On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on October 31:
1345 Ferdinand I the wise one, king of Portugal (built navy)
1424 Wladyslaw III Warnenczyk king of Poland/Hungary
1620 John Evelyn British diarist (Life of Mrs Godolphin)
1632 Jan Vermeer Holland, painter (Procuress, The Astronomer)
1740 William Paca US judge/signer (Declaration of Independence)
1795 John Keats London, England, romantic poet (Ode to a Grecian Urn)
1815 Karl Weierstrass Germany, mathematician (theory of functions)
1825 Raleigh Edward Colston Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1896
1826 Hugh Boyle Ewing Bvt Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1905
1831 Daniel Butterfield Major General (Union volunteers)(Taps), died in 1901
1835 Adelbert Ames Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1933
1835 J F W Adolf Ritter von Baeyer German chemist (Nobel 1905
1860 Juliette Gordon Low Girl Scout founder
1887 Chiang Kai-shek Chekiang Province, China, pres of Nationalist China
1888 Sir George Hubert Wilkins Aust, polar explorer (Flying the Arctic)
1893 Sara Allgood Dublin Ireland, actress (Jane Eyre, Spiral Staircase)
1896 Ethel Waters Chester Pa, actress (Beulah)/singer (Stormy Weather)
1902 Eduard Franz Milwaukee Wisc, actor (Zorro)
1902 Willie Shaw race car driver (Indy 500-1937, 39, 40)
1912 Dale Evans Uvalde Tx, cowgirl (Roy Rogers Show)
1920 Dick Francis Wales, jockey/novelist (Whip Hand, High Stakes)
1922 Barbara Bel Geddes NYC, actress (Vertigo, Miss Ellie-Dallas, Caught)
1923 Hicks B Waldron Amsterdam NY, CEO (Avon)
1926 Shirley Dinsdale SF Calif, ventriloquist (Judy Splinters)
1930 Michael Collins Rome, Mjr Gen USAF/astronaut (Gemini 10, Apollo 11)
1931 Dan Rather Wharton Tx, news anchor (CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes)
1937 Michael Landon Forest Hills NY, actor (Bonanza, Highway to Heaven)
1937 Tom Paxton Chicago, folk singer/songwriter (Forest Lawn)
1942 David Ogden Stiers Peoria Ill, actor (Winchester-M*A*S*H, Doc)
1944 Kinky Friedman Palestine Tx, country rocker (Ride 'em Jewboy)
1944 Sally Kirkland NYC, actress (Anna, Sting, Pvt Benjamin, Big Bad Mama)
1947 Deidre Hall Milwaukee, actress (Days of our Life, Our House)
1947 Frank Shorter US, marathon runner (Olympic-gold-1972)
1949 Terrence W Wilcutt Russellville Ky, Major USMC/astronaut
1950 Jane Pauley Indianapolis Indiana, newscaster (Today, NBC Weekend)
1950 John Candy Ontario Canada, comedian (SCTV, Uncle Buck)
1960 Reza Pahlavi Iran, son of Shah of Iran
1961 Larry Mullen Jr drummer (U2-I Will Follow)
1964 Amanda Sandrelli Rome Italy, actress (The Key)
1968 Vanilla Ice [Robert Van Winkle], rapper (Ice Ice Baby)
Deaths which occurred on October 31:
1448 Johannes VIII Palaeologus, Emperor of Byzantine, dies
1661 Koprulu Muhammad Pasha Albanian great vizier of Turkey, dies
1723 Cosimo III de' Medici, monarch of Florence (1670-1723), dies at 81
1765 Duke of Cumberland, English politician/general (butchered Scots at Culloden)
1863 Louis Ludwig Blenker German/US brig-general (Union), dies at 51
1865 William Parson 3rd Earl of Rosse & maker of large telescopes, dies
1918 Count Stephen Tisza Hungarian PM assassinated by soldiers
1926 Erich Weiss better known as magician Harry Houdini, dies in Detroit
1963 Henry Daniell actor (Camille, Body Snatchers), dies at 69
1964 Theodore C Freeman astronaut, dies at 34 in a T-38 jet air crash
1965 Rita Johnson actress (All Mine to Give), dies at 53
1975 Joseph Calleia actor (Jungle Book, Gilda), dies at 78
1983 George Halas NFLer, dies at 88
1984 Indira Gandhi PM of India assassinated by 2 of her Sikh bodyguards
1987 Joseph Campbell mythologist (Mythic Image), dies at 83
1993 River Phoenix actor (Stand By Me), dies of drug overdose at 23
1993 Federico Fellini, director (La Dolce Vita), dies of stroke at 73
2000 Oscar-winning screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. at age 85
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1965 ADAMS SAMUEL---GOLDENROD FL.
1965 DUSING CHARLES G.---CHARLESTON SC.
1965 MOORE THOMAS---BATON ROUGE LA.
1965 POWERS TRENT R.---MINNEAPOLIS MN.
[EJECTED SAFELY / REMAINS RETURNED 09/25/87]
1967 FANNING HUGH M.---FORT WORTH TX.
[REMAINS RECOVERED 07/17/84, ID RECINDED]
1967 KOTT STEPHEN J.---GREENVILLE SC.
[REMAINS RECOVERED 07/17/84 - FAM DOES NOT ACCEPT]
1968 SWANSON ROGER W.---ST PAUL MN.
1969 GAUTHIER DENNIS L.---ROCHESTER MI.
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
0802 Empress Irene of Byzantium driven out
0834 1st All Hallows Eve (Halloween) observed to honor the saints
1517 Luther posts 95 theses on Wittenberg church-Protestant Reformation
1759 Earthquake in Safed Palestine kills hundred
1793 Execution of the Girondins at Paris, during the Reign of Terror
1803 Congress ratifies the purchase of the entire Louisiana area in North America, adding territory to the U.S. which will eventually become 13 more states.
1815 Sir Humphrey Davy of London patents miner's safety lamp
1838 A mob of about 200 attacks a Mormon camp in Missouri, killing 20 men, women and children.
1864 Nevada admitted as 36th state
1908 4th Olympic games end in London
1922 Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) becomes premier of Italy
1940 Deadline for Warsaw Jews to move into the Warsaw Ghetto
1943 Wash Redskin Sammy Baugh passes for 6 touchdowns vs Brooklyn (48-10)
1950 Collazo & Torresola attempt to kill Truman in Washington, DC
1952 1st thermonuclear bomb detonated-Marshall Islands
1954 Algerian Revolution against French begins
1956 1st American to land an airplane at South Pole-Rear Adm GJ Dufek
1956 Britain & France begin to bomb Egypt to reopen the Suez Canal
1959 Lee Harvey Oswald announces in Moscow he will never return to US
1963 Ed Sullivan witnesses the Beatles & their fans at London Airport
1963 Leaking propane gas explodes, kills 64 at "Holiday on Ice" (Indiana)
1964 Barbra Streisand's "People," album goes #1 for 5 weeks
1967 Nguyen Van Thieu took oath of office as 1st pres of S Vietnam 2nd Rep
1968 Milwaukee Bucks win their 1st game beating Detroit 138-118 (6th game)
1968 President Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations.
1969 George Harrison's "Something" is released in UK
1969 Race riot in Jacksonville Florida
1974 Bundy victim (?) Laura Aime disappears in Utah
1980 Julian Nott sets world hot-air balloon altitude record (16,806 m)
1982 Pope John Paul II becomes 1st pontiff to visit Spain
1983 Ron Grant completes a 217 day, 8,316 mile run around Australia
1984 Puerto Rican tanker, San Francisco explodes spilling 2 million gallons of oil as the ship caught fire
1987 1st jockey to win 9 races in 1 day (Chris Antley at Belmont)
1987 A pair in Coventry, England ties the world record for the longest singles tennis match at 80 hrs 21 minutes
1988 Journalists demand greater press freedom in Yugoslavia
1992 Don Keller makes his 18,000th sky diver
1992 Roman Catholic church rehabiltates (un-condemns) Galileo Galilei after 359 years.
2001 U.S.-led forces resumed air strikes in Afghanistan, hitting Taliban positions in the northern part of the country and targets outside the capital, Kabul.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Iran : Crown Prince's Birthday
Mass : Youth Honor Day
Nevada : Admission Day (1864)
St Lucia, St Vincent : Thanksgiving Day
US : All Hallows Eve (you know, Halloween)
World : National UNICEF Day
National Magic Week Ends
Nevada Day.
Snap Apple Night (Victorian celebration).
Turnip Night (Ireland).
National Liver Awareness Month
Religious Observances
C : Vigil of All Saints, Feast of St Wolfgang, Benedictine bishop
France : All Saints Day Eve
Wicca : Samhain, sabbat
RC : Commemoration of St Quintin, martyr
Religious History
0451 At the 15th Session of the Council of Chalcedon, Canon 28 was adopted, granting Constantinole a patriarchate extending over the civil dioceses of Pontus, Asia, and Thrace.
1517 German Augustinian monk Martin Luther, 31, nailed to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg a list of 95 theological points he wished to debate ... and touched off the Protestant Reformation!
1832 American Episcopal scholar George Washington Doane, 33, was consecrated as second Bishop of the Diocese of NJ. Doane is better remembered today as author of the hymn, "Softly Now the Light of Day."
1852 Swiss moral philosopher Henry F. Amiel wrote in his journal: 'Every landscape is, as it were, a state of the soul, and whoever penetrates into both is astonished to find how much likeness there is in each detail.'
1870 Birth of Hugh Ross Mackintosh, Scottish theologian. Teaching systematics at Edinburgh 1904-35, Mackintosh had a firm grasp of the German theological writers of his day and sought to make their teachings known in Britain, for which he was unfairly judged a liberal.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!
Make sure you know the lingo this Halloween ...
Boogieman: The guy who passes time at a stoplight picking his nose.
Coffin: What you do when you get a piece of popcorn stuck in your throat.
Frankenstein: Hot dog and a mug of beer.
Full Moon: What your repairman reveals when he bends over to fix your fridge.
Goblin: How you eat the snickers bars you got for Halloween.
Invisible Man: What a guy becomes when there's housework to be done. Also, see "Mr. Hyde."
Jack O' Lantern: An Irish Pumpkin.
Jack the Ripper: What Jack does to his lottery tickets after losing each week.
Mummy: The person who kisses the boo-boo after you scrape your knee.
Pumpkin Patch: What a pumpkin wears when trying to quit smoking.
Skeleton: Any supermodel.
Vampire Bat: What Dracula hits a baseball with.
Witch: See "Mother-in-Law."
Zombie: What you look like before that first cup of morning coffee
Childrens Impression of Love...
WHAT MOST PEOPLE ARE THINKING WHEN THEY SAY "I LOVE YOU"
"The person is thinking: Yeah, I really do love him. But I hope he showers at least once a day." (Michelle, 9)
Children's stories that never made it...
How to Become the Dominant Military Power in Your Elementary School
Handy Latin Phrases...
Ut humiliter opinor
In my humble opinion
Redefining the English language
Balderdash (n.),
A rapidly receding hairline
