From the National Museum of the USAF website
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/
Oct. 31:

1910: Ralph Johnstone flew his Wright Biplane to a new world altitude record of 9,714 feet at the Belmont Park International Meet.

1942: After 10 days of bombing operations against German submarine pens in France, Gen. Carl Spaatz informed Gen. H.H. Arnold that the operations were too costly for the results obtained because the pens were too well protected from normal high-altitude bombing. Gen. Spaatz planned to operate as low as 4,000 feet and accept the high casualty rates.

1943: Near New Georgia, Solomon Islands, a Chance Vought F4U-2 Corsair pilot completed the Navy's first successful radar-guided interception.

For the first time from the Mediterranean Theater, 38 B-17s from Twelfth Air Force bombed
France, striking Antheor Viaduct near Cannes.

1948: The USAF revealed that ramjet engines were used for the first time on piloted aircraft, a modified F-80.

1953: Mr. Trevor Gardner, Special Assistant to the SECAF for R&D, formed the Strategic Missiles Evaluation Committee to review and evaluate Air Force missile programs.

1956: Lt. Cmdr. Gus Shinn landed a ski-equipped R4D-5 (a Navy version of the DC-3), named "Que Sera Sera," at the South Pole. Shinn kept the engines running while RAdm. George Dufek stepped out of the plane to stand at the Pole. Dufek and six other Navy crewmen became the
first to stand on the spot since January 1912.

1957: A Snark missile launched at Cape Canaveral completed its first full range flight test. It flew 5,000 miles to the target area near Ascension Island.

1959: The first Atlas equipped with a nuclear warhead went on alert at Vandenberg AFB.

1962: The first U.S. geodetic survey satellite, Anna, launched from Cape Canaveral.

1965: SAC accepted the first flight of 10 Minuteman IIs at the 447 SMS, Grand Forks AFB.

1966: The USAF selected Boeing Company to produce the AGM-069A SRAM for FB-111s and late model B-52s.

1972: The USAF inactivated the last BOMARC surface-to-air missile squadron, the 22nd Air Defense Missile Squadron, at Langley AFB.

1976: The first USAF E-3A AWACS aircraft, with its full complement of surveillance and command and control avionics, made its first test flight.

1985: The Challenger's ninth mission carried Spacelab D-1. West Germany bought the entire
seven-day mission that returned to earth on Nov. 5.

1994: Through Nov. 1, two B-1 Lancers from Ellsworth AFB flew a nonstop mission to a bombing range in Kuwait and back. The 25-hour mission was the first time for the B-1s in the Gulf Region.

1997: In the Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE) project, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center flew the X-33's linear aerospike engine mounted on an SR-71 from Edwards AFB. The sortie determined the unfueled engine's aerodynamic characteristics. Ultimately, the engine was not ignited in flight.

2000: Mission Commander Bill Shepherd and two Russian cosmonauts launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan into space to become the first residents of the International Space Station.

2001: Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. A pair of C-17s flew over Afghanistan to deliver some
35,000 humanitarian rations. The loadmaster aboard one C-17 tossed out a single plasticenclosed meal to symbolically represent the millionth meal airdropped. That act occurred on the 61st C-17 humanitarian flight to help feed Afghan refugees.