Unix Timestamp: 1730332800
Thursday, October 31. 2024, 12:00:00 AM UTC

UNESCO becomes the first United Nations agency to admit Palestine as a full member, with the United States withdrawing funding in protest. //www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/world/palestinians-admitted-to-unesco/story-e6frea8l-1226182049014?from=public_rss (AFP via "Adelaide Now") //www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-20128358/u.s-cuts-unesco-funding-after-palestinian-vote/ (CBS News)

A new study by the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit shows that the warming of Earth's polar regions is caused by humans. //www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/10/30/polar.warming/index.html (CNN)

The third pipeline bombing in the month of October targets an EnCana-operated gas pipeline near the town of Dawson Creek, British Columbia in Canada. //www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/10/31/bc-3rd-pipeline-explosion.html (CBC)

The World Economic Forum releases The Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008.

Eleven American states ban gay marriage.

In Côte d'Ivoire, National Army bombings kill 9 people, including French UN soldiers. French UN forces retaliate by destroying the National Army's air force.

IncumbentPresident George W. Bush is reelected as President of the United States of America.

Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh is assassinated in Amsterdam, Netherlands by Mohammed Bouyeri.

Leftist candidate Tabaré Vázquez is elected President of Uruguay.

The Ufton Nervet rail crash in Berkshire, England kills 7 people.

Mahathir Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia after 22 years in power.

November ndash Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq rejects new U.N. Security Council weapons inspections proposals.

Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collides with construction equipment in the Chiang Kai Shek International Airport, resulting in 83 deaths.

A Brazilian TAM Fokker airliner crashes into a densely populated area of São Paulo, killing 103.

U.S. presidential election, 1996: Democratic incumbent Bill Clinton defeats Republican challenger Bob Dole to win his second term.

NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.

November ndash Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM inspectors uncover buried prohibited missile parts. Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM teams to remove remnants of missile engines for analysis outside of the country

A devastating category 4 Cyclone strikes Andhra Pradesh, India. The storm surge sweeps fishing villages out to sea, over 2,000 people die. 95 percent of the crops are completely destroyed.

Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's government is dismissed by President Farooq Leghari after widespread allegations of corruption.

Pope John Paul II issues an apology, and lifts the edict of the Inquisition against Galileo Galilei.

November 3 ndash The Halloween Blizzard hits the Upper Midwest of the United States, causing around $100 million of damage and killing 22.

The Grand National Assembly of Turkey elects Prime Minister Turgut Özal as the eighth President of Turkey.

Indian Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi is assassinated by her 2 Sikh security guards. Anti-Sikh riots break out, leaving 10,000 to 20,000 sikhs dead in New Delhi and surrounding areas with majority populations of Hindus. Rajiv Gandhi becomes prime minister of India.

Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape: Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escape from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, Republic of Ireland after a hijacked helicopter lands in the exercise yard.

A bomb explodes at the top of the Post Office Tower in London.

Süleyman Demirel of AP forms the new government of Turkey (31st government)

Wal-Mart incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the silent majority to join him in solidarity with the Vietnam War effort, and to support his policies. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew denounces the President's critics as 'an effete corps of impudent snobs' and 'nattering nabobs of negativism'.

U.S. presidential election, 1968: Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon defeats the Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace.

Vietnam War: Citing progress in the Paris peace talks, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam effective November 1.

Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt is initiated to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam. By the end of the operation, 3 million tons of bombs are dropped on Laos, slowing but not seriously disrupting trail operations.

A second republic is declared in the Maldives.

Luis A. Ferre is elected Governor of Puerto Rico.

Caigning at Madison Square Garden, New York, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson pledges the creation of the Great Society.

74 die in a gas explosion during a Holiday on Ice show at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum in Indianapolis.

The UN General Assembly asks the United Kingdom to suspend enforcement of the new constitution in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), but the constitution comes into effect on November 1.

The Soviets begin dismantling their missiles in Cuba.

The first issue of "Diabolik" is published in Italy.

Riots break out in the Belgian Congo.

The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at the time, opens in the US to connect Michigan's two peninsulas.

The westbound tube AKA the first tube of the Hton Roads Bridge-Tunnel linking to Norfolk, Virginia and Hton, Virginia opens at a cost of $44 million dollars.

Toyota begins exporting vehicles to the U.S., beginning with the Toyota Crown and the Toyota Land Cruiser

Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.

"Scrooge", starring Alastair Sim, opens in England.

Mass murderer Marcel Petiot is apprehended in Paris Métro station.

Great Depression: In an effort to try restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a 15-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public.

Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that developed after his appendix ruptured.

Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.

WWI: Austria-Hungary enters an armistice with the Allies.

German Revolution: Sailors in the German fleet at Kiel mutiny and throughout northern Germany soldiers and workers begin to establish revolutionary councils on the Russian soviet model.

November ndash The Allied fleet enters Constantinople.

Poland declares its independence from Russia.

Ruthenia in eastern Czechoslovakia declares a brief independence.

The Hungarian government terminates the personal union with Austria, officially dissolving the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the United States, is dedicated.

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem is dedicated.

A major earthquake occurs in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the last to date.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle publishes "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".

An anarchist bomb kills six in a police station in Avenue de l'Opera, Paris.

An anarchist bomb kills six in a police station in Avenue de l'Opera, Paris.

U.S. presidential election, 1892: Grover Cleveland is elected over Benjamin Harrison and James B. Weaver to win the second of his non-consecutive terms.

The four-day New Orleans General Strike begins.

A catastrophic cyclone strikes the east coast of India, killing 200,000.

Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state.

Theta Delta Chi is founded at Union College.

Emperor Ninkō accedes to the throne of Japan.

In his first speech before British Parliament since the Declaration of Independence that summer, King George III acknowledges that all is not going well for Britain in the war with the United States.

Virginia Lieut. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie commissions 21-year-old militia Maj. George Washington to dissuade the French from occupying the Ohio Country.

James Lind writes "A Treatise of the Scurvy".

The Cramer family starts a brewing operation including the current major brand Warsteiner.

Robert Wood publishes "The ruins of Palmyra otherwise Tedmor in the desart" in English and French, making the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra known to the West.

Coining of the term anthropomorphism

Celia Fiennes noble woman and traveller, begins her journeys across Britain, in a venture that would prove to be her life's work. Her aim was to chronicle the towns, cities and great houses of the country. Her travels continued until at least 1712, and would take her to every county in England, though the main body of her journal was not written until the year 1702.

The Richard Wall House is built in Pennsylvania.

In the city of Bideford, Guenevere Damascus, her lover (name unknown) and their spiritual mentor are among the last to be burned at the stake for witchcraft in England. They had been accused of speaking in unknown languages as well as practicing knowledge beyond their natural abilities, and acting in peculiar manners.

The first black slaves arrive in Germany.

Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria, is crowned. His absolutist style of leadership becomes a benchmark for the rest of Germany.

A treaty is signed between the Arabs and the Portuguese. The terms include a provision that the Portuguese should build fortresses at Kuriyat, Dibba Al-Hisn (Sharjah) and Muttrah (Oman).

Naval Battle of the Downs: A Republic of the United Provinces fleet decisively defeats a Spanish fleet in English waters.

The Rose (theatre) is founded in London by Philip Henslowe.

A severe famine breaks out in China during the Ming Dynasty.

Leiden University Library opens its doors after its founding in 1575.

The first Filipinos in North America land in Morro Bay, near San Luis Obispo, California.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi attacks Kyūshū.

At the first "sejm" of King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, deputies demand that the king renounce his wife Barbara Radziwiłł.

John Dee starts to study at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

The Ming Dynasty government of China issues a decree banning all foreign trade and closes down all seaports along the coast these Hai jin laws came during the Wokou wars with Japanese pirates, while the Portuguese began regular trade missions to China in 1449, and the ban on maritime trade was fully lifted in 1567.

December ndash Siam attacks Tavoy beginning the Burmese–Siamese War 1548.

Sigismund II of Poland starts to rule.

Selim I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, conquers Egypt and declares himself Caliph.

The Dutch city of Ommen is devastated by fire.

Grand Prince Vasili III of Muscovy conquers Ryazan.

The Fifth Council of the Lateran ends.

Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther publishes his 95 Theses (posting them on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church).

Organized western merchants make their first contact with China after Rafael Perestrello was the first to land in southern China in 1513 European merchants venture into port at Guangzhou and trade with Chinese merchants there.

A third outbreak of the sweating sickness in England hits Oxford and Cambridge.

Pope Julius II succeeds Pius III as the 216th pope (some sources list November 1 as the date of election).

Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor is forced to abandon his caign against Florence.

The Siege of Rostock begins.

A battle is fought near Thebes.

Mansa Musa starts to rule the Mali Empire (approximate date).

Lancelotto Malocello, a Genoese navigator, sails to the island of Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands, and remains there for almost two decades.

In Song Dynasty China, the statesmen Ouyang Xiu and Fan Zhongyan put forth the Qingli Reforms, which are halted by 1045.

The Norman brothers, William Iron Arm and Drogo de Hauteville, assume power in Apulia.

The Ziyarid dynasty of Persia is crushed by the Seljuks.

The first king of the Kingdom of Nri, Eze Nri Ìfikuánim is installed in West Africa.

The revolt of George Maniaces against Byzantine EmperorConstantine IX ends when Maniaces is killed in battle near Thessalonica.

Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England at Winchester Cathedral.

Rus'-Byzantine War (1043).

Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor marries Agnes de Poitou.

Al-Andalus: The city of Saragossa rises against the Umayyad rule.ref name=rucquoi1993

Egbert becomes king of Wessex.

The Haeinsa Temple is established in Korea.

Krum becomes Khan of Bulgaria (until 814).

Jayavarman II declares the Khmer Empire independent and establishes the kingdom of Angkor.

The Vikings sack Iona.

Irene is deposed as Empress of Byzantium, replaced by Nicephorus I, and banished to Lesbos.

Gongju becomes the capital of Baekje, and is threatened by Goguryeo who conquers the Han River valley (Korea).

A "Bodhisattva" (detail of a wall painting in the Ajanta Caves) in Maharashtra (India) of the Gupta period is made (approximate date).

The compilation of the Babylonian Talmud, the source of the majority of JewishHalakha, is completed.

Bodhidharma, Buddhist monk, travels to China and begins teachings of the Lankavatara Sutra (approximate date).

Romulus Augustus (Little Augustus) is installed as emperor by his father Orestes who becomes "magister militum" and regent of the Western Roman Empire.