Editing TIMELINE (section)

===October 2004===
* October 4 - Two car bombs kill at least 16 people and injure dozens more in Baghdad.
* October 5 - A fire breaks out on the Canadian submarine HMCS Chicoutimi, leaving it stranded without power in the North Atlantic ocean, off the north coast of Ireland; 1 crewmember is killed.
* October 8 - Kenneth Bigley, the British hostage held by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an Iraqi insurgent, is killed after a failed escape attempt.
* October 8 - Suicide bombers detonate 2 bombs at the Red Sea resort of Taba, Egypt, killing 34 people, mainly Israeli tourists and Egyptian workers.
* October 8 - Martha Stewart begins serving a 5-month sentence for insider trading at the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia.
* October 9 - Queen Elizabeth II opens the new Scottish Parliament Building in a ceremony in Edinburgh.
* October 9 - Incumbent Prime Minister of Australia John Howard leads the Liberal-National coalition to victory over the Labor Party led by Mark Latham in federal elections.
* October 9 - Direct elections for president are held for the first time in Afghanistan. Interim president Hamid Karzai is eventually declared the winner.
* October 10 - Abdullahi Yusuf is chosen as the new transitional president of Somalia.
* October 14 - Prince Norodom Sihamoni is chosen as the new king of Cambodia.
* October 16 - The New York Yankees defeat the Boston Red Sox 19-8 in Game 3 of Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series. The game, which pushed the Yankees to a 3 games to 0 series lead, sets a record for longest 9 inning baseball game.
* October 16 - Arsenal loses for the first time in 49 league games, a national record, going down 2-0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford.
* October 17 - A referendum in Belarus approves the lifting of constitutional term limits for the presidency.
* October 18 - Three men attack Greek journalist Philippos Syrigos in Athens and seriously wound him.
* October 19 - General Khin Nyunt is replaced by Lieutenant-General Soe Win as Prime Minister of Myanmar.
* October 20 - Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 crashes in Missouri, killing 13 people and injuring 2.
* October 20 - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono becomes the first directly-elected President of Indonesia.
* October 20 - The Boston Red Sox defeat the New York Yankees 10-3 in Game 7 of the Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series to win the series 4 games to 3. The Boston Red Sox become the first team in baseball history to come back from a 0-3 deficit to win a series.
* October 21 - The Ministry of Defence approves the deployment of the Black Watch regiment of the British Army to Baghdad, Iraq after a request for assistance by the U.S. government.
* October 24 - The bodies of 49 Iraqi soldiers are discovered after being ambushed by insurgents.
* October 24 - Brazil successfully launches its first rocket into space.
* October 25 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King receive the Congressional Gold Medal.
* October 26 - The Cassini probe passes within 1,200km of Titan.
* October 27 - The Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the first time since 1918, breaking the Curse of the Bambino.
* October 27 - Details of the discovery of a new, recent, species of fossil hominid, Homo floresiensis, from the island of Flores, Indonesia, are published.
* October 29 - A 2004 Osama bin Laden video airs on Arabic TV, in which he threatens terrorist attacks on the United States, and taunts U.S. President George W. Bush over the September 11 Terrorist attacks.
* October 29 - European heads of state sign in Rome the Treaty and Final Act establishing the first European Constitution.
* October 30 - A 163-metre-high radio mast in Peterborough, UK collapses at a fire.
* October 31 - Leftist candidate Tabaré Vázquez is elected President of Uruguay.