October 31 is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 61 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Saturday (58 in 400 years each) than on Thursday or Friday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Tuesday or Sunday (56).
1517 – The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (original Latin: Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum) were written by Martin Luther in 1517 and are widely regarded as the initial catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. The disputation protests against clerical abuses, especially nepotism, simony, usury, pluralism, and the sale of indulgences.
The Battle of Britain has an unusual distinction in that it gained its name prior to being fought. The name is derived from a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of Commons more than three weeks prior to the generally accepted date for the start of the battle:
"...What General Weygand has called Battle of France is over... the Battle of Britain is about to begin." — Winston Churchill
1793 – Execution of Girondins at Paris during Reign of Terror. The Girondists, collectively the Gironde, were a political faction in France in 1792–93 within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution. They campaigned for the end of the monarchy but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution. They came into conflict with The Mountain (Montagnards), a radical faction within the Jacobin Club. This conflict eventually led to the fall of the Girondists and their mass execution, the beginning of the Reign of Terror.
1861 – Citing failing health, General Winfield Scott, commander of the Union forces retires. The hero of the Mexican War recognized early in the Civil War that his health and advancing years were a liability in the daunting task of directing the Federal war effort.
1905 – The great revolutionary demonstration for amnesty takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Revolution of 1905 was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies. It led to the establishment of limited constitutional monarchy, the State Duma of the Russian Empire, the multi-party system, and the Russian Constitution of 1906.
1913 – The first paved coast-to-coast highway, the Lincoln Highway (US Route 30) is dedicated. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated today, the Lincoln Highway ran coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states. In 1915, the "Colorado Loop" was removed, and in 1928, a realignment relocated the Lincoln Highway through the northern tip of West Virginia. Thus, there are a total of 14 states, 128 counties, and over 700 towns and cities, towns and villages through which the highway passed at some time in its history.
1913 – The first paved coast-to-coast highway, the Lincoln Highway (US Route 30) is dedicated. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated today, the Lincoln Highway ran coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states. In 1915, the "Colorado Loop" was removed, and in 1928, a realignment relocated the Lincoln Highway through the northern tip of West Virginia. Thus, there are a total of 14 states, 128 counties, and over 700 towns and cities, towns and villages through which the highway passed at some time in its history.
1918 – The pandemic know as the Spanish flu kills 21,000 in the United States in one week. It was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus. It infected 500 million people across the world, including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and killed 50 to 100 million of them—three to five percent of the world's population—making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. The flu actually originated in a rural county in Kansas.
1924 – World Savings Day was announced in Milan, Italy, by the Members of the Association at the 1st International Savings Bank Congress (World Society of Savings Banks). Today, it should be World Spending Day.
1940 – The Battle of Britain, fought between the RAF and Luftwaffe over the English Channel and southern England, ends.
The Battle of Britain (German: Luftschlacht um England, literally "Air battle for England") is the name given to the Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to that date.
The Battle of Britain (German: Luftschlacht um England, literally "Air battle for England") is the name given to the Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to that date.
The Battle of Britain has an unusual distinction in that it gained its name prior to being fought. The name is derived from a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of Commons more than three weeks prior to the generally accepted date for the start of the battle:
"...What General Weygand has called Battle of France is over... the Battle of Britain is about to begin." — Winston Churchill
1961 – Five years after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalinism and the "personality cult" of Soviet rulers at the 20th Party Congress, Joseph Stalin's embalmed body is removed from Lenin's tomb in Moscow's Red Square.
1968 – In a televised address to the nation five days before the presidential election, President Lyndon Johnson announces that on the basis of developments in the Paris peace negotiations, he has ordered the complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam." Accordingly, effective November 1, the U.S. Air Force called a halt to the air raids on North Vietnam known as Operation Rolling Thunder.
1973 – Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers escape from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin using a hijacked helicopter which briefly landed in the prison's exercise yard. The escape made headlines around the world and was an embarrassment to the Irish coalition government of the time, led by Fine Gael'sLiam Cosgrave, which was criticised by opposition party Fianna Fáil. A manhunt involving twenty thousand members of the Irish Defence Forces and Garda Síochána was launched for the escapees, one of whom, Seamus Twomey, was not recaptured until December 1977. TheWolfe Tones wrote a song celebrating the escape called "The Helicopter Song", which topped the Irish popular music charts despite being banned by the government.
1983 – Ron Grant completes a 217 day, 8,316 mile run around Australia. Starting in Brisbane, he then proceeded to Townsville, Mt. Isa, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, then back to Brisbane. He maintained an overall daily average of 38.3 miles, and was the first person to do it solo.
1992 – Pope John Paul II reinstates Galileo Galilei after 359 years. The Galileo affair (Italian: Processo a Galileo Galilei) was a sequence of events, beginning around 1610, and culminating with the trial and condemnation of Galileo Galilei by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1633.
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. The formal signing took place in Augsburg, Germany, 428 years to the day after Martin Luther nailed his list of 95 theses against the sale of indulgences to a church door in Wittenburg.
2011 – The world population reaches 7 billion inhabitants according to the United Nations.
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. The formal signing took place in Augsburg, Germany, 428 years to the day after Martin Luther nailed his list of 95 theses against the sale of indulgences to a church door in Wittenburg.
2011 – The world population reaches 7 billion inhabitants according to the United Nations.
TODAY'S BIRTHS
1860 – Juliette Gordon Low, American scout leader, founded the Girl Scouts of the United States of America (d. 1927)
1887 – Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese general and politician, 1st President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) (d. 1975)
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