Today in History - October 31
Return to home
c100AD Oct 31, The pagan Celts of
Britain and Ireland celebrated Samhain on October 31 as the end of the
season of the sun and the beginning of the season of darkness. It was
believed that on this day the souls of the dead revisited their homes.
Bonfires were lit to chase away evil spirits. When the Romans conquered
Britain in the first century A.D., their fall harvest festival, Poloma
Day, mixed with the traditions of Samhain to form a major fall festival
at the end of October.
(HNPD, 10/31/99)
802 Oct 31, Empress Irene was
driven out of Byzantium.
(MC, 10/31/01)
834 Oct 31, This evening became
All Hallow’s Eve with the establishment of Nov 1 as Feast of All Saints
by Pope Gregory IV.
(SFC, 10/31/01, p.C2)
1345 Oct 31, Ferdinand I, the wise
one, king of Portugal (built navy), was born.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1448 Oct
31, Johannes VIII Palaeologus (b.1390), Emperor of Byzantium, died.
(www.freeglossary.com/John_VIII_Palaeologus)
1517 Oct 31, Martin Luther nailed
his Ninety-five Thesis to the door of the Wittenberg Palace All Saints’
Church. He grew to believe in faith alone as man’s link to the justice
of God, and therefore denied the need for the vast infrastructure of
the Church. This event signaled the beginning of the Protestant
Reformation in Germany and Protestantism in general, shattering the
external structure of the medieval church and at the same time reviving
the religious consciousness of Europe.. Martin Luther (1483-1546) was
born in Eisleben, Germany. He was a monk in the Catholic Church until
1517, when he founded the Lutheran Church.
(V.D.-H.K.p.163)(CU, 6/87)(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A11)(AP,
10/31/97)(AP, 10/31/97) (HN, 10/31/98)
1541 Oct 31, "The Last Judgement"
by Michelangelo on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel at Rome was
officially unveiled. It is one of the largest paintings in the
world.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.16)(OG)
1620 Oct 31, John Evelyn (d.1706),
British diarist (Life of Mrs. Godolphin), was born. He was a meditative
and sententious English diarist.
(WSJ, 6/2/99, p.A24)(MC, 10/31/01)
1632 Oct 31, [Johannes] Jan
Vermeer (d.1675), tavern keeper and Dutch painter (Procuress,
Astronomer), was born in Delft. Only 35 of his pictures are known to
survive. These include: "Girl With a Pearl Earring" (1665-1666), "The
Little Street" (1657), "Saint Praxedis" (1655), "Allegory of Faith"
(1671) and "The Artist in His Studio." His wife was Catharina Bolnes.
(WSJ, 11/15/95, p.A-20)(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994,
p.1587)(MC, 10/31/01)
1714 Oct 31, Georg Ludwig van
Hanover was crowned as King George I of England. [see Oct 20]
(MC, 10/31/01)
1723 Oct 31, Cosimo III de' Medici
(81), ruler of Florence (1670-1723), died.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1765 Oct 31, Duke of Cumberland,
English politician and general, died. He butchered Scots at Culloden.
[see Oct 20]
(MC, 10/31/01)
1780 Oct 31, The HMS Ontario was
lost with barely a trace and as many as 130 people aboard during a gale
on Lake Ontario. In 2008 explorers found the 22-gun British warship.
Canadian author Arthur Britton Smith chronicled the history of the HMS
Ontario in a 1997 book, "The Legend of the Lake."
(AP, 6/14/08)
1793 Oct 31, Execution of 21
Girondins (moderates) in Paris, stepping up the Reign of Terror. Pierre
V. Vergniaud (40), French politician and elegant, impassioned orator of
Girondins, was guillotined.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1795 Oct 31, John Keats (d.1821),
English poet, was born in London.
(WUD, 1994, p.781) (AP, 10/31/97)(HN, 10/31/98)
1802 Oct 31, Benoit Fourneyron,
inventor of the water turbine, was born.
(HN, 10/31/00)
1803 Oct 31, Congress ratified the
purchase of the entire Louisiana area in North America, which added
territory to the United States for 13 subsequent states.
(HN, 10/31/98)
1815 Oct 31, Sir Humphrey Davy of
London patented miner's safety lamp.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1831 Oct 31, Daniel Butterfield
(d.1901), Major General (Union volunteers), was born.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1831 Oct 31, Nat Turner, rebel
slave, was caught by Mr. Benjamin Phipps and locked up in Jerusalem,
Va. Thomas Gray, his court appointed attorney, spent 3 days talking to
Turner and compiled his notes into "The Confessions of Nat Turner,"
which were published in 1969.
(ON, 10/99, p.10)
1835 Oct 31, Adelbert Ames
(d.1933), Bvt Major General (Union Army), was born.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1835 Oct 31, J.F.W. Adolf Ritter
von Baeyer, German chemist (Nobel 1905), was born.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1837 Oct 31, The collision of
river boats Monmouth & Trement on Mississippi left 300 dead.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1838 Oct 31, A mob of about 200
attacked a Mormon camp in Missouri, killing 20 men, women and children.
(HN, 10/31/98)
1846 Oct 31, Heavy snows trapped
the Donner party in the eastern Sierras near what is now Truckee.
(SFC, 7/20/96,
p.C1)(www.utahcrossroads.org/DonnerParty/Chronology.htm)
1858 Oct 31, Jeanie Johnston, a
triple-masted barque, sank in the middle of the Atlantic with a load of
timber. The crew was rescued by a Dutch ship. She was built in Quebec
City for the Donovan family of Tralee. She was the best known of the
"famine ships" that carried Irish refugees to the New World during the
potato famine and returned with timber and food. A copy of the ship,
built in Ireland, was scheduled for completion in 2000.
(SFC, 7/26/99, p.A8,10)
1860 Oct 31, Juliette Low, founder
of the Girl Scouts, was born.
(HN, 10/31/00)
1864 Oct 31, Nevada became the
36th state under a proclamation signed by Pres. Lincoln.
(AP, 10/31/97)(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.1B)(HN, 10/31/98)
1867 Oct
31, William Parson (b.1800), 3rd Earl of Rosse and maker of large
telescopes, died. Parsons, an Irish astronomer, built the largest
reflecting telescope of the 19th century. He learned to polish metal
mirrors (1827) and spent the next few years building a 36-inch
telescope. He later completed a giant 72-inch telescope (1845) which he
named "Leviathan," It remained the largest ever built until decades
after his death. He was the first to resolve the spiral shape of
objects, previously seen as only clouds, which were much later
identified as galaxies independent of our own Milky Way galaxy and
millions of light-years away. His first such sighting was made in 1845,
and by 1850 he had discovered 13 more. In 1848, he found and named the
Crab Nebula (he thought it resembled a crab), by which name it is still
known.
(www.todayinsci.com)
1870 Oct 31, Upon the receipt of
news that the Government of National Defense had decided to start
negotiations with the Prussians, Paris workers and revolutionary
sections of the National Guard rose up in revolt, led by Blanqui. They
seized the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) and set up their revolutionary
government, the Committee of Public Safety, headed by Blanqui. Flourens
prevented any members of the Government of National Defense from being
shot, as had been demanded by one of the insurrectionists.
(www.marxists.org/history/france/paris-commune/timeline.htm)
1876 Oct 31, In India’s Megna
River Delta a tidal wave caused by a cyclone flooded the river delta
and the city of Backergunge. Some areas became covered with 40 feet of
water. 100,000 people drowned and another 100,000 were reported to have
perished from subsequent diseases caused by polluted water.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1887 Oct 31, Chiang Kai-Shek,
Chinese Nationalist, was born.
(HN, 10/31/98)
1887 Oct 31, Rimsky-Korsakov's
"Capricio Espagnol," premiered in St Petersburg.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1895 Oct 31, Basil H. Liddell
Hart, English military historian and publicist, was born.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1896 Oct 31, Ethel Waters, actress
and blues singer, was born. She first performed "Stormy Weather" and
stared in "The Member of the Wedding" and "Pinkie," was born.
(HN, 10/31/00)
1902 Oct 31, Carlos Drummond de
Andrade, Brazilian poet, journalist and short story writer, was born.
(HN, 10/31/00)
1906 Oct 31, Louise Talma,
composer (Summer Sounds), was born in Arcachon, France.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1906 Oct 31, George Bernard Shaw's
"Caesar & Cleopatra," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1914 Oct 31, Great Britain and
France declared war on Turkey. [see Nov 5]
(MC, 10/31/01)
1917 Oct 31, William H. McNeil,
historian, was born. His work include "The Rise of the West."
(HN, 10/31/00)
1917 Oct 31, Eugene O'Neill's "In
the Zone," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1918 Oct 31, In the worst global
epidemic of the century, influenza (an acute, contagious respiratory
viral infection) had been spreading around the world since May. Before
it ended in 1919 some 20 million people were killed worldwide, about
twice as many as World War I, with about 500-600,000 of them in the US.
October was the deadliest month and about 195,000 died with 21,000 dead
the 1st week. It was estimated that 20-40 million people died
worldwide. In 1998 the TV show "The American Experience" documented the
tragedy: "Influenza 1918." Dr. Alfred Crosby wrote "America’s Forgotten
Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918." [see 1918-1919]
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.11)(SFC, 2/9/98, p.E1)(WSJ,
2/9/98, p.A16)(HN, 10/31/99)
1918 Oct 31, Egon Schiele (28),
Viennese artist, died in the flu epidemic. He produced some 3,000
drawings and 300 paintings in about 12 years.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.E3)(MC, 10/31/01)
1918 Oct 31, Stephen Tisza,
Hungarian PM (-1917), was assassinated by soldiers.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1920 Oct 31, Dick Francis, jockey
and detective writer (Whip Hand, High Stakes), was born in Wales.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1922 Oct 31, Norodom Sihanouk,
king, president and premier of Cambodia (My War with the CIA), was born.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1922 Oct 31, Karel & Josef
Capek's "World We Live In," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1922 Oct 31, Mussolini was made
prime minister of Italy. He centralized all power in himself as leader
of the Fascist party and attempted to create an Italian empire,
ultimately in alliance with Hitler's Germany.
(HN, 10/30/98)
1925 Oct 31, Charles Moore,
influential post-modern architect, was born.
(HN, 10/31/00)
1925 Oct 31, Contract bridge was
introduced by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt on board the S.S. Finland in
the Panama Canal.
(www.acbl.org/)
1926 Oct 31, Magician Harry
Houdini died in Detroit of gangrene and peritonitis resulting from a
ruptured appendix.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1930 Oct 31, Michael Collins, U.S.
astronaut, was born.
(HN, 10/31/98)
1931 Oct 31, Dan Rather, news
anchor (CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes), was born in Wharton Texas.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1936 Oct 31, The Literary Digest
published a poll that predicted that Alfred Landon, the governor of
Kansas, would win over Pres. Roosevelt with 57% of the popular vote.
(WSJ, 10/2/06,
p.B1)(www.historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5168/)
1937 Oct 31, Michael Landon, actor
(Bonanza, Highway to Heaven), was born in Forest Hills, NY.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1937 Oct 31, Tom Paxton, folk
singer and songwriter (Forest Lawn), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1937 Oct 31, Spanish government
moved from Valencia to Barcelona.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1938 Oct 31, 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.
(AP, 10/31/98)
1939 Oct 31, 27 U boats were sunk
this month (135,000 ton).
(MC, 10/31/01)
1939 Oct 31, Otto Rank,
[Rosenfeld], Austria psychoanalyst (Trauma of Geburt), died.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1940 Oct 31, 63 U boats were sunk
this month (325,000 ton).
(MC, 10/31/01)
1940 Oct 31, In the Battle of
Britain, the German and British duel for control of English Channel,
ended.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1940 Oct 31, This was the deadline
for Warsaw Jews to move into the Warsaw Ghetto.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1941 Oct 31, The Mt. Rushmore
sculpture was completed after 14 years of work. [see 1927]
(HFA, '96, p.40)(HN, 10/31/01)
1941 Oct 31, The US Navy destroyer
"Reuben James" was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Iceland, killing
115, even though the United States had not yet entered World War II.
(www.archives.gov/exhibits/a_people_at_war/prelude_to_war/uss_reuben_james.html)
1941 Oct 31, 13 U boats were sunk
this month (62,000 ton).
(MC, 10/31/01)
1942 Oct 31, David Ogden Stiers,
actor (Winchester-M*A*S*H, Doc), was born in Peoria, Ill.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1942 Oct 31, 94 U boats were sunk
this month (619,000 ton).
(MC, 10/31/01)
1942 Oct 31, The 9th day in battle
at El Alamein (Egypt).
(MC, 10/31/01)
1943 Oct 31, Max Reinhardt,
Austrian stage manager (Turandot), died.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1944 Oct 31, Kinky Friedman,
country rocker (Ride 'em Jewboy), was born in Palestine, Tx.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1948 Oct 31, By this date
some 20 people died and 6,000 were made ill by smog from steel and zinc
plants in Donora, Pennsylvania. Between October 26 and October 31,
1948, an air inversion trapped fluoride effluent from the Zinc Works.
In three days, 18 people died. After the inversion lifted, another 50
died. Hundreds more finished the rest of their lives with damaged lungs
and hearts. Both plants closed in 1966. In 2002, “When Smoke Ran Like
Water” was published by Devra Davis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donora,_Pennsylvania)(SSFC, 11/2/08, p.A6)
1950 Oct 31, John Candy, comedian
(SCTV, Uncle Buck), was born in Ontario, Canada.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1952 Oct 31, The Stratford
Shakespearean Festival of Canada was incorporated as a legal entity. It
was organized by Tom Patterson. The 1st performance opened Jul 13, 1953.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.D10)
1952 Oct 31, A CIA report,
declassified in 2005, said ex-Colonel Hattori Takushiro had led plans
since the beginning of July for a coup d'etat against Japan’s PM
Shigeru Yoshida. Hattori’s colleague Masanobu Tsuji talked the group
out of the coup.
(SFC, 3/1/07, p.A11)
1953 Oct 31, Alice Eastwood (94),
curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences in SF, died.
(SFC, 10/31/03, p.E2)
1954 Oct
31, The Algerian Revolution (1954-1962) against the French began.
Algerian Muslims of the Front de Libération National (FLN),
began open warfare against French rule in Algeria. [see Nov 1]
(DoW, 1999, p.10)
1955 Oct 31, William "Billy"
Woodward, Jr. (b.1920), heir to the Hanover National Bank fortune
(later Manufacturer's Hanover), the Belair Estate and stud farm and
legacy, and a leading figure in racing circles, was shot to death by
his wife, Ann. In 1985 Dominick Dunne (1925-2009) authored “The Two
Mrs. Grenvilles,” based on the Woodward murder case. The book was
turned into a television movie in 1987.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Woodward,_Jr.)
1955 Oct
31, Britain's Princess Margaret ended weeks of speculation by
announcing she would not marry Royal Air Force Captain Peter Townsend
because he had been divorced.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1956 Oct 31, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower praised the promise by Moscow made the previous day of major
concessions to Hungarians in revolt as "the dawning of a new day" in
Eastern Europe. Anti-government demonstrations in Budapest a week
earlier had forced a reshuffling of the Hungarian government and
demands that the new government denounce the Warsaw Pact and seek
liberation from Soviet domination. [see Nov 4]
(HNQ, 10/1/99)
1956 Oct 31, Rear Admiral G.J.
Dufek became the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1956 Oct 31, Great Britain and
France attempted to take over the Suez Canal. They bombed Egyptian
airfields.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1957 Oct 31, "Jamaica" opened at
Imperial Theater in NYC for 558 performances.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1959 Oct 31, A former U.S. Marine
from Fort Worth, Texas, Lee Harvey Oswald, announced in Moscow that he
would never return to the United States.
(AP, 10/31/99)
1959 Oct 31, The USSR and Egypt
signed contracts for building the Aswan Dam.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1961 Oct 31, A US Federal judge
ruled that Birmingham, Alabama, laws against integrated playing fields
were illegal.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1961 Oct 31, Augustus Edwin John
(b.1878), Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher, died. For a short
time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in
England. In 1974 Michael Holroyd authored the biography: “Augustus
John.”
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.P9)
1962 Oct 31, Bobby Pickett
(1938-2007) made a one-time hit with “Monster Mash,” as it reached No.
1 on Halloween.
(SFC, 4/27/07, p.B9)
1963 Oct 31, J. Edgar Hoover's
last meeting with President John F Kennedy.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1963 Oct 31, Leaking propane gas
exploded and killed 64 at "Holiday on Ice" in Indiana.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1967 Oct 31, Nguyen Van Thieu took
the oath of office as the first president of South Vietnam's second
republic.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1968 Oct 31, President Johnson
announced a halt to all US bombing of North Vietnam, effective the next
morning, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations.
(www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/681031.asp)
1968 Oct 31, Liu Shaoqi
(1898-1968), president of China since 1959, was ousted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Shaoqi)
1971 Oct 31, Saigon began the
release of 1,938 Hanoi POW’s.
(HN, 10/31/98)
1971 Oct 31, On the east coast of
India a tidal wave and cyclone on Orissa killed more than 15,000
people.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)
1974 Oct 31, Suspected Bundy
victim Laura Aime disappeared in Utah.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1979 Oct 31, The US Archeological
Resources Protection Act, on behalf of endangered antiquities, became
law.
(www.bsos.umd.edu/anth/arch/web/arpa.htm)
1979 Oct
31, A US DC-10, flown by Western Airlines, crashed at Mexico City when
it struck a vehicle and 74 were killed.
(http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/dnetGOjg/Disasters.htm)
1980 Oct 31, In Iran Reza Pahlavi,
eldest son of the late shah, proclaimed himself the rightful successor
to the Peacock Throne.
(AP, 10/31/99)
1982 Oct 31, The Nehemiah housing
plan in New York broke ground in Brownsville. It was fathered by I.D.
Robbins (1910-1996) and consisted of low-cost, 3-bedroom brick
townhouses that sold for $39,000. The plan was helped by the Industrial
Areas Foundation established by the Chicago housing advocate Saul
Alinsky.
(http://tinyurl.com/2tow9q)
1982 Oct 31, Pope John Paul II
became the 1st pontiff to visit Spain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pastoral_visits_of_Pope_John_Paul_II_outside_Italy)
1984 Oct 31, The oil tanker Puerto
Rican exploded in the Gulf of the Farallones off the coast of San
Francisco spilling 2 million gallons of oil as the ship caught fire. A
bomb was believed to have caused the blast 10 miles west of the Golden
Gate Bridge. The inferno left one man dead. On Nov 18 a 360-foot
remnant of the 600-foot tanker was towed to San Francisco Bay. There
was no leakage of some 2.7 million gallons of lube oil in the hold.
(http://216.7.174.234/sandcrabs/oil.asp)(SSFC,
11/15/09, DB p.46)
1984 Oct 31, In Decatur, Illinois,
2 young girls were assaulted and killed. In 2009 DNA evidence revealed
that Melvin Johnson (d.2003) was the murderer.
(SFC, 2/12/09, p.A4)
1984 Oct 31, Indian Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi was assassinated near her residence in New Delhi by two
Sikh members of her bodyguard. This sparked Hindu-Sikh clashes across
the country. Four days of anti-Sikh rioting followed in India. The
government said more than 2,700 people, mostly Sikhs, were killed,
while newspapers and human-rights groups put the death toll between
10,000 and 17,000. In 2002 Katherine Frank authored the biography
"Indira."
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15)(AP,
10/31/97)(http://tinyurl.com/ypb6kl)(WSJ, 2/13/02, p.A18)
1987 Oct 31, Noburo Takeshita,
leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, was elected party president
in his first official step toward replacing Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1987 Oct 31, Joseph Campbell
(b.1904), American writer and professor of mythology, died in Hawaii at
age 83.
(SFEC, 6/1/97,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell)
1988 Oct 31, John Houseman
(86), actor (Paper Chase), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0002144/)
1988 Oct 31, In Lebanon the
kidnappers of American hostage Terry Anderson released a videotape in
which The Associated Press correspondent accused the Reagan
administration of blocking his release.
(AP, 10/31/98)
1989 Oct 31, President Bush
announced he and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev would hold an early
December summit aboard ships in the Mediterranean near Malta.
(AP, 10/31/99)
1990 Oct 31, During a campaign
swing in suburban Washington, President Bush said "I have had it" with
the way Iraq was treating American diplomats and hostages, but added he
had no timetable for deciding on a possible military strike.
(AP, 10/31/00)
1991 Oct 31, Theatrical producer
Joseph Papp died in New York at age 70.
(AP, 10/31/01)
1991 Oct 31, On the second day of
the Middle East peace conference in Madrid, Spain, Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Arab delegates clashed bitterly over land
issues.
(AP, 10/31/01)
1992 Oct 31, Roman Catholic church
rehabilitated Galileo Galilei after 359 years. Galileo was tortured and
imprisoned by the Holy Office during the Inquisition, and was forced to
recant his heretical views that the earth and planets revolve around
the Sun. Pope John Paul II acknowledged that the church had erred in
condemning Galileo. [see 1984]
(/www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Galileo.html)
1992 Oct 31, 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.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1993 Oct 31, In Oregon 7 men
robbed the Oki Semiconductor facility in Portland of microchips valued
at several million dollars. There were convicted in 2001 and 4 of the
men were sentenced to prison terms in 2002.
(SFC, 6/29/02, p.A16)
1993 Oct 31, Germany unemployment
hit a country record of 3.5 million.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1993 Oct 31, Federico Fellini,
Italian film director, died in Rome at age 73. He made some 24 films
including "La Strada," "La Dolce Vita," "8 1/2," and "Amarcord"
through the 50’s and 60’s.
(WSJ, 4/19/95, p.A-14) (AP, 10/31/98)
1993 Oct 31, Actor River Phoenix
died in Los Angeles at age 23.
(AP, 10/31/98)
1994 Oct 31, An American Eagle
French-built ATR-72, en route from Indianapolis to Chicago, crashed in
Roselawn, Ind., and killed 68 people. In 1997 American Airlines and 7
other companies settled a suit filed by relatives for $110 million.
(SFC, 9/23/97, p.A4)(AP, 10/31/97)
1995 Oct 31, Stung by defeat in
the secession referendum, Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau said he would
resign as head of the bitterly divided province at year’s end.
(AP, 10/31/00)
1996 Oct 31, In Pontiac, Mich.,
Dr. Jack Kevorkian was charged with assisting three suicides since June
1996. He was later acquitted.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1996 Oct 31, In Pontiac, Mich.,
Jenny Jones testified at the trial of one of her talk show guests,
Jonathan Schmitz, who was accused of killing another guest, Scott
Amedure in March, 1995.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1996 Oct 31, A grand jury
indicted a number of corrupt officials in Kansas City, Missouri. As
members of the Port Authority charged with assigning licenses to
riverboat gambling establishments, they accepted a $250,000 bribe in
1993 from Hilton Hotels Corp. Named in the indictments were Michelle
Lathan, Elbert Anderson (chmn. of the Port Authority), James Ramsey,
and a family friend of Anderson's, Charles Maurice Herron.
(SFC, 12/2/96,
p.A10)(www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/1996/08/26/story2.html)
1996 Oct 31, In Brazil a
Dutch-made Fokker-100, TAM Regional Airlines Flight 402, crashed after
take-off from Sao Paulo into the streets of Vila Santa Catarina. All 96
people on board and three on the ground were killed.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A18)(AP, 10/31/97)
1996 Oct 31, An outbreak of the
Ebola virus killed at least 17 people. It was the 4th outbreak in
Africa since 1995.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A21)(SFEC, 11/10/96, p.T5)
1997 Oct 31, The US announced a
plan to increase spending over the next decade to $1 billion per
year to clear the world of land mines that threaten civilian
populations by 2010.
(SFC,11/1/97, p.A3)
1997 Oct 31, Chinese President
Jiang Zemin rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange to open the
day's trading.
(AP, 10/31/98)
1997 Oct 31, British au pair
Louise Woodward received a mandatory life sentence, a day after a jury
in Cambridge, Mass., convicted her of second-degree murder in the death
of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen. The verdict was later reduced to
manslaughter, and Woodward was set free.
(AP, 10/31/98)
1997 Oct 31, The FBI began an
investigation into the use of pepper spray by law authorities in
Humboldt County, California, after a video tape showed the spray
applied directly to the eyes of protestors.
(SFC,11/1/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 31, Indonesia was awarded
a $23 billion economic rescue package by the Int’l. Monetary Fund.
Japan and Singapore promised an additional 5 million each and the US
promised an additional $3 billion in loans to be used in case the $23
billion was insufficient to stabilize the situation.
(SFC,11/1/97, p.D1)(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A18)
1997 Oct 31, Letsie III (34) was
crowned king of Lesotho, a figurehead position.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.14A)(SFC, 9/22/98, p.A7)
1997 Oct 31, Jerzy Buzek (57), a
chemical engineering professor, became PM of Poland and served until
Oct 19, 2001.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Buzek)
1997 Oct 31, Russia’s lower house
ratified a global ban on chemical weapons. After the Duma it goes to
the Federation Council for approval. The upper house approved the ban
Nov 5.
(SFC,11/1/97, p.A8)(SFC,11/6/97, p.C3)
1998 Oct 31, A genetic study was
released suggesting President Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one
child by his slave Sally Hemings.
(AP, 10/31/99)
1998 Oct 31, The US and Israel
signed a strategic cooperation agreement to protect the Jewish state
from ballistic missiles.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A23)
1998 Oct 31, Abe Hirschfeld, New
York real estate magnate, handed Paula Jones a $1 million check to cash
for settlement of the sexual harassment case against Pres. Clinton.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A4)
1998 Oct 31, Stephanie Condon (14)
vanished while babysitting a cousin's twins in Riddle, Oregon. Her
remains were found in 2009 in Glide, Ore., about 30 miles from Riddle.
Dale Wayne Hill, was arrested in Dayton, Nev., on March 25, 2009, on a
charge of failure to register as a felon. He was the last person known
to have seen her alive.
(AP, 3/25/09)
1998 Oct 31, In Congo it was
reported that a lightning bolt killed all 11 members of a soccer team
in eastern Kasai province.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 31, Iraq said that it was
suspending all cooperation with int’l. arms inspectors and would close
down their long-term monitoring operations in response to a Security
Council rejection of demands that a review of its relations with the UN
should automatically result in a lifting of sanctions. The move
condemned by the Security Council.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A21)(AP, 10/31/99)
1998 Oct 31, In Northern Ireland
Brian Service (35) was killed in Belfast. Later the Red Hand Defenders
claimed responsibility. A red-colored hand is the traditional symbol of
the province of Ulster.
(SFC, 11/2/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 31, In Pakistan the
government planned to use direct rule in Karachi, where near daily
violence this year has left 750 people dead.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A16)
1998 Oct 31, In Russia the
government approved an economic plan that centered on tax cuts, bank
rescues, state intervention and printing more rubles.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A21)
1999 Oct 31, Jesse Martin of
Australia became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe,
sailing solo, non-stop and unsupported. He sailed from Melbourne,
Australia, on December 8, 1998 aged 18 years 104 days and returned on
October 31 1999, taking 327 days 12 hours 52 minutes.
(AP, 8/27/09)
1999 Oct 31, The pagan Celts of
Britain and Ireland celebrated Samhain on October 31 as the end of the
season of the sun and the beginning of the season of darkness. It was
believed that on this day the souls of the dead revisited their homes.
Bonfires were lit to chase away evil spirits. When the Romans conquered
Britain in the first century A.D., their fall harvest festival, Poloma
Day, mixed with the traditions of Samhain to form a major fall festival
at the end of October.
(HNPD, 10/31/99)
1999 Oct 31, An EgyptAir jetliner,
Flight 990, enroute from New York to Cairo crashed off Nantucket Island
and all 217 people aboard were killed. Captains Ahmed al-Habashy and
Raouf Noureldin were at the controls. Relief pilot Gamil al-Batouti
(59), the father of five, was suspected to have caused the crash. In
2002 the National Transportation Safety Board reported that el-Batouty
was solely responsible for the crash.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/16/99, p.A3)(SFC,
11/17/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/18/99, p.C5)(SFC, 3/15/02, p.A3)
1999 Oct 31, In East Timor the
last 900 Indonesian soldiers departed. Indonesian forces had burned
about 80% of East Timor’s government buildings and infrastructure
following the vote for independence.
(SFEC, 10/31/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/10/04, p.A1)
1999 Oct 31, In Augsburg, Germany,
leaders of the Roman Catholic and modern Lutheran Churches signed the
Augsburg Accord, a "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of
Justification," in a step toward reconciliation. The accord gave weight
to the Lutheran position on salvation through faith and embraced the
Catholic ethic of earthly service.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A11,12)
1999 Oct 31, In Macedonia
elections Tito Petkovski, representing the former communist Social
Democratic Party, led with 38% of the vote vs. Boris Trajkovski (VMRO)
with 24.6%. A runoff was scheduled in 2 weeks.
(SFC, 11/2/99, p.A14)
1999 cOct 31, In Sudan 25 Sudanese
fighters were massacred by rival militiamen when they arrived for talks
with Paulino Matep at Benitu
(SFC, 11/4/99, p.A18)
1999 Oct 31, In Ukraine elections
were held and Pres. Kuchma was favored. Kuchma came in 1st with 36.5%
of the vote vs. Communist leader Petro Symonenko with 22.2%. A runoff
was scheduled in 2 weeks.
(WSJ, 10/29/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A13)(SFC,
11/2/99, p.A14)
1999 Oct 31, In Uruguay Tabare
Vazquez, the former mayor of Montevideo, led the presidential vote with
38% against 31% for Jorge Batlle of the ruling Colorado Party. A runoff
Nov 28 runoff was planned.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A13)
2000 Oct 31, American astronaut
Bill Shepherd and Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev of Russia rocketed
into orbit aboard a Soyuz rocket for the Int’l. Space Station for a
4-month stay. They would become the first residents of the
international space station.
(www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/shepherd.html)(SFC,
10/31/00, p.A12)(AP, 10/31/01)
2000 Oct 31, Ring Lardner Jr., a
Hollywood screenwriter, died at age 85. He was one of the Hollywood
Ten, who were blacklisted in the 1947 McCarthy hearings.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.a23)
2000 Oct 31, Samuel R. Pierce Jr.
(78), former US Housing Secretary, died.
(AP, 10/31/01)
2000 Oct 31, In Angola a Russian
Antonov 26 charter plane burst into flames after takeoff and all 48
people aboard were killed. Unita rebels later claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A13)(WSJ, 11/3/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 31, In Germany the Expo
2000 closed in Hanover.
(WSJ, 6/29/00, p.A24)
2000 Oct 31, In Jerusalem Yasser
Arafat called for renewed resistance. At least 4 Palestinians were
killed along the eastern Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 11/1/00, p.A16)
2000 Oct 31, An Italian cargo ship
sank in the English Channel with 6,000 tons of chemicals that included
the toxic styrene, a known carcinogen, along with isopropyl alcohol and
methyl ethyl ketone.
(SFC, 11/1/00, p.A17)
2000 Oct 31, A Singapore Airlines
Boeing 747-400 jet crashed on takeoff from Taiwan as Typhoon Xangsane
approached. Flight SQ006 was bound for Los Angeles. The plane
apparently hit construction equipment on a closed runway. The airlines
announced a $400,000 payment to victim’s families after admitting to
pilot error. 83 people were killed when the pilots took off on the
wrong runway. The pilots were not prosecuted.
(WSJ, 11/1/00, p.A1)(SFC, 11/3/00, p.A16)(SFEC,
11/5/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/14/02)
2001 October 31, The New York
Yankees played the Arizona Diamondbacks in game four of the World
Series; the game ended just a few minutes after midnight as Derek Jeter
hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the
Yankees over the Diamondbacks 4-3 and tie the Series at two games each.
(AP, 10/31/02)
2001 Oct 31, US bombing in
Afghanistan was reported to be the heaviest in the 4-week campaign.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 31, The US Commerce Dept.
reported a 3rd quarter 0.4% annualized fall in the GDP. The decline
marked an end to 33 straight quarters of economic growth.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 31, The Bush
administration said it would adopt stricter arsenic standard for
drinking water as proposed in the final days of the Clinton
administration.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A13)
2001 Oct 31, The Bush
administration said the Saudi government has issued an order to freeze
assets of people and groups suspected of links to terrorism.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A5)
2001 Oct 31, Attorney Gen. John
Ashcroft announced plans to block hostile foreigners from entering the
US.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Oct 31, The US Consulate in
Lahore, Pakistan, received a letter that was later confirmed to contain
anthrax.
(SFC, 11/7/01, p.A10)
2001 October 31, Former Symbionese
Liberation Army fugitive Sara Jane Olson pleaded guilty to 2 felony
accounts in Los Angeles to the attempted murder of police officers from
activities with the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1975. She was later
sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A1)(AP, 10/31/02)
2001 October 31, Microsoft and the
Justice Department reached a tentative agreement to settle the historic
antitrust case against the software giant.
(AP, 10/31/02)
2001 Oct 31, In Connecticut Joseph
Ganim (42), the mayor of Bridgeport, was charged in a federal
racketeering indictment with soliciting over $425,000 in bribes.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.C2)
2001 Oct 31, The SEC inquiry into
Enron Corp. became a formal investigation.
(SFC, 1/16/02, p.A12)
2001 Oct 31, Halloween this year
came with a blue moon, the 2nd full moon of the month.
(SFC, 10/31/01, p.C2)
2001 Oct 31, Kathy Nguyen (61), a
NYC hospital worker, died of anthrax. She was the 4th person to perish
in a spreading wave of bioterrorism. The source of infection remained a
mystery.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A1)(AP, 10/31/02)
2001 October 31, Cold War arms
negotiator Paul C. Warnke died at age 81.
(AP, 10/31/02)
2001 Oct 31, An Israeli helicopter
missile in Hebron killed Jamil Jadallah, a senior Hamas member. 5 other
Palestinians were also killed in West Bank attacks.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A13)
2001 Oct 31, In Pakistan Pres.
Musharraf ordered the arrest of anyone using a mosque loudspeaker for
anything other than the traditional call to prayer. He also banned the
use of mosques to "spread sectarian hatred."
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 31, In Peru Congress
unanimously approved embezzlement charges against former Pres. Fujimori.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.C7)
2002 Oct 31/Nov 1, Inmates at San
Quentin performed the verse drama "John Brown's Body" by Stephen
Vincent Benet under the direction of Joseph De Francesca.
(SFC, 11/19/02, p.D1)(EW)
2002 Oct 31, Authorities charged
the two Washington sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd
Malvo with murder in a Louisiana attack that came just two days after a
similar slaying in Alabama.
(AP, 10/31/03)
2002 Oct 31, The Securities and
Exchange Commission ordered an investigation into allegations that
Chairman Harvey Pitt had concealed information on the corporate ties of
William Webster. Pitt and Webster both ended up resigning.
(AP, 10/31/03)(AP, 10/31/07)
2002 Oct 31, The Central African
Republic claimed to have put down a coup attempt by rebels backing an
ousted army chief of staff.
(AP, 11/1/02)
2002 Oct 31, Chechen rebels killed
six Russian servicemen, a Chechen policeman and a local administrator,
as Russian forces intensified searches for rebels in the wake of the
Moscow theater siege.
(AP, 11/1/02)
2002 Oct 31, In Greece Michalis
Stasinopoulos (99), a legal scholar who challenged Greece's 1967-74
military dictatorship and served as president after it collapsed, died.
(AP, 11/1/02)
2002 Oct 31, A strong earthquake
rocked central and southern Italy, trapping about 50 children in a
school in San Giuliano di Puglia after the building's roof collapsed.
The death reached at least 28.
(AP, 10/31/02)(AP, 11/1/02)
2002 Oct 31, Velupillai
Prabhakaran, the reclusive leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger
guerrillas, was sentenced in absentia to 200 years' jail, as government
and rebel officials began talks in Thailand to try to end 19 years of
war.
(Reuters, 10/31/02)
2003 Oct 31, A new e-mail virus,
"Mimail.C.," started spreading to corporate computers and is headed for
home computers, but computer security experts said they expect the
outbreak to wind down over the weekend.
(AP, 11/1/03)
2003 Oct 31, In California lawyer
Gerald Curry was shot 5 times by William Strier outside a courthouse in
San Fernando Valley. The shooting was caught on videotape by crews
covering actor Robert Blake's murder case in Van Nuys. In 2006 Strier
(66) was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to life in prison
plus 25 years.
(SFC, 1/21/06, p.B2)(AP, 10/31/08)
2003 Oct 31, In SF Victor Bach
(71) was killed at his Mission District office, Western Plumbing and
Heating on Halloween. His wife was later charged with defrauding the
business and a trust account that he was overseeing. In 2008 Kathy Bach
(57) was convicted of 13-theft related charges for defrauding her
husband’s business and a private trust that he oversaw.
(SFC, 3/16/05, p.B4)(SFC, 11/18/08, p.B2)
2003 Oct 31, Bethany Hamilton,
teen surfing star, lost her left arm in a shark attack off Kauai,
Hawaii.
(AP, 10/31/04)
2003 Oct 31, The EPA rejected new
restrictions on weed-killer atrazine. It was suspected of causing
mutations in frogs.
(WSJ, 11/3/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 31, Richard E. Neustadt
(84), the noted presidential adviser, scholar and historian who was a
founder of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, died in England. His
1960 book "Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership," offered
insight into government decision-making.
(AP, 11/2/03)(Econ, 11/15/03, p.81)
2003 Oct 31, Fighting between
Afghan soldiers and police in a tense province in southern Afghanistan
killed two military commanders and up to eight policemen.
(AP, 11/1/03)
2003 Oct 31, Thousands of
Argentines banged pots and pans on street corners and apartment
balconies across the capital to protest rising crime.
(AP, 10/31/03)
2003 Oct 31, Ilham Aliev was
inaugurated as Azerbaijan's new president, succeeding his ailing father
as leader of the oil-rich former Soviet republic.
(AP, 10/31/03)
2003 Oct 31, A wildlife expert
said a rabies outbreak is threatening the few hundred remaining
Ethiopian wolves, one of the world's rarest animals.
(AP, 10/31/03)
2003 Oct 31, Kamato Hongo (116), a
Japanese woman believed to have been the world's oldest person, died.
(AP, 10/31/03)
2003 Oct 31, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
became Malaysia's first new prime minister in a generation, succeeding
Mahathir Mohamad.
(AP, 10/31/03)
2003 Oct 31, Taiwan's Pres. Chen
Shui-bian took his campaign for a new constitution to New York, as
Taiwanese media widely reported protests by Beijing supporters against
his visit. He described his campaign for a new constitution as an
effort to increase government efficiency.
(AP, 11/1/03)
2005 Oct 31, In the closing hours
of their bitter campaign, President Bush and challenger Sen. John Kerry
charged through the critical battlegrounds of Florida and Ohio, with
promises to keep America safe.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2004 Oct 31, In Brazil Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva suffered major defeats in an electoral test of his
ruling party's influence. Silva’s PT Party won in 11 of the 23 cities
where it fielded candidates. Jose Serra won the mayoral election in Sao
Paulo over Marta Suplicy.
(AP, 11/1/04)(Econ, 1/29/05, p.35)
2004 Oct 31, In Chechnya a car
bomb exploded outside Grozny’s main hospital, injuring 17 people.
(AP, 10/31/04)
2004 Oct 31, In Chile voters gave
strong support to the center-left government of President Ricardo Lagos
in nationwide municipal elections.
(AP, 11/1/04)
2004 Oct 31, Iran's parliament
unanimously approved the outline of a bill that would require the
government to resume uranium enrichment.
(AP, 10/31/04)
2004 Oct 31, In Iraq a rocket
attack in Tikrit killed 15 Iraqis and wounded 8.
(SFC, 11/1/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 31, In Italy unusually
high tides sent sea water sweeping through Venice, covering 80 percent
of the city by afternoon.
(AP, 11/1/04)
2004 Oct 31, Japan condemned the
beheading of a Japanese hostage in Iraq as a despicable act of
terrorism and vowed to keep its troops in the country on their
reconstruction mission.
(AP, 10/31/04)
2004 Oct 31, African and Asian
leaders opened a two-day conference in Tokyo to spur trade and
investment between the two regions. The gathering is a follow-up
meeting of the Third Tokyo International Conference on African
Development (TICAD III) held last year and is co-hosted by Japan, the
World Bank. TICAD, a Japanese initiative, was started in 1993 to raise
international support for African development and has been held every
five years.
(AP, 10/31/04)
2004 Oct 31, In Nigeria unions
declared the top oil multinational here, Royal Dutch/Shell, "an enemy
of the Nigerian people" and called a Nov. 16 nationwide strike.
(AP, 11/1/04)
2004 Oct 31, Ukrainians cast
ballots in a presidential vote. The opposition complained of violations
just hours into the polling. Key contenders included pro-Russian PM
Viktor Yanukovych and former PM Viktor Yushchenko, a reformist
candidate. Yushchenko won by .5%, but failed to get a majority setting
up a runoff vote for Nov 21. Observers from NATO and Europe said the
balloting did not meet democratic standards.
(AP, 10/31/04)(AP, 11/1/04)(WSJ, 11/19/04, p.A12)
2004 Oct 31, In Uruguay elections
socialist Tabare Vazquez (65), a cancer specialist and former mayor of
Montevideo, won Uruguay's presidential election, becoming the nation's
first leftist leader. Voters also called for all water resources to be
put under state administration. Some 20% of the country’s work force
was employed by the state.
(AP, 10/31/04)(SFC, 11/1/04, p.A2)(WSJ, 11/5/04,
p.A13)
2004 Oct 31, In Venezuela
candidates backed by President Hugo Chavez swept all but two of 23
governorships in regional elections.
(AP, 11/1/04)
2005 Oct 31, President Bush
nominated veteran judge Samuel Alito in a bid to reshape the Supreme
Court and mollify his conservative allies. Ready-to-rumble Democrats
warned that Alito may be an extremist who would curb abortion rights.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, The US Supreme Court
declined to hear an appeal by, Thomas Huckaby, a Tennessee man who was
charged by NY state for taxes on all of his income derived from his
employer in NY.
(WSJ, 11/1/05, p.D1)
2005 Oct 31, It was reported that
US Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld held a stake in Gilead Sciences
valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal
financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld. Tamiflu is manufactured and
marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche. Gilead receives a royalty from
Roche equaling about 10% of sales. Former Secretary of State George
Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth
of Gilead since the beginning of 2005. Rumsfeld recused himself from
any decisions involving Gilead when he left Gilead and became Secretary
of Defense.
(http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/)
2005 Oct 31, A transit strike in
Philadelphia brought the city’s buses, subways and trolleys to a halt.
(SFC, 11/1/05, p.A3)
2005 Oct 31, In SF some 30,000
people gathered in the Castro district for the annual Halloween party.
(SFC, 11/1/05, p.B2)
2005 Oct 31, BSkyB and Vodafone
announced that a quarter of a million subscribers to Vodafone's
third-generation (3G) telecommunications service were now able to watch
on their mobiles live news and sports provided by satellite broadcaster
BSkyB.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31,
Chiron Corp., a biotech operation in Emeryville, Ca., merged with
the Swiss firm Novartis. Novartis paid $5.1 billion for Chiron.
(SFC, 11/1/05, p.D1)
2005 Oct 31, It was reported that
Pluto has three moons, not one, according to new images from the Hubble
Space Telescope suggest. Pluto, discovered as the ninth planet in 1930,
was thought to be alone until its moon Charon was spotted in 1978.
(AP, 11/1/05)
2005 Oct 31, In Brazil a man
accused of torturing and killing five people was killed in a Sao Paulo
shantytown gunfight with police who were trying to arrest him. Celso
Alencar dos Santos (33) and an accomplice allegedly killed five members
of the Yonekura family in September, when the family returned to Brazil
with thousands of dollars they had saved while living for six years in
Japan.
(AP, 11/1/05)
2005 Oct 31, China's Pres. Hu
Jintao arrived in Vietnam on a mission to expand booming trade ties
between the communist nations.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, Hundreds of
government troops backed by U.N. peacekeepers began flushing heavily
armed Rwandan rebels from eastern Congo, destroying insurgent camps and
sending smoke rising above the restive region.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, Farmers brought
California vegetables, North Carolina turkeys and Arkansas rice to
Cuba's annual trade fair, showing that Americans are still hungry for
the communist country's market despite U.S. rules that make trade
difficult.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, A UN-sanctioned panel
investigating human rights violations during Indonesia's bloody 24-year
occupation of East Timor presented its findings to the country's
president.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, French rower Emmanuel
Coindre ended a landmark 129-day solo voyage across the Pacific Ocean
between Japan and the United States, setting a new record, according to
his team.
(AFP, 11/1/05)
2005 Oct 31, The US military said
6 American soldiers were killed in two bombings, making October one of
the deadliest months for U.S. troops in Iraq this year. A car bomb
exploded in a commercial district of Basra, killing at least 20 with 40
injured.
(AP, 10/31/05)(AP, 11/1/05)(SFC, 11/1/05, p.A3)
2005 Oct 31, Japanese PM Junichiro
Koizumi named a new Cabinet, putting outspoken conservatives, and
potential successors, in top positions and retaining his economic team.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, Okinawa's governor
told Japan's central government that a plan to build a U.S. heliport on
the southern island as part of a realignment of the American military
presence there was unacceptable.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, A Myanmar court
sentenced a lawyer to seven years in prison for advising a group of
farmers to file grievances with the International Labor Organization.
(AP, 11/16/05)
2005 Oct 31, Polish President
Aleksander Kwasniewski has officially named a minority conservative
government headed by Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, President Vladimir
Putin said he won't seek a third term in 2008, but vowed not to allow
"destabilization" in Russia following the vote, leaving the door open
for drastic action in the event of a crisis.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, A new survey reported
that more than half of Russians think everyone in power is dishonest,
from the president and parliament, to government and the courts.
Transparency International recently ranked Russia joint 126th on its
list of cleanest countries, on a par with Sierra Leone, Niger and
Albania.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, The Spanish
telecommunications company Telefonica announced an agreed $31.5 billion
takeover of mobile-phone operator O2, to be paid in cash.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.65)
2005 Oct 31, UN envoy Jan Pronk
condemned the killing of 2 deminers contracted to the United Nations in
southern Sudan in an ambush by suspected Ugandan rebels.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, A UN resolution
sponsored by the US, France and Britain demanded that Syria assist
fully with a probe into the February killing of former Lebanese leader
Hariri. The P-5 ambassadors (the five permanent council nations) from
the US, Russia, China, Britain and France, conducted intense
negotiations to try to reach agreement on the resolution.
(WSJ, 11/1/05, p.A1)(AP, 11/3/05)
2005 Oct 31, Live news broadcasts
began on a new Latin American TV station backed by Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez as an alternative to large corporate media outlets.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2006 Oct 31, President George W.
Bush ordered that assets be frozen of dissident general Laurent Nkunda
and six others considered by the White House to be destabilizing forces
in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(Reuters, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, NASA agreed to
dispatch a shuttle on a repair mission to keep the Hubble Space
Telescope in operation until at least 2013.
(WSJ, 11/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 31, In Long Beach, Ca., 9
African-American youths accosted and severely beat 3 white women in a
racially charged attack on Halloween night. In 2007 a judge ruled the
attack a hate crime and the 9 youths were convicted in juvenile court
in Long Beach, Calif.
(SFC, 1/27/07, p.A3)(AP, 1/26/08)
2006 Oct 31, In SF gunfire broke
out between two groups at a massive Halloween street party in the
city's Castro district, wounding at least 10 people, including innocent
bystanders.
(AP, 11/1/06)
2006 Oct 31, Bechtel Corp.’s last
government contract in Iraq expired. During its 3 years of work there
52 employees were killed.
(SFC, 11/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 31, Enrico’s Sidewalk
Café in SF’s North Beach district closed after negotiations for
a new lease collapsed. Enrico Banducci had opened it in 1958.
(SFC, 11/1/06, p.B5)
2006 Oct 31, In Roanoke, Virginia,
Sheriff Frank Cassell and 12 of his uniformed employees were indicted
in a racketeering case that claims drugs seized from criminals were
being resold, sometimes out of a sergeant's home.
(AP, 11/2/06)
2006 Oct 31, In Reno, Nev., a fire
at the Mizpah Hotel killed 12 people. Valerie Moore (47), a casino
cook, was arrested the next day for starting the fire.
(SFC, 11/2/06, p.A4)(AP, 11/5/06)(SFC, 11/6/06,
p.A3)(AP, 10/31/07)
2006 Oct 31, A leading researcher
said large species of coral that form underwater reefs and create rich
habitat for marine life are disappearing from around the U.S. Virgin
Islands, Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
(AP, 11/1/06)
2006 Oct 31, Researchers reported
that elephants recognize themselves in mirrors.
(SFC, 11/1/06, p.A4)
2006 Oct 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed 3 NATO soldiers. A suicide bombing
in southern Ghazni province's Taliban-dominated Ander district killed
one policeman. Polio cases were reported to be on the rise along the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
(AFP, 10/31/06)(WSJ, 11/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 31, Australia pointed an
accusing finger at China and India as major polluters as it refused to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change despite a major new report
warning of impending catastrophe.
(AFP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, President Evo Morales
backed off his plan to nationalize Bolivia's mining industry, saying
that his government can't afford it for now but he still wants to
eventually recover control of the nation's mineral wealth.
(AP, 11/1/06)
2006 Oct 31, Britain unveiled
plans to regulate Internet gambling and said it opposed the US
government's banning of the industry.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, A joint British and
Lebanese initiative in London launched the world's first qualification
covering all aspects of Islamic finance. The Islamic Finance
Qualification (IFQ) was developed by British industry body the
Securities and Investment Institute (SII) and Lebanese business school
Ecole Superieure des Affaires.
(AFP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, Cambodian police said
an American police officer, killed himself while in custody in the
capital. Donald Rene Ramirez of SF was accused of sexually abusing a
14-year-old girl. Ramirez had been going on vacation to Asia for at
least 2 decades.
(AP, 10/31/06)(SSFC, 11/5/06, p.B1)
2006 Oct 31, In Canada Finance
Minister Jim Flaherty shocked markets when he announced plans to tax
income trusts. Flaherty signaled concern that the flow of conversions
to income trusts could become an uncontrollable torrent that would
damage the economy and erode government revenues. Income trusts were
first set up in the mid-1980s by property and energy companies who
chose to pass profits to investors and thus avoid corporate income tax.
(AP, 10/31/06)(Econ, 11/4/06, p.86)
2006 Oct 31, A small clash between
ethnic Arab and ethnic African villagers along Chad's border with
Darfur escalated into a large-scale attack in which Arabs killed 128
Africans. The fight broke out in Amtiman in southeastern Chad between
two small groups after a member of one group insulted the other.
(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Oct 31, China's legislature
barred all but the nation's highest court from approving death
sentences, a move that state media called the country's biggest change
to capital punishment in more than 20 years. In northwest Gansu
province gas exploded in a coal mine, killing about 20 miners.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, Scientists reported
that the Fujian-strain of H5N1 avian influenza has become dominant in
southern China.
(SFC, 10/31/06, p.A2)
2006 Oct 31, A parliament speaker
said Egypt it will amend its constitution to make it easier for
candidates to run for president, part of long-delayed political reforms
that President Hosni Mubarak plans to carry out next year. Talaat Sadat
(52), the nephew of Egypt's late President Anwar Sadat, was sentenced
to a year in prison for defaming Egypt's armed forces, after saying in
an interview that Egyptian generals had masterminded his uncle's
assassination.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, In Ethiopia 4 days of
devastating floods along the eastern border killed dozens of people and
prowling crocodiles hampered rescue efforts as rain continued to fall.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, France's Defense
Minister ordered that 105 secret intelligence reports be handed over to
a judge investigating allegations that Paris helped Rwanda's former
Hutu government massacre ethnic Tutsis in a 1994 genocide.
(Reuters, 11/2/06)
2006 Oct 31, India's central bank
warned of overheating and juggled interest rates in a mid-term policy
review aimed at keeping prices in check. In southern India a passenger
train crashed into an auto-rickshaw at an unmanned rail crossing,
killing all 18 people in the rickshaw.
(AFP, 10/31/06)(AP, 11/1/06)
2006 Oct 31, Al-Sadr ordered Sadr
City closed to the Iraqi government until US troops lifted what he
called their "siege" of the neighborhood. US troops abandoned
checkpoints around Sadr City on orders from Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki. Iraqi state television presenter, Sherin Hamid, and her
driver were found dead in central Baghdad, a day after they were
abducted by gunmen. 3 people were killed and five injured by a car bomb
in Sadr City. At least three Iraqi policemen were also reported killed
in Baghdad and Fallujah. The bodies five unidentified people, including
a woman, were found dumped in eastern Baghdad. 5 more bodies in similar
condition were floating in the Tigris River near Suwayrah. The morgue
in the town of Kut reported receiving 10 bodies, including those of
five people allegedly killed by US forces in a raid on a house in the
Shejeriyah area. In Baqouba unidentified gunmen killed 3 people in a
downtown market and attacked a police patrol, killing one officer and
injuring two others. 5 bodies were found in the Abu Seida district, 25
kilometers northeast of the city. More than 40 Shiites were abducted
along a dangerous highway just north of Baghdad near the town of
Tarmiyah. At least 8 other people were either found dead or slain in
new attacks. A suicide bombing at a wedding party in Baghdad killed 23,
including 9 children. Haidar Muhsin, an Iraqi translator with US
forces, was shot dead in front of his home in Diwaniyah. US troops
killed five suspected insurgents and detained one during a raid in
Baghdad. The US military announced the deaths of two soldiers in
fighting in the Baghdad area, one from small arms fire, the other from
a roadside bomb.
(AP, 10/31/06)(AP, 11/1/06)(AP, 11/2/06)
2006 Oct 31, Italy said it would
beef up security in Naples by adding 1,000 patrol officers and
surveillance cameras amid an upsurge of slayings around a city already
known for street violence and organized crime.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, PM Shinzo Abe said
Japan will continue assisting Equatorial Guinea in its efforts to
promote democracy. Abe made the pledge during a 45-minute meeting with
Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in Tokyo.
(AFP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, In Kuwait an Iraqi
government spokesman said Iraq needs around $100 billion in the next
four to five years to recover and rebuild its infrastructure at the
opening of an international aid meeting.
(AP, 110/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, In Mexico youths
roamed the streets of Oaxaca tossing gasoline bombs, hijacking vehicles
and vowing to keep fighting for the state governor's ouster. Congress
urged the governor to resign and leftist leaders urged national support
for the movement.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, North Korea agreed to
rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks in a surprise diplomatic
breakthrough.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, In Pakistan an
appeals court overturned the convictions of four terror suspects in a
2002 car bombing outside the US Consulate in Karachi that killed 14
Pakistanis. Some 15,000 bearded men wearing turbans burned effigies of
US President George W. Bush and shouted "Death to Musharraf" in the
troubled Bajaur tribal region, which borders Afghanistan.
(AFP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, In South Africa P.W.
Botha (b.1916), the apartheid-era leader (1978-1989) who resisted
pressure to release Nelson Mandela from prison in the 1980s, died.
(AP, 11/1/06)
2006 Oct 31, Attacks in West
Darfur, Sudan, killed at least 63 people, half of them children. Some
300 to 500 Arab militiamen on horseback raided at least eight villages
as well as the Hajlija IDP camp.
(AP, 11/3/06)
2006 Oct 31, Flooding from
torrential rains killed 22 people across Turkey, including 14 who died
when a minibus carrying wedding guests was swept away.
(AP, 11/1/06)
2006 Oct 31, Typhoon Cimaron
headed toward eastern Vietnam after leaving at least 15 dead in
landslides and flooding in the northern Philippines.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2007 Oct 31,
Pres. Bush signed into law a measure barring states from levying
taxes on Internet access through 2014.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C2)
2007 Oct 31,
The US acknowledged that it had undertaken military moves against
Kurdish rebels in Iraq, including spy planes and providing Turkey with
more intelligence.
(WSJ, 11/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 31,
The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter point to
4.5%. The DJIA rose 137.54 to 13,930.01. Nasdaq rose 42.41 to 2,859.
Oil futures rose to a new record high closing at $94.53 per barrel on
the NY mercantile Exchange. Gold traded above $800 an ounce for the
first time since 1980.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C1)(WSJ, 11/1/07, p.C1)(AP,
10/31/08)
2007 Oct 31, In California Orange
County Sheriff Michael S. Carona faced arraignment on seven counts,
including conspiracy, mail fraud and witness tampering, according to a
sweeping indictment unsealed a day earlier. Carona and others allegedly
accepted $350,000 in gifts and cash in exchange for political favors in
a scheme that began as early as 1998, the year he was first elected.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, In Alameda, Ca.,
Ichinkhorloo Bayarsaikhan (15) was shot in the back and killed in a
robbery attempt by a group of teenage boys. She had been out with some
10 friends on Halloween when they were accosted at Washington Park.
Quochuy Tran (16), the suspected shooter, was arrested Nov 7 and 5
others were picked up the next day. 3 boys arrested earlier in the week
were released. On Dec 14 three teenage boys were convicted in juvenile
court of first degree murder. Charges were still pending against 3
others. On Jan 25 Tran was sentenced to 7 years. His younger brother
(15) and another boy (13) were sentenced to a wilderness camp for 2
years.
(SFC, 11/2/07, p.A1)(SFC, 11/14/07, p.B5)(SFC,
12/15/07, p.B1)(SFC, 1/26/08, p.B3)
2007 Oct 31,
San Francisco energy officials approved a new $230 million power
plant near Potrero Hill, which would let it close an older, dirtier
plant nearby.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C1)
2007 Oct 31, Physicists at UC
Berkeley said they had produced the world’s smallest radio out of a
single carbon nanotube, 10,000 times thinner than human hair. They had
it play “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos and said it could also
function as a transmitter.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.C1)
2007 Oct 31,
In Hawaii state lawmakers voted to allow the new inter-island
ferry to resume service. The Superferry law overrode court decisions
requiring an environmental study.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.A4)
2007 Oct 31, Officials said
Afghan, US and Canadian troops have surrounded a pocket of some 250
Taliban fighters who have commandeered people's homes in villages just
outside Kandahar. In western Farah province six police officers were
killed and two others wounded, and 14 Afghan army troops were missing
after clashes with Taliban militants. A nighttime raid in eastern
Afghanistan by Afghan troops with US support sparked a gunbattle that
killed three people, including two children.
(AP, 10/31/07)(AP, 11/1/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Oct 31, In London King
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia met PM Gordon Brown to discuss Middle East
issues and counter-terrorism, amid a swirl of protests.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, China's worst fuel
crisis in two years spread to the capital and other inland areas, and
one man was killed in a brawl at a petrol station queue, upping
pressure on the government to intervene.
(Reuters, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, In Dubai more than
4,000 south Asian workers who had been jailed since a weekend labor
strike were released, in an incident that has highlighted labor
tensions in this booming city.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31,
Authorities said French police had arrested 20 suspects as part
of a Europe-wide crackdown on child pornography over the Internet.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, Alcatel-Lucent, the
struggling French-US telecommunications equipment maker, announced it
would cut an additional 4,000 jobs by 2009 as it unveiled a sharp third
quarter net loss.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, The Iraqi government
rejected the findings of a US oversight panel that a dam near the
northern city of Mosul is on the verge of a collapse that could cause
flooding along the Tigris River "all the way to Baghdad." US
helicopters opened fire after a ground patrol came under attack
southeast of Baghdad, and Iraqi police said three officers were killed
and one wounded in the strike. Two American soldiers were killed by an
explosion near their vehicle in Iraq's northern Ninevah province.
(AP, 10/31/07)(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 31, More than 100
Buddhist monks marched in northern Myanmar for nearly an hour, the
first public demonstration since the government's deadly crackdown last
month on pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, In southern Nigeria
one navy officer was killed and four other naval personnel injured in
an overnight attack on a vessel protecting a Shell oilfield.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, Pakistan military
helicopter gunships strafed Islamic militant positions in the
northwestern Swat Valley as a shaky truce collapsed.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, A bomb ripped through
a passenger bus in the central Russian city of Togliatti, killing eight
people and injuring 48. Togliatti is a city on the Volga River known as
the headquarters of Russia's largest carmaker, AvtoVAZ, which returned
to state control in 2005. The city has a reputation for gang violence
as varying groups have competed for control over the lucrative factory.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, Spanish lawmakers
passed historic legislation condemning Gen. Francisco Franco's coup and
nearly 40-year fascist dictatorship, brushing aside complaints from the
conservative opposition that the bill would reopen old divides. 3 lead
defendants in the 2004 Madrid terror bombings that killed 191 people
were convicted of murder by the Spanish court. Four other top suspects
were acquitted of murder but convicted of lesser charges. In all 21 of
the 28 defendants were convicted.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, The Turkish army said
it killed 15 Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border, as ministers
discussed possible economic sanctions against Iraq's autonomous Kurdish
government.
(AFP, 10/31/07)
2008 Oct 31, Pres. Bush signed an
executive order restoring the Libyan government’s immunity from
terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases in
response to Libya’s payment of $1.5 billion into a fund to compensate
the families of victims the 1986 bombing of a German disco and the 1988
Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
(SFC, 11/1/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 31, A jury of US military
officers at Guantanamo's second war-crimes trial reached a verdict that
could put Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, Osama bin Laden's alleged "media
secretary" and video maker, in prison for life. Announcement of the
decision was postponed to Nov 3.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, J.P. Morgan Chase
& Co. launched an a plan to modify the terms of $70 billion in
mortgages for borrowers who were either behind on their payments or
soon could be. As many as 400,000 borrowers could be moved into lower
rate mortgages.
(WSJ, 11/1/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 31, Airship Ventures
began operating zeppelin flights from Moffett field in Mountain View,
Ca. Passenger tickets were set at $495 per person for one hour and $950
for 2 hours.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 31, VeraSun Energy, one
of America’s biggest ethanol producers, filed for bankruptcy after
being caught in the gyrations of the prices of corn and gasoline.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.79)
2008 Oct 31, The Leakey Foundation
awarded its Leakey Prize to American primatologist Jane Goodall and
Japanese scientist Toshidada Nishida for their work with chimpanzees.
(SFC, 10/30/08, p.B1)
2008 Oct 31, Studs Terkel
(b.1912), Chicago radio personality and writer, died. His books
included “The Good War,” which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984.
(SFC, 11/1/08, p.A2)
2008 Oct 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a series of operations by US forces targeted an al-Qaida
leader and a bomb-making cell, killing 19 militants in Nangarhar and
Khost provinces. Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the
militant group has released two aid workers from Bangladesh whom they
had kidnapped in Ghazni province late last month.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Oct 31, Brazil's state-run
oil company signed an agreement to explore for oil in deep Caribbean
waters north of Cuba that officials in Havana say could contain 20
billion barrels of crude.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Petrofac evacuated 56
non-essential workers from the North Sea Heather Alpha oil rig after a
reports of 10-20 ton oil spill.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Top British filmmaker
Danny Boyle's new Mumbai-based film "Slumdog Millionaire" won rave
reviews after its screening at the close of the London Film Festival.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Middle East investors
will own up to one third of Barclays Plc after Abu Dhabi and Qatar
provided most of 7.3 billion pounds ($12.1 billion) raised by the bank
to repair damage from the global financial crisis and avoid taking UK
government rescue funds.
(Reuters, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Heavily-armed pirates
swarmed aboard an oil industry support vessel working off the coast of
Cameroon and kidnapped 10 of 15 crew members, including six Frenchmen.
A man claiming to represent a rebel group opposed to Cameroon's
takeover of the Bakassi Peninsula warned the hostages would be killed
unless Cameroonian officials agreed to reopen the issue.
(AFP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, In Canada an
explosion damaged a natural gas wellhead in the same area of northeast
British Columbia where two pipelines have been bombed this month.
(Reuters, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, In southern China a
truck driver killed 4 people and injured 20 by driving into a crowd of
high school students coming out of class. The male driver was shot dead
by police after the incident in the city of Zhuhai in Guangdong
province.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Oct 31, Thousands of
war-weary refugees set out on foot for their homes in eastern Congo,
taking advantage of a cease-fire as American and UN envoys joined
efforts there to find a political solution to the region's long-running
rebellion.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, In southern Egypt
tourist bus overturned, killing six Belgian tourists and injuring 26
other Belgian passengers.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Israeli settlers
clashed with Israeli police and Palestinians in the West Bank town of
Hebron following the overnight demolition of an unauthorized settler
outpost. Israelis from across the political spectrum slammed a decision
to air the first-ever television interview with Yigal Amir (43), the
extremist Jew who assassinated PM Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
(AP, 10/31/08)(AFP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, In Japan an essay by
Gen. Toshio Tamogami, head of Japan’s air force, was published. He had
won a competition for best essay denying Japan’s wartime role as an
aggressor and sponsor of atrocities. The contest was sponsored by
Toshio Motoya, the head of a hotel chain. Within hours of publication
Gen. Toshio Tamogami was out of a job.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.57)
2008 Oct 31, Libyan leader Muammar
Gaddafi, starting his first visit to post-Soviet Russia, planned to
discuss opening a Russian naval base in Libya to counterbalance US
interests in the region.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, In Mexico police
arrested Antonio Galarza, the reputed leader of the violent Gulf drug
cartel for the border city of Reynosa, in the northern city of
Monterrey on suspicion of weapons violations and organized crime.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Oct 31, A suspected US drone
aircraft fired missiles into a house in Mir Ali town in Pakistan's
North Waziristan region on the Afghan border. Al-Qaida member Abu Kasha
Iraqi was among those killed. Abu Jihad al-Masri, described by the US
as al-Qaida’s propaganda chief, was among 3 people killed when a
missile hit their truck. A second house was hit, killing 12 including
suspected foreign militants in Kari Kot in South Waziristan. 29 people
were reported killed in the 2 attacks. A suicide bomber attacked the
convoy of a regional police chief, killing 3 police officers and 5
civilians in Mardan in the North West Frontier Province.
(AP, 10/31/08)(AFP, 11/1/08)(SFC, 11/1/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 31, Gunmen in Peshawar,
Pakistan, kidnapped Zia ul-Haq Ahadi, the brother of Afghanistan's
finance minister, while he was walking to his mother's home after
praying at a mosque. Ahadi, a businessman who lives in Afghanistan, was
in Peshawar to visit his mother.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Oct 31, Spain approved a
measure to let descendants of people who fled into exile after its
1936-39 Civil War apply for Spanish citizenship. The government said it
believes up to 500,000 children and grandchildren of such emigres are
eligible. The government says 300,000 of those people live in Argentina.
(AP, 11/1/08)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to November 1