On This Day — 1 November
2000s
2024
A concrete canopy collapses at the Novi Sad railway station, killing 16 people and injuring 3.
Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse
2012
A fuel tank truck crashes and explodes in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, killing 26 people and injuring 135.
List of tank truck fires and explosions
2011
Mario Draghi succeeds Jean-Claude Trichet and becomes the third president of the European Central Bank.
Mario Draghi
2009
An Ilyushin Il-76 crashes near the Mir mine after takeoff from Mirny Airport in Yakutia, killing all 11 aboard.
Ilyushin Il-76
2001
Turkey, Australia, and Canada agree to commit troops to the invasion of Afghanistan.
Turkey
2000
Chhattisgarh officially becomes the 26th state of India, formed from sixteen districts of eastern Madhya Pradesh.
Chhattisgarh
2000
Serbia and Montenegro joins the United Nations.
Serbia and Montenegro
1900s
1997
Titanic premieres publicly at Tokyo festival, launching a global blockbuster career.
Titanic (1997 film)
1993
The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.
Maastricht Treaty
1991
President of the Chechen Republic Dzhokhar Dudayev declares sovereignty of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from the Russian Federation.
Head of the Chechen Republic
1987
British Rail Class 43 (HST) hits the record speed of 238 km/h for rail vehicles with on-board fuel to generate electricity for traction motors.
British Rail Class 43 (HST)
1984
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India on 31 October 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards, anti-Sikh riots erupt.
Assassination of Indira Gandhi
1982
Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of its factory in Marysville, Ohio; a Honda Accord is the first car produced there.
Honda
1981
Antigua and Barbuda gains independence from the United Kingdom.
Antigua and Barbuda
1979
In Bolivia, Colonel Alberto Natusch executes a bloody coup d'état against the constitutional government of Wálter Guevara.
Alberto Natusch
1979
Griselda Álvarez becomes the first female governor of a state of Mexico.
Griselda Álvarez
1976
Burundian president Michel Micombero is deposed in a bloodless military coup d'état by deputy Jean-Baptiste Bagaza.
Michel Micombero
1973
Watergate scandal: Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor.
Watergate scandal
1973
The Indian state of Mysore is renamed as Karnataka to represent all the regions within Karunadu.
Mysore
1970
Club Cinq-Sept fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France kills 146 young people.
Club Cinq-Sept fire
1968
The Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X.
Motion Picture Association
1963
The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opens.
Arecibo Observatory
1963
The 1963 South Vietnamese coup begins.
1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état
1957
The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at the time, opens to traffic connecting Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.
Mackinac Bridge
1956
The Indian states Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Mysore are formally created under the States Reorganisation Act; Kanyakumari district is joined to Tamil Nadu from Kerala. Delhi was established as a union territory.
Kerala
1956
Hungarian Revolution: Imre Nagy announces Hungary's neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. Soviet troops begin to re-enter Hungary, contrary to assurances by the Soviet government. János Kádár and Ferenc Münnich secretly defect to the Soviets.
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
1956
The Springhill mining disaster in Springhill, Nova Scotia kills 39 miners; 88 are rescued.
Springhill mining disasters
1955
The establishment of a Military Assistance Advisory Group in South Vietnam marks the beginning of American involvement in the conflict.
Military Assistance Advisory Group
1955
The bombing of United Air Lines Flight 629 occurs near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members aboard the Douglas DC-6B airliner.
United Air Lines Flight 629
1954
The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence.
National Liberation Front (Algeria)
1952
Nuclear weapons testing: The United States successfully detonates Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device, at the Eniwetok atoll. The explosion had a yield of ten megatons TNT equivalent.
Nuclear weapons testing
1951
Operation Buster–Jangle: Six thousand five hundred United States Army soldiers are exposed to 'Desert Rock' atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary.
Operation Buster–Jangle
1950
Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman at Blair House.
Puerto Rico
1949
All 55 people on board Eastern Air Lines Flight 537 are killed when the Douglas DC-4 operating the flight collides in mid-air with a Bolivian Air Force Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft over Alexandria, Virginia.
Eastern Air Lines Flight 537
1948
Athenagoras I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, is enthroned.
Athenagoras I of Constantinople
1945
The official North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, is first published under the name Chongro.
North Korea
1944
World War II: Units of the British Army land at Walcheren.
Battle of Walcheren Causeway
1943
World War II: The 3rd Marine Division, United States Marines, landing on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, secures a beachhead, leading that night to a naval clash at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay.
3rd Marine Division
1942
World War II: Matanikau Offensive begins during the Guadalcanal campaign and ends three days later with an American victory.
World War II
1941
American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography.
Ansel Adams
1938
Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral in an upset victory during a match race deemed "the match of the century" in horse racing.
Seabiscuit
1937
Stalinists execute Pastor Paul Hamberg and seven members of Azerbaijan's Lutheran community.
Stalinism
1928
The Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet, replaces the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet.
Turkish alphabet
1923
The Finnish airline Aero O/Y (now Finnair) is founded.
Finnair
1922
Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate: The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, abdicates.
Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate
1918
World War I: With a brave action carried out into the waters of the Austro-Hungarian port of Pula, two officers of the Italian Regia Marina sink with a manned torpedo the enemy battleship SMS Viribus Unitis.
Pula
1918
Malbone Street wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in US history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 102 deaths.
Malbone Street wreck
1918
Western Ukraine separates from Austria-Hungary.
West Ukrainian People's Republic
1916
In Russia, Pavel Milyukov delivers in the State Duma the famous "stupidity or treason" speech, precipitating the downfall of the government of Boris Stürmer.
Pavel Milyukov
1914
World War I: The first British Royal Navy defeat of the war with Germany, the Battle of Coronel, is fought off of the western coast of Chile, in the Pacific, with the loss of HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth.
World War I
1914
World War I: The Australian Imperial Force (AIF) departed by ship in a single convoy from Albany, Western Australia bound for Egypt.
First Australian Imperial Force
1911
World's first combat aerial bombing mission takes place in Libya during the Italo-Turkish War. Second Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti of Italy drops several small bombs.
Italo-Turkish War
1905
Lahti, a city in Finland, is granted city rights by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the last Grand Duke of Finland.
Lahti
1800s
1897
The first Library of Congress building opens its doors to the public; the library had previously been housed in the Congressional Reading Room in the U.S. Capitol.
Library of Congress
1897
Italian Sport-Club Juventus is founded by a group of students of Liceo Classico Massimo d'Azeglio.
Juventus FC
1896
A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.
National Geographic
1894
Nicholas II becomes the new (and last) Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies.
Nicholas II
1894
Buffalo Bill, 15 of his Native Americans, and Annie Oakley were filmed by Thomas Edison in his Black Maria Studio in West Orange, New Jersey.
Buffalo Bill
1893
The Battle of Bembezi took place and was the most decisive battle won by the British in the First Matabele War of 1893.
Battle of Bembezi
1870
In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast.
National Weather Service
1861
American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as the commander of the Union Army, replacing General Winfield Scott.
American Civil War
1848
In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with the Boston University School of Medicine), opens.
Boston
1814
Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars.
Congress of Vienna
1805
Napoleon Bonaparte invades Austria during the War of the Third Coalition.
Napoleon
1800
John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).
John Adams
Before 1800
1790
Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which he predicts that the French Revolution will end in a disaster.
Edmund Burke
1765
The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the Thirteen Colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America.
Parliament of Great Britain
1755
In Portugal, Lisbon is totally devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 people.
Lisbon
1688
William III of Orange sets out a second time from Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands to seize the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland from King James II of England during the Glorious Revolution.
William III of England
1683
The British Crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.
Province of New York
1612
During the Time of Troubles, Polish troops are expelled from Moscow's Kitay-gorod by Russian troops under the command of Dmitry Pozharsky (22 October O.S.).
Time of Troubles
1570
The All Saints' Flood devastates the Dutch coast.
All Saints' Flood (1570)
1555
French Huguenots establish the France Antarctique colony in present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Huguenots
1520
The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage.
Strait of Magellan
1512
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
Sistine Chapel
1503
Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere is elected Pope and takes the name Julius II.
List of popes
1348
The anti-royalist Union of Valencia attacks the Jews of Murviedro on the pretext that they are serfs of the King of Valencia and thus "royalists".
Union of Valencia
1214
The port city of Sinope surrenders to the Seljuq Turks.
Sinop, Turkey
1179
Philip II is crowned King of France.
Philip II of France
1141
Empress Matilda's reign as "Lady of the English" ends as Stephen of Blois regains the title of "King of England".
Empress Matilda
996
Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk, Bishop of Freising, which is the oldest known document using the name Ostarrîchi (Austria in Old High German).
Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor
365
Roman Emperor Valentinian I learns the Alemanni have crossed the Rhine and invaded Gaul.
AD 365