On this day: October 31

Events on October 31

• 475 Romulus Augustulus took the throne as the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Wikipedia
• 683 During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba catches fire and is burned down. Wikipedia
• 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
• 1822 Emperor Agustín de Iturbide attempts to dissolve the Congress of the Mexican Empire. Wikipedia
• 1864 Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state. Wikipedia
• 1907 The Parliament of Finland approved the Prohibition Act, but the law was not implemented because it was not ratified by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Wikipedia
• 1913 Public-transportation workers in Indianapolis went on strike, shutting down mass transit in the city. 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
• 1922 Benito Mussolini is made Prime Minister of Italy. Wikipedia
• 1938 Great Depression: In an effort to restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: The Battle of Britain ends, causing Germany to abandon Operation Sea Lion. 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
• 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
• 1963 A gas explosion at the Wikipedia
• 1973 Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter that landed in the prison's exercise yard. 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 TG4, the world's first Irish language television station, began broadcasting. Wikipedia
• 1999 All 217 people on board EgyptAir Flight 990 perished when the aircraft suddenly crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Wikipedia
• 1999 Australian sailor Jesse Martin arrived in Melbourne, becoming the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo, non-stop, and unassisted. Wikipedia
• 2000 Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collided with construction equipment while attempting to take off from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan during heavy rain, killing 83 people aboard. Wikipedia
• 2003 After 22 years in power, Mahathir Mohamad retired as Prime Minister of Malaysia. Wikipedia
• 2005 The discovery of the Plutonian moons Nix and Hydra, based on photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope nearly five months prior, was announced. Wikipedia
• 2015 Metrojet Flight 9268 is bombed over the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2017 An Uzbek immigrant drove a rented truck into cyclists and runners in Lower Manhattan, New York City, killing eight people. Wikipedia
• 2020 Berlin Brandenburg Airport opens its doors after nearly 10 years of delays due to construction issues and project corruption. Wikipedia

Born on October 31

• 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
• 1929 Bud Spencer, Italian swimmer, actor, and screenwriter (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1930 Michael Collins, American general, pilot, and astronaut (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1942 David Ogden Stiers, American actor (died 2018) 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
• 2002 Ansu Fati Wikipedia
• 2005 Leonor, Princess of Asturias Wikipedia

Died on October 31

• 1448 John VIII Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (born 1390) Wikipedia
• 1732 Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy (born 1666) 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
• 1939 Otto Rank, Austrian psychologist, author, and educator (born 1884) 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
• 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

Sources

• Wikipedia — “October 31” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/October 31” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

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 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for October 31 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.