On this day: 31 October
Events, births and deaths on 31 October. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Tchéky Karyo
- Deaths · Stanley Fung
10 years ago2016
Nothing recorded for that year.
100 years ago1926
- Deaths · Harry Houdini
- Births · Jimmy Savile
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 932 · Deaths · Al-Muqtadir
- 994 · Deaths · Wolfgang of Regensburg
- 1005 · Deaths · Abe no Seimei
Events · 23
- 1517(Julian date)Protestant Reformation — 16th-century movement in Western Christianity
- 1864Nevada — state of the United States of America
- 1917Battle of Beersheba — battle between EEF and Turkish forces, notable for successful cavalry charge
- 1918Aster Revolution — revolution in Hungary
- 1924World Savings Day — International observance devoted to the promotion of savings all over the World
- 1956Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party — ruling political party in Hungary from 1956 to 1989
- 1973Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape — Three Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, Ireland, aboard a hijacked Alouette II helicopter, which briefly landed in the prison's exercise yard
- 1979Flight 2605 by Western Airlines — Aviation accident
- 1984assassination of Indira Gandhi — 1984 murder in New Delhi, India
- 19841984 anti-Sikh riots — anti-Sikh riots in India
- 1993Cable TV Hong Kong — cable television provider in Hong Kong
- 1994American Eagle Flight 4184 — aviation accident
- 1996TG4 — Irish-language television network
- 1996TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402 — Aviation accident
- 1999EgyptAir Flight 990 — 1999 plane crash of an EgyptAir Boeing 767 in the Atlantic Ocean
- 2000Singapore Airlines Flight 006 — Boeing 747–400 aviation accident in 2000
- 2009Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge — bridge-tunnel complex in Shanghai, China
- 2011Day of Seven Billion — day on which the human population reached 7 billion (31 October 2011)
- 20142014 Virgin Galactic crash — incident involving the VSS Enterprise
- 2015Metrojet Flight 9268 — 2015 airliner bombing
- 20172017 Lower Manhattan attack — vehicle-ramming attack in New York City on October 31, 2017
- 2018Statue of Unity — statue of Vallabhbhai Patel at the bank of Narmada river, Gujarat, India
- 20192019 Pakistan train fire — 2019 train fire in Pakistan
Births · 60
- 1345Ferdinand I of Portugal — King of Portugal
- 1391(Julian date)Edward I of Portugal — King of Portugal from 1433 to 1438
- 1424Władysław III of Poland — king of Poland and Hungary
- 1472(Julian date)Wang Yangming — Chinese philosopher and general (1472–1529)
- 1620John Evelyn — writer, gardener and diarist (1620-1706)
- 1636Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria — Duke of Bavaria (1636-1679)
- 1638Meindert Hobbema — Dutch painter (1638-1709)
- 1705Clement XIV — pope of the Catholic Church from 1769 to 1774
- 1711Laura Bassi — Italian physicist (1711-1778)
- 1760Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist (1760-1849)
- 1793James Dunlop — Australian astronomer (1793–1848)
- 1795John Keats — English Romantic poet (1795–1821)
- 1815Karl Weierstraß — German mathematician (1815–1897)
- 1835Adolf von Baeyer — German chemist (1835-1917)
- 1838(Julian date)Luís I of Portugal — King of Portugal from 1861 to 1889
- 1851Louise of Sweden — Queen consort of Denmark; wife of Frederick VIII of Denmark
- 1875Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel — Indian barrister, leader of the Indian National Congress and founding father of the Republic of India (1875-1950)
- 1876Natalie Clifford Barney — American writer who hosted a literary salon at her home in Paris (1876-1972)
- 1883Marie Laurencin — French painter, poet and printmaker (1883-1956)
- 1887Chiang Kai-shek — Chinese politician, military leader, and President of the ROC (1887–1975)
- 1892Alexander Alekhine — Russian-French chess player (1892–1946)
- 1895B. H. Liddell Hart — British historian and theoretician of war (1895-1970)
- 1920Fritz Walter — German association football player (1920–2002)
- 1920Helmut Newton — German-Australian photographer (1920–2004)
- 1922Norodom Sihanouk — Cambodian monarch and politician (1922–2012)
Deaths · 60
- 932(Julian date)Al-Muqtadir — The eighteenth Abbasid Caliph
- 994Wolfgang of Regensburg — German monk, bishop and saint
- 1005(Julian date)Abe no Seimei — Japanese onmyōji
- 1034(Julian date)Deokjong — ninth king of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea
- 1147(Julian date)Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester — English noble and an an illegitimate son of King Henry I.
- 1214(Julian date)Eleanor of England — Queen consort of Castile
- 1448(Julian date)John VIII Palaiologos — Byzantine emperor
- 1517Fra Bartolomeo — Italian Renaissance painter (1472-1517)
- 1589Peter Stumpp — German 16th serial killer convicted as a werewolf
- 1661Köprülü Mehmed Paşa — Albanian Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (1580-1661)
- 1723Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany — Grand Prince of Tuscany (1642-1723)
- 1732Victor Amadeus II of Savoy — Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia (1666–1732)
- 1733Eberhard Ludwig I, Duke of Württemberg — Duke of Württemberg (1676-1733)
- 1744Leonardo Leo — Italian composer
- 1768Francesco Maria Veracini — Italian composer
- 1786Princess Amelia of Great Britain — Princess of Great Britain (1711-1786)
- 1806Kitagawa Utamaro — 175?-1806 Japanese artist
- 1860Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald — British Royal Navy admiral (1775-1860)
- 1879Joseph Hooker — American Union Army general (1814–1879)
- 1879Jacob Abbott — American writer of children's books (1803-1879)
- 1884Marie Bashkirtseva — Ukrainian-French artist
- 1916Charles Taze Russell — Founder of the Bible Student movement (1852–1916)
- 1916Huang Xing — Chinese revolutionary (1874-1916)
- 1918Egon Schiele — Austrian painter (1890-1918)
- 1925Mikhail Frunze — Soviet army officer (1885–1925)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.