Freddy Fazbear cosplayer (right)

Five Nights at Freddy's is a 2014 survival horror game developed by Scott Cawthon. The player takes the role of Mike Schmidt, a night security guard at a family pizzeria. Schmidt must complete his shifts without being caught by the homicidal animatronic characters (Freddy Fazbear cosplayer pictured) that wander the restaurant at night. Cawthon conceived Five Nights at Freddy's based on criticism of Chipper & Sons Lumber Co., his previous game. Reviewers complained of its unintentionally frightening characters, inspiring Cawthon to create an intentionally scarier experience. Five Nights at Freddy's was first released for Windows on August 8, 2014. It received positive reviews, and became the subject of Let's Play videos on YouTube, gaining a large fan following. The game's success inspired its own media franchise, and its popularity led to thousands of imitations and fan games. A film adaptation by Blumhouse Productions was released in 2023. (Full article...)

• ... that Night of the Living Dead (film featured) was mistakenly released into the public domain?
• ... that a variety of the Connecticut field pumpkin is known as "the original commercial jack-o'-lantern pumpkin"?
• ... that there are nearly one hundred thousand .monsters on the internet?
• ... that The Faculty Club at UC Berkeley, built in 1902, has been reported to be a hotspot for paranormal activity?
• ... that British designer Alexander McQueen pressed live worms into a translucent corset to evoke vampirism and undeath for his collection The Hunger?
• ... that various online retailers removed hundreds of books featuring erotic horror from their stores?
• ... that "Thriller" is the most popular Halloween song in the United States?
• ... that film critics accused the MPAA ratings board of having yielded to studio pressure to rate The Exorcist R rather than X?
• ... that the
  Miss Pumpkin
  since 1933?
• ... that The Wiccan Web recommends drawing pentagrams on your computer screen in oil?

Kalle Rovanperä

• In motorsport, Kalle Rovanperä (pictured) and Jonne Halttunen win the World Rally Championship.
• A coal mine fire in Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan, kills 45 people.
• Hurricane Otis makes landfall near Acapulco, Mexico, leaving at least 48 people dead.
• In the United States, 18 people are killed in a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine.

October 31: Halloween

Metrojet Flight 9268

• 1917 – World War I: Allied forces defeated Turkish troops in Beersheba in Southern Palestine at the Battle of Beersheba, with the battle involving one of the last successful cavalry charges.
• 1941 – More than 101 crew members of the USS Reuben James perished when their vessel became the first U.S. Navy ship sunk by hostile action during World War II after it was torpedoed by the German submarine U-552.
• 1963 – A gas explosion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum in Indianapolis killed 81 people and injured about 400 others.
• 2003 – After 22 years in power, Tun Mahathir Mohamad retired as Prime Minister of Malaysia.
• 2015 – Shortly after takeoff, Metrojet Flight 9268 (pictured) exploded and then crashed into the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.