Daily Calendar – October 31

The 304th day of the year; 61 days remain until the New Year.

Church Calendar

The Holy, Glorious, All-Praised Apostle and Evangelist Luke (1st century); the Martyr Marinus the Monk (4th century); the Venerable Julian the Hermit (4th century).

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, a native of Antioch in Syria and one of the Seventy Apostles, was a companion and co-worker of the Holy Apostle Paul. He was a physician and belonged to the circle of educated Greeks in Antioch. Upon learning about Christ, Luke the physician traveled to Palestine, where he received the soul-saving teachings directly from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Luke the Evangelist was among the Seventy Apostles whom the Savior Himself sent forth to preach the Kingdom of Heaven during His earthly life. After His glorious Resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Luke and Cleopas as they were traveling to Emmaus.

The Apostle Luke participated in the second missionary journey of the Holy Apostle Paul, and from that time on, they remained inseparable companions. When all his fellow laborers abandoned Saint Paul, the Apostle Luke did not leave his side, sharing in all of Saint Paul’s hardships. Following the martyrdom of the chief apostles, Saint Luke departed from Rome and traveled through Achaia, Libya, Egypt, and Thebais, preaching the Gospel. It was in the city of Thebes that he concluded his earthly life through martyrdom.

Church tradition attributes the creation of the first icons of the Most Holy Theotokos to Saint Luke the Evangelist. Icons of the chief apostles, Peter and Paul, are also ascribed to him.

Saint Luke the Evangelist wrote his Gospel between the years 62 and 63 in Rome, with the assistance and guidance of the Apostle Paul himself. In the very opening verses of his Gospel, Saint Luke clearly stated the purpose of his work: to provide as complete an account as possible—in chronological order—of everything known to Christians regarding Jesus Christ and His teachings, thereby establishing a firm historical foundation for the Christian hope.

Born:

1632 – Jan Vermeer of Delft, Dutch painter; died in 1675.

1795 – John Keats, English poet; died in 1821.

1835 – Adolf Baeyer, German chemist and Nobel laureate; died in 1917.

1890 – Davit Kipshidze, philologist and historian; died in 1919.

1891 – Grigol Robakidze, writer; died in 1965.

1907 – Evgeni Kharadze, astrophysicist and Academician of the Georgian Academy of Sciences; died in 2001.

1910 – Tinatin Kutateladze, engineer-architect.

1930 – Michael Collins, American astronaut; participated in the historic flight of the spacecraft Apollo 11, during which N. Armstrong and E. Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the Moon.

Died:

1926 – Davit Guramishvili, renowned painter and representative of the realist school; born in 1857. 1986 – Robert Mulliken, an American physical chemist and Nobel Prize laureate, born in 1896.

1996 – Marcel Carné, a French film director, born in 1909.

1984 – Indira Gandhi, an Indian political and state figure, born in 1917.

1993 – Federico Fellini, an Italian actor and film director, born in 1920.

Events:

1517 – Martin Luther posted his famous 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg.

1864 – Nevada became the 36th state of the USA.

1887 – The premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Spanish Capriccio took place in Saint Petersburg.

1887 – Dutch inventor John Boyd Dunlop patented the pneumatic bicycle tire.

1905 – Mass attacks against Jews began in Russia.

1918 – Turkey declared its capitulation.

1918 – Hungary declared its independence. 1943 – The Karachay people were forcibly deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan.

1961 – By a decision of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party, Stalin’s remains were removed from the Mausoleum.

1968 – The President of the United States issued an order to halt the bombing of North Vietnam and to begin peace negotiations with the Vietnamese side.

1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated.

1984 – Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India.

1992 – The Vatican officially rehabilitated Galileo Galilei.

2020 – Parliamentary elections were held in Georgia.

Notable Days:

USA – Halloween.

Slovakia – Reformation Day.