This is a list of selected October 31 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Before doing so, please review the selected anniversaries guidelines. If your suggestion is potentially controversial or relates to a day currently or soon to appear on the Main Page, post it on the talk page instead.
Please note:
- Events listed on the Main Page are selected based on article quality and to provide a diverse range of topics, rather than solely on the importance or significance of the events.
- Only four or five events are featured each day; therefore, not all important or significant events can be included.
- An event is generally excluded if it is already the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error in content currently on the Main Page, see Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors. If a listed event is inaccurate, please first seek consensus and update the corresponding article before making changes here.
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Emperor Agustín de Iturbide of Mexico
USS Reuben James (DD-245)
Mount Rushmore
Indira Gandhi
Benito Mussolini
Martin Luther
Metrojet Flight 9268
Strikers surrounding a streetcar in Indianapolis
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| ; Reformation Day (Protestantism) | refimprove |
| 802 – Irene of Athens, the first empress regnant of the Byzantine Empire, was deposed and exiled to the island of Lesbos. | refimprove |
| 1587 – Leiden University Library in Leiden in the Netherlands opened its doors, becoming one of the significant cultural centres in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment. | unreferenced section |
| 1822 – Emperor Agustín de Iturbide of the First Mexican Empire dissolved the Mexican Congress and replaced it with a military junta answerable only to him. | refimprove section |
| 1864 – Nevada was admitted as the 36th U.S. state, in part to help ensure Abraham Lincoln's re-election as President of the United States eight days later. | refimprove section |
| 1922 – Benito Mussolini became Prime Minister of Italy; three years later he set up a legal dictatorship. | refimprove section |
| 2000 – Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collided with construction equipment while attempting to take off from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport during heavy rain, killing 79 passengers and 4 crew members. | refimprove sections |
| 2003 – After 22 years in power, Tun Mahathir Mohamad retired as Prime Minister of Malaysia. | featured on July 16 |
| 2011 – The United Nations declared that the world's population had exceeded seven billion. | refimprove |
| Charles Taze Russell |d|1916 | refimprove section |
Eligible
- 683 – During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba, considered the holiest site in Islam, was severely damaged by fire.
- 1913 – Public-transportation workers in Indianapolis went on strike, shutting down mass transit in the city.
- 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.
- 1941 – More than 101 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 1999 – Australian sailor Jesse Martin arrived in Melbourne, becoming the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo, non-stop, and unassisted.
- Born/died: | Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile |d|1214| Cornelis Jol |d|1641| Anne Claude de Caylus |b|1692| Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany |d|1723| Marie Louise Andrews |b|1849| Natalie Clifford Barney |b|1876| Charles A. Wickliffe |d|1869| Muriel Duckworth |b|1908| William Evans-Gordon |d|1913| Gordon Steege |b|1917| Michael Collins |b|1930| Bill Kibby |d|1942| Greg Moore |d|1999
Indira Gandhi
- 475 – Romulus Augustulus took the throne as the last effective ruling emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
- 1517 – According to one account, Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses onto the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, present-day Germany, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
- 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.
- 1984 – Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi (pictured) was assassinated by two of her own Sikh bodyguards, sparking riots that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Sikhs.
- 2015 – Shortly after takeoff, Metrojet Flight 9268 exploded and then crashed into the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.
- John Keats (b. 1795)
- Juliette Gordon Low (b. 1860)
- Larry Mullen Jr. (b. 1961)
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