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Ernest Augustus I of Hanover (1771–1851) was King of Hanover from 20 June 1837 until his death. He was the fifth son and eighth child of George III, who reigned in both the United Kingdom and Hanover. As a fifth son, initially Ernest seemed unlikely to become a monarch, but Salic Law, which debarred women from the succession, applied in Hanover and none of his older brothers had legitimate male issue. Ernest was born in Britain, but was sent to Hanover in his adolescence for his education and military training. While serving with Hanoverian forces in Wallonia against Napoleon, he received a disfiguring facial wound. In 1799, he was created Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale. Although his 1815 marriage to the twice-widowed Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz met with the disapproval of his mother, Queen Charlotte, it proved a happy relationship. Ernest was active in the House of Lords, where he maintained an extremely conservative record. There were persistent allegations (reportedly spread by his political foes) that he had murdered his valet and had fathered a son by his sister. Before Victoria succeeded to the British Throne, it was rumoured that Ernest intended to murder her and take the Throne himself. When King William IV died on 20 June 1837, Ernest ascended the Hanoverian Throne. Hanover's first ruler to reside in the kingdom since George I, he had a generally successful fourteen-year reign, but excited controversy when he dismissed the Göttingen Seven for agitating against his policies. (more...)

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October 9: Independence Day in Uganda (1962); Hangul Day in South Korea (1446); Leif Erikson Day in the United States

• 1237 – James I of Aragon entered Valencia and established the Kingdom of Valencia.
• 1831 – Ioannis Kapodistrias (pictured), the Greek head of state, was assassinated in Nafplion.
• 1845 – Anglican priest John Henry Newman was formally received into the Roman Catholic Church.
• 1919 – In Major League Baseball, the Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, five games to three, over the Chicago White Sox, whose players were later found to have lost intentionally.
• 1942 – World War II: American forces defeated the Japanese at the Third Battle of the Matanikau in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, avenging the Japanese victory at the Second Battle of the Matanikau a couple of weeks earlier.
• 1963 – A landslide displaced large amounts of water from the Vajont Dam in northern Italy, causing waves and floods that quickly swept away several villages and killed almost 2,000 people.
• 1970 – The Khmer Republic was proclaimed in Cambodia.
• 2006 – North Korea conducted a nuclear test, reportedly near Kilchu, with an explosive force of less than one kiloton, that was unanimously condemned and denounced by many countries and the United Nations Security Council.