Oct 6 in History

1014 — Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria dies two days after suffering a heart attack upon seeing the mutilation of his soldiers, ordered by Byzantine Emperor Basil II. After defeating the Bulgarians in the Battle of

Kleidion on July 29, Basil (the “Bulgar Slayer”) captured 15,000 soldiers. He had 99 of every 100 blinded, leaving one one-eyed to lead them back to Samuel, his greatest adversary.

1789 — Louis XVI, forced to leave Versailles during the French Revolution, relocates to Tuileries Palace. 1849 — The 13 Martyrs of Arad (then part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now in Romania) — 13 rebel generals during the Hungarian Revolution, aged 30-56 — are executed (nine by hanging and four by firing squad) by the Austrian Empire. Count Lajos Batthyány, 42, the first Hungarian prime minister (1848), is executed by firing squad in Pest.

1889 — The Moulin Rouge in Paris opens.

1973 — The fourth Arab-Israeli war in 25 years starts when Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq (propped up in various forms by Algeria, Cuba, East Germany, North Korea, Pakistan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Morocco and Tunisia; supported by the Soviet Union) spring a surprise attack on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Egypt tries to regain the Sinai Peninsula and Syria the Golan Heights (both lost in the 1967 Six Day War). The war ends on October 25 with a military victory for Israel (supported by the US).

1981 — Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, 62, dies two hours after Lt Khalid Islambouli, an Islamic fundamentalist, emptied his assault rifle into Sadat’s body at the parade ground of Nasr City, Cairo, during a ceremony commemorating the Egyptian crossing of the Suez Canal to take back a small part of the

Sinai Peninsula from Israel on the first day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Ten other people die and 28 are wounded. Islambouli and three other conspirators are executed by firing squad on April 15 1982.

1995 — The first exoplanet orbiting a main-sequence star, the Sun-like 51 Pegasi, is discovered. The planet, called 51 Pegasi b and later formally named Dimidium, is approximately 50 light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus.

2009 — Syria holds its first ever fashion-design competition, meant to encourage young Syrian talents and local products, featuring 60 designs by 12 designers. The top three receive gifts and certificates. 2009 — Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous infrared ring around Saturn — so huge it would take 1-billion Earths to fill it.

2010 — Instagram is launched.