Local

2017: The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament kicks off at Salt Lake stadium on October 6. This is the first time India hosts a FIFA event. Games are held in six cities and attendance is a record 13,47,133. The final match, won by England, is also held in Salt Lake.

FIFA U-17 World Cup logo Sourced by The Telegraph

National

1911: Social reformer Sister Nivedita breathes her last in Darjeeling on October 13. Born Margaret Noble, also in October of 1867, the Irish lady moved to India and was a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, who renamed her. Nivedita worked tirelessly on girls’ education, plague relief work and even for the Indian nationalistic movement. Her epitaph at a memorial in Darjeeling reads: “Here lies Sister Nivedita who gave her all to India”.

Sister Nivedita Sourced by The Telegraph

1932: The Indian air force is founded on October 8 as an auxiliary of the British air force. It is formed with the mission of securing Indian airspace and conducting aerial warfare when required. The force goes on to rank fourth in the world in its complement of aircraft assets and personnel.

Indian air force logo Sourced by The Telegraph

2014: A diamond merchant from Surat stuns the nation by offering his 1,260-odd employees a Diwali bonus worth Rs 3.06 lakh. They are asked to choose between a flat, car and jewellery. Chairman of Hari Krishna Exports, Savji Dholakia, is known for his generosity and says the bonus is simply the employees’ reward for hard work and an attempt to wipe off memories of the 2008-09 recession.

Global

1553: October 1 marks the coronation of Mary, the first de facto regnant queen of England. To come to power, Mary I had her rival Lady Jane Grey beheaded and her five-year reign is remembered for its violence. The queen has hundreds of Protestants burnt at the stake, for instance, earning her the epithet of “Bloody Mary”.

Mary Sourced by The Telegraph

1910: Dwarkanath Kotnis is born in Maharashtra on October 10. He grows up to become a doctor and is sent to China to provide medical assistance during the 1938 Sino-Japanese War. He earns much respect for his tireless work. He marries a nurse and has a son whom they name Yinhua, meaning India and China. At the age of 32, in 1942, Kotnis dies of epileptic seizures and the nation, led by Mao Zedong, mourns his loss.

Dwarkanath Kotnis Sourced by The Telegraph

1950: Indian mathematician Shakuntala Devi appears in a BBC show in London on October 5 where she is asked to solve a complex sum mentally. Her answer, however, does not match that of the computer and she is dismissed. Upon cross-checking Shakuntala is found to be correct. She is henceforth labeled ‘human computer’ and becomes a household name.

Shakuntala Devi Sourced by The Telegraph

Sports & entertainment

1975: Boxer Muhammad Ali takes on arch rival Joe Frazier in a fight dubbed as “Thrilla in Manila” (picture above before a different bout between the two). The bout takes place on October 1 in the Philippines, in what is remembered as one of the most exciting and brutal fights of the sport. The game is watched by a record audience of a billion TV viewers and Ali wins by technical knockout. The contest got its name from a boast by Ali, that the fight would be “a killa and a thrilla and a chilla, when I get that gorilla in Manila.”

1978: Cricketer Virender Sehwag is born on October 20. An aggressive batsman, he sets several records like scoring the highest runs by an Indian in Test cricket (319 against South Africa in Chennai in 2008). This was also the fastest triple century in the history of international cricket (off 278 balls). Sehwag retires from international cricket in October 2015.

Virender Sehwag Sourced by The Telegraph

2001: Apple launches the iPod on October 23 and changes the way the world listens to music.

iPod Sourced by The Telegraph

The compact devices play music using the iTunes software and are quickly accepted by the market where alternatives are big and clunky or small and inefficient with poor interface.