Events in History on October 31 (2024)

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  • 445 BC Ezra reads the Book of the Law to the Israelites in Jerusalem (see Nehemiah 9:1, NLTse).
  • 802 Empress Irene of Byzantium driven out

The Protestant Reformation

1517 Martin Luther sends his Ninety-five Theses to Albert of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, precipitating the Protestant Reformation

1517 copy of Martin Luther's 95 theses, the publication of which began the Protestant Reformation in Europe

Events in History on October 31 (3)The Last Judgement

1541 Michelangelo Buonarroti finishes painting "The Last Judgement" in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

Sculptor and Painter Michelangelo
  • 1552 Emperor Karel & Markgraaf Albecht strike siege of Metz
  • 1587 Leiden University Library opens its doors after its founding in 1575
  • 1596 English, French & Dutch delegates sign anti-Spanish "Triple Covenant"
  • 1617 Laurens Reael resigns as governor-general of Dutch East Indies

Events in History on October 31 (5)History of Mathematics

1649 John Wallis, newly appointed Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University, gives his Inaugural lecture

Mathematician and Cryptographer John Wallis

Events in History on October 31 (7)Casanova Escapes Prison

1756 Giacomo Casanova escapes from "The Leads" prison in Venice by climbing onto the roof

Adventurer, Writer and Famous Lover Giacomo Casanova
  • 1759 Earthquake in Safed, Palestine kills hundreds
  • 1793 Execution of Girondins in Paris during Reign of Terror

Events in History on October 31 (9)Dalton Explains Color Blindness

1794 John Dalton's first lecture to the Manchester Literary/Philosophical Society, "Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours"

Chemist, Physicist and Meteorologist John Dalton

Events in History on October 31 (11)Spanish Court Painter

1799 Francisco Goya is appointed first court painter at the Spanish court in Madrid, the highest honor for a Spanish painter [1]

Painter and Printmaker Francisco Goya
  • 1808 Holland Brigade battle at Durango, Spain
  • 1815 Cornishman Sir Humphry Davy patents miner's safety lamp
  • 1837 Collision of river boat Monmouth & Trement on Mississippi; 300 die
  • 1846 Donner party, unable to cross the Donner Pass, construct a winter camp
  • 1863 The Maori Wars resumed as British forces in New Zealand led by General Duncan Cameron began their Invasion of the Waikato
  • 1864 Nevada admitted as 36th state of the Union
  • 1867 Australia's first royal tour begins as Prince Albert, son of Queen Victoria arrives in Adelaide, South Australia [1]
  • 1868 Standard uniform approved for US postal carriers
  • 1871 Founding of Netherland Protestant Union in Dokkum
  • 1876 Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876 ravages British India (Modern-day Bangladesh), over 200,000 killed
  • 1881 Metropolitan club plays its last game of its non-league season. They win 80 of 151 games (18-43 versus NL teams)
  • 1889 Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) in Paris closes after 32 million visitors
  • 1905 Great revolutionary demonstration for amnesty in St Petersburg
Playwright George Bernard Shaw
  • 1913 1st US paved coast-to-coast highway, the Lincoln Highway is dedicated
  • 1914 Great Britain & France declare war on Turkey
  • 1916 Clare Kummer's play "Good Gracious Annabelle" premieres in NYC

Events in History on October 31 (15)In the Zone

1917 Eugene O'Neill's play "In the Zone" premieres in NYC

Playwright Eugene O'Neill
  • 1917 World War I: Battle of Beersheba in southern Palestine - "last successful cavalry charge in history" performed by the 4th Australian Light Horse
  • 1918 Short-lived Banat Republic founded in territory where Romania, Hungary and Serbia meet

The 1918 Flu Pandemic

1918 Spanish flu kills 21,000 people in the US in a single week

1918: A group of Americans in California with a message for their fellow countrymen
  • 1920 Romania annexes Bessarabia

Events in History on October 31 (19)Mussolini Appointed PM

1922 Fascist leader Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) becomes Prime Minister of Italy

Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini
  • 1922 Karel & Josef Čapek's play "World We Live In" premieres in NYC
  • 1923 160 consecutive days of 100 degrees F begin at Marble Bar, Australia
  • 1924 World Savings Day announced in Milan, Italy, by the Members of the Association at the 1st International Savings Bank Congress (World Society of Savings Banks)
  • 1925 Cossack officer Reza Chan replaces sultan Ahmad as Shah of Persia
  • 1926 Failed assassination attempt on Benito Mussolini by 15-year-old Anteo Zamboni, who was lynched on the spot

Events in History on October 31 (21)Event of Interest

1932 Greek government of Venizelos falls

Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos
  • 1936 The Boy Scouts of the Philippines formed
  • 1937 Spanish government moves from Valencia to Barcelona
  • 1938 Great Depression: In an effort to try restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public.

'Hitler Will Have to Break Us or Lose the War'

1940 Battle of Britain, fought between the RAF and Luftwaffe over the English Channel and southern England, ends with a British victory

Buckingham Palace is bombed. Churchill, King George VI and Queen Consort Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) inspect the damage. Photo: NPA Rota

Events in History on October 31 (25)Event of Interest

1940 Deadline for Warsaw Jews to move into the Warsaw Ghetto

Leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Mordecai Anielewicz
  • 1941 Clothing factory fire in Huddersfield, England kills 49
  • 1941 Mount Rushmore Monument is completed in South Dakota, designed by Gutzon Borglum
  • 1941 Prior to US joining WWII, German submarine U-552 torpedoes US destroyer Reuben James near Iceland
  • 1942 9th day of the Battle of El Alamein
  • 1942 U-boats sink and damage 120 allied ships this month (659,457 tons)
  • 1943 World War II: F4U Corsair accomplishes the first successful radar-guided interception.
  • 1944 Chief of staff Kruls names De Quay chairman of Universal Commission
  • 1949 Dutch Nazi Henri 'Hakkie' Holdert, director of Amsterdam paper De Telegraaf and member of the SS, sentenced to 12 years imprisonment
  • 1951 French Second Chamber accepts the Schuman Plan
  • 1952 1st thermonuclear bomb detonated at Marshall Islands
  • 1954 Algerian Revolution against French begins
  • 1955 Bernardus Johannes Alfrink installed as Archbishop of Utrecht
  • 1956 Britain and France join Israeli forces in Egypt and begin to bomb Egypt to reopen Suez Canal
  • 1956 Brooklyn, NY ends streetcar service
  • 1956 Rear Adm GJ Dufek becomes 1st American to land an airplane at South Pole

Events in History on October 31 (27)Event of Interest

1959 Lee Harvey Oswald announces in Moscow he will never return to USA

Former Soldier and Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
  • 1959 USSR and Egypt sign contracts to build the Aswan High Dam
  • 1960 Cyclone hits coast of Gulf of Bengal; about 10,000 die
  • 1961 Federal judge rules that laws in Birmingham, Alabama, against integrated playing fields are illegal
  • 1961 Hurricane Hattie kills 400 in British Honduras

Events in History on October 31 (29)Event of Interest

1963 J. Edgar Hoover's last meeting with President John F. Kennedy

First Director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover35th US President John F. Kennedy
  • 1963 Leaking propane gas explodes kills 64 at 'Holiday on Ice' in Indiana

Windmill Girls Get Dressed And Leave Town

1964 London's notorious Windmill Theatre closes after 32 years of "Revudeville" programs featuring vaudeville, comic, and nude tableaux vivants

A queue forms in the 1960s for another Revudeville at the Windmill theatre

Events in History on October 31 (34)Event of Interest

1967 Nguyễn Văn Thiệu takes oath of office to become the 1st President of the Second Republic of South Vietnam

President of South Vietnam Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
  • 1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

Events in History on October 31 (36)Event of Interest

1968 US President Lyndon B. Johnson orders a halt to all bombing of North Vietnam

36th US President Lyndon B. Johnson
  • 1969 Eastside race riot in Jacksonville, Florida
  • 1971 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) explode a bomb at the Post Office Tower in London
  • 1972 2 Catholic children (6 and 4) playing on the street are killed in a Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) car bomb attack on a bar in Ship Street, Belfast
  • 1973 Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers escape from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin using a hijacked helicopter
  • 1974 Dutch Marines end hostage crisis in Scheveningen prison

Events in History on October 31 (38)Event of Interest

1974 Ted Bundy victim Laura Aime disappears in Utah

Serial Killer Ted Bundy
  • 1978 Iranian oil workers go on strike
  • 1978 People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) adopts constitution
  • 1979 US DC-10 crashes at Mexico-City, 74 killed
  • 1980 Julian Nott sets world hot-air balloon altitude record (16,806 m)
  • 1980 Polish government recognizes Solidarity trade union
  • 1980 Senegal routes troops to Gambia due to Libyan threat

Events in History on October 31 (40)Papal Visit

1982 Pope John Paul II becomes first pontiff to visit Spain

264th Pope John Paul II

Events in History on October 31 (42)Canonization

1982 Pope John Paul II canonizes Canadian Marguerite Bourgeoys, founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal, as a saint [1]

First Canadian Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys264th Pope John Paul II
  • 1983 Ron Grant completes a 217 day, 8,316 mile run around Australia

Events in History on October 31 (45)Assassination

1984 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh at her home in New Delhi

4th Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi
  • 1984 Puerto Rican tanker 'San Francisco' explodes spilling 2 million gallons of oil as ship caught fire

Events in History on October 31 (47)Assassination

1984 Rajiv Gandhi takes office as India's 6th Prime Minister succeeding his mother Indira Gandhi who was assassinated

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
  • 1988 19°F lowest October temperature ever recorded in Cleveland, Ohio
  • 1988 Journalists demand greater press freedom in Yugoslavia
  • 1989 AR Gurney's play "Love Letters" premieres in NYC
  • 1989 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
  • 1989 Turgat Ozal elected president of Turkey
  • 1989 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • 1990 Pakistan make 3-0 drubbing of NZ, Waqar Younis 29 series wkts
  • 1991 Palestinians attend US mideast peace talks in Madrid
  • 1992 Don Keller makes his 18,000th sky dive

Events in History on October 31 (49)Event of Interest

1992 Roman Catholic church apologizes for its treatment of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei after 359 years

Astronomer and Physicist Galileo Galilei
  • 1993 Brian Friel's stage drama "Wonderful Tennessee" closes at Plymouth Theater, NYC, after 9 performances
  • 1993 German unemployment hits national record of 3.5 million
  • 1994 American Eagle ATR-72 crash down at Gary, Indiana: 68 killed
  • 1996 Transportes Aéreos Regionais (TAM) Flight 402, a Fokker F100, crashes into several houses in São Paulo, Brazil killing 98 including 2 on the ground.
  • 1997 British au pair Louise Woodward, 19, sentenced to life for the death of Matthew Eappen 8½ months (judge changes to time served)
  • 1998 Iraq disarmament crisis begins: Iraq announces it would no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.
  • 1999 EgyptAir Flight 990 traveling from New York City to Cairo crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on-board.
  • 1999 Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.
  • 2000 A chartered Antonov An-26 explodes after takeoff in Northern Angola killing 50
  • 2000 A Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 operating as Flight 006 collides with construction equipment upon takeoff in Taipei, Taiwan killing 79 passengers and four crew members
  • 2000 Pope John Paul II declares Saint Thomas More as "the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians"
  • 2000 The last Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) machine shut down
  • 2002 A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas formally indicted former Enron Corp. chief financial officer Andrew Fastow on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to the collapse of his ex-employer.
  • 2003 A bankruptcy court approves MCI's reorganization plans, essentially clearing the telecommunications company to exit bankruptcy

Events in History on October 31 (51)Appointment of Interest

2003 Mahathir Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia and is replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, marking an end to Mahathir's 22 years in power

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad
  • 2008 Whitepaper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" is published by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. It describes a decentralized peer-to-peer network that could track and verify transactions while producing a transparent, verifiable record.
  • 2010 Belgium leaves the recession with 0.5% growth in the third quarter
  • 2011 The world population reaches 7 billion inhabitants according to the United Nations
  • 2012 The New York Stock Exchange opens after being closed for two days after Hurricane Sandy
  • 2015 Russian airliner crashes killing all 224 on board in Sinai Peninsula, Egypt - Russia's worst air disaster
  • 2016 Lebanon parliament elects Michel Aoun President after 2 1/2 years without a leader
  • 2017 John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff comments in TV interview that “the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War", draws criticism
  • 2017 Judge on Maui, Hawaii orders man to write ex-girlfriend 144 compliments after violating protection order to send 144 nasty text messages
  • 2017 Takahiro Shiraishi arrested in Zama, Japan, a day after nine dismembered bodies found in his apartment
  • 2017 Terrorist attack in New York when a truck mows down people on a cycle lane, killing 8, injuring 10
  • 2017 Two men convicted of raping and impregnating their 10-year-old niece in Chandigarh, India
  • 2018 In landmark verdict, Pakistani Supreme Court acquits Christian woman of blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed after eight years on death row
  • 2018 US and Great Britain call for a cease-fire in Saudi-led war in Yemen, in 3-year war that has claimed over 10,000 lives and created famine conditions

Statue of Unity

2018 World's biggest statue, the Statue of Unity at 182m is unveiled of Indian independence leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat state

  • 2019 Fire destroys most of historic Shuri Castle, once seat of the Ryukyu Kingdom, on island of Okinawa, Japan
  • 2019 Gas canister explodes on a train in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakaistan killing at least 70 and injuring 30
  • 2019 Jihadist group Islamic State names Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurashi as its new leader after US special forces kill its former leader

Events in History on October 31 (55)Event of Interest

2019 US House of Representatives votes to formalize impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump

45th US President, Businessman and TV Personality Donald Trump
  • 2021 World's largest solar farm goes live in Sirindhorn reservoir, Thailand, as a hydro-floating solar hybrid system the size of 70 football fields [1]

Events in History on October 31 (57)Charles Express Regret

2023 Kenyan President William Ruto, holds state banquet for King Charles III in Nairobi, whose speech acknowledges “the wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret” [1]

King of the United Kingdom Charles III


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Events in History on October 31 (2024)
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