DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Saturday, Oct. 31, the 305th day of 2020. There are 61 days left in the year. This is Halloween.
On this date in:
1795: English poet John Keats was born in London.
1860: Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA, was born in Savannah, Ga.
1926: Magician Harry Houdini died in Detroit of peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix.
1941: Work was completed on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, begun in 1927.
1941: The Navy destroyer USS Reuben James was torpedoed by a German Uboat off Iceland with the loss of some 100 lives, even though the United States had not yet entered World War II.
1961: The body of Josef Stalin was removed from Lenin’s Tomb as part of the
Soviet Union’s “de-stalinization” drive.
1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations.
1984: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh (seek) security guards.
1994: A Chicago-bound American Eagle ATR-72 crashed in northern Indiana, killing all 68 people aboard.
1998: A genetic study was released suggesting President Thomas Jefferson did in fact father at least one child by his slave Sally Hemings.
1999: Egyptair Flight 990, bound from New York to Cairo, crashed off the Massachusetts coast, killing all 217 people aboard.
2001: New York hospital worker Kathy T. Nguyen (nwen) died of inhalation anthrax, the fourth person to perish in a spreading wave of bioterrorism.
2005: President George W. Bush nominated Judge Samuel Alito (ahlEe’-toh) to the Supreme Court. Civil rights icon Rosa Parks was honored during a memorial service in Washington, D.C.
Actor Lee Grant is 95. Anchorman Dan Rather is 89. Folk singer Tom Paxton is 83. Actor Ron Rifkin (“Alias”) is 82. Actor Sally Kirkland is 79. Actor Stephen Rea (“The Crying Game,” “V For Vendetta”) is 74. Actor Deidre Hall (“Days Of Our Lives”) is 73. Journalist Jane Pauley is 70. Broadway performer Brian Stokes Mitchell is 63. Director Peter Jackson (“Lord of the Rings”) is 59. Drummer Larry Mullen
Jr. of U2 is 59. Guitarist Johnny Marr of Modest Mouse (and The Smiths) is 57. Actor Dermot Mulroney is 57. Drummer Mikkey Dee of Motorhead and of Scorpions is 57. Actor Rob Schneider is 57. Country singer Darryl Worley is 56. Actor Mike O’malley (“Glee”) is 55. Guitarist Ad-rock of the Beastie Boys is 54. Musician Rob Van Winkle (Vanilla Ice) is 53. Guitarist Rogers Stevens of Blind Melon is 51. Singer Linn Berggren of Ace of Base is 50. Reality show host
Troy Hartman(“extreme Survival,” “No Boundaries”) is 49. Gospel singer Smokie Norful is 47. Actor Piper Perabo is 44. Actor Samaire Armstrong (TV’S “Resurrection”) is 40. Keyboardist
Tay Strathairn of Dawes is 40. Actor
Eddie Kaye Thomas (“American Pie”) is 40. Guitarist Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance) is 39. Actor Justin Chatwin (“American Gothic”) is 38.