October 31st is

Halloween

Books for Treats Day *

National Caramel Apple Day

Day of the Seven Billion *

National Magic Day *

National UNICEF Day *

Nevada Day *

Reformation Day *

U.N. World Cities Day

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MORE! Martin Luther, Juliette Gordon Low and Chiang Kai-Shek, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Pagan – Northern Hemisphere: Samhain
Southern Hemisphere: Beltane

Christian – Eve of All Saints’ Day

Ecuador – National Flag Day

Scotland – Edinburgh:
Samhuinn Fire Festival

Taiwan – Chiang Kai-Shek’s Birthday

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On This Day in HISTORY

1291 – Philippe de Vitry, French composer, music theorist and poet, is born

1517 – Reformation Day *: Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, starting the Protestant Reformation

1614 – First performance of Ben Jonson’s comedy Bartholomew Fair by the company ‘Lady Elizabeth’s Men’ (King James I’s daughter) at the Hope Theatre in London

1632 – Jan Vermeer, Dutch master painter, is born

1795 – John Keats, English poet, is born

1822 – Emperor Agustín de Iturbide tries to dissolve Congress of the Mexican Empire

1860 – Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts USA, is born in Savannah GA

1861 – American Civil War: Citing failing health, General Winfield Scott resigns as Commander of the United States Army

1863 – The Maori Wars resume as British forces in New Zealand led by General Duncan Cameron begin their Invasion of the Waikato on the North Island

1864 – Nevada Day * – Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state

1868 – Postmaster General Alexander Williams Randall approves a standard uniform for postal carriers

1887 – Chiang Kai-Shek, first president of the Taiwan Republic of China, is born

1896 – Ethel Waters born, African American singer/actor, recorded more than 250 sides after debut (1921), unsurpassed vocalist and stylist with perfect pitch

1913 – Dedication of the Lincoln Highway, first automobile highway across the continental U.S.

1917 – WWI Battle of Beersheba, the Australian 4^th Light Horse Brigade makes the “last successful cavalry charge in history”

1918 – Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

1923 –First of 160 consecutive days of 100° Fahrenheit at Marble Bar, Western Australia

1924 – World Savings Day * is announced in Milan, Italy by members of the Association at the 1st International Savings Bank Congress (World Society of Savings Banks)

1926 – Magician Harry Houdini dies of peritonitis after his appendix ruptures

1938 – Society of American Magicians start Magic Day * on the anniversary of Harry Houdini’s death 

1941 – Fourteen years after the work starts, Mount Rushmore is completed

1950 – UNICEF Day * – for the first time, trick-or-treaters collect coins to help UNICEF help kids

1952 – The U.S. detonates its first hydrogen bomb

1956 – The U.K. and France begin bombing Egypt to force reopening of the Suez Canal

1966 – Adam Keefe Horovitz, aka Ad-Rock, of the Beastie Boys, is born

1968 – Citing Paris peace talk progress, US President Johnson announces his  order of a complete cessation of “all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam” effective November 1

1981 – Antigua and Barbuda become independent of Great Britain

1983 – The U.S. Depart of Defense admits that a U.S. Navy plane mistakenly bombed a civilian hospital during the invasion of Grenada

1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi and other cities, nearly 10,000 Sikhs are killed

1993 – River Phoenix dies at age 23 after collapsing outside a Hollywood nightclub

1998 – Iraq refuses to continue cooperating with U. N. nuclear weapons inspectors

1999 – Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending centuries of doctrinal dispute on faith and salvation

2000 – Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station which has been crewed continuously since

2001 – First Books for Treats Day * is started to encourage giving trick-or-treaters children’s books instead of candy

2002 – A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas indicts former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to the collapse of his ex-employer

2011 – Day of the Seven Billion *– the day the U.N. Population Fund designated as the day the world population reached 7 billion

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Visuals

• Books for Treats logo
• International flags
• Young Woman With a Water Pitcher – by Jan Vermeer
• Juliette Gordon Low portrait hung in 1915 in Girl Scout Headquarters Board Room, and the Girl Scouts Handbook c. 1913
• Postman in uniform, c. 1868
• Lincoln Highway dedication, 1913, in Central City NE
• Magic Day header
• UNICEF collection box
• Lutheran-Catholic signing of 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

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