This day in history
Today is Tuesday, Oct. 31, the 304th day of 2023. There are 61 days left in the year. This is Halloween.
Birthdays: Actor Lee Grant is 98. Former CBS anchorman Dan Rather is 92. Folk singer Tom Paxton is 86. Actor Ron Rifkin is 85. Actor Sally Kirkland is 82. Actor Brian Doyle-Murray is 78. Actor Stephen Rea is 77. Olympic gold medal long-distance runner Frank Shorter is 76. Actor Deidre Hall is 76. TV show host Jane Pauley is 73. Actor Brian Stokes Mitchell is 66. Movie director Peter Jackson is 62. U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. is 62. Actor Dermot Mulroney is 60. Drummer Mikkey Dee of Motorhead and the Scorpions is 60. Rock singer-musician Johnny Marr is 60. Actor Rob Schneider is 60. Actor-comedian Mike O’Malley is 58. Rap musician Ad-Rock (The Beastie Boys) is 57. Rapper Vanilla Ice is 56. Gospel singer Smokie Norful is 50. Actor Piper Perabo is 47. Rock musician Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance is 42. Actor Justin Chatwin is 41. Actor Vanessa Marano is 31. Actor Danielle Rose Russell is 24. Actorsinger Willow Smith is 23.
▶ In 1789, George Washington, after ten days of being celebrated by crowds of citizens, ended his presidential visit to Massachusetts. Many of the streets he traveled down were renamed “Washington Street.”
▶ In 1864, Nevada became the 36th state as President Lincoln signed a proclamation.
▶ In 1941, work was completed on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, begun in 1927.
▶ In 1961, the body of Josef Stalin was removed from Lenin’s Tomb as part of the Soviet Union’s “de-Stalinization” drive.
▶ In 1967, Nguyen Van Thieu took the oath of office as the first president of South Vietnam’s second republic.
▶ In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a halt to all US bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations.
▶ In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh security guards.
▶ In 1992, Pope John Paul II proclaimed that the Roman Catholic Church had erred in condemning the astronomer Galileo for holding that the Earth was not the center of the universe.
▶ In 1999, Egypt-Air Flight 990, bound from New York to Cairo, crashed off the Massachusetts coast, killing all 217 people aboard.
▶ In 2005, President George W. Bush nominated Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.
▶ In 2015, a Russian passenger airliner crashed in a remote part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula 23 minutes after taking off from a popular Red Sea resort, killing all 224 people on board.
▶ In 2020, actor Sean Connery, who rose to stardom as the suave secret agent James Bond and then carved out an Oscarwinning career in other rugged roles, died at his home in the Bahamas at the age of 90.