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On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed from the Gate of Heavenly Peace the founding of the People's Republic of China, ending decades of civil war. The new communist state united more than 500 million people and would become the world's second-largest economy. Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan.

On October 1, 1946, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg delivered its final verdicts: twelve senior Nazi leaders were sentenced to death, including Göring, Ribbentrop and Keitel. It was the first time in history that state leaders were tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity, laying the foundations of international criminal law.

On October 1, 1960, Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom, becoming the most populous country in Africa. The nation, rich in oil and with enormous ethnic and religious diversity, had been a British colony since the late nineteenth century. Today Nigeria is the largest economy on the African continent and home to more than 200 million people.