Rakfisk Festival in Fagernes, Norway (The Norwegian Rakfisk Festival in Fagernes is all about a semi-fermented trout called rakfisk, that has a unique flavor thanks to its long fermenting process)
Reformation Day (Slovenia, parts of Germany, Chile, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, various Protestant churches with a particular emphasis in Lutheran and Reformed ones)
In 2017 researchers at the United States Department of Energy set a new world efficiency record for quantum dot solar cells, at 13.4 percent.
2000 – Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been crewed continuously since then.
1943 – World War II: An F4U Corsair accomplishes the first successful radar-guided interception by a United States Navy or Marine Corps aircraft.
1941 – World War II: The destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 U.S. Navy sailors. It is the first U.S. Navy vessel sunk by enemy action in WWII.
1923 – The first of 160 consecutive days of 100° Fahrenheit at Marble Bar, Western Australia.
1913 – Dedication of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile highway across United States.
1861 – American Civil War: Citing failing health, Union General Winfield Scott resigns as Commander of the United States Army.
1614 – First performance of Ben Jonson's comedy Bartholomew Fair by the Lady Elizabeth's Men company at the Hope Theatre in London.
Births
1988 – Cole Aldrich, American basketball player. Cole David Aldrich (born October 31, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Tianjin Golden Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).
1983 – Adam Bouska, American photographer and activist, founded the NOH8 Campaign. Adam Bouska (born October 31, 1983, in Decatur, Illinois) is an American fashion photographer who runs a photography studio based out of West Hollywood, California.
1981 – Frank Iero, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Frank Anthony Iero, Jr. (born October 31, 1981) is an American musician who is the rhythm guitarist and backup vocalist of the rock band My Chemical Romance and post-hardcore band Leathermouth.
1981 – Mike Napoli, American baseball player. Michael Anthony Napoli (born October 31, 1981) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and catcher and current coach.
1981 – Steven Hunter, American basketball player. He most recently played for Dinamo Sassari.
1980 – Alondra de la Parra, Mexican-American pianist and conductor. Alondra de la Parra (born October 31, 1980) is a Mexican American conductor and the current Music Director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the first female principal conductor of an Australian symphony orchestra.
1980 – Eddie Kaye Thomas, American actor and voice artist. He also starred in the CBS show Scorpion as Dr.
1980 – Samaire Armstrong, American model, actress, and fashion designer. She has appeared on television as Elaine Richards in the ABC fantasy-drama Resurrection.
1976 – Piper Perabo, American actress and producer. Piper Lisa Perabo (/ˈpɛrəboʊ/ (listen); born October 31, 1976) is an American film and television actress.
1975 – Johnny Whitworth, American actor and producer. Whitworth is best known for his performance's as AJ the lovestruck artist in the cult classic Empire Records, as Donny Ray Black a young man dying of cancer in Francis Ford Coppola's The Rainmaker, shady Vernon Gant in Limitless, the villain Blackout in the Marvel superhero film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and as Cage Wallace in the CW series The 100.
1975 – Keith Jardine, American mixed martial artist and actor. His best wins were in contests with former UFC Light Heavyweight Champions and UFC Hall of Famers Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin.
1974 – Roger Manganelli, Brazilian-American singer-songwriter and bass player. Lima also performs as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of punk rock band Rehasher, and has another band called Greenhorn.
1973 – Christopher Bevins, American voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. Christopher Bevins (born October 31, 1973) is an American voice actor, ADR director and scriptwriter who has worked on English language adaptations of Japanese anime shows for Funimation and Bang Zoom! Entertainment.
1973 – David Dellucci, American baseball player and sportscaster. David Michael Dellucci (born October 31, 1973) is an American former professional baseball outfielder, who played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), for 7 teams.
1973 – Tim Byrdak, American baseball player. Timothy Christopher Byrdak (born October 31, 1973) is an American former professional baseball pitcher.
1971 – Alphonso Ford, American basketball player (d. 2004), was an American professional basketball player. A 1.92 m (6 ft 3 3⁄4 in) tall, 98 kg (216 lbs.) shooting guard, he was one of the greatest scorers in college basketball history.
1968 – Antonio Davis, American basketball player and sportscaster. On October 31, 2012, ESPN announced the hiring of Davis as a studio analyst for NBA broadcasts.
1967 – Adam Schlesinger, American bass player, songwriter, and producer. He has won three Emmys, a Grammy, and the ASCAP Pop Music Award, and has been nominated for Oscar, Tony and Golden Globe Awards.
1967 – Vanilla Ice, American rapper, television personality, and real estate investor. Robert Matthew Van Winkle (born October 31, 1967), known professionally as Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, actor, and television host.
1966 – Ad-Rock, American rapper, producer, and actor. Adam Keefe Horovitz (born October 31, 1966), better known as Ad-Rock or King Ad-Rock, is an American rapper, guitarist and actor.
1966 – Mike O'Malley, American actor and comedian. Michael Edward O'Malley (born October 31, 1966) is an American actor and writer who has appeared in films and television series.
1965 – Blue Edwards, American basketball player. Theodore "Blue" Edwards (born October 31, 1965) is a retired American professional basketball player who played ten seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
1964 – Frank Bruni, American journalist and critic. His columns appear twice weekly and he also writes a weekly newsletter.
1963 – Dermot Mulroney, American actor. Appearing on screen since the mid-1980s, he is known for his work in films such as Young Guns (1988), Staying Together (1989), Where the Day Takes You (1992), Point of No Return (1993), Angels in the Outfield (1994), My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), About Schmidt (2002), The Wedding Date (2005), August: Osage County (2013), Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015), and the HBO films The Last Outlaw (1993) and Long Gone (1987).
1963 – Rob Schneider, American actor and comedian. Schneider is the father of singer Elle King.
1962 – Anna Geifman, American historian, author, and academic. The field of her scientific interest includes political extremism, terrorism and the history of the Russian revolutionary movements.
1962 – John Giannini, American basketball player and coach. Giannini led Rowan to an NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament championship in 1996.
1962 – Jonathan Borden, American neurosurgeon and academic. He has been involved in internet based telemedicine applications and is an editor of the RDDL specification for XML Namespaces.
1961 – Alonzo Babers, American runner and pilot. Babers (born October 31, 1961) is an American former athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics, in the 400 m and the 4 × 400 m relay.
1961 – Kate Campbell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Jamae Kathryn "Kate" Campbell (born October 31, 1961 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American folk singer-songwriter.
1960 – Mike Gallego, American baseball player and coach. Michael Anthony Gallego (born October 31, 1960) is an American of Mexican descent professional baseball former infielder and current coach.
1959 – Neal Stephenson, American author. Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction.
1957 – Brian Stokes Mitchell, American singer and actor. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2000 for his performance in Kiss Me, Kate.
1957 – Robert Pollard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Robert Ellsworth Pollard Jr. (born October 31, 1957) is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is the leader and creative force behind indie rock group Guided by Voices.
1956 – Bruce Bawer, American poet and critic. Theodore Bruce Bawer (born October 31, 1956), who writes under the name Bruce Bawer, is an American writer who has been a resident of Norway since 1999.
1955 – Susan Orlean, American journalist and author. She has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992, and has contributed articles to many magazines including Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Outside.
1954 – Ken Wahl, American actor and screenwriter. Wahl (born February 14, 1957) is a retired American film and television actor, popular in the 1980s and 1990s, best known for the CBS television crime drama Wiseguy.
1953 – John Lucas II, American basketball player and coach. John Harding Lucas II (born October 31, 1953) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the player development coach of the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
1952 – Bernard Edwards, American bass player and producer (d. 1996), was an American bass player, singer, songwriter and record producer, known primarily for his work in disco music with guitarist Nile Rodgers, with whom he co-founded Chic. In 2017, Edwards was selected as the 53rd greatest bassist of all time by Bass Player magazine.
1951 – Dave Trembley, American baseball player, coach, and manager. David Michael Trembley (born October 31, 1951 in Carthage, New York) is an American professional baseball executive who served as director of player development of the Atlanta Braves in 2015.
1951 – Nick Saban, American football player and coach. Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. (/seɪbən/; born October 31, 1951) is an American football coach who has been the head football coach at the University of Alabama since 2007.
1950 – Antonio Taguba, Filipino-American general. Antonio Mario Taguba (born October 31, 1950) is a retired major general in the United States Army.
1950 – Jane Pauley, American journalist. Margaret Jane Pauley (born October 31, 1950), known as Jane Pauley, is an American television journalist and author, active in news reporting since 1972.
1950 – Zaha Hadid, Iraqi-English architect and academic, designed the Bridge Pavilion (d. 2016), was an Iraqi–British architect.
1947 – Deidre Hall, American actress. Marlena Evans on NBC's daytime drama Days of Our Lives, which she has played for over 40 years.
1947 – Frank Shorter, American runner and sportscaster. Frank Charles Shorter (born October 31, 1947) is an American former long-distance runner who won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1972 Summer Olympics and the silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
1945 – Brian Doyle-Murray, American actor and comedian. He co-starred on the TBS sitcom on Sullivan & Son, where he played the foul-mouthed Hank Murphy.
1943 – Brian Piccolo, American football player (d. 1970), was an American professional football player, a running back for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) for four years. He died at age 26 from embryonal cell carcinoma, an aggressive form of germ cell testicular cancer, first diagnosed after it had spread to his chest cavity.
1943 – Elliott Forbes-Robinson, American race car driver. He is known in NASCAR circles as a road course ringer.
1943 – Paul Frampton, English-American physicist and academic. Paul Howard Frampton (born 31 October 1943) is an English particle phenomenologist.
1941 – Dan Alderson, American scientist and academic (d. 1989), was a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, and a prominent participant in science fiction fandom. He came from a middle-class family and had diabetes.
1941 – Sally Kirkland, American actress. Kirkland was the lead actress in Cold Feet (1989), and was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her work in The Haunted (1991).
1941 – Werner Krieglstein, Czech-American philosopher and academic. Werner Josef Krieglstein (born October 31, 1941), a Fulbright Scholar and University of Chicago fellow, is an award winning and internationally recognized scholar, director and actor.
1940 – Craig Rodwell, American businessman and activist, founded the Oscar Wilde Bookshop (d. 1993). Rodwell (October 31, 1940 – June 18, 1993) was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop on November 24, 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors and as the prime mover for the creation of the New York City pride demonstration.
1939 – Ron Rifkin, American actor. Ron Rifkin (born Saul M.
1936 – Michael Landon, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1991), was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983), and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven (1984–1989).
1935 – David Harvey, English-American geographer and academic. Harvey FBA (born 31 October 1935) is a British-born Marxist economic geographer and Distinguished Professor of anthropology and geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY).
1935 – Ronald Graham, American mathematician and theorist. Ronald Lewis "Ron" Graham (born October 31, 1935) is an American mathematician credited by the American Mathematical Society as being "one of the principal architects of the rapid development worldwide of discrete mathematics in recent years".
1931 – Dan Rather, American journalist. His reporting elevated his position in CBS News, where he was White House correspondent beginning in 1964.
1930 – Booker Ervin, American saxophonist (d. 1970), was an American tenor saxophone player. His tenor playing was characterised by a strong, tough sound and blues/gospel phrasing.
1928 – Andrew Sarris, American critic and educator (d. 2012), was an American film critic, a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism.
1925 – John Pople, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004), was a British theoretical chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Walter Kohn in 1998 for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry.
1925 – Lawrence A. Cremin, American historian and author (d. 1990), was an educational historian and administrator.
1925 – Robert B. Rheault, American colonel (d. 2013), was an American colonel in the U.S. Army Special Forces who served as commander of the First Special Forces Group in Okinawa, and the Fifth Special Forces Group in Vietnam from May to July 1969.
1922 – Barbara Bel Geddes, American actress (d. 2005), was an American stage and screen actress, artist, and children's author whose career spanned almost five decades. She was best known for her starring role as Miss Ellie Ewing in the television series Dallas.
1922 – Illinois Jacquet, American saxophonist and composer (d. 2004), was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, best remembered for his solo on "Flying Home", critically recognized as the first R&B saxophone solo.
1919 – Magnus Wenninger, American mathematician and author (d. 2017). Wenninger OSB (October 31, 1919– February 17, 2017) was an American mathematician who worked on constructing polyhedron models, and wrote the first book on their construction.
1918 – Ian Stevenson, American psychiatrist and academic (d. 2007), was a Canadian-born U.S. psychiatrist. He worked for the University of Virginia School of Medicine for fifty years, as chair of the department of psychiatry from 1957 to 1967, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry from 1967 to 2001, and Research Professor of Psychiatry from 2002 until his death.
1915 – Jane Jarvis, American pianist and composer (d. 2010), was an American jazz pianist. She was also known for her work as a composer, baseball stadium organist and music industry executive.
1912 – Dale Evans, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2001), was an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.
1912 – Ollie Johnston, American animator and voice actor (d. 2008), was an American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last surviving at the time of his death from natural causes.
1907 – Edgar Sampson, American musician and composer (d. 1973), was an American jazz composer, arranger, saxophonist, and violinist. Born in New York City, he started playing violin at age six and picked up the saxophone in high school.
1896 – Ethel Waters, American singer and actress (d. 1977). Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts, but she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.
1880 – Julia Peterkin, American author (d. 1961), was an American author from South Carolina. In 1929 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Novel/Literature, for her novel Scarlet Sister Mary.
1876 – Natalie Clifford Barney, American poet and playwright (d. 1972), was an American playwright, poet and novelist who lived as an expatriate in Paris.
1868 – John Weir Troy, American journalist and politician, 5th Governor of the Territory of Alaska (d. 1942), was an American Democratic politician who was the Governor of Alaska Territory from 1933 to 1939. He was born in Dungeness, Washington and died in Juneau, Alaska.
1860 – Juliette Gordon Low, American scout leader, founded the Girl Scouts of the United States of America (d. 1927), was the founder of Girl Scouts of the USA. Inspired by the work of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of Boy Scouts, Juliette Low joined the Girl Guide movement in England, forming a group of Girl Guides in Great Britain in 1911.
1856 – Charles Leroux, American balloonist and skydiver (d. 1889), was an American balloonist and parachutist.
1849 – Marie Louise Andrews, American story writer and journalist (d. 1891), was an American author and editor from Indiana. She was one of the founders of the Western Association of Writers, and served as its secretary from its organization until June 1888, when she retired.
1848 – Boston Custer, American soldier (d. 1876), was the youngest brother of U.S. Army Lt Colonel George Armstrong Custer and two-time Medal of Honor recipient Captain Thomas Custer.
1835 – Adelbert Ames, American general and politician, 27th Governor of Mississippi (d. 1933), was an American sailor, soldier, and politician who served with distinction as a Union Army general during the American Civil War. A Radical Republican, he was military governor, U.S.
1737 – James Lovell, American educator and politician (d. 1789). James Arthur Lovell Jr. (/ˈlʌvəl/; born March 25, 1928) is a former NASA astronaut, Naval Aviator, mechanical engineer, and retired Navy captain.
Deaths
2015 – Gus Savage, American businessman and politician (b. 1925)
2014 – Brad Halsey, American baseball player (b. 1981)
2014 – David Manker Abshire, American commander and diplomat, United States Permanent Representative to NATO (b. 1926)
2014 – Michael Alsbury, American engineer and pilot (b. 1975)
2013 – Chris Chase, American actress and author (b. 1924)
2013 – Johnny Kucks, American baseball player (b. 1933)
2012 – John H. Reed, American soldier and politician, 67th Governor of Maine (b. 1921)
2010 – Ted Sorensen, American lawyer, 8th White House Counsel (b. 1928)
2009 – Tom Wheatcroft, English businessman, founded the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition (b. 1922)
2008 – Studs Terkel, American historian and author (b. 1912)
2005 – Hal Anger, American biophysicist and engineer (b. 1920)
2003 – Richard Neustadt, American political scientist and historian (b. 1919)
1995 – Rosalind Cash, American actress and singer (b. 1938)
1993 – River Phoenix, American actor and singer (b. 1970)
1991 – Joseph Papp, American stage director and producer (b. 1921)
1988 – John Houseman, Romanian-born American actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1902)
1986 – Robert S. Mulliken, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1896)
1983 – George Halas, American football player and coach (b. 1895)
1977 – C. B. Colby, American author and illustrator (b. 1904)
1960 – H. L. Davis, American author and poet (b. 1894)
1926 – Harry Houdini, American magician and stuntman (b. 1874)
1916 – Charles Taze Russell, American minister (b. 1852)
1879 – Jacob Abbott, American author and academic (b. 1803)
1879 – Joseph Hooker, American general (b. 1814)
1869 – Charles A. Wickliffe, American politician, 14th Governor of Kentucky (b. 1788)
Remind me of this day
