Unix Timestamp: 1224460800
Monday, October 20. 2008, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Basque separatist terrorist organisation ETA declares an end to its 43-year caign of political violence, which has killed over 800 people since 1968. //www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15393014 (BBC)

Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange: The leading commander of the military wing of Hamas, Ahmed Jabari, confirms in an interview with the Saudi Arabian newspaper "Al-Hayat" that the prisoners released in exchange for captured Israeli Gilad Shalit were collectively responsible for the deaths of 569 Israeli civilians. //www.haaretz.com/news/shalit-prisoner-swap/shalit-s-captors-he-wasn-t-tortured-he-received-medical-care-and-watched-tv-1.391072 ("Haaretz")

European astronomers discover 32 exoplanets.

The Czech Republic becomes the final member-state of the European Union to sign the Treaty of Lisbon, thereby permitting that document's initiation into European law.

The Prime Minister of Belgium, Herman Van Rompuy, is designated the first permanent President of the European Council,The Treaty of Lisbon entered into force on 1 December 2009 the six-month rotating presidency of the European Council ceased to exist (as the provision for its existence has been erased from the Treaties in force), and the new office of President of the European Council came into being. The appointment of Herman van Rompuy as President of the European Council became effective on the date of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. Also, article 6 of the Protocol "on transitional provisions" annexed to the Treaty of Lisbon provided that on the date of the entry into force of the Treaty, the terms of office of the High Representative for the common foreign and security policy and of the Deputy Secretary General of the Council ceased, with the Council electing a Secretary General. //register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/08/st06/st06655.en08.pdf register.consilium.europa.eu

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien indicates that during an informal meeting between him and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president indicated that he was tentatively in favour of signing the Kyoto Protocol. Russia's signature is absolutely necessary for the protocol to acquire the force of law. //www.canada.com/news/world/story.asp?id=6C295231-46EB-48CF-A02B-1CCB901F2326

Olga Nikolic was born.

The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is held as a protest march and commemoration of the Stonewall Riots.

Three members of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd die in a charter plane crash outside Gillsburg, Mississippi, 3 days after the release of their fifth studio album "Street Survivors".

The Mississippi River ferry "MV George Prince" is struck by a ship while crossing from Destrehan, LA to Luling, LA, killing 78 passengers and crew.

Former U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis on the Greek island of Skorpios.

Tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters march in Washington, D.C.. Allen Ginsberg symbolically chants to 'levitate' The Pentagon.

An Egyptian surface-to-surface missile sinks the Israeli destroyer "Eilat", killing 47 Israeli sailors. Israel retaliates by shelling Egyptian refineries along the Suez Canal.

Patterson-Gimlin film, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin's famous film of an unidentified animate cryptid, thought to be Bigfoot or Sasquatch, is recorded at Bluff Creek, California.

British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Commonwealth Secretary Arthur Bottomley travel to Rhodesia for negotiations.

African countries demand that the United Kingdom use force to prevent Rhodesia from declaring unilateral independence.

Comet Ikeya-Seki approaches perihelion, passing 450,000 kilometers from the sun.

Ludwig Erhard is re-elected Chancellor of West Germany (he had first been elected in 1963).

Colonel Christophe Soglo stages a second coup in Dahomey.

The OAU meets in Accra, Ghana.

French authors André Figueras and Jacques Laurent are fined for their comments against Charles De Gaulle.

British police find the decomposed body of a boy on Saddleworth Moor.

A dock workers' strike expands in England.

West Germany joins NATO.

Paris Agreement sets up the Western European Union to implement the Treaty of Brussels (1948) providing for mutual self-defence and other collaboration between Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Martial law is declared in Kenya due to the Mau Mau uprising.

The "Johnny Bright Incident" occurs in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Australia passes the Communist Party Dissolution Act, which is later struck down by the High Court.

A war begins in Kashmir, along the border between India and Pakistan, leading to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 in the following year. Also, Pakistan established diplomatic relations with the United States of America.

American forces land in Red Beach in Palo, Leyte as General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines with Philippine Commonwealth president Sergio Osmeña, and Armed Forces of the Philippines Generals Basilio J. Valdes and Carlos P. Romulo.

LNG explosion destroys a square mile (2.6 km²) of Cleveland, Ohio.

United States and Filipino troops with Filipino guerillas begin the Battle of Leyte.

Belgrade is liberated by Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army.

The combined American and Filipino soldiers was liberated in Tacloban, Leyte was fought the Japanese Imperial forces.

American forces land on the beaches in Dulag, Leyte, the Philippines, accompanied by Filipino troops entering the town, and fiercely opposed by the Japanese occupation forces.

The Fazal Mosque (one of the first in London) is completed.

A hurricane kills 650 in Cuba.

A decree in Italy bans women from holding public office.

Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev are removed from the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The hull of the RMS "Olympic" is launched at the Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast.

The hull of the RMS \'\'Olympic\'\' is launched at the Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast.

Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to Chile, ending Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.

Henry, Count of Chambord, refuses to be crowned King Henry V of France until France abandons its tricolor and returns to the old Bourbon flag.

The Royal Regiment of Artillery forms the first regular Canadian army units when they create two batteries of garrison artillery, which later become the Royal Canadian Artillery.

The "Grand Sachem" of Tammany Hall (Boss Tweed) is arrested.

First Vatican Council adjourned.

English astronomer Norman Lockyer observes and names the Dsub3/sub Fraunhofer line in the solar spectrum and concludes that it is caused by a hitherto unidentified element which he later names helium.

J. J. Audubon begins publishing "Birds of America".

Greek War of Independence ndash Battle of Navarino: British, French, and Russian naval forces destroy the Turko-Egyptian fleet in Greece. This is the last naval action to be fought under sail alone.

Egypt: Cairo University School of Medicine is established as the first African medical school in the Middle East.

Laos: King Anouvong of Vientiane leads the Laotian Rebellion against Siam and successfully attacks Nakhon Ratchasima (the Siamese later invade Vientiane and nearly destroy the whole city).

EnglishmanJohn Walker invents the first friction match which he names "Lucifer".

Treaty between the U.S. and the United Kingdom establishes the boundary between the U.S. and British North America as the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, also creating the Northwest Angle.

The Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, doubling the size of the United States.

A Patent of Tolerance, providing limited freedom of worship, is approved in the Habsburg Monarchy.

Maria Theresa inherits the Habsburg hereditary dominions (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and present-day Belgium). However, her succession to the Holy Roman Empire is contested widely because she is a woman.

November ndash Hertford College, Oxford, is founded for the first time.

The "Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Gerónimo de la Habana", the oldest university in Cuba, is founded in Havana.

The city of Godthåb is founded in Greenland by the Danish-NorwegianmissionaryHans Egede.

October 23 ndash The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 (the largest in the city's history) burns.

Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of King George II of Great Britain, arrives in Britain for the first time, aged 21.

The English astronomer James Bradley uses stellar aberration (first observed in 1725) to calculate the speed of light and observes nutation of the Earth's axis.

The Meerkat–Mongoose war.

Fearful of a Swedish attack, the Russians blow up the city of Tartu in Estonia.

Completion of the construction of St Paul's Cathedral in London.

One third of the population of Masuria dies of the plague.

Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico delivers his inaugural lecture to the University of Naples, published as his first book, "On the Study Methods of Our Time", in 1709.

Johann Sebastian Bach is appointed as chamber musician and organist at the court in Weimar, Germany.

Kandahar is conquered by Mir Wais.

Merger (with consent of the Parliament of Great Britain) of the Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies and the more recently established English Company Trading to the East Indies to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, known as the Honourable East India Company.

Completion of the construction of St Paul's Cathedral in London.

Tycho starts new observations in Wandsbæk, where he writes his famous elegy.

Battle of Coutras: Huguenot forces under Henry of Navarre defeat Royalist forces under Anne de Joyeuse, favorite of King Henry. Joyeuse is killed.

The Russo-Turkish War in Astrakhan begins.

A Spanish expedition under Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira discovers the Solomon Islands

Akbar the Great of the Mughal Empire besieges and captures the massive Chittorgarh Fort in northern India.

Polybius\\' The Histories first translated in to English by Christopher Watson.Polybius: The Rise Of The Roman Empire, Page 36, Penguin, 1979.

Ashikaga Yoshiaki is installed as Shogun, beginning the Azuchi-Momoyama period in Japan.

Battle of Jodoigne. Spanish forces under the Duke of Alva destroy Orange's rearguard. Orange abandons his offensive.

Huguenotsbesieged Chartres.

The Treaty of Gorinchem is signed between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Charles, Duke of Guelders.

Jan de Groote, a Dutchman, obtains a grant for the north ferry from the mainland of Scotland to Orkney from King James IV of Scotland.

Joanna, second daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, heiress to Castile, marries the archdukePhilip, heir through his mother to the Burgundian Netherlands, and through his father to the Holy Roman Empire.

Jesus College, Cambridge, is founded.ref name=CBH/

Philip of Anjou, Titular Emperor of Constantinople, marries Elisabeth of Slavonia, daughter of Stephen, duke of Transylvania and Slavonia, and Margareta of Bavaria.

Pope Clement VI publishes a papal bull that condemns the Flagellants.

The Black Death spreads to Norway when an English ship with everyone dead on board floats to Bergen.

The Black Death breaks out in Mecca.

Pope Clement VI annuls the marriage of William Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, and Joan of Kent, on the grounds of her prior marriage to Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent.

Ibn Battuta arrives in Fez in Morocco.

An earthquake in Rome causes extensive damage, including the collapse of the southern exterior facade of the Colosseum.

Earthquake in England strikes Meaux Abbey