October 9, 1967
Socialist revolutionary and guerilla leader Che Guevara, age 39, is killed by the Bolivian army.
October 14, 1947
U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.
October 15, 1917
Mata Hari, the archetype of the seductive female spy, is executed for espionage by a French firing squad at Vincennes outside of Paris.