ON THIS DAY

OCTOBER 31

683 During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba catches fire and burns down.

1517 Monk Martin Luther challenges the money-making pope by nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg – an act that was to have monumental consequences, changing the course of religious and cultural history and becoming the foundation of the Protestant Reformation. 1541 Michelangelo finishes painting The Last Judgement in the much-admired Sistine Chapel of the Vatican.

1756 Adventurer Giacomo Casanova, a name synonymous with passion, escapes from prison in Venice.

1876 The Great Backerganj Cyclone ravages British India (Bangladesh), killing 200 000. 1888 Scottish vet John Boyd Dunlop patents the pneumatic bicycle tyre.

1918 The Spanish flu-virus kills 21 000 in one week in the US. South Africa was not immune to the outbreak which infected 500 million people globally, killing 50 million-100 million (3%-5% of Earth’s population).

1923 The first of 160 consecutive days of 100ºF (38ºC) temperatures at Marble Bar, Australia.

1926 Anteo Zamboni, 15, tries to assassinate Benito Mussolini and is lynched on the spot. 1940 The Battle of Britain ends.

1973 Three IRA members escape from a Dublin prison in a helicopter.

1984 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots leave about 3 000 Sikhs dead.

1995 Nigerian political activist Ken SaroWiwa is one of eight sentenced to death for the death of four Ogoni leaders. Saro-Wiwa protested on behalf of the Ogonis against pollution of their land by oil companies.