Monday, October 31

This Day In History

• 1517   Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.
  
• 1795   English poet John Keats was born in London.
  
• 1864   Nevada became the 36th state.
  
• 1926   Magician Harry Houdini died of complications from a ruptured appendix.
  
• 1938   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.
  
• 1956   Rear Admiral G.J. Dufek became the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole.
  
• 1968   President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations.
  
• 1991   Theatrical producer Joseph Papp died in New York at age 70.
  
• 1992   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.
  
• 1993   Movie director Federico Fellini died in Rome at age 73.
  
• 1999   EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed off the Massachusetts coast, killing all 217 people aboard.
  
• 2001   A 61-year-old New York hospital worker became the fourth person to die from inhalation anthrax.
  
• 2001   Microsoft and the Justice Department reached a tentative agreement to settle the historic antitrust case against the software giant.
  
• 2002   The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered an investigation into allegations that Chairman Harvey Pitt had concealed information on the corporate ties of William Webster, his choice to head a new accounting oversight board.
  

Happy Birthday To

• 1795   John Keats (poet: On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, Endymion: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”, On a Grecian Urn, To a Nightingale, On Melancholy, To Autumn; died Feb 23, 1821)
  
• 1860   Juliette Low (youth group founder: Girl Scouts; died Jan 17, 1927)
  
• 1887   Chiang Kai-shek (1st constitutional President of the Republic of China; Chinese army general; died Apr 5, 1975)
  
• 1912   Dale Evans (Frances Butts) (singer, songwriter: Happy Trails to You; actress: The Roy Rogers Show, Roy Rogers movies; wife of ‘King of the Cowboys’ Roy Rogers; died Feb 7, 2001)
  
• 1927   Lee Grant (Lyova Rosenthal) (Academy Award-winning actress)
  
• 1931   Michael Collins (NASA astronaut: Apollo 11 command module pilot on first moon landing mission [he remained in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin walked on lunar surface]; author: Apollo 11   First Moon Landing [Countdown to Space])
  
• 1936   Michael Landon (Eugene Orowitz) (actor: Bonanza, actor, writer, producer, director: Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven; died July 1, 1991)
  
• 1943   Brian Piccolo (football: Chicago Bears RB; subject of movie: Brian’s Song; died of cancer at age 26 [June 16, 1970])
  
• 1950   John (Franklin) Candy (comedian, actor)
  
• 1950   Jane Pauley (TV host: news anchor; married to cartoonist, Gary Trudeau)
  
• 1963   Rob Schneider (actor)