Reuters historical calendar - October 4

London, Oct 3 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on October 4 since 1900: 1940 - The German and Italian dictators Hitler and Mussolini held talks in an armoured train at the Brenner Pass during World War Two.

1948 - Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, who made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic along with his fellow Briton John Alcock in 1919, died.

1952 - The first pacemaker to control the body's heartbeat, developed by Dr Paul Zoll of Harvard University, was fitted externally to David Schwartz.

1957 - The Soviet Union became the first nation in space, launching the Sputnik-I satellite into orbit 500 miles above the Earth.

1958 - The first transoceanic passenger jet service was inaugurated between New York and London by the British Overseas Airways Corporation.

1965 - Paul VI became the first pope to visit the United States and to address the United Nations.

1966 - Lesotho, formerly the British colony of Basutoland, achieved independence and became a member of the Commonwealth.

1970 - The American blues and soul singer Janis Joplin was found dead of a drug overdose.

1974 - The first round-the-world journey on foot was completed by the American David Kunst, who had begun his 14,450-mile (23,250-km) trip on June 20, 1970.

1992 - The Mozambique government and rebel leaders signed a ceasefire to end a 16-year civil war.

1993 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin crushed a hardline communist rebellion.

1997 - Otto Ernst Remer, the Nazi general who foiled a coup attempt against Adolf Hitler in July 1944, died in Spain aged 85.

1999 - Twenty-two workers were exposed to radiation from a leak of heavy water at South Korea's Wolsung nuclear plant.

2001 - A Russian Sibir airlines Tu-154 carrying up to 78 passengers and crew on a flight from Israel was accidentally shot down during Ukrainian missile exercises over the Black Sea.

2002 - Nepal's King Gyanendra dismissed prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and took over the reins of power.

2003 - A Palestinian suicide bomber killed 23 people in a popular restaurant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

2003 - The Gulf Arab state of Oman held its first free election, for an advisory Shura Council.

2004 - The American actress Janet Leigh, best known for her role in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock thriller ''Psycho'', died aged 77. Leigh was nominated for an Oscar for the role and for years said it was impossible for her to take a shower without fear.

2005 - Turkey opened membership negotiations with the European Union, 42 years after first being given the prospect of membership in the wealthy European bloc.

REUTERS AKJ KP1017