1642: Following the Royalist victory at Edgehill on 23 October, the Parliamentarian army had retreated to London. King Charles I pursued, but faced a formidable challenge in trying to take Parliament's power-base in London. Prince Rupert led a dawn assault on a pair of Parliamentarian regiments holding Brentford, commanded by Lord Brooke and Denzill Holles respectively. Dense fog aided the attackers, and Holles' regiment was particularly roughly handled, with many of its men drowned in the Thames trying to escape. Along the river, the Royalist Colonel Blagge pulled off another coup by setting up some artillery at Sion House, which caught a Parliamentarian supply convoy of barges by surprise, sinking several of them.

1775: American Revolutionary General Richard Montgomery landed at Point St. Charles and marched into Montreal a day after Guy Carleton evacuated the town. All Canada except Trois-Rivieres and Quebec City was now under the occupation of the Army of the Continental Congress who urged the French habitants to join the American Revolution

1857: Lieutenant Hugh Gough won the Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny by charging across a swamp to capture two artillery guns. His horse was twice wounded, and only his turban saved him from sword blows to the head.

1905: A plebiscite was held to determine Norway’s new form of government. 259,563 (78.9 %) voted for a monarchy, while 69,264 (21.1 %) voted for a republic

1914: Lieutenant Dimmer of the King's Royal Rifle Corps won the Victoria Cross for his gallantry at Zillebeke, manning a machine-gun despite suffering five wounds, until the gun was physically destroyed.

1940: HMAS Sydney was in action at the Strait of Otranto in a diversion for the British attack on Taranto. The cruiser HMAS Sydney became the most celebrated ship in the RAN after its performance in the Mediterranean against the Italian navy during this year.

In the USA, Admiral Stark submitted a memorandum to Secretary of the Navy on 4 plans if US entered the war. He favored the fourth option, Plan Dog, calling for strong offensive in the Atlantic and defense in the Pacific

1942: Six US transports and their escort were anchored off Lunga Point, Guadalcanal at first light. These are reported to Rabaul by Japanese observers as 3 battleships, 3 heavy cruisers, 11 destroyers & 5 transports.

Their unloading was interrupted shortly afternoon by a Japanese air strike. The successful evasion of these torpedo planes was marred by a 5" AA shell hitting the destroyer Buchanan, killing 5 personnel. The Betty crashed into the cruiser San Francisco leaving 24 killed and 45 wounded, and the complete loss of the after fire control radar, during this 8 minute attack.

US search planes spotted Japanese battleships Hiei and Kirishima, under Admiral Abe, steaming south at 25 knots. They also found Japanese destroyer division 4 and Admiral Tanaka's supply convoy steaming south to join the battleships.

Admiral Turner pulled his transports out that evening. This left Admiral Daniel Callaghan with Admiral Norman Scott and cruisers San Francisco, Portland, Helena, Atlanta and Juneau, destroyers Cushing, Laffey, Sterett, O'Bannon, Aaron Ward, Barton, Monssen and Fletcher to face the Japanese battleships.

In North Africa, Vichy French forces ceased hostilities against the recently landed Allies troops

1943: In northern Australia, Darwin suffered its 64th & final air raid, the raids having started in February 1942.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the Japanese withdraw the remains of their carrier groups that have been flying off land bases at Rabaul. Of 173 aircraft that arrived on October 20, 121 were lost, most with their pilots

1944: Lancaster bombers from 617 and 9 Squadrons conducted a precision bombing attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in Tromso Fjiord. Flying from RAF Lossiemouth, the Lancasters dropped 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs from 14,000 feet, scoring at least two direct hits. These finally achieved the long-sought destruction of Tirpitz - she blew up and capsized. There is continuing debate to this day between 9 and 617 Squadrons as to which was responsible for the hits.

1954: Ellis Island closed after processing more than 20 million immigrants since opening in New York Harbor in 1892