October 2: The British cruiser HMS Curacoa (D41) collides with the liner RMS Queen Mary (carrying troops from the United States) off the coast of Donegal and sinks; 338 drown.

October 3: The first A-4 rocket is successfully launched from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. The rocket flies 147 kilometres wide and reaches a height of 84.5 kilometres, becoming the first man-made object to reach space.

October 9: The Statute of Westminster Adoption Act passed by the Parliament of Australia formalizes Australian autonomy from the United Kingdom.

October 11: Battle of Cape Esperance: On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.

October 14: A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou off Newfoundland, killing 137.

October 16: A hurricane and flood in Bombay kill 40,000.

October 23: Award-winning composer and Hollywood songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory") is among 12 people killed in the mid-air collision between an American Airlines DC-3 airliner and a U.S. Army bomber near Palm Springs, California.

October 23-November 4: Second Battle of El Alamein: British troops go on the offensive against the Axis forces.

October 26: Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands: Two Japanese aircraft carriers are heavily damaged and one U.S. Navy carrier is sunk.

October 28: The Alaska Highway is completed.

October 29: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.

October 30: British sailors board German submarine U-559 as it sinks in the Mediterranean and retrieve its Enigma machine and codebooks. (source: Wikipedia)