October 16, 1981 (Friday)
- In Japan's worst mining disaster, methane gas explosions at the Hokkaido Steamship and Colliery operation at Yūbari, Hokkaidō, killed 93 coal miners. The blast occurred while the men were 1,900 feet underground.
- Died: Moshe Dayan, 66, Israeli general, Defense Minister 1967-74, Foreign Minister 1977-79
Read more about this topic: October 1981
Famous quotes containing the word october:
“The autumnal change of our woods has not yet made a deep impression on our own literature yet. October has hardly tinged our poetry.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)