On October 1
On October 1, 2 pivotal events are recorded in the Human Saga, including Battle of Gaugamela destroys the Achaemenid Empire (331 BCE).
On this day
On 1 October 331 BCE, Alexander the Great decisively defeated Darius III on the plain of Gaugamela, near modern Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.
On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China from the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, with Zhou Enlai as premier.
Also this week in history (Sep 28 – Oct 4)
On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, from the Baikonur (Tyuratam) site in the Kazakh Republic.
On 3 October 1990, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) ceased to exist and joined the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), restoring a single German state for the first time since 1945.
On 30 September 2015 Russia launched a military intervention in Syria at the request of President Bashar al-Assad, whose government then controlled only a fraction of the country and was losing ground to rebel and jihadist forces.
On 28 September 1864 delegates meeting at St Martin's Hall in London founded the International Workingmen's Association, later known as the First International.