On this day: October 31

Events on October 31

• 802 Empress Irene is deposed and banished to Lesbos. Conspirators place Nikephoros, the minister of finance, on the Byzantine throne. Wikipedia
• 1517 Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses onto the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Wikipedia
• 1517 Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Wikipedia
• 1864 Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: Allied forces defeated Turkish troops in Beersheba in Southern Palestine at the Battle of Beersheba, with the battle involving one of the last successful cavalry charges. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: Battle of Beersheba: The "last successful cavalry charge in history". Wikipedia
• 1922 Benito Mussolini is made Prime Minister of Italy. Wikipedia
• 1924 World Savings Day is announced in Milan, Italy by the Members of the Association at the 1st International Savings Bank Congress (World Society of Savings Banks). Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: The Battle of Britain ends, causing Germany to abandon Operation Sea Lion. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: The destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 U.S. Navy sailors. It is the first U.S. Navy vessel sunk by enemy action in WWII. Wikipedia
• 1941 Approximately 400 workers completed the 60-foot (18 m) busts of U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Wikipedia
• 1941 100 crew members of the USS Reuben James perished when their vessel became the first U.S. Navy ship sunk by hostile action during World War II after it was torpedoed by the German submarine U-552. Wikipedia
• 1956 Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal. Wikipedia
• 1961 In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from Lenin's Mausoleum, and is buried near the Kremlin Wall under a plain white marker. Wikipedia
• 1968 Vietnam War October surprise: Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, US 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" effective November 1. Wikipedia
• 1973 Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escape from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter that landed in the exercise yard. Wikipedia
• 1979 Western Airlines Flight 2605 crashes on landing in Mexico City, killing 73 people. Wikipedia
• 1984 Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her own Sikh bodyguards, sparking riots that killed thousands of Sikhs. Wikipedia
• 1996 TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402 crashes in São Paulo, Brazil, killing 99 people. Wikipedia
• 1996 TG4, the world's first Irish language television station, began broadcasting. Wikipedia
• 1998 Iraq disarmament crisis begins: Iraq announces it would no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors. Wikipedia
• 1999 Yachtsman Jesse Martin returns to Melbourne after 11 months of circumnavigating the world, solo, non-stop and unassisted. Wikipedia
• 2000 Singapore Airlines Flight 006 crashes on takeoff from Taipei, killing 83. Wikipedia
• 2002 A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas indicts former Enron 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. Wikipedia
• 2011 The global population of humans reaches seven billion. This day is now recognized by the United Nations as the Day of Seven Billion. Wikipedia
• 2014 During a test flight, the VSS Enterprise, a Virgin Galactic experimental spaceflight test vehicle, suffers a catastrophic in-flight breakup and crashes in the Mojave Desert, California. Wikipedia

Born on October 31

• 1424 Władysław III, king of Poland (died 1444) Wikipedia
• 1632 Johannes Vermeer, Dutch painter (died 1675) Wikipedia
• 1705 Pope Clement XIV (died 1774) Wikipedia
• 1760 Katsushika Hokusai, Japanese artist and printmaker (died 1849) Wikipedia
• 1795 John Keats, English poet (died 1821) Wikipedia
• 1815 Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician and academic (died 1897) Wikipedia
• 1835 Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1917) Wikipedia
• 1875 Vallabhbhai Patel, Indian lawyer, freedom fighter and politician, 1st Deputy Prime Minister of India (died 1950) Wikipedia
• 1887 Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese general and politician, 1st President of the Republic of China (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1892 Alexander Alekhine, Russian chess player and author (died 1946) Wikipedia
• 1922 Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Cambodia (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1925 John Pople, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1929 Bud Spencer, Italian swimmer, actor, and screenwriter (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1930 Michael Collins, American general, pilot, and astronaut (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1947 Herman Van Rompuy, Belgian academic and politician, 66th Prime Minister of Belgium Wikipedia
• 1950 Zaha Hadid, Iraqi-English architect and academic, designed the Bridge Pavilion (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1960 Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran Wikipedia
• 1961 Peter Jackson, New Zealand actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1963 Dunga, Brazilian footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1964 Marco van Basten, Dutch footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1997 Marcus Rashford, English footballer Wikipedia
• 2005 Leonor, Princess of Asturias Wikipedia

Died on October 31

• 1147 Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, son of Henry I of England (born 1100) Wikipedia
• 1448 John VIII Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (born 1390) Wikipedia
• 1918 Egon Schiele, Austrian painter (born 1890) Wikipedia
• 1925 Mikhail Frunze, Bolshevik leader during and just prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917 (born 1885) Wikipedia
• 1926 Harry Houdini, American magician and stuntman (born 1874) Wikipedia
• 1984 Indira Gandhi, Indian politician, Prime Minister of India (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 1986 Robert S. Mulliken, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1896) Wikipedia
• 1993 Federico Fellini, Italian director and screenwriter (born 1920) Wikipedia
• 1993 River Phoenix, American actor and singer (born 1970) Wikipedia
• 1998 María de la Purísima Salvat Romero, Spanish nun and saint (Roman Catholic Church) (born 1926) Wikipedia
• 2005 Amrita Pritam, Indian author and poet (born 1919) Wikipedia
• 2006 P. W. Botha, South African soldier and politician, State President of South Africa (born 1916) Wikipedia
• 2011 Flórián Albert, Hungarian footballer and manager (born 1941) Wikipedia
• 2020 Sean Connery, Scottish actor (born 1930) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Alphonsus Rodriguez Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ampliatus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Begu Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Erc of Slane (in Cornwall) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Foillan (in Namur) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Martin Luther (Anglican Communion) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Paul Shinji Sasaki and Philip Lindel Tsen (Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Quentin Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Theodore Romzha (Ruthenian Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Wolfgang of Regensburg Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: October 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Día de la Canción Criolla (Peru) Wikipedia
• Earliest day on which All Saints Day can fall, while November 6 is the latest; celebrated on Saturday between October 31 and November 6 (Finland, Sweden) Wikipedia
• Halloween and related celebrations: Allantide (Cornwall) Wikipedia
• Halloween and related celebrations: Halloween (Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom, United States and other places) Wikipedia
• Halloween and related celebrations: Hop-tu-Naa (Isle of Man) Wikipedia
• Halloween and related celebrations: Samhain in the Northern Hemisphere, Beltane in the Southern Hemisphere; begins on sunset of October 31 (Gaels, Welsh people and Neopagan Wheel of the Year) Wikipedia
• Halloween and related celebrations: The first day of the Day of the Dead, celebrated until November 2 (Mexico) Wikipedia
• Girl Scouts Founders Day (United States) Wikipedia
• King Father's Birthday (Cambodia) Wikipedia
• National Unity Day (India) Wikipedia
• Reformation Day (Slovenia, parts of Germany, Chile, various Protestant churches with a particular emphasis in Lutheran and Reformed ones) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “October 31” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.