It happened today – this day in history – October 31
Email: [email protected]
1396: 31-year old Richard II weds Isabella of Valois, aged six – yes 6 – in a dynastic marriage.
1517: Martin Luther sends his 95 Theses to Albrecht von Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz, precipitating the Protestant Reformation.
1541: Michelangelo finishes painting “The Last Judgement” in the Sistine Chapel.
1632: Birth of artist Jan Vermeer in Delft, The Netherlands.
1724: George Frideric Handel’s opera “Tamerlano” premieres at the King’s Theatre, London.
1756: Giacomo Casanova escapes from prison in Venice by climbing onto the roof.
1795: Poet John Keats is born in London.
1815: Sir Humphry Davy patents the miner’s safety lamp.
1863: The Maori Wars resume as British forces in New Zealand led by General Duncan Cameron begin their Invasion of the Waikato.
1887: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol” premieres in St Petersburg.
1906: George Bernard Shaw’s “Caesar & Cleopatra” premieres in New York.
1914: Britain and France declare war on Turkey.
1917: Eugene O’Neill’s “In the Zone” premieres in New York.
1918: Spanish flu kills 21,000 people in the US in a single week.
1925: Cossack officer Reza Chan replaces sultan Ahmad as Shah of Persia.
1926: Failed assassination attempt on Benito Mussolini by 15-year-old Anteo Zamboni, who is lynched on the spot. On the same day, escapologist Harry Houdini (Erich Weisz) dies in Detroit of gangrene and peritonitis that developed from a ruptured appendix.
1937: The Spanish government moves from Valencia to Barcelona.
1940: The Battle of Britain ends.
1941: The Mount Rushmore monument is completed in South Dakota.
1952: Pianist Johnnie Johnson hired 26 year old Charles Berry as a guitarist in his band.
1955: Princess Margaret calls off her plans to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend.
1959: The Quarry Men decided to change their name to Johnny and the Moondogs.
1963: FBI chief J Edgar Hoover has his final meeting with President John F Kennedy.
1964: Ray Charles was arrested at Logan Airport in Boston and charged with possession of heroin. On the same day, the Windmill Theatre closes in London.
1968: US President Lyndon B Johnson orders a halt to all bombing of North Vietnam.
1971: An IRA bomb explodes in the Post Office tower causing extensive damage but no injuries.
1972: Two Catholic children aged six and four playing on the street are killed in a Ulster Freedom Fighters car bomb attack on a bar in Ship Street, Belfast.
1973: Three Provisional IRA volunteers escape from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin using a hijacked helicopter.
1976: Singles chart:
- Mississippi – Pussycat
- If You Leave Me Now – Chicago
- When Forever Has Gone – Demis Roussos
- Hurt – The Manhattans
- Don’t Take Away The Music – Tavares
- Howzat – Sherbet
- Summer Of My Life – Simon May
- Dancing With The Captain – Paul Nicholas
- Sailing – Rod Stewart
- Play That Funky Music – Wild Cherry
Album chart:
- Soul Motion – Various Artists
- Songs In The Key Of Life – Stevie Wonder
- The Story Of The Who – The Who
- Greatest Hits – ABBA
- The Song Remains The Same – Led Zeppelin
- His 20 Greatest Hits – Gene Pitney
- 22 Golden Guitar Greats – Bert Weedon
- Best Of The Stylistics Vol 2 – The Stylistics
- Frampton Comes Alive – Peter Frampton
- L – Steve Hillage
1980: Julian Nott sets world hot-air balloon altitude record (16,806m).
1981: TV on this day (Saturday)
| LONDON WEEKEND | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 08.35 | Sesame Street | ||
| 09.35 | Joe 90 | ||
| 10.00 | Clapperboard | ||
| 10.30 | Tiswas | ||
| 12.15 | World of Sport Introduced by Dickie Davies | ||
| 17.05 | Worzel Gummidge | ||
| 17.35 | ITN News | ||
| 17.40 | The Pyramid Game | ||
| 18.10 | Game for a Laugh Hosted by Jeremy Beadle, Henry Kelly, Sarah Kennedy and Matthew Kelly | ||
| 19.05 | Punchlines | ||
| 19.40 | Vegas | ||
| 20.4 | The Stanley Baxter Series | ||
| 21.10 | ITN News and Sport | ||
| 21.25 | Hard Contact | ||
| 23.20 | Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show | ||
| BBC ONE | |||
| 09.05 | Better Badminton | ||
| 09.30 | Swap Shop | ||
| 12.15 | Grandstand | ||
| 17.10 | Kung Fu Series staring David Carradine | ||
| 18.00 | News | ||
| 18.10 | Sport/Regional News | ||
| 18.15 | Larry Grayson’s Generation Game | ||
| 19.10 | Juliet Bravo Police drama | ||
| 20.00 | Mike Yarwood in Persons | ||
| 20.30 | Flamingo Road | ||
| 21.20 | News and Sport | ||
| 21.35 | Parkinson Michael Parkinson welcomes guests Dave Allen and Toyah Wilcox | ||
| 22.35 | Match of the Day Jimmy Hill introduces highlooghts from two of the day’s top football matches | ||
| 23.35 | House Calls | ||
| BBC TWO | |||
| 10.10 | Open University | ||
| 15.10 | Saturday Cinema: The Ship that Died of Shame (1955) Starring Richard Attenborough | ||
| 16.40 | International Snooker | ||
| 19.10 | News and Sport | ||
| 19.25 | Did You See…? | ||
| 20.00 | The Shogun Inheritance | ||
| 20.40 | International Snooker | ||
| 22.10 | Sutherland and Pavarotti in Recital | ||
| 23.30 | News on 2 | ||
| 23.35 | International Snooker |
1982: Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit Spain.
1984: Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, is assassinated by two of her bodyguards. She is succeeded by her son Rajiv.
1986: Roger Waters went to the high court to try and stop former bandmates David Gilmour and Nick Mason from using the name Pink Floyd.
1990: UK DJ Roger Scott died of cancer aged 46.
1993: Film director Federico Fellini dies from a stroke aged 73. On the same day, actor River Phoenix dies of a drug overdose after collapsing outside Johnny Depp’s club The Viper room in LA.
1996: Slash announced he was no longer in Guns N’ Roses.
1997: A Boston jury finds British au pair Louise Woodward, 19, guilty of the second degree murder of eight-month old Matthew Eappen.
1999: McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen wins the season ending Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka to clinch his second straight Formula 1 World Drivers Championship.
2003: Asia’s longest-serving leader, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed, steps down after 22 years.
2005: The white suit worn by John Lennon on the cover of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album sold for $118,000 (£66,385) at an auction in Las Vegas.
2006: P W Botha, former president of South Africa, dies aged 90.
2011: Kim Kardashian divorces basketball player Kris Humphries due to irreconcilable differences only 72 days after getting married.
2015: New Zealand defeats Australia, 34-17 at Twickenham to win the Rugby World Cup.
2017: Takahiro Shiraishi is arrested in Zama, Japan, a day after nine dismembered bodies are found in his apartment.
2019: US House of Representatives votes to formalize impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. On the same day, Islamic State names Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurashi as its new leader.
BIRTHDAYS: Lee Grant (Lyova Haskell Rosenthal), actress, 95; Michael Collins, astronaut, 90; Dan Rather, journalist, 89; Tom Paxton, singer-songwriter, 83; Sally Kirkland, actress, 79; Stephen Rea, actor, 74; Russ Ballard, singer-songwriter (Argent) 73; Bob Siebenberg, drummer (Supertramp) 71; Larry Mullen Jr, drummer (U2) 59; Peter Jackson, director, 59; Johnny Marr, guitarist (The Smiths) 57; Mikkey Dee (Micael Kiriakos Delaoglou) drummer (Motorhead) 57; Dermot Mulroney, actor, 57; Rob Schneider, comedy actor, 57; Marco van Basten, Dutch soccer star, 56; Annabella Lwin, vocals, (Bow Wow Wow), 54; Adam Horovitz, rapper (The Beastie Boys) 54; Vanilla Ice (Robert van Winkle), rapper, 53; Alistair McErlaine, guitarist, (Texas) 52; Matt Dawson, rugby union star, 48; Monica and Gabriela Irimia, (Cheeky Girls), 38; Marcus Rashford MBE, footballer, 23.
