Check out This Day in History for Oct. 31, in MainStream’s daily look at significant progressive, intersectional historical events.
1918: The Purple Death or Great Flu, often called the Spanish flu. kills 21,000 Americans in a single week, 675,000 Americans in a year, and 21 million people worldwide. The virus originated in the United States and was transported to Europe by fighting troops. It became known as the Spanish flu because Spain remained neutral during World War I, and its media was free to report on the virus, unlike media in many other countries.
Above, l to r: Violet Palmer, Harry Houdini, Indira Gandhi, and Earl Cooper.
1920: The first-ever anti-slavery magazine, The Emancipator, ceases publication less than a year after it started in Jonesborough, Tenn., when founder Elihu Embree falls ill. Also magician Harry Houdini dies of either a ruptured appendix, or peritonitis caused by a stomach injury when a university student accepts his challenge to punch him in the abdomen several days earlier before he can prepare for hte blow.
1950: “The Big Cat” Earl Lloyd becomes the first African-American to play a game in the NBA, playing for the Washington Capitols.
1968: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson orders a halt to all bombing of North Vietnam. While this was a significant de-escalation to the Vietnam War, it continued until 1975.
1984: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the country’s first-ever female prime minister, is assassinated by her bodyguards, two Sikhs whom she’d entrusted despite the Sikh community’s dislike for her because her military had destroyed parts of the Akal Tak in Punjab, India, the highest seat of authority for the Sikh community.
1992: Actor River Phoenix dies at age 23 of heart failure after binging for days on cocaine, heroine and other drugs. His death triggers a focus on the pressures of fame. The Roman Catholic church apologizes for its treatment of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei after 359 years, acknowledging he had been right about the Earth revolving around the Sun.
1997: Violet Palmer becomes the first woman ever to officiate an NBA game. Palmer also was the first openly gay referee (she came out in 2014) and first woman to referee an NBA playoff game.
2008: An inventor with the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto invents “bitcoin” by publishing a white paper describing a “decentralized peer-to-peer network that could track and verify transactions while producing a transparent, verifiable record.”
Photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons
