On This Day November 1

The Russian mystic Rasputin first met Tsar Nicholas II on November 1, 1905, at the Peterhof Palace. The Tsar recorded the event in his diary, writing that he and his wife Alexandra had "made the acquaintance of a man of God - Grigory, from Tobolsk province." By late 1906, Rasputin began acting as a healer for the royal family's son Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia.

Alexandra Feodorovna with her children, Rasputin and the nurse (1908)

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On This Day October 31

The papacy was earning a good income by the indulgences system that allowed Christians to purchase remission from penance in purgatory. Appalled at the indulgences system, the Augustinian monk Martin Luther nailed up on the church door at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, his Ninety-five Theses, (the standard way of raising issues for debate), arguing that a Christian has had a full pardon from God and no need of indulgences. The Protestant Reformation had begun.

1517 Nuremberg printing of the Ninety-five Theses as a placard

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On This Day October 30

Jane Austen's first successful novel Sense and Sensibility was published anonymously (it was attributed to " Lady") on October 30, 1811. She had to pay to have it published, but her investment paid off; by the middle of 1813, the novel had sold out its first print run of 750 copies. It then had a second print run later that year, making Austen a total profit of £140.

Title page from the original 1811 edition

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On This Day October 29

American entrepreneur Milton Reynolds first came across the Bíró ballpoint pen during a business trip to Argentina where they were first made. Recognizing their commercial potential, he founded Reynolds International Pen Company to manufacture them. His product Reynolds' Rocket ballpoint pens went on sale at Gimbels department store in New York City on October 29, 1945 for $12.95. Reynolds advertised it as the pen "to write under water." It was immediately successful: $100,000 worth sold the first day on the market.

Birome advertisement in Argentine magazine Leoplán, 1945. Wikipedia 

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On This Day October 28

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886. President Grover Cleveland, the former New York governor, presided over the event, which was marked by the city's first ticker-tape parade. The statue, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. Maurice Koechlin, who was chief engineer of Gustave Eiffel's engineering company and designer of the Eiffel Tower, designed the internal structure.

Unveiling of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World (1886) by Edward Moran

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On This Day October 27

The city of Amsterdam was first settled as a small fishing village in the late 12th century. The name means 'dam on the Amstel.' The earliest recorded use of the name "Amsterdam" is from a certificate dated October 27, 1275, when the inhabitants, who had built a bridge with a dam across the Amstel, were exempted from paying a bridge toll by Count Floris V.

The GIFT-LETTER of 1275

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On This Day October 26

The first edition of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels was published in two volumes on October 26, 1726, priced at 8s. 6d. The book was an instant sensation and sold out its first run in less than a week. The novel's full title was Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. (Swift was nervous about the reaction his satire might provoke, hence the Lemuel Gulliver pseudonym).

First edition of Gulliver's Travels

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