Search examples: Microsoft | 2015 | 2014/10 | 4.12 | 04/20 | 05/26/1980 | Galileo Galilei

History on the 31st of October

History
Date Text
31 Oct 1517 RELIGIOUS German Augustinian monk Martin Luther, 31, nailed to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg a list of 95 theological points he wished to debate ... and touched off the Protestant Reformation!
0
31 Oct 1832 RELIGIOUS American Episcopal scholar George Washington Doane, 33, was consecrated as second Bishop of the Diocese of NJ. Doane is better remembered today as author of the hymn, "Softly Now the Light of Day."
0
31 Oct 1852 RELIGIOUS Swiss moral philosopher Henry F. Amiel wrote in his journal: 'Every landscape is, as it were, a state of the soul, and whoever penetrates into both is astonished to find how much likeness there is in each detail.'
0
31 Oct 1870 RELIGIOUS Birth of Hugh Ross Mackintosh, Scottish theologian. Teaching systematics at Edinburgh 1904-35, Mackintosh had a firm grasp of the German theological writers of his day and sought to make their teachings known in Britain, for which he was unfairly judged a liberal.
0
31 Oct 1914 WW2 Russia and the United Kingdom declared war on Turkey as the response to the previously day's attacks by the Turkish Navy. 
0
31 Oct 1914 WW2 Sepoy Kuda Dad Khan (129th Baluchis) became the first Indian Amy soldier to win the Victoria Cross. At Hollebeke, Belgium he kept his machine gun firing even when his detachment had been overrun, and his comrades killed all around him. 
0
31 Oct 1914 WW2 Settsu began the bombardment of German positions in and near Qingdao, Shandong Province, China alongside of Japanese battleship Kawachi, German pre-dreadnaught HMS Triumph, and other smaller warships and support ships. 
0
31 Oct 1917 WW1 Begin of Third Battle of Gaza
0
31 Oct 1917 WW1 Begin of Battle of Beersheba
0
31 Oct 1919 WW2 Baron Kenjiro Den was named the governor-general of Taiwan, the first civilian to hold that post. 
0
31 Oct 1931 WW2 Hiroaki Abe became the commanding officer of Japanese Navy Destroyer Division 1. 
0
31 Oct 1936 WW2 Submarine ShCh-324 was commissioned into service. 
0
31 Oct 1936 WW2 The Jarrow Marchers arrived in London, England, United Kingdom. This protest was the best remembered of the hunger marches of the depression years. Led by their Labour Party Member of Parliament Ellen Wilkinson (1891-1947), 200 shipyard workers marched to London from Jarrow as a demonstration against the massive unemployment in northeastern England. 
0
31 Oct 1937 WW2 Suzuya was commissioned into service. 
0
31 Oct 1937 WW2 Kumano was commissioned into service. 
0
31 Oct 1937 WW2 Oshio was commissioned into service. 
0
31 Oct 1937 WW2 At midnight, the remaining 376 Chinese officers and men in the Sihang Warehouse in Shanghai, China withdrew from the building into the international zone. The evacuation was completed by 0200 hours on 1 Nov 1937. 
0
31 Oct 1938 WW2 Cruiser Köln began five months of repairs and refitting at Kiel, Germany. 
0
31 Oct 1938 WW2 Poland noted to the Germans that Danzig was to remain independent, and that Poland was not interested in signing the Anti-Comintern Pact. 
0
31 Oct 1938 WW2 Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke took over command of the newly created Anti-Aircraft Corps with responsibility for inspection, training and discipline, while the actual operational control was vested in the Air Officer Commanding RAF Fighter Command, Air Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, since the handling of the air defences demanded the closest co-operation between fighter pilots, guns and searchlights. 
0
31 Oct 1939 WW2 The commanding officer of the German Wehrkreis IV district in Dresden, Germany gave the order to convert Colditz Castle to a prisoner of war camp named Offizierslager IV-C, or Oflag IV-C for short. 
0
31 Oct 1939 WW2 Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet Foreign Minister, gloated over the dissolution of Poland, "ugly offspring of the Versailles Treaty", by the combined Soviet-German attack. He also accused the British of aggressive acts. 
0
31 Oct 1939 WW2 The British Royal Navy was mobilized. 
0
31 Oct 1939 WW2 The keel of Dianthus was laid down by Henry Robb, Limited of Leith, Scotland, United Kingdom. 
0
31 Oct 1940 WW2 As the Italian invasion of Greece began to slow to a stop in the Epirus Mountains, British forces landed on the islands of Lemnos and Crete in southern Greece to prevent Italian landings on Greek islands. Greek destroyers Spetsai and Psara departed the Gulf of Patras and used their 120-mm guns to bombard Italian troops on the Ionian coast of Albania and northern Greece. 
0
31 Oct 1940 WW2 German submarine U-124 sank British ship Rutland 300 miles northwest of Ireland at 2158 hours, killing the entire crew of 24. 
0
31 Oct 1940 WW2 German armed merchant cruiser Widder arrived at Brest, France after a 179-day long operation in the Atlantic Ocean that saw the sinking of 10 ships totaling 58,645 tons. 
0
31 Oct 1940 WW2 HMCS Trillium was commissioned into service with Lieutenant Commander Ronald Fraser Harris in command. 
0
31 Oct 1940 WW2 RAF bombers attacked Naples, Italy. 
0
31 Oct 1940 WW2 According to a British Air Ministry pamphlet published in 1941, this date was the official end of the Battle of Britain, but bombings on London, England, United Kingdom would continue. 
0
31 Oct 1941 WW2 German submarine U-552 attacked Allied convoy HX-156 725 miles west of Iceland at 0834 hours, sinking American destroyer USS Reuben James (115 killed, 45 survived); USS Reuben James was the first American warship lost in the Atlantic Ocean in WW2. 
0
31 Oct 1941 WW2 A German submarine fired a torpedo at American destroyer USS DuPont; the torpedo missed its target. 
0
31 Oct 1941 WW2 The British 1st Airborne division was formed on under the command of Major General Frederick "Boy" Browning. 
0
31 Oct 1941 WW2 To ease labour shortages, Hitler agreed that Soviet prisoners of war could be used in the Reich, as long as they were isolated from the Home population. 
0
31 Oct 1941 WW2 German submarine U-374 sank British ship Rose Schiaffino 120 miles east of St. John's, Newfoundland at 0903 hours; all 41 aboard were killed. 
0
31 Oct 1941 WW2 German submarine U-96 sank Dutch ship Bennekom 400 miles west of Iceland at 1047 hours; 8 were killed, 46 survived. British sloop HMS Lulworth counterattacked with 27 depth charges in failure. 
0
31 Oct 1941 WW2 It was announced that RAF aircraft operating out of Malta had destroyed 76,500 tons of enemy shipping in the Mediterranean Sea. 
0
31 Oct 1941 WW2 Soviet destroyer Bodry and other warships shelled German tank concentrations 25 miles north of Sevastopol, Russia. Meanwhile, German dive bombers attacked Soviet warships in the harbor, causing 50 casualties but failing to cause damage to the ships. 
0
31 Oct 1941 WW2 Solomon Milshtein reported to Lavrentiy Beria that, from the start of the Russo-German war and 10 Oct 1941, 657,364 troops were arrested for falling back without authorization, 249,969 of whom by agents of UOO and 407,395 by agents of NKVD. The majority of them were returned to the front, while 10,201 were executed, 3,321 of whom were executed in front of their units to set an example. 
0
31 Oct 1941 WW2 USS R-5 arrived at New London, Connecticut, United States. 
0
31 Oct 1942 WW2 The Chilean ambassador to Italy Ramon Briones Luco reported to Chile that Heinrich Himmler had just visited Rome and spoke to Mussolini. According to the ambassador's sources, Himmler requested Mussolini to turn over all Polish, Czech, and Yugoslav Jews in Italy. 
0
31 Oct 1942 WW2 German 21st Panzer Division launched four successive strikes against Australian troops at Point 29 in Egypt, causing heavy casualties on both sides. 
0
31 Oct 1942 WW2 US Marine Scout-Bomber Squadron 132 and US Marine Fighter Squadron 211 began to arrive in sections at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. 
0
31 Oct 1942 WW2 Tenryu departed Rabaul, New Britain. 
0
31 Oct 1942 WW2 Repair ship Akashi began repairing destroyer Samidare at Truk, Caroline Islands. 
0
31 Oct 1942 WW2 Having earlier silenced a machine gun post and taken 12 prisoners, Sergeant William Kibby was leading an Australian advance near Alamein, Egypt taking enemy positions with grenades when he was cut down by machine gun fire. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. 
0
31 Oct 1942 WW2 As Adolf Hitler was confident that Stalingrad, Russia would soon be under German control, he departed the Wehrwolf headquarters near of Vinnytsia, Ukraine and moved to the Wolfsschanze headquarters in Rastenburg, Germany (now Ketrzyn, Poland). 
0
31 Oct 1942 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Daily train service to and from Honolulu established (Oahu Railway & Land Co.) 
0
31 Oct 1942 WW2 US freighter John H. B. Latrobe and British freighter Chulmleigh departed Iceland in Operation FB. 
0
31 Oct 1942 WW2 USS Grayback sank a Japanese transport off New Ireland, hitting her with 1 of 3 torpedoes. 
0
31 Oct 1943 WW2 USS Seahorse sank a small Japanese vessel with her deck gun south of Japan. 
0
31 Oct 1943 WW2 The US Navy scored its first radar aided aerial victory when an F4U-2 Corsair fighter destroyed a Japanese aircraft it had intercepted over New Georgia. 
0
31 Oct 1943 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: 76th Construction Battalion (76th SeaBees) arrived on board. 
0
31 Oct 1943 WW2 US Fifth Army resumed the stalled offensive north of the Volturno River in Italy. 
0
31 Oct 1943 WW2 Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Sasebo, Japan. 
0
31 Oct 1943 WW2 An American reconnaissance flight from Suichuan Airfield, Jianxi Province, China detected a Japanese shipping concentration in the Sasebo-Nagasaki area. Claire Chennault requested for permission to attack, but Henry Arnold rejected the request, noting that he did not wish to alert the Japanese of American air strength in China while he worked on a plan for concerted B-29 strikes from China. 
0
31 Oct 1943 WW2 Tomokazu Kasai completed advanced flight school in Japan. 
0
31 Oct 1943 WW2 USS Gunnel completed a period of overhaul at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California, United States. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 Commander John Ailes III became the commanding officer of USS Cassin Young. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 British troops occupied Salonika, Greece in order to prevent Greek Communists from taking over in the vacuum left by the retreating Germans. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 British troops established a bridgehead over the River Maas south of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 Canadian troops reached Walcheren, the Netherlands. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 Bernard Montgomery was awarded the Virtuti Militari V Class of Poland. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 The US submarine Nautilus finished off the abandoned US submarine Darter with her 6-inch guns. The Darter had foundered on Bombay Shoal, Spratly Islands off Palawan, Philippine Islands on 25 Oct 1944 whilst in pursuit of the damaged Japanese cruiser Takao. All Darter's crew were rescued by the US submarine Dace. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 The first manned flight of the prototype Ohka aircraft was conducted; the aircraft was equipped with two wing-mounted rockets and no fuselage-mounted rockets. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 USS Guitarro fired eight torpedoes at 0847 hours at the Japanese convoy that she had been attacking since the previous day; six torpedoes made contact, and Guitarro claimed three sinkings, although only one sinking was confirmed. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 USS Gabilan sank oceanographic research vessel Kaiyo No. 6 in Japanese home island waters, hitting her with 1 of 4 torpedoes fired. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 Robert von Greim was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht radio report. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 USS Kete departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 USS Astoria arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 USS Sterlet attacked a Japanese tanker in the Pacific Ocean after sundown, sinking her with six torpedoes. She shared the credit with USS Trigger, which had previously damaged the tanker. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 14,000 Jews were transported from Slovakia to Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 A German V-2 rocket hit Swedish Yard of Surrey Commercial Docks in Bermondsey, London at 0256 hours, damaging several wheat containers. Another rocket hit the Royal Victoria Dock at Earlham Grove, West Ham in the afternoon. 
0
31 Oct 1944 WW2 Allied convoy JW-61A departed Liverpool, England, United Kingdom. 
0
31 Oct 1945 WW2 USS Columbia set sail for the United States. 
0
31 Oct 1945 WW2 The British Tiger Force, a planned redeployment of heavy bombers from the European theatre to the Far East, was officially abandoned. 
0
31 Oct 1945 WW2 USS Tirante arrived at Staten Island, New York, United States. 
0
31 Oct 1945 WW2 USS Marlin arrived at Boston, Massachusetts, United States. 
0
31 Oct 1945 WW2 USS Bluefish arrived at New London, Connecticut, United States. 
0
31 Oct 1945 WW2 Allied repatriation ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Wake Island. 
0
31 Oct 1946 WW2 Israeli terrorists bombed the British Embassy in Rome, Italy. 
0
30th October 1st November
© 2016 OnThisDay.net All rights reserved.
Loaded in 0.0476s.