In 1795, poet John Keats was born in London.
In 1864, Nevada became the 36th state.
In 1931, with the Great Depression in full swing, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that 827 banks had failed during the previous two months.
In 1938, the day after his "War of the Worlds" broadcast had panicked radio listeners, Orson Welles expressed "deep regret" but also bewilderment that anyone had thought the simulated Martian invasion was real.
In 1941, the Navy destroyer USS Reuben James was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Iceland, with the loss of some 100 lives, even though the United States had not yet entered World War II. [NB: Any discrepancies in dates, apparent repetitions of events, etc., are directly attributable to Son-Hump Moon's UPI fucking Almanac. Sometimes we think there is legit Int'l. Dateline confusion, w/ the AP skewing American, natch, & sometimes it's just plain wrongness on the part of the slave-labor in Moon's employ. — Ed.] The Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota -- consisting of the sculpted heads of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt -- was completed.
In 1956, Rear Admiral G. J. Dufek became the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole.
Fifty years ago, in 1959, a former U.S. Marine showed up at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to declare he was renouncing his American citizenship so he could live in the Soviet Union. His name: Lee Harvey Oswald. [Honest to gawd. "His name?" What is this, Paul Harvey? Where's the organ sting? — Ed.]
In 1967, Nguyen Van Thieu took the oath of office as the first president of South Vietnam's second republic.
In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations. Sound Bite.
Twenty-five years ago, in 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh security guards.
In 1985, salvage divers located the remains of the booty-laden pirate ship Whydah, which sank Feb. 17, 1717, off Cape Cod, Mass.
In 1988, former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos pleaded innocent to charges that she and her husband, deposed President Ferdinand Marcos, embezzled more than $100 million from the Philippine government.
In 1992, more than 300 people were killed in renewed fighting as Angola slid back into civil war. It was announced that five American nuns in Liberia had been shot to death near the capital Monrovia; the killings were blamed on rebels loyal to Charles Taylor.
In 1994, a Chicago-bound American Eagle ATR-72 crashed in northern Indiana, killing all 68 people aboard.
In 1996, a Brazilian Fokker-100 jetliner crashed in Sao Paulo, killing all 96 people on board and three on the ground.
In 1998, a genetic study was released suggesting President Thomas Jefferson did in fact father at least one child by his slave Sally Hemings.
In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990, bound from New York to Cairo, crashed off the Massachusetts coast, killing all 217 people aboard.
In 2001, a 61-year-old New York hospital worker died from inhalation anthrax. Microsoft and the Justice Department reached a tentative agreement to settle the historic antitrust case against the software giant. U.S.-led forces resumed air strikes in Afghanistan, hitting Taliban positions in the northern part of the country and outside the capital, Kabul. The Taliban claimed 1,500 people were killed.
In 2002, Andrew Fastow, former Enron chief financial officer, was indicted on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy in the collapse of the Houston energy trading company.
In 2003, a rebel group known to kidnap children and sell them in Sudan as slaves struck a village in northern Uganda, killing 18 and abducting many more.
In 2004, in the closing hours of their bitter campaign, President George W. Bush and challenger Sen. John Kerry charged through the critical battlegrounds of Florida and Ohio, going from hushed Sunday church services to raucous campaign rallies with promises to keep America safe. Iranian lawmakers chanted, "Death to America!" after a unanimous vote to allow their government to resume uranium enrichment activities. Japan confirmed a Japanese man taken hostage in Baghdad had been beheaded. The kidnappers had demanded Japan pull its troops out of Iraq.
In 2005,Samuel Alito, a 55-year-old conservative federal appeals judge, was nominated by U. S. President George Bush to the U.S. Supreme Court to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor.
In 2006, a U.S. congressional report claimed China helped North Korea develop its nuclear program within the past year. P.W. Botha, South Africa's apartheid-era president, died at age 90.
In 2007, three lead defendants in the 2004 Madrid train bombings were found guilty of mass murder and other charges, but four other top suspects were convicted on lesser charges and an accused ringleader was completely acquitted in the attacks that killed 191 people.
In 2008, President George W. Bush signed an executive order restoring the Libyan government's immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel died in Chicago at age 96.
Today's Birthdays: Author Dick Francis is 89. Former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk is 87. Actress Lee Grant is 82. Movie critic Andrew Sarris is 81. Former astronaut Michael Collins is 79. Former CBS anchorman Dan Rather is 78. Folk singer Tom Paxton is 72. Actor Ron Rifkin is 70. Actress Sally Kirkland is 68. Actor David Ogden Stiers is 67. Actor Stephen Rea is 63. Olympic gold medal distance runner Frank Shorter is 62. Actress Deidre Hall is 61. Talk show host Jane Pauley is 59. Actor Brian Stokes Mitchell is 51. Movie director Peter Jackson is 48. Rock musician Larry Mullen is 48. Actor Dermot Mulroney is 46. Rock musician Mikkey Dee (Motorhead) is 46. Rock singer-musician Johnny Marr is 46. Actor Rob Schneider is 45. Country singer Darryl Worley is 45. Actor-comedian Mike O'Malley is 44. Rap musician Adrock (Adam Horovitz) is 43. Songwriter Adam Schlesinger is 42. Rap performer Vanilla Ice (aka Rob Van Winkle) is 41. Rock singer Linn Berggren (Ace of Base) is 39. Reality TV host Troy Hartman is 38. Gospel singer Smokie Norful is 36. Actress Piper Perabo is 33. Actor Brian Hallisay is 31. Actor Eddie Kaye Thomas is 29. Rock musician Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance) is 28.
Today In Entertainment History October 31
In 1926, magician Harry Houdini died in Detroit of gangrene and peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix.
In 1986, Pink Floyd guitarist Roger Waters filed suit in London to dissolve Pink Floyd and retain the rights to the name. The other members of the band were granted temporary rights to the name and later full rights.
In 1988, actor John Houseman died at the age of 96 in Malibu, Calif. He's probably best known for his work on "The Paper Chase." Singer Debbie Gibson held a seance at her Halloween party to contact Liberace and Sid Vicious. [And? — Ed.]
In 1991, Joseph Papp, the producer who brought "A Chorus Line" to Broadway, died in New York. He was 70.
In 1993, movie director Federico Fellini died in Rome at age 73. Actor River Phoenix died after collapsing outside a Los Angeles nightclub. He was 23.
In 1996, Elizabeth Taylor's divorce from Larry Fortensky was finalized.
In 1997, more than 200 counterfeit tickets were confiscated when Jane's Addiction reunited for a show in New York. Hundreds of fans were turned away, and refunds were given to legitimate ticketholders.
Thought for Today:"There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them." — Andre Gide, French author and critic (1869-1951).
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