October 31st
Month:
Day:
- 1837 The riverboats Monmouth and Tremont collide on the Mississippi River, resulting in approximately 300 deaths.
- 1918 The Spanish flu pandemic claims 21,000 lives in the United States within a single week.
- 1941 Mount Rushmore National Memorial is completed in South Dakota, featuring sculptures of four U.S. presidents by Gutzon Borglum.
- 1960 A devastating cyclone hits the coast of the Bay of Bengal, causing the deaths of about 10,000 people.
- 1999 EgyptAir Flight 990 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 people on board.
- 2000 Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collides with construction equipment during takeoff in Taipei, Taiwan, resulting in 83 fatalities.
- 2003 Thirteen-year-old surfer Bethany Hamilton loses her arm in a shark attack while surfing in Hawaii.
- 2008 Satoshi Nakamoto publishes the Bitcoin whitepaper, introducing a decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
- 2011 The United Nations estimates the world population reaches 7 billion people.
- 2012 The New York Stock Exchange reopens after a two-day closure due to Hurricane Sandy.
- 2015 A Russian airliner crashes in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 aboard in Russia's worst air disaster.
- 2019 The U.S. House of Representatives votes to formalize impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
- 1984 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her bodyguards, leading to widespread riots and unrest.
- 1860 Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA, is born.
- 1864 Nevada is admitted as the 36th state of the United States.
- 1926 Illusionist Harry Houdini dies of complications from a ruptured appendix days after being unexpectedly punched in the stomach.
- 1952 The United States detonates its first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Ivy Mike," at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
- 1994 An American Eagle ATR-72 crashes into a farm in Indiana, killing all 68 people on board.
- 2018 The Statue of Unity, dedicated to Indian leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, is inaugurated in Gujarat, becoming the world's tallest statue at 182 meters.
