Events
of the day
World
Thrift Day
In India, World Thrift Day was also celebrated
on October 31 but after the death of Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi on the same day in 1984, it is
since celebrated on October 30.
World
Thrift Day is observed on October 31 every year.
The first International Thrift Congress was
held in Milan, Italy in 1924. The congress passed
a resolution declaring October 31 as the World
Thrift day. It was a day βdevoted to the promotion
of savings all over the worldβ.
758
β Guangzhou is sacked by Arab and Persian pirates.
1137 β Battle of Rignano between Ranulf of Apulia
and Roger II of Sicily.
1226 β Tran Thu Do, head of the Tran clan of
Vietnam, forces Ly Hue Tong, the last emperor
of the Ly dynasty, to commit suicide.
1270 β The Eighth Crusade and siege of Tunis
end by an agreement between Charles I of Sicily
(brother to King Louis IX of France, who had
died months earlier) and the sultan of Tunis.
1340 β Portuguese and Castilian forces halt
a Marinid invasion at the Battle of RΓo Salado.
1470 β Henry VI of England returns to the English
throne after Earl of Warwick defeats the Yorkists
in battle.
1485 β King Henry VII of England is crowned.
1501 β Ballet of Chestnuts β a banquet held
by Cesare Borgia in the Papal Palace where fifty
prostitutes or courtesans are in attendance
for the entertainment of the guests.
1806 β Believing he was facing a much larger
force, Prussian Lieutenant General Friedrich
von Romberg, commanding 5,300 men, surrendered
the city of Stettin to 800 French soldiers commanded
by General Lassalle.
1831 β In Southampton County, Virginia, escaped
slave Nat Turner is captured and arrested for
leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in United
States history.
1863 β Danish Prince Wilhelm arrives in Athens
to assume his throne as George I, King of the
Hellenes.
1864 β Second war of Schleswig ends. Denmark
renounces all claim to Schleswig, Holstein and
Lauenburg, which come under Prussian and Austrian
administration.
1864 β Helena, Montana is founded after four
prospectors discover gold at "Last Chance
Gulch".
1894 β Domenico Melegatti obtains a patent for
a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro
industrially.
1905 β Czar Nicholas II of Russia grants Russia's
first constitution, creating a legislative assembly.
1918 β The Ottoman Empire signs an armistice
with the Allies, ending the First World War
in the Middle East.
1920 β The Communist Party of Australia is founded
in Sydney.
1922 β Benito Mussolini is made Prime Minister
of Italy.
1925 β John Logie Baird creates Britain's first
television transmitter.
1929 β The Stuttgart Cable Car is constructed
in Stuttgart, Germany.
1938 β Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play
of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing
anxiety in some of the audience in the United
States.
1941 β World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
approves U.S. $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to
the Allied nations.
1941 β 1,500 Jews from Pidhaytsi (in western
Ukraine) are sent by Nazis to Belzec extermination
camp.
1942 β Lt. Tony Fasson, Able Seaman Colin Grazier
and canteen assistant Tommy Brown from HMS Petard
board U-559, retrieving material which would
lead to the decryption of the German Enigma
code.
1944 β Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are
deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp.
1945 β Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs
signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers to
break the baseball color barrier.
1947 β The General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT), which is the foundation of the
World Trade Organisation (WTO), is founded.
1950 β Pope Pius XII witnesses "The Miracle
of the Sun" while at the Vatican.
1953 β Cold War: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
formally approves the top secret document National
Security Council Paper No. 162/2, which states
that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons
must be maintained and expanded to counter the
communist threat.
1960 β Michael Woodruff performs the first successful
kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
1961 β Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates
the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya;
at 50 megatons of yield, it is still the largest
explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or
otherwise.
1961 β Because of "violations of Lenin's
precepts", it is decreed that Joseph Stalin's
body be removed from its place of honour inside
Lenin's tomb and buried near the Kremlin wall
with a plain granite marker instead.
1965 β Vietnam War: Just miles from Da Nang,
United States Marines repel an intense attack
by wave after wave of Viet Cong forces, killing
56 guerrillas. Among the dead, a sketch of Marine
positions is found on the body of a 13-year-old
Vietnamese boy who sold drinks to the Marines
the day before.
1970 β In Vietnam, the worst monsoon to hit
the area in six years causes large floods, kills
293, leaves 200,000 homeless and virtually halts
the Vietnam War.
1972 β A collision between two commuter trains
in Chicago, Illinois kills 45 and injures 332.
1973 β The Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey
is completed, connecting the continents of Europe
and Asia over the Bosporus for the first time.
1974 β The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match
between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman takes
place in Kinshasa, Zaire.
1975 β Prince Juan Carlos becomes Spain's acting
head of state, taking over for the country's
ailing dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco.
1980 β El Salvador and Honduras sign a peace
treaty to put the border dispute fought over
in 1969's Football War before the International
Court of Justice.
1983 β The first democratic elections in Argentina
after seven years of military rule are held.
1985 β Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for
mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.
1987 β In Japan, NEC releases the first 16-bit
home entertainment system, the PC Engine, which
was later sold in other markets under the name
TurboGrafx-16.
1991 β The Madrid Conference for Middle East
peace talks opens.
1993 β Greysteel massacre: The Ulster Freedom
Fighters, a loyalist terrorist group, open fire
on a crowded bar in Greysteel, Northern Ireland.
Eight civilians are killed and thirteen wounded.
1995 β Quebec sovereignists narrowly lose a
referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence
from Canada (vote is 50.6% to 49.4%).
2000 β The last Multics machine is shut down.
2005 β The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (destroyed
in the firebombing of Dresden during World War
II) is reconsecrated after a thirteen-year rebuilding
project.
Holidays
and observances
Anniversary
of the Declaration of the Slovak Nation (Slovakia)
Christian Feast Day:
Alonso RodrΓguez
Herbert
Marcellus of Tangier
Saturninus of Cagliari
Serapion of Antioch
October 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political
Repressions (former Soviet republics, except
Ukraine)
Mischief Night (United States)
Devil's Night (Michigan)
Thevar Jayanthi (Thevar community)
For details, contact Datacentre
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