31 OCTOBER

1517 Martin Luther posts 95 theses on Wittenberg church - precipitates the Protestant Reformation

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

1795 The birth of John Keats, English romantic poet.

1828 The birth of Sir Joseph Swan, English chemist and inventor. Both he and Edison were separately credited with the invention of the electric lamp. Edison was first, but his had a much shorter life and was therefore not practical.

1863 The Maori Wars resumed as British forces in New Zealand led by General Duncan Cameron began their Invasion of the Waikato in North Island. In 1995 the Waikato Tainui tribe completed negotiations with the New Zealand government and accepted a settlement package worth approximately 1 percent of the value of the lands confiscated in 1863.

1864 Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state

1876 Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876 ravages British India (Modern-day Bangladesh), over 200,000 killed

1888 Scottish inventor John Boyd Dunlop patented pneumatic bicycle tyres.

1903 Hampden Park football ground - Glasgow, was opened.

1913 Dedication of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile highway across United States

1915 For the first time during World War I, British troops wore steel helmets.

1917 World War I: Battle of Beersheba in southern Palestine - "last successful cavalry charge in history" performed by the 4th Australian Light Horse

1918 Spanish flu-virus kills 21,000 in US in 1 week

1923 The first of 160 consecutive days of 100º Fahrenheit at Marble Bar, Western Australia

1926 Jimmy Savile, radio and TV entertainer was born. In October 2012 numerous allegations were made that Savile had ***ually abused up to 200 young people, dating back to 1958. In the aftermath, his gravestone at Scarborough was removed at the request of Savile's family and plaques and statues of him in other locations were removed to prevent further defacement.

1926 Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that develops after his appendix ruptures

1940 World War II: The Battle of Britain ended. Britain had successfully avoided a possible German invasion.

1941 A fire in a clothing factory in Huddersfield, Yorkshire killed 49.

1941 After 14 years of work, Mount Rushmore is completed

1951 Zebra crossings came into use for the first time in Britain.

1955 Princess Margaret called off her plans to marry divorced Group Captain Peter Townsend.

1956 Britain and France bombed Egypt in retaliation for the barring of their ships from the Suez Canal.

1963 An explosion at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum kills 74 people and injures another 400 during an ice skating show. A faulty propane tank connection iis blamed

1964 The Windmill Theatre off London’s Piccadilly Circus finally closed after 32 years. Their slogan ‘We Never Closed’ was a tribute to them staying open to troops during the war.

1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson announces to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam."

1971 A terrorist bomb exploded at the top of the Post Office Tower in London. The building has been closed to the public ever since.

1973 Three Provisional IRA members escaped from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter that briefly landed in the prison's exercise yard. As the helicopter took off, one officer, in the confusion shouted 'Close the gates, close the ******* gates.' The escape resulted in all IRA prisoners held at Mountjoy Prison being transferred to the maximum security Portlaoise Prison.

1982 The Thames barrier, part of London's flood defences, was raised for the first time.

1988 Coventry became Britain's first city to introduce a by-law banning the drinking of alcohol in public places. Coventry was made famous much earlier by Lady Godiva who, in 1678, clothed only in her long hair, rode through the city after her husband agreed to repeal the taxes if she would strip naked and ride through the streets.

1997 A 19 year old British au pair Louise Woodward, was found guilty by a court in America of murdering 8 month old Matthew Eappen.

2002 A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas indicts former Enron CEO Andrew Fastow on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice


2008 Officials asked for the Welsh translation of a bilingual road sign which in English read - "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only." When the automatic e-mail came back from Swansea council it read "Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i'w gyfieithu" and this was duly printed on the road sign. Only later was it discovered that the Welsh part of the sign said "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated."

2011 The world population reaches 7 billion inhabitants according to the United Nations

2013 TV cameras were allowed to record proceedings at the Court of Appeal in England and Wales for the first time. Senior judges and major broadcasters welcomed the move, which the head of BBC News said was a "landmark moment".

Famous Birthday's

John Keats
(1795 - 1821)

Chiang Kai-shek
(1887 - 1975)

Jimmy Savile
(1926 - 2011)

Eddie Charlton
(1929 - 2004)

Michael Landon
(1936 - 1991

John Candy
(1950 - 1994)

John Evelyn
(1620 - 1706)

Tom O'Connor
78th Birthday

Vanilla Ice
50th Birthday

Matt Dawson
45th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Harry Houdini
(1874 - 1926)

Brian Cobby
(1929 - 2012)

Indira Gandhi
(1917 - 1984)

River Phoenix
(1970 - 1993)

Famous Weddings

1968 Singer Davy Jones (22) weds actress Linda Haines

1970 "Easy Rider" director and actor Dennis Hopper (34) weds singer Michelle Phillips (26) in Mexico

1980 Baptist minister Al Sharpton (26) weds back up singer Kathy Jordan

Famous Divorces

1976 NBA legend Larry Bird (19) divorces highschool sweetheart Janet Condra only 11 months after getting married

2011 Socialite and model Kim Kardashian (31) divorces basketball player Kris Humphries (26) due to irreconcilable differences only 72 days after getting married