, Israeli police kill 17 Palestinians and wound over 100 near the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount
2001 – President George Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.
2014 – Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the U.S. to be diagnosed with Ebola, dies, in patient at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.