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October 7
1571. The Battle of Lepanto is fought between the forces of the Ottoman Empire and the combined forces of Spain, Venice and Genoa. The "Holy League", which had been allied under the auspices of the Holy See, crush the Ottoman fleet, dealing a serious setback to Ottoman expansion.
1763. King George III issues the Royal Proclamation of 1763, closing Native American lands north and west of the Allegheny Mountains to colonial settlement. This goes over really well, as you can imagine...
1777. The Second Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Bemis Heights, results in a dramatic victory for Revolutionary Troops over the British, including (on October 17) the surrender of remaining British forces and their commander, General Burgoyne. As a result of the victory, the French decide to enter into negotiations with the Americans, which results in an alliance critical to the eventual American victory in the war.
1916. Go sportsmanship! Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided game in American college football history.
1944. Executing a long coordinated plan, Jewish sonderkommandos -- the inmates kept separate from the rest of the Jewish population and forced to run the gas chambers and crematoria -- rise up in revolt against their SS overlords. They succeed, and also destroy, with explosives smuggled by women from the armaments factory at which they worked as slave labor, in destroying Crematorium IV. Hundreds of prisoners escape, but nearly all are recaptured and executed.
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