41st year - Nr 304 Saturday, 31 October 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
41st year - Nr 304 Saturday, 31 October 2026

31 October / Today's 28 Events:

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(+) 321 years ago Saturday 31st of October 1705 249th Pope Clemens XIV, originally Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli is born in Santarcangelo di Romagna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

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(+) 163 years ago Saturday 31st of October 1863 Outlaw and murderer Tom Thomas E. Ketchum is born in San Saba County, Texas, United States.

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(+) 140 years ago Sunday 31st of October 1886 Chairman of the Nationalist Government of China Chiang Kai-shek is born in Miaogaotai, Xikou, Zhejiang, China.

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(+) 120 years ago Wednesday 31st of October 1906 Victim of Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf Fritz Franke is born in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

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(-) 113 years ago Friday 31st of October 1913 Murderer Frank Seymour is executed by hanging at the age of 19 in Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, United States.

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(-) 113 years ago Friday 31st of October 1913 Murderer Mike Spanos is executed by hanging at the age of 21 in Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, United States.

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(-) 108 years ago Thursday 31st of October 1918 Artist Egon Schiele dies of Spanish flu at the age of 28 in Hietzinger Hauptstraße 114, Wien, Wien, Austria. Schiele's wife Edith died three days earlier in their house in Wattmanngasse 6.

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(+) 106 years ago Sunday 31st of October 1920 Photographer Helmut Newton, originally Helmut Neustädter is born in Innsbrucker Straße 24, Schöneberg, Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

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(-) 100 years ago Sunday 31st of October 1926 Illusionist, magician and escapologist Harry Houdini, originally Erik Weisz aka The Handcuff King dies of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at the age of 52 in Grace Hospital Room #401, Detroit, Michigan, United States. Eyewitnesses to an incident at Houdini's dressing room in the Princess Theatre in Montreal gave rise to speculation that Houdini's death was caused by McGill University student Joselyn Gordon Whitehead who delivered a surprise attack of multiple blows to Houdini's abdomen.

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(-) 100 years ago Sunday 31st of October 1926 Propaganda of the Deed anarchist Anteo Zamboni is lynched by nearby Fascist squadristi after attempting to assassinate Benito Mussolini aka Il Duce at the age of 15 in Via dell'Indipendenza, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The man who first detained Zamboni and identified him as the would-be assassin was cavalry officer Carlo Alberto Pasolini, father of film director Pier Paolo Pasolini.

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(+) 97 years ago Thursday 31st of October 1929 Actor Bud Spencer, originally Carlo Pedersoli is born in Borgo Santa Lucia, Napoli, Campania, Italy.

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(x) 91 years ago He Hit the Cops Twice Thursday 31st of October 1935 21-year-old Serial bomber Hugh F. 'Idzy' Rutkowski aka The Mad Bomber of Milwaukee leaves a bomb on a window ledge in Fifth Precinct Police Station, Third and Hadley, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Although the damage to the building and surrounding houses was severe, the occupants of the police building escaped injury. The same was true less than 11 minutes later when the second bomb went off, this time at the Third Precinct Police Station at Twelfth and West Vine Streets.

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(+) 90 years ago Saturday 31st of October 1936 Actor Michael Landon, originally Eugene Maurice Orowitz is born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, New York, United States.

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(-) 88 years ago She Was a Gas Monday 31st of October 1938 Mary Lahiff dies as result of a cyclopropane explosion while undergoing minor breast surgery by a surgeon from the Lahey Clinic at the age of 44 in New England Baptist Hospital, 125 Parker Hill Ave, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

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(+) 86 years ago Thursday 31st of October 1940 Guitarist Eric Ronald Griffiths known from The Quarrymen is born in Denbigh, Wales, United Kingdom.

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(+) 76 years ago Tuesday 31st of October 1950 Architect Zaha Mohammad Hadid is born in Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.

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(+) 72 years ago Sunday 31st of October 1954 Victim of Dennis Nilsen aka Killing for Company Graham Archibald Allen aka Puggy is born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, United Kingdom.

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(-) 65 years ago Tuesday 31st of October 1961 Murderer Honor Robinson is executed by the gas chamber at the age of 45 in Arizona State Prison Complex, 1305 E Butte Avenue, Florence, Arizona, United States.

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(-) 52 years ago Thursday 31st of October 1974 Laura Ann Aime is abducted and strangled by serial killer Ted Bundy aka The Only Living Witness in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Aime's body was found a month later in American Fork Canyon.

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(-) 50 years ago Sunday 31st of October 1976 Architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray, originally Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith known for her E-1027 house dies of natural causes at the age of 98 in Hôpital Broussais, XIVe, Paris, Île-de-France, France.

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(-) 45 years ago Saturday 31st of October 1981 Debra Louise Jackson aka Orange Socks is sexually assaulted and strangled by serial killer Henry Lee Lucas aka The Hand of Death in Georgetown, Texas, United States. Jackson was only known as 'Orange Socks' until she was identified via a DNA match with her surviving sister in 2019. Lucas confessed to and was convicted of her murder, though doubts have been raised about his complicity in this crime.

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(-) 42 years ago He Did What He Had to Do Wednesday 31st of October 1984 First female Prime Minister of India Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi shot dead by her Sikh body-guards Beant Singh and Satwant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, the Indian Army's June 1984 assault on the Golden Temple in Amritsar which left the Sikh temple heavily damaged at the age of 67 in 1 Safdarjung Road, New Delhi, Delhi, India. Beant fired three rounds into her abdomen from his .38 revolver and then Satwant fired 30 rounds from his Sten submachine gun after she had fallen to the ground. Both men then threw down their weapons and Beant said "I have done what I had to do. You do what you wa nt to do."

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(-) 33 years ago He Turned Blue Sunday 31st of October 1993 Actor and musician River Phoenix, originally River Jude Bottom dies of acute multiple drug intoxication at the age of 23 in The Viper Room, Sunset Strip, West Hollywood, California, United States. Phoenix collapsed outside and convulsed for over five minutes. By the time paramedics had arrived on the scene Phoenix was turning dark blue in full cardiac arrest and in a flatline state. They administered medication in an attempt to restart his heart. He was rushed to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where further attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

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(-) 33 years ago Sunday 31st of October 1993 Film director Federico Fellini dies of a heart attack at the age of 73 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. Fellini had suffered a second stroke and fell into an irreversible coma a couple of months earlier.

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(x) 30 years ago Thursday 31st of October 1996 99 die in TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402 Fokker 100 crash in Jabaquara, São Paulo, Região Sudeste, Brazil.

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(x) 27 years ago The Reason for His Actions Was not Determined Sunday 31st of October 1999 217 die in EgyptAir Flight 990 (MS990/MSR990) Boeing 767-300ER crash into the ocean in Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, United States. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the airplane's departure from normal cruise flight and subsequent impact with the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the 59-year-old relief First Officer Gameel Al-Batouti's flight control inputs. The reason for the relief First Officer's actions was not determined.

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21 years ago The Eyes had it Monday 31st of October 2005 An uneventful pig tattoo session with Cindy, Miss Moon, the Freak, the Vet, the Keeper and others at Art Farm in Yang Zhen, Shunyi, China.

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(-) 6 years ago Saturday 31st of October 2020 Actor Sean Thomas Connery known for portraying the character James Bond dies of natural causes at the age of 90 in Lyford Cay, New Providence, Bahamas.

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