Find out past events from the days of this week: births, deaths and important moments from all corners of the globe and all eras of history.
Oct. 3, 1985: Space Shuttle Atlantis made its maiden flight.
Atlantis was NASA’s fourth space-worthy orbiter shuttle, with construction starting on March 3, 1980. It launched in Oct. 1985, only three months before the Challenger Disaster, on a mission to deploy a communications satellite for the U.S. Department of Defense. Atlantis flew 33 missions, with its last one being on July 8, 2011. The decommissioned shuttle is currently on display in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida.
Oct. 4, 1582: Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar.
Born Ugo Boncompagni, Gregory XIII served as the Bishop of Rome from May 13, 1672, until his death on April 10, 1585. In Oct. 1582, he replaced the widely-used Julian calendar with the Gregorian or New Style calendar, a solar dating system most commonly used today. Compared to the Gregorian calendar, the Julian calendar did not accurately reflect the time it took the Earth to make an orbit around the sun. The calendar contains 365 days within 12 months, with a leap year containing 366 days around every four years.
Oct. 5, 1900: Chinese author and poet Bing Xin was born.
Born Xie Wanying in Minhou, Fujian province in 1900, Bing Xin is considered one of the most prolific female writers of the 20th century. Educated in an American school in Beijing, she graduated from Yanjing University in 1923 and received a Master’s degree in literature from Wellesley College in the United States in 1926. Afterward, she returned to China and gained fame for her short stories, which focused on young female protagonists. After a long and successful career spent traveling abroad, teaching and developing a unique literary style that combined the structure and phrasing of traditional Chinese stories with Western writing style, Bing Xin died on Feb. 28 of 1999 at age 98 in Beijing.
Oct. 6, 1552: Italian missionary Matteo Ricci was born.
Matteo Ricci was an Italian Jesuit missionary born in Oct. 1552, known for introducing Christianity to China. He lived there for 30 years and died in Beijing on May 11, 1610. He was ordered as a Jesuit missionary to go into China in April 1582. The Jesuit methods of the time included adapting the language and culture of a place for Christianity to be accepted, as opposed to imposing Western standards. Ricci arrived at Macau on the east coast of China in Aug. 1582 and was permitted to settle in Zhaoqing in the Guangdong Province the following year. In his first years in China, he traveled to different cities and became friends with influential people. He was granted entrance to Beijing in Jan. 1601 and he remained in the capital until his death. He published multiple books about his experiences in China.
Oct. 7, 1849: American gothic poet Edgar Allen Poe died.
Edgar Allen Poe was born on Jan. 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts to actor parents. Following the death of his mother, he was raised by his godfather, who managed to get him a classical education. Poe briefly attended the University of Virginia but was unable to finish due to a lack of funds. He joined the U.S. Army in 1927 and was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1929, although he was expelled soon after. After the army, Poe made a living as a literary critic and writer of poetry and short stories in the horror and mystery genre, battling many financial difficulties and a fondness for alcohol. He married his cousin and muse Virginia in 1836 and they remained married until she died in 1847. Poe followed soon after and died at age 40 on Oct. 7, 1849.
Oct. 8, 1480: The Battle of the Ugra.
Also known as The Great Stand on the Ugra River, this confrontation involved no actual combat. The armies of Akhmet, Khan of the Great/Golden Horde had a standoff with the armies of Muscovy, led by Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow. This event ended the Mongol Yoke over Russia. After the Mongols were overthrown, Russia began trading with the Ottoman Empire and the Arab people along the Volga River, eventually expanding into Siberia. The story of the confrontation was embellished afterward as pro-Russian propaganda of liberation.
Oct. 9, 1604: Kepler’s Nova (SN 1604), the most recent supernova explosion in the Milky Way, is first observed in the constellation Ophiuchus.
SN 1604 became visible to the naked eye in Oct. of 1604. Its appearance was recorded all over the world. Believing it to be a star, German astronomer Johannes Kepler studied the phenomenon until it faded from sight to the naked eye in 1606. Modern scientists have studied the remnants and identified it as a Type Ia supernova, which are supernovae that occur in binary systems containing a white dwarf. It is the last recorded supernova witnessed within the Milky Way galaxy and was described in detail by Kepler in his book “De Stella Nova,” published in 1606.
Oct. 10, 1911: The 1911 Revolution began in China.
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, coming to an end as a result of the Republican Rebellion, also known as the Xinhai Revolution. The Qing Dynasty was officially overthrown on Feb. 12, 1912, when the boy emperor Xuantong, also known as Puyi, was forced to abdicate. The revolution was brought about after a series of Chinese defeats from the first Opium War (1838-42), the Anglo-French War (1856-58), the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. The Qing Dynasty lasted for almost three centuries, from 1644 to 1911. Following his abdication, a provisional republican government came into being under Yuan Shikai, who served as the provisional President of the Republic of China from 1912 until he died in 1916 at age 56.
