Something to think about.Something to discover.Something to remember.Every day.
⌕ My Time Capsule

Explore 31 October

Explore 31 October: Martin Luther sends out his Ninety-five Theses, the Australian Light Horse charges at Beersheba, and Britain and France begin bombing Egypt over Suez. Meet John Keats, Vallabhbhai Patel and Peter Jackson, born on this date.

This day through time →9 verified events across 4 eras

⌛9Full
Timeline ◈4Historic
Moments ♙7Born
Today ✦4Lives
Remembered ◉1Firsts &
Discoveries ♫1Culture
Stories ☉2Observances
A printed edition of the Ninety-five Theses from 1517.
A printed edition of the Ninety-five Theses from 1517.
Image creditMartin Luther · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1517

Martin Luther sends out his Ninety-five Theses

On 31 October 1517 Martin Luther, a friar and professor of theology at Wittenberg, sent a set of ninety-five propositions on indulgences to Albert, Archbishop of Mainz, asking him to rein in the preacher Johann Tetzel, whose sale of indulgences was raising money for the rebuilding of St Peter’s in Rome. Tradition holds that on the same day Luther nailed the theses to the door of Wittenberg’s Castle Church.

Luther meant them as the basis for an academic debate, not a break with the Church. But they were printed and spread across Germany within weeks, the archbishop forwarded them to Rome, and the dispute that followed became the Protestant Reformation.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Ninety-five Theses ↗
The town of Beersheba in 1917, the year it was captured.
The town of Beersheba in 1917, the year it was captured.
Image creditAWM Credit reads: Lent by Brigadier General Wilson, CMG. · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1917

The Light Horse charge at Beersheba

On 31 October 1917 British Empire forces attacked Beersheba, in southern Palestine, as part of the third battle of Gaza. By late afternoon the infantry had made little headway, and the town’s wells, vital for men and horses, were still in Ottoman hands. The 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade was then ordered to gallop straight at the town.

The 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments charged across open ground, overran the Ottoman trenches in less than an hour and took Beersheba and its water. Thirty-one light horsemen were killed. It was one of the last great cavalry charges in history, and it opened the way to breaking the Ottoman line.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Australian War Memorial: Attack on Beersheba ↗
Indira Gandhi in March 1977.
Indira Gandhi in March 1977.
Image creditAnefo · CC0Resized and cropped for display.
1984

Indira Gandhi is assassinated

On the morning of 31 October 1984 India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was shot by two of her own Sikh bodyguards in the garden of her residence at 1 Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. The killing was in retaliation for Operation Blue Star, the army assault she had ordered in June that year on militants inside the Golden Temple at Amritsar, Sikhism’s holiest shrine.

Her son Rajiv Gandhi succeeded her as prime minister. Her death was followed by days of violence against Sikhs in which more than a thousand people were killed.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Why was Indira Gandhi assassinated? ↗
Smoke rises from oil tanks at Port Said during the Anglo-French landings of 5 November 1956.
Smoke rises from oil tanks at Port Said during the Anglo-French landings of 5 November 1956.
Image creditFleet Air Arm official photographer · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1956

Britain and France begin bombing Egypt

On 31 October 1956, two days after Israel invaded Sinai, British and French aircraft began bombing Egyptian airfields and military targets. Valiant and Canberra bombers flew from Cyprus and Malta, while carrier aircraft attacked troops and vehicles. It was the opening of Operation Musketeer, meant to take back the Suez Canal, which President Nasser had nationalised in July.

The attack had been agreed in secret with Israel at Sèvres a week before. It brought fierce opposition from the United States and the United Nations, and within weeks Britain and France were forced to withdraw, a turning point in the end of their empires.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Imperial War Museums: Operation Musketeer in photographs ↗
♙
PEOPLE

Born Today

John Keats
Image creditWilliam Hilton · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1795

John Keats

English Romantic poet of the great odes, who died in Rome at 25.

Vallabhbhai Patel
Image creditGovernment of India work · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1875

Vallabhbhai Patel

Indian independence leader and first deputy prime minister, who brought the princely states into the Indian union. India marks his birthday as National Unity Day.

Peter Jackson
Image creditGage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1961

Peter Jackson

New Zealand film director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Marco van Basten
Image creditPaul Blank · CC BY 2.5Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1964

Marco van Basten

Dutch striker, three times European footballer of the year, who scored a famous volley in the 1988 European Championship final.

◉
IDEAS THAT CHANGED THINGS

Firsts, Science & Discoveries

Galileo Galilei in old age, portrait of about 1640 attributed to Justus Sustermans.
Galileo Galilei in old age, portrait of about 1640 attributed to Justus Sustermans.
Image creditJustus Sustermans · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1992

The Pope closes the Galileo case

On 31 October 1992 Pope John Paul II addressed the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on the case of Galileo Galilei, condemned by the Inquisition in 1633 for teaching that the Earth moves round the Sun.

He acknowledged that the theologians who judged Galileo had been wrong, and said the case had fed the mistaken idea that science and faith are opposed, a ‘sad misunderstanding’ that now belonged to the past.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Pontifical Academy of Sciences: address of John Paul II, 31 October 1992 ↗
♫
MUSIC • FILM • BOOKS • CULTURE

Culture Stories

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota.
Image creditThomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized and cropped for display.
1941

Work on Mount Rushmore comes to an end

Carving on Mount Rushmore, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, ended on 31 October 1941, fourteen years after it began. The sculptor Gutzon Borglum had died earlier that year, and his son Lincoln carried on until the money ran out.

The faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were blasted and drilled out of the granite by hundreds of local workers, many of them miners. The project cost nearly $990,000, most of it from federal funds.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: National Park Service: Carving history, Mount Rushmore ↗
✦
LIVES REMEMBERED

Remembered Today

John VIII Palaiologos
Image creditUnknown · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1448

John VIII Palaiologos

Byzantine emperor who sought Western help against the Ottomans at the Council of Florence. His death is recorded under the Julian calendar.

Federico Fellini
Image creditItaliamia · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1993

Federico Fellini

Italian film director of La Dolce Vita and 8½.

☉
AROUND THE WORLD

Observances & Anniversaries

The Castle Church in Wittenberg.
The Castle Church in Wittenberg.
Image creditHorst Pomplun · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Annual

Reformation Day

Protestant churches mark 31 October as Reformation Day, remembering the day in 1517 when Martin Luther sent out his Ninety-five Theses. It is a public holiday in several German states.

Wittenberg, where Luther taught and where tradition places the theses on the door of the Castle Church, is at the centre of the celebrations.

Source: Luther.de: Martin Luther’s life, the 95 Theses ↗
A carved jack-o'-lantern made for a Halloween celebration in 2003.
A carved jack-o’-lantern made for a Halloween celebration in 2003.
Image creditToby Ord · CC BY-SA 2.5Resized and cropped for display.
Annual

Halloween

Halloween, the eve of All Saints’ Day, is kept on 31 October. Its customs draw on the Celtic festival of Samhain, when the dead were believed to walk the earth, and on the Christian feasts that follow it.

Carved lanterns, costumes and trick-or-treating spread from Ireland and Scotland to North America and from there around the world.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Halloween ↗
HISTORY & TIMELINE

Finished the highlights?

Follow 31 October chronologically, from the Middle Ages to the modern day, with 9 verified events and the sources behind them.

This day through time →
Sources & further reading