These are the selected anniversaries for October that appear on the Belgium portal. The "edit" links edit the portal subpages that are displayed as sections here.

October 1

• 856: marriage of Judith Martel and Ethelwulf, King of Wessex
• 1189: death of Gerard de Ridefort, Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1184 on
• 1532: death of Jan Mabuse, painter
• 1570: death of Frans Floris, painter
• 1578: death of John of Austria, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
• 1638: death of Jan Snellinck, painter and art collector
• 1875: birth of Eugeen Van Mieghem, painter, social artist, best known for depicting the harbour and scenes from World War I
• 1943: birth of Raymond Langendries, politician, Minister of State
• 1945: first German language broadcast of the Belgian "National Institute for Radio", which would in 1977 lead to the creation of the Belgischer Rundfunk, aimed at the German speaking minority in the East of Belgium
• 1956: death of Stan Ockers, cyclist, World Champion in 1955, finished sescond in the Tour de France in 1950 and 1952

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October 2

Albert I of Belgium

• 1900: marriage of Albert I of Belgium and Elisabeth of Bavaria
• 1917: birth of Christian de Duve, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1974
• 1943: birth of Paul Van Himst, soccer player for R.S.C. Anderlecht and the Belgium national football team, winner of a record 4 Golden Shoe awards
• 1947: Nero, a Flemish comic strip character drawn by Marc Sleen, appears in a newspaper for the first time

• 1957: birth of Janry, comics artist of Spirou et Fantasio and Le Petit Spirou
• 1958: birth of Laurette Onkelinx, minister of Justice in the Belgian federal government
• 1998; death of Olivier Gendebien, race car driver, four times winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans
• 1984: first attack by the Communist Combatant Cells or CCC, a terrorist organization, notable for mainly targeting property and trying to avoid humans
• 2005: death of Bert Eriksson, neo-nazi
• 2005: tennis player Kim Clijsters wins the tournament of Luxembourg City for the fifth time

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October 3

• 818: death of Ermengarde of Hesbaye, wife of Louis the Pious, mother of Lothar I, grandmother of Charles the Bald
• 1871: birth of Stijn Streuvels, writer
• 1944: birth of Pierre Deligne (picture), mathematician
• 1980: death of Albéric O'Kelly de Galway, World Champion in correspondence chess between 1959 and 1962
• 2001: Belgian airline SABENA filed for legal protection

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October 4

• 1276: birth of Margaret of Brabant, Queen of Germany
• 1798: birth of Constantin Wesmael, entomologist
• 1830: creation of the state of Belgium after separation from The Netherlands
• 1917: the Allied forces capture the location of the later Tyne Cot Cemetery (pictured) from the Germans during World War I
• 1932: birth of Étienne Davignon, businessman, former Vice President of the European Commission, current chairman of the Bilderberg conference
• 1947: birth of Christian Piot, soccer player, goalkeeper for Standard Liège and the Belgium national football team
• 2002: death of André Delvaux, Belgian film director and screenwriter
• 2005: birth of Prince Emmanuel of Belgium, third child of heir apparent Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde
• 2005: death of André Waterkeyn, architect and engineer of the Atomium

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October 5

• 877: death of Charles the Bald, King of West Francia
• 1111: death of Robert II, Count of Flanders
• 1112: death of Sigebert of Gembloux, monk and historian
• 1524: death of Joachim Patinir, landscape painter
• 1564: death of Pierre de Manchicourt, Renaissance composer
• 1911: birth of Robert Triffin, economist
• 1914: during the Siege of Antwerp, German troops broke through the Belgian defences in Lier and reached Dendermonde, almost blocking the retreat of the Belgian troops to the West
• 1948: birth of Marcel Otte, professor of Prehistory
• 1965: death of Georges Vantongerloo, sculptor and painter, founding member of De Stijl
• 1994: death by suicide of Luc Jouret, cult leader of the Order of the Solar Temple, followed by mass suicide of his followers

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October 6

• 1577: birth of Ferdinand of Bavaria, prince-bishop of Prince-Bishopric of Liège
• 1819: Wilrijk receives its coat of arms from King William I of the Netherlands
• 1912: death of Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1909
• 1960: birth of Yves Leterme, current Minister-President of Flanders
• 1977: death of Jotie T'Hooft, neo-romantic poet, committed suicide at the age of 21
• 1978: Birth of Carl Hoefkens, soccer player with Stoke City F.C. and the Belgium national football team

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October 7

• 1520: the first public burning of books in the Low Countries happens in Leuven
• 1555: death of Louis of Praet, knight of the Golden Fleece, ambassador in England and France for Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
• 1895: birth of Maurice Grevisse, grammarian
• 1921: birth of Raymond Goethals, soccer coach, winner of the Champions League with Olympique de Marseille in 1993, European Coach of the Year in 1991
• 1955: death of Rodolphe Seeldrayers, athlete, president of the FIFA from 1954 to 1955
• 1960: birth of Viktor Lazlo, singer and presenter of the 1987 Eurovision Song Contest
• 1969: death of Léon Scieur, cyclist, winner of the 1921 Tour de France
• 1980: death of Jan Cox, painter

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October 8

• 1436: death of Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut, last ruler of Hainaut and Holland before they became part of the Duchy of Burgundy
• 1621: birth of Maximilian Henry of Bavaria, prince-bishop of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège
• 1848: birth of Pierre De Geyter, socialist, later communist, and woodcarver, composer of The Internationale
• 1890: birth of Philippe Thys, cyclist, 3 times winner of the Tour de France
• 1947: birth of Miel Puttemans, long distance runner, former world record holder at 3000m and 5000m
• 1960: discovery of the Queen Fabiola Mountains in Antarctica by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition
• 1998: death of Zhang Chongren, friend of Hergé and the model for Tchang in The Blue Lotus and Tintin in Tibet
• 2006: municipal and provincial elections

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October 9

The "Boekentoren" (Library Tower) of the Ghent University, designed by Henry Van de Velde

• 680: death of Saint Ghislain, confessor and anchorite in the current village Saint-Ghislain
• 1212: death of Philip I of Namur, margrave of Namur
• 1623: birth of Ferdinand Verbiest, Jesuit missionary in China, famous as astronomer, scientist and inventor
• 1817: foundation of the Ghent University
• 1914: World War I: Siege of Antwerp - Antwerp falls to German troops
• 1937: death of August de Boeck, impressionist composer
• 1939: birth of Pierre Mertens, writer
• 1957: birth of Herman Brusselmans, writer
• 1977: death of Placide Tempels, missionary, author of Bantu Philosophy
• 1978: death of Jacques Brel, songwriter and actor, on the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia
• 1985: death of Ludo Coeck, soccer player, played 46 times for the Belgium national football team

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October 10

• 1903: birth of Prince Charles of Belgium (pictured), Prince Regent of Belgium from 1944 to 1950
• 1914: end of the Siege of Antwerp after capitulation by mayor Jan De Vos to the German troops
• 1916: birth of Bernard Heuvelmans, cryptozoologist
• 1970: birth of Mohammed Mourhit, athlete, broke the European records of 3000, 5000 and 10000 meters in 2000
• 1983: birth of Jelle Van Damme, soccer player with R.S.C. Anderlecht and the Belgium national football team
• 1985: birth of Dominique Cornu, cyclist, U23 World Champion Time trial

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October 11

• 1347: death of Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, Count of Hainaut
• 1746: at the Battle of Rocoux, near Liège, the French army defeated the Austrian forces
• 1850: death of Louise-Marie of France, first Queen of the Belgians, wife of Leopold I
• 1918: birth of Gommar DePauw, priest, founder of the Catholic Traditionalist Movement
• 1927: birth of Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
• 1978: Prime minister Leo Tindemans announces the demission of the government over the failure of the Egmont pact
• 1995: birth of Princess Luisa Maria of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este, the fourth child and second daughter of Princess Astrid of Belgium and Prince Lorenz

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October 12

• 1915: death of Edith Cavell, executed by the Germans for helping escape allied forces from occipied Belgium during World War I
• 1917: the first Battle of Passchendaele
• 1970: birth of Patrick Musimu, free-diver, self-proclaimed holder of the world record with a depth of 209 metres
• 1980: birth of Ann Wauters, basketball player, twice European Player of the Year

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October 13

• 1093: death of Robert I, Count of Flanders
• 1955: birth of Patrick Dewael, former Minister-President of Flanders
• 1965: birth of Johan Museeuw, cyclist, World Champion in 1996

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October 14

• 1563: birth of Jodocus Hondius, artist and cartographer
• 1568: death of Jacques Arcadelt, Renaissance composer
• 1733: birth of François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt, Austrian field marshal
• 1801: birth of Joseph Plateau, physicist and pioneer filmmaker
• 1914: German troops occupy Bruges
• 1964: birth of Ludo Dierckxsens, cyclist, Belgian national champion and winner of a stage in the Tour de France
• 1964: birth of Saul Akkemay, publicist and columnist with the pen name Panbello

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October 15

• 1352: death of Gilles Li Muisis, chronicler and poet
• 1564: death of Andreas Vesalius, anatomist
• 1690: death of Antony Francis van der Meulen, painter
• 1945: birth of Luc Van den Brande, politician, Minister-President of Flanders between 1992 and 1999
• 1946: birth of Georges Pintens, cyclist, winner of the Tour de Suisse and Liège–Bastogne–Liège
• 1950: death of Clément Doucet, pianist
• 1957: death of Henry van de Velde, architect and interior designer, pioneer of the Art Nouveau
• 1972: birth of Sandra Kim, singer, winner of the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest
• 1980: birth of Tom Boonen (pictured), cyclist, World Champion 2005, winner of the Tour of Flanders in 2005 and 2006, and winner of Paris–Roubaix in 2005

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October 16

• 1914: start of the Battle of the Yser, stopping the invasion of the German troops at the start of World War I
• 1925: birth of Karel Dillen, founder of the extreme right Vlaams Blok party
• 1956: birth of Jean-Claude Marcourt, politician, Minister of Economics and Employment of the region of Wallonia since 2004
• 1970: birth of Vincent Rijmen, one of the designers of the Rijndael cryptographic standard of the U.S. Government
• 1986: death of Arthur Grumiaux, violinist

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October 17

• 1933: birth of Jeanine Deckers, the singing nun
• 1994: Willy Claes becomes the 9th Secretary General of NATO

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October 18

• 1547: birth of Justus Lipsius, humanist
• 1558: death of Maria of Austria, third Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
• 1663: birth of Prince Eugene of Savoy, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
• 1678: death of Jacob Jordaens, painter
• 1908: annexation of the Congo Free State, previously the private property of King Leopold II of Belgium since 1885
• 1960: birth of Jean-Claude Van Damme, actor
• 1984: death of Henri Michaux, poet and writer

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October 19

• 1608: death of Martin Delrio, occultist and theologian
• 1810: birth of Jules Malou, Prime Minister of Belgium between 1871 and 1878, and in 1884
• 1858: birth of George Albert Boulenger (pictured), naturalist
• 1911: birth of Fereidoun Farzaneh, Iranian composer, who studied and lived in Belgium
• 1914: the First Battle of Ypres begins
• 1927: birth of Pierre Alechinsky, painter, founding member of the COBRA art movement
• 1955: death of Eugène Joseph Delporte, astronomer, discovered 66 asteroids including 1221 Amor
• 1958: last day of the Expo '58, the World's Fair in Brussels, which attracted more than 42 million visitors in 6 months time
• 1963: birth of Prince Laurent of Belgium, youngest son of King Albert II and Queen Paola of Belgium
• 1987: fall of the Belgian government over the linguistic problems in Voeren

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October 20

• 1568: at the Battle of Jodoigne, the Spanish troops defeated the army of William the Silent (pictured) during the Eighty Years' War
• 1944: birth of Raoul Lambert, soccer player for Club Brugge and the Belgium national football team
• 1946: birth of Lucien Van Impe, cyclist, winner of the Tour de France 1976
• 1956: birth of Alexander Baervoets, choreographer
• 1995: Willy Claes resigns as Secretary General of NATO after allegations of corruption
• 1996: White March in Brussels: more than 300,000 people protest against the problems with the investigation against child molester Marc Dutroux
• 2005: death of Jean-Michel Folon, illustrator, painter and sculptor

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October 21

• 1530: birth of Jacques Jonghelinck, sculptor, patron of Pieter Bruegel the Elder
• 1930: birth of Fred De Bruyne, cyclist and sports commentator, winner of Paris–Roubaix in 1957
• 1955: birth of Frank Vandenbroucke, politician, former chairman of the Socialist Party, as of 2006 minister of education in the Flemish government
• 1981: death of Wilfried Puis, soccer player, selected 49 times for the Belgium national football team
• 2003: Gustaaf Joos, priest, is elevated to cardinal by Pope John Paul II with whom he had studied and had befriended

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October 22

• 741: death of Charles Martel, Duke of the Franks, victorious in the Battle of Tours in 732
• 1942: death of Staf De Clercq, fascist, supporter of the Nazis, and leader of the Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond
• 1969: birth of Helmut Lotti, singer, best known for the Helmut Lotti Goes Classic series of records
• 1985: birth of Hadise, singer

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October 23

• 1890: death of Michel Marie Charles Verlat, painter
• 1905: death of Florent Joseph Marie Willems, painter
• 1923: birth of Sadi, jazz musician and composer
• 1950: birth of Guy Bleus, artist
• 1958: comics author Peyo introduces The Smurfs in his series Johan and Peewit

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October 24

• 1885: birth of Ernest Claes, author
• 1903: birth of Henri Reynders, priest (known as Dom Bruno) credited with saving 400 Jews during the Holocaust

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October 25

• 1102: birth of William Clito, Count of Flanders
• 1330: birth of Louis II of Flanders, Count of Flanders
• 1415: death of Anthony, Duke of Brabant at the Battle of Agincourt
• 1935: death of Henri Pirenne (picture), historian
• 2001: birth of Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, eldest daughter of Prince Philippe, the heir apparent, and thus second in the line of succession to the Belgian throne
• 2001: Lernout & Hauspie goes bankrupt after a financial scandal

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October 26

• 1872: death of Constantin Wesmael, entomologist
• 1941: birth of Bob de Groot, comics artist, best known for Léonard and Clifton
• 1970: death of Marcel Minnaert (pictured), astronomer, awarded the Bruce Medal in 1951

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October 27

• 1312: death of John II, Duke of Brabant
• 1466: birth of Desiderius Erasmus in Rotterdam in the Netherlands
• 1719: death of François Baert, Bollandist, collaborator to the Acta Sanctorum
• 1789: the Battle of Turnhout where the rebel forces of the Southern Netherlands defeated the Austrian army
• 1856: birth of Albrecht Rodenbach, poet and inspiration for the Flemish movement
• 1927: birth of Hugo Schiltz, former president of the Volksunie between 1975 and 1979
• 1942: birth of Philip Catherine, jazz guitarist, has played with Charlie Mingus and Chet Baker
• 1966: birth of Nathalie Loriers, jazz pianist and composer
• 2005: Luk Van Parijs is fired by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for research misconduct

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October 28

• 690: death of Saint Godwin of Stavelot, Benedictine abbot
• 1585: birth of Cornelius Jansen, bishop of Ypres and father of the Jansenism
• 1592: death of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, writer, herbalist and diplomat
• 1804: birth of Pierre François Verhulst, mathematician
• 1912: death of Edgar Tinel, composer
• 1956: birth of Franky Vercauteren, former soccer player with the Belgium national football team and as of 2006 coach of R.S.C. Anderlecht
• 1983: birth of Sabine Dardenne, kidnapped by Marc Dutroux when she was twelve and liberated two and a half months later from his home

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October 29

• 1507: birth of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
• 1878: birth of Alexander von Falkenhausen, governor-general of Belgium during the German occupation in World War II
• 1946: birth of André Dierickx, cyclist, twice winner of La Flèche Wallonne
• 1999: death of Michel Regnier, better known as Greg, comics author of Bernard Prince, editor-in-chief of Tintin magazine

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October 30

• 1680: death of Antoinette Bourignon, mystic
• 1924: birth of Jean-Michel Charlier, comics author of Buck Danny, Redbeard and Blueberry
• 1946: birth of René Jacobs, counter-tenor and opera conductor
• 1947: death of Mathieu Crickboom, violinist, founder of the Crickboom Quartet with Pablo Casals
• 1955: first appearance of Jommeke, popular children's comic by Jef Nys

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October 31

• 1007: death of Heriger of Lobbes, abbot of the abbey of Lobbes, theologian and historian
• 1896: death of Jan Verhas, genre painter from Dendermonde
• 1914: end of the Battle of the Yser, stopping the invasion of the German troops at the start of World War I

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