1517 – Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace Church. The event marked the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.

1864 – Nevada became the 36th state to join the U.S.

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

1914 – The Ottoman Empire (Turkey) joined the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria).

1922 – Benito Mussolini became prime minister of Italy.

1926 – Magician Harry Houdini died of gangrene and peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix. His appendix had been damaged twelve days earlier when he had been punched in the stomach by a student unexpectedly. During a lecture Houdini had commented on the strength of his stomach muscles and their ability to withstand hard blows.

1940 – The British air victory in the Battle of Britain prevented Germany from invading Britain.

1941 – Mount Rushmore was declared complete after 14 years of work. At the time the 60-foot busts of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were finished.

1941 – The U.S. Navy destroyer Reuben James was torpedoed by a German submarine near Iceland. The U.S. had not yet entered World War II. More than 100 men were killed.

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

1954 – The Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) began a revolt against French rule.

1959 – Defense Department announced elimination of all segregated regiments in the armed forces.

1955 – Britain’s Princess Margaret announced she would not marry Royal Air Force Captain Peter Townsend.

1956 – Rear Admiral G.J. Dufek became the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole. Dufek also became the first person to set foot on the South Pole.

1959 – Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine from Fort Worth, TX, announced that he would never return to the U.S.At the time he was in Moscow, Russia.

1961 – In the Soviet Union, the body of Joseph Stalin was removed from Lenin’s Tomb where it was on public display.

1968 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.

1969 – Wal-Mart Discount City stores were incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

1981 – Antiqua and Barbuda became independent of Great Britain.

1983 – The U.S. Defense Department acknowledged that during the U.S. led invasion of Grenada, that a U.S. Navy plane had mistakenly bombed a civilian hospital.

1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated near her residence by two Sikh security guards. Her son, Rajiv, was sworn in as prime minister.

1992 – In Liberia, it was announced that five American nuns had been killed near Monrovia. Rebels loyal to Charles Taylor were blamed for the murders.

1993 – River Phoenix died at the age of 23 after collapsing outside The Viper Room in Hollywood.

1993 – The play “Wonderful Tennessee” closed after only 9 performances.

1994 – 68 people were killed when an American Eagle ATR-72, plunged into a northern Indiana farm.

1997 – Louise Woodward, British au pair, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in the death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen. She was released after her sentence was reduced to manslaughter.

1998 – Iraq announced that it was halting all dealings with U.N. arms inspectors. The inspectors were investigating the country’s weapons of mass destruction stemming from Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

1999 – EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed off the coast of Nantucket, MA, killing all 217 people aboard.

1999 – Leaders from the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. The event ended a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.

2001 – Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department reached a tentative agreement to settle the antitrust case against the software company.

2007 – Google shares hit $700 for the first time.

2008 – Distribution Video Audio, Inc. shipped its final shipment of VHS tapes to stores. The company was the last major United States supplier of pre-recorded VHS tapes.

On October 30, 1969, Richard Nixon signed landmark social security and Medicare legislation increasing much-needed benefits to widowed seniors who now receive 100 percent of their deceased spouses Social Security benefits and extended medical coverage to 1.5 million beneficiaries. The following is Nixon’s radio address broadcast the same day the legislation was passed:

“Good afternoon:

A President signs many bills, but one that I signed today gave me special satisfaction because of the enormous impact it can have on the lives of millions of individual Americans.

I refer to the legislation known as H.R. 1–and especially to its provisions for helping, older Americans. Many of these provisions grew out of recommendations which I have been urging the Congress to act on for several years.

Let’s look at some of the things H.R. 1 will do:

First, nearly 4 million widows and widowers will get larger social security benefits–the full 100 percent of what was payable to the individual’s late husband or wife. This will mean more than $1 billion in additional income for these deserving people in the next fiscal year.

Second, over a million and a half older Americans who are now working can earn more income without having their benefits reduced.

Until today, if you were receiving social security, every dollar you earned above $1,680 cost you 50 cents in benefits–and every dollar you earned above $2,880 cost you a full dollar. But under the new provision-which I have advocated for years–you can earn up to $2,100 without losing a cent of social security, and every dollar you earn above that $2,100–no matter how many–will cost you only 50 cents in benefits. This will encourage more older Americans to work–helping them and helping the country.“

resource: internet

Posted by Gerry le Roux in Special days

on 30 October 1945 – a happy day for shoe lovers! – the rationing was lifted. Men were again able to buy as many pairs of work boots as they liked. Shoe addicts were no longer bound by the painful limit of three pairs of new must-have’s a year. Children could get all the shoes they needed to accommodate their growing feet. And athletes could burn through as many pairs of sneakers as they wanted.

I for one would have easily been able to carry on as normal during the great WWII shoe rationing – shoes are practical things, after all, and surely don’t need replacing until they fall apart, do they? And, in most cases, they’re not even good for you – as I’ve mentioned before, you’re definitely better off going barefoot when possible. So the whole shoe addiction thing is a bit of a mystery to me.

Resource: sciencelens.co.nz

 

The Explosive Chapter Left Out of Malcolm X’s Autobiography

Its title—’The Negro’—seemed innocuous enough. But the revolutionary civil rights leader intended it to invoke a much harsher meaning.

By: Missy Sullivan

On October 29, 1965, nine months after its subject’s assassination, The Autobiography of Malcolm X is first published. The non-traditional autobiography of a singular figure in Black history, the book tells the story and establishes some of the core elements of the legacy of the slain civil rights leader.

The idea for the Autobiography came not from Malcom X himself but from the publishing company Doubleday, who asked journalist Alex Haley to pursue the project. Malcolm X was skeptical of the idea, and Haley later recounted that even after he had begun interviews for the book, it was difficult to keep him focused on himself rather than the Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad. Eventually, however, the two developed a sometimes contentious but fruitful working relationship, with Haley conducting hours of interviews and advising Malcolm X on storytelling and style.

History.com editors

Source: history.com