TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 31
1517 Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg in Germany. Luther’s theories and writings inaugurate Protestantism, shattering the external structure of the medieval church and at the same time reviving the religious consciousness of Europe.
1541 Michelangelo Buonarroti finishes painting “The Last Judgement” in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
1803 Congress ratifies the purchase of the entire Louisiana area in North America, adding territory to the U.S. which will eventually become 13 more states.
1838 A mob of about 200 attacks a Mormon camp in Missouri, killing 20 men, women and children.
1846 A heavy snowfall trapped the Donner Party in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
1864 Nevada becomes the 36th state.
1914 The Ottoman Empire (Turkey) joined the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria).
1922 Benito Mussolini became prime minister of Italy.
1926 Harry Houdini magician and escapologist dies of gangrene and peritonitis after his appendix ruptured.
1941 Work on the Mount Rushmore monument was completed.
1952 The United States explodes the first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
1963 An explosion caused by a faulty propane tank during an ice skating show at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now Pepsi Coliseum) kills 74 and injures an additional 400.
1971 A bomb explodes in the Post Office tower in England causing extensive damage but no injuries
1983 The U.S. Defense Department acknowledged that during the U.S. led invasion of Grenada, that a U.S. Navy plane had mistakenly bombed a civilian hospital.
1984 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi by two Sikh members of her bodyguard.
1992 Pope John Paul II admitted that the Roman Catholic Church had erred in convicting Galileo of heresy 350 years earlier.
1993 River Phoenix died at the age of 23 after collapsing outside The Viper Room in Hollywood.
1998 Iraq announces it will no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.
1999 Leaders from the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. The event ended a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.
2002 Former Enron Corp. CEO Andrew Fastow convicted on 78 counts of conspiracy, money laundering, obstruction of justice and wire fraud; the Enron collapse cost investors millions and led to new oversight legislation.
2008 Fears of a recession and higher unemployment pushes consumer spending in the US to fall in September by the biggest amount in four years.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
