Saturday 31st of October 1705

249th Pope Clemens XIV is born as Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli in Santarcangelo di Romagna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Saturday 31st of October 1863

Outlaw and murderer Tom Thomas E. Ketchum is born in San Saba County, Texas, United States.

Sunday 31st of October 1886

Chairman of the Nationalist Government of China Chiang Kai-shek is born in Miaogaotai, Xikou, Zhejiang, China.

Wednesday 31st of October 1906

Victim of Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf Fritz Franke is born in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Friday 31st of October 1913

Murderer Mike Spanos is executed by hanging at the age of 21 in Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, United States.

Friday 31st of October 1913

Murderer Frank Seymour is executed by hanging at the age of 19 in Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, United States.

Thursday 31st of October 1918

Artist Egon Schiele dies of Spanish flu at the age of 28 in Hietzinger Hauptstraße 114, Wien, Wien, Austria.

Schiele's wife Edith died three days earlier in their house in Wattmanngasse 6.

Sunday 31st of October 1920

Photographer Helmut Newton is born as Helmut Neustädter in Innsbrucker Straße 24, Berlin, Schöneberg, Berlin, Germany.

Sunday 31st of October 1926

Propaganda of the Deed anarchist Anteo Zamboni is lynched by nearby Fascist squadristi after attempting to assassinate Benito Mussolini aka Il Duce at the age of 15 in Via dell'Indipendenza, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

The man who first detained Zamboni and identified him as the would-be assassin was cavalry officer Carlo Alberto Pasolini, father of film director Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Sunday 31st of October 1926

Illusionist, magician and escapologist Harry Houdini aka The Handcuff King dies of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at the age of 52 in Grace Hospital Room #401, Detroit, Michigan, United States.

Eyewitnesses to an incident at Houdini's dressing room in the Princess Theatre in Montreal gave rise to speculation that Houdini's death was caused by McGill University student Joselyn Gordon Whitehead who delivered a surprise attack of multiple blows to Houdini's abdomen.

Thursday 31st of October 1929

Actor Bud Spencer is born as Carlo Pedersoli in Napoli, Borgo Santa Lucia, Campania, Italy.

Thursday 31st of October 1935

21-year-old Serial bomber Hugh F. 'Idzy' Rutkowski aka The Mad Bomber of Milwaukee leaves a bomb on a window ledge in Fifth Precinct Police Station, Third and Hadley, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.

Although the damage to the building and surrounding houses was severe, the occupants of the police building escaped injury. The same was true less than 11 minutes later when the second bomb went off, this time at the Third Precinct Police Station at Twelfth and West Vine Streets.

Saturday 31st of October 1936

Actor Michael Landon is born as Eugene Maurice Orowitz in Forest Hills, New York, Queens, New York, United States.

Monday 31st of October 1938

Mary Lahiff dies as result of a cyclopropane explosion while undergoing minor breast surgery by a surgeon from the Lahey Clinic at the age of 44 in New England Baptist Hospital, 125 Parker Hill Ave, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

Thursday 31st of October 1940

Guitarist Eric Ronald Griffiths known from The Quarrymen is born in Denbigh, Wales, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 31st of October 1950

Architect Zaha Mohammad Hadid is born in Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.

Sunday 31st of October 1954

Victim of Dennis Nilsen aka Killing for Company Graham Archibald Allen aka Puggy is born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 31st of October 1961

Murderer Honor Robinson is executed by the gas chamber at the age of 45 in Arizona State Prison Complex, 1305 E Butte Avenue, Florence, Arizona, United States.

Thursday 31st of October 1974

17-year-old Laura Ann Aime is abducted and strangled by serial killer Ted Bundy aka The Only Living Witness in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.

Aime's body was found a month later in American Fork Canyon.

Sunday 31st of October 1976

Architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray known for her E-1027 house dies of natural causes at the age of 98 in Hôpital Broussais, Paris, XIVe, Île-de-France, France.

Saturday 31st of October 1981

25-year-old Debra Louise Jackson aka Orange Socks is sexually assaulted and strangled by serial killer Henry Lee Lucas aka The Hand of Death in Georgetown, Texas, United States.

Jackson was only known as 'Orange Socks' until she was identified via a DNA match with her surviving sister in 2019. Lucas confessed to and was convicted of her murder, though doubts have been raised about his complicity in this crime.

Wednesday 31st of October 1984

First female Prime Minister of India Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi shot dead by her Sikh body-guards Beant Singh and Satwant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, the Indian Army's June 1984 assault on the Golden Temple in Amritsar which left the Sikh temple heavily damaged at the age of 67 in 1 Safdarjung Road, New Delhi, Delhi, India.

Beant fired three rounds into her abdomen from his .38 revolver and then Satwant fired 30 rounds from his Sten submachine gun after she had fallen to the ground. Both men then threw down their weapons and Beant said "I have done what I had to do. You do what you want to do."

Sunday 31st of October 1993

Actor and musician River Phoenix dies of acute multiple drug intoxication at the age of 23 in The Viper Room, Sunset Strip, West Hollywood, California, United States.

Phoenix collapsed outside and convulsed for over five minutes. By the time paramedics had arrived on the scene Phoenix was turning dark blue in full cardiac arrest and in a flatline state. They administered medication in an attempt to restart his heart. He was rushed to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where further attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Sunday 31st of October 1993

Film director Federico Fellini dies of a heart attack at the age of 73 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Fellini had suffered a second stroke and fell into an irreversible coma a couple of months earlier.

Thursday 31st of October 1996

99 die in TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402 Fokker 100 crash in São Paulo, Jabaquara, Região Sudeste, Brazil.

Sunday 31st of October 1999

217 die in EgyptAir Flight 990 (MS990/MSR990) Boeing 767-300ER crash into the ocean in Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, United States.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the airplane's departure from normal cruise flight and subsequent impact with the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the 59-year-old relief First Officer Gameel Al-Batouti's flight control inputs. The reason for the relief First Officer's actions was not determined.

Monday 31st of October 2005

An uneventful pig tattoo session with Cindy, Miss Moon, the Freak, the Vet, the Keeper and others at Art Farm in Yang Zhen, Shunyi, China.

Saturday 31st of October 2020

Actor Sean Thomas Connery known for portraying the character James Bond dies of natural causes at the age of 90 in Lyford Cay, New Providence, Bahamas.