Today in History in 1895 the first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship run by the United States Golf Association was played on a nine-hole course in Newport, Rhode Island.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 88 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

23 – Rebels capture the then-Chinese capital city Chang'an during a peasant rebellion. They kill and behead the Emperor, Wang Mang, two days later.

610 – Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, otherthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas and becomes Emperor.

1511 – Formation of a Holy League of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Papal States, and the Republic of Venice against France.

1535 – The first complete English language Bible is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.

1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15, skipping over 10 days.

1636 – Thirty Years' War: The Swedish Army defeats the armies of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Wittstock.

1693 – Battle of Marsaglia: Piedmontese troops are defeated by the French.

1725 – The city of Rosario, Argentina is founded.

1744 – British sailing ship Victory is last seen, near the Channel Islands in the English Channel. During the night, it sinks, killing 1,150 people.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Germantown, troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under Sir William Howe.

1824 – Mexico becomes a republic.

1830 – Creation of the state of Belgium after separation from The Netherlands.

1853 – Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia.

1883 – First run of the Orient Express

1883 – First meeting of the Boys' Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland.

1895 – The first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship run by the United States Golf Association was played on a nine-hole course in Newport, Rhode Island.

1910 – Portugal becomes a republic. King Manuel II flees to Britain.

1917 – World War I: The Battle of Broadseinde is fought between British and German armies in Flanders.

1918 – An explosion kills more than 100 people and destroys the T. A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant in Sayreville, New Jersey.

1927 – Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.

1943 – World War II: US forces re-capture the Solomon Islands.

1957 – Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

1958 – The Fifth Republic of France established.

1959 – The Soviet Union sends the Lunik 3 probe to the Moon.

1960 – An Eastern Airlines Lockheed L-188 Electra flying from Boston crashes killing 62 people after a bird strike.

1963 – Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph, driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.

1965 – Pope Paul VI becomes the first Pope to visit the United States, as he arrives in New York City.

1966 – Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.

1967 – Omar Ali Saifuddin III of Brunei abdicates in favour of his son, Hassanal Bolkiah.

1974 – Founding of the New Democracy political party in Greece.

1983 – Richard Noble sets a new land-speed record of 633.468 miles per hour (1,019 kilometres per hour), driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.

1985 – The Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts.

1988 – Jim Bakker is indicted for fraud.

1991 – The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was opened for signature.

1992 – An El Al Boeing 747-200F crashes into 2 apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 38 on the ground.

1992 – The Rome General Peace Accords end the 16-year civil war in Mozambique.

1993 – At the climax of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993, Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders army tanks to begin the storming of the Russian parliament building.

1997 – The second-largest cash robbery in United States history takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina.

1998 – Leafie Mason of Hughes Springs, Texas is murdered by Angel Maturino Resendiz. She is Angel's second victim in his second incident.

2001 – A Sibir Airlines Tupolev TU-154 crashes into the Black Sea after being struck by an errant Ukrainian S-200 missile. 78 people are killed.

2003 – Maxim restaurant suicide bombing: A female Palestinian suicide bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, exploded inside the Maxim restaurant in Haifa. 21 Israelis, Jews and Arabs, were killed, and 51 others were wounded.

2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight.

2006 – WikiLeaks is launched by Julian Assange.

2006 – Lesotho changes its flag.

2010 – Toxic red sludge escapes from the Ajka alumina plant in western Hungary, causing an environmental disaster and killing at least nine people.

2016 – Hurricane Matthew hits Haiti and the Dominican Republic, causing flooding, destroying homes and killing seven people.