According to tradition, Martin Luther this day in 1517 posted on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, his Ninety-five Theses, a manifesto that turned a protest about an indulgence scandal into the Protestant Reformation.
| Today: | | | Although Halloween, celebrated this day, is now observed largely as a secular holiday, it is, as the eve of All Saints' Day, also a religious holiday among some Christians. |
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| 1968: | | | U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered an end to American bombing in North Vietnam. |
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| 1926: | | | Harry Houdini, the magician and escape artist, died of peritonitis stemming from a stomach injury. |
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| 1887: | | | Soldier and statesman Chiang Kai-shek, head of the Nationalist government in China from 1928 to 1949 and subsequently head of the Chinese Nationalist government-in-exile on Taiwan, was born. |
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| 1864: | | | Nevada became the 36th state of the United States. |
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