Born on This Day Legendary musician whose poetic lyrics and tight harmonies (both with The Beatles and solo) helped imagine a better world. Guillermo del Toro Oscar-winning Mexican director who elevated horror and fantasy tropes in Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water . British singer, songwriter and musician who brings a raw intensity on genre-defying albums such as “Rid of Me.” Afghans make history by holding their first direct presidential election. More than 10 million went to the polls despite security concerns—and 41 percent of the voters were women. Also on This Day in History Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on October 9th Rhode Island founder banished from Massachusetts Religious dissident Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the General Court of Massachusetts. Williams had spoken out against the right of civil authorities to punish religious dissension and to confiscate Native American land. After leaving Massachusetts, Williams, with the assistance of the Narragansett tribe, established a settlement at the junction of […] Hoover Dam begins transmitting electricity to Los Angeles On October 9, 1936, harnessing the power of the mighty Colorado River, Hoover Dam begins sending electricity over transmission lines spanning 266 miles of mountains and deserts to run the lights, radios, and stoves of Los Angeles. Initially named Boulder Dam, work on the dam was begun under President Herbert Hoover’s administration but completed as […] A Chicago bootlegger escapes from prison

Chicago bootlegger Roger “The Terrible” Touhy escapes from Illinois’ Stateville Prison by climbing the guard’s tower. Touhy, who had been framed for kidnapping by his bootlegging rivals with the help of corrupt Chicago officials, was serving a 99-year sentence for a kidnapping he did not commit. He was recaptured a couple of months later. The […] “The Iceman Cometh,” by Eugene O’Neill, opens on Broadway Hailed by many critics as Eugene O’Neill’s finest work, The Iceman Cometh opens at the Martin Beck Theater on October 9, 1946. The play, about desperate tavern bums clinging to illusion as a remedy for despair, was the last O’Neill play to be produced on Broadway before the author’s death in 1953. Like many of […] Landslide kills thousands in Italy On October 9, 1963, a landslide in Italy leads to the deaths of more than 2,000 people when it causes a sudden and massive wave of water to overwhelm a dam. The Diga del Vajont dam was built in the Vaiont Gorge to supply hydroelectric power to Northern Italy. Located 10 miles northeast of Belluno, […] Oskar Schindler—credited with saving 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust—dies German businessman Oskar Schindler, credited with saving 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust, dies at the age of 66. A member of the Nazi Party, he ran an enamel-works factory in Krakow during the German occupation of Poland, employing workers from the nearby Jewish ghetto. When the ghetto was liquidated, he persuaded Nazi officials to allow […] Andrei Sakharov wins Nobel Peace Prize Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov, the Soviet physicist who helped build the USSR’s first hydrogen bomb, is awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in recognition of his struggle against “the abuse of power and violations of human dignity in all its forms.” Sakharov was forbidden by the Soviet government from personally traveling to Oslo, Norway, to accept […] Rotary engine inventor Felix Wankel dies The German engineer Felix Wankel, inventor of a rotary engine that will be used in race cars, dies on October 9, 1988, in Lahr, Germany. Wankel reportedly came up with the basic idea for a new type of internal combustion gasoline engine when he was only 17 years old. In 1924, Wankel set up a […] Meteorite crashes into Chevy Malibu On October 9, 1992, 18-year-old Michelle Knapp is watching television in her parents’ living room in Peekskill, New York when she hears a thunderous crash in the driveway. Alarmed, Knapp ran outside to investigate. What she found was startling, to say the least: a sizeable hole in the rear end of her car, an orange […]