Saturday, October 2, 0709

The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

A gunman killed five Amish girls before committing suicide in a one-room schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.

Typhoon Longwang made landfall in China as the deadliest tropical cyclone in that year to impact the country.

A hijacked airliner collided with two other planes while attempting to land at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in China, killing 128 and injuring 71.

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu was re-elected unopposed as President of South Vietnam.

Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Second World War: HMS Curacoa (pictured) was accidentally rammed and sunk by RMS Queen Mary while escorting the liner to provide protection from submarine attacks.

The Shubert Theatre opened on Broadway with a production of Hamlet.

Qing China signed the Treaty of Livadia with the Russian Empire, but the terms were so unfavorable that the Chinese government refused to ratify the treaty.

Mexican dragoons dispatched to disarm settlers at Gonzales in Mexican Texas encountered stiff resistance from a Texian militia at the Battle of Gonzales, the first armed engagement of the Texas Revolution.

As part of wider food riots, citizens in Nottingham, England, looted large quantities of cheese; one man was killed during attempts to restore order.

With King Edward IV of England forced to flee to the Burgundian Netherlands after a rebellion organised by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, Henry VI was restored to the throne.