October 29
is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in
leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar, with 63 days remaining.
*
437 -
Valentinian III, Western
Roman Emperor, marries
Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin
Theodosius II, Eastern
Roman Emperor in
Constantinople. This unifies the two branches of the
House of Theodosius*
969 -
Byzantine troops occupy
Antioch Syria *
1061 - Emperor disposes of Bishop
Cadalus & Pope
Honorius II *
1268 -
Conradin, the last legitimate male heir of the
Hohenstaufen dynasty of
Kings of Germany and
Holy Roman Emperors, is executed along with his companion
Frederick I, Margrave of Baden by
Charles I of Sicily, a political rival and ally to the hostile
Catholic church.
*
1422 -
Charles VII of France becomes king in succession to his father
Charles VI of France *
1467 - Battle of Brusthem:
Charles the Bold defeats
Liege*
1618 -
English adventurer, writer, and
courtier Sir
Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against
James I of England.
*
1658 -
Action of 29 October 1658 (Naval battle)
*
1675 -
Leibniz makes the first use of the
long s, ∫, for
integral.
*
1787 -
Mozart's
opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in
Prague.
*
1792 - Mt. Hood (
Oregon) is named after the British naval officer Alexander Arthur Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who spotted the mountain near the mouth of the
Willamette River.
*
1863 - Sixteen countries meeting in
Geneva agree to form the
International Red Cross.
* 1863 -
American Civil War:
Battle of Wauhatchie - Forces under
Union General
Ulysses S. Grant ward-off a
Confederate attack led by General
James Longstreet. Union forces thus open a
supply line into
Chattanooga, Tennessee.
*
1881 -
The Judge (US magazine) first published.
*
1886 - The
ticker-tape parade is invented in
New York City when office workers spontaneously throw
ticker tape into the streets as the
Statue of Liberty is dedicated.
*
1901 - In
Amherst, Massachusetts nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of
morphine.
* 1901 -
Capital punishment:
Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of US President
William McKinley, is executed by electrocution.
*
1921 - The
Link River Dam, a part of the
Klamath Reclamation Project, is completed.
*
1923 -
Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the
Ottoman Empire.
*
1929 - The
New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the
Crash of '29 or
Black Tuesday, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the
Great Depression.
*
1942 -
Holocaust: In the
United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over
Nazi Germany's persecution of
Jews.
*
1944 -
Breda in the
Netherlands is liberated by
1st Polish Armoured Division*
1945 -
Getulio Vargas, president of
Brazil, resigns.
*
1948 -
Safsaf massacre*
1955 - The
Soviet battleship Novorossiisk strikes a
World War II mine in the harbor at
Sevastopol.
*
1956 -
Suez Crisis begins:
Israel invades the
Sinai Peninsula and push
Egyptian forces back toward the
Suez Canal.
* 1956 - Tangier Protocol signed: The international city
Tangier is reintegrated into
Morocco.
*
1957 -
Israel's prime minister
David Ben Gurion and five of his ministers are injured as a
hand grenade is tossed into Israel's parliament, the
Knesset.
*
1960 - In
Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name
Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.
*
1964 - A collection of irreplaceable
gems, including the 565 carat (113 g)
Star of India, is stolen by a group of theives including
Jack Murphy from the
American Museum of Natural History in
New York City.
*
1969 - The first-ever
computer-to-computer link is established on
ARPANET, the precursor to the
Internet.
*
1971 -
Vietnam War:
Vietnamization - The total number of American troops still in
Vietnam drops to a record low of 196,700 (the lowest level since January
1966).
*
1980 - Demonstration flight of a secretly modified
C-130 for an
Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in crash landing at
Eglin Air Force Base's Duke Field,
Florida leading to cancellation of Operation Credible Sport.
*
1985 - Major General
Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multiparty election in
Liberia.
*
1988 - In
Japan, the
Sega Megadrive is released for the first time.
*
1989 - After years of delays, the 63rd Street Tunnel opens for service, the first expansion of the
New York City subway system since
1967.
*
1991 - The American
Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to
951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an
asteroid.
*
1992 - The
Food and Drug Administration approves
Depo Provera for use as a
contraceptive in the
United States.
*
1994 -
Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the
White House (Duran was later convicted of trying to kill US President
Bill Clinton).
*
1998 -
Apartheid: In
South Africa, the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.
* 1998 -
Space Shuttle Discovery blasts-off with 77-year old
John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space. He became the first American to orbit Earth on
February 20,
1962.
* 1998 - While en route from
Adana to
Ankara, a
Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of 6 and 33 passengers is hijacked by a
Kurdish militant who orders the pilot to fly to
Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricked the hijacker into thinking that he was landing in the
Bulgarian capital of
Sofia to refuel.
* 1998 - In
Freehold Borough, New Jersey,
Melissa Drexler pleads guilty to aggravated
manslaughter for killing her baby moments after delivering him in the bathroom at her senior
prom, and is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
* 1998 -
Hurricane Mitch made
landfall in
Honduras.
*
2004 - The
Arabic news network
Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a
video of
Osama bin Laden in which the
terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the
September 11, 2001 attacks and references the
2004 U.S. presidential election.
* 2004 - In
Rome, European heads of state sign the Treaty and Final Act establishing the first
European Constitution.
*
2005 -
29 October 2005 Delhi bombings kill more than 60.
* 2005 -
Ghana International Airlines launched with inaugural flight from
Accra to
London.
*
1017 -
Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor (d.
1056)
*
1656 (O.S.) -
Edmond Halley, English astronomer (d.
1742)
*
1682 -
Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, French historian (d.
1761)
*
1690 -
Martin Folkes, English antiquarian (d.
1754)
*
1704 -
John Byng, British admiral (d.
1757)
*
1740 -
James Boswell, Scottish biographer of
Samuel Johnson (d.
1795)
*
1815 -
Daniel Emmett, American composer (d.
1904)
*
1827 -
Marcellin Berthelot, French chemist (d.
1907)
*
1861 -
Andrei Ryabushkin, Russian painter (d.
1904)
*
1877 -
Wilfred Rhodes, English cricketer (d.
1973)
*
1879 -
Alva B. Adams, American politician (d.
1941)
* 1879 -
Franz von Papen,
Chancellor of Germany (d.
1969)
*
1880 -
Abram Ioffe, Soviet physicist (d.
1960)
*
1882 -
Jean Giraudoux, French writer (d.
1944)
*
1891 -
Fanny Brice, American singer (d.
1951)
*
1897 -
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda (d.
1945)
*
1899 -
Akim Tamiroff, Russian actor (d.
1972)
*
1910 -
Alfred Ayer, British philosopher (d.
1989)
*
1915 -
William Berenberg, American physician (d.
2005)
*
1920 -
Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan-born immunologist,
Nobel laureate* 1920 -
Catholicos Baselios Mar Thoma Didymos I, Indian Catholic clergyman
*
1921 -
Bill Mauldin, American cartoonist (d.
2003)
*
1923 -
Carl Djerassi, Austrian chemist
*
1925 -
Dominick Dunne, American author
*
1926 -
Jon Vickers, Canadian tenor
*
1930 -
Niki de Saint Phalle, French sculptor (d.
2002)
*
1935 -
Takahata Isao, Japanese director of animated movies
*
1936 -
Akiko Kojima, Japanese model
*
1938 -
Ralph Bakshi, Israeli cartoonist
* 1938 -
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf,
President of Liberia*
1940 -
Frida Boccara, French singer (d.
1996)
* 1940 -
Connie Mack, U.S. Senator from Florida
* 1940 -
José Ulises Macías Salcedo, Catholic bishop
*
1944 -
Denny Laine, English musician (
Moody Blues,
Wings)
* 1944 -
Otto Wiesheu, German minister
*
1946 -
Peter Green, English guitarist (
Fleetwood Mac)
*
1947 -
Richard Dreyfuss, American actor
*
1948 -
Kate Jackson, American actress
*
1953 -
Denis Potvin, Canadian ice hockey player
*
1955 -
Roger O'Donnell, English musician (
The Cure)
*
1956 -
Wilfredo Gomez, Puerto Rican boxer
*
1959 -
Mike Gartner, Canadian ice hockey player
*
1960 -
Finola Hughes, British actress
*
1961 -
Randy Jackson, American musician
*
1964 -
Yasmin Le Bon, British model
*
1967 -
Joely Fisher, American actress
*
1968 -
Johann Olav Koss, Norwegian speed skater
*
1970 -
Edwin van der Sar, Dutch footballer
* 1970 -
Philip Cocu, Dutch footballer
*
1971 -
Winona Ryder, American actress
*
1972 -
Takafumi Horie, Japanese entrepreneur
* 1972 -
Gabrielle Union, American actress
*
1973 -
Robert Pirès, French footballer
*
1974 -
Michael Vaughan, English cricketer
*
1976 -
Stephen Craigan, Northern Irish footballer
*
1977 -
Brendan Fehr, Canadian actor
*
1978 -
Travis Henry, American football player
*
1980 -
Ben Foster, American actor
* 1980 -
B.J. Sams, American football player
*
1981 -
Amanda Beard, American swimmer
* 1981 -
Jonathan Brown, Australian footballer
*
1983 -
Maurice Clarett, American football player
*
1983 -
Dana Eveland, American baseball player
*
1983 -
Richard Brancatisano, Australian actor
*
1984 -
Eric Staal, Canadian hockey player
*
1987 -
Makoto Ogawa, Japanese singer (
Morning Musume)
*
1038 -
Aethelnoth,
Archbishop of Canterbury*
1138 -
Bolesław III Krzywousty, Duke of Poland (b.
1086)
*
1268 -
Conradin, Duke of Swabia (executed) (b.
1252)
* 1268 -
Frederick I, Margrave of Baden (beheaded) (b.
1249)
*
1590 -
Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert, Dutch politician (b.
1522)
*
1618 - Sir
Walter Raleigh, English explorer (executed) (b.
1554)
*
1650 -
David Calderwood, Scottish historian (b.
1575)
*
1666 -
Edmund Calamy the Elder, English Presbyterian leader (b.
1600)
* 1666 -
James Shirley, English dramatist (b.
1596)
*
1783 -
Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician (b.
1717)
*
1877 -
Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Confederate general (b.
1821)
*
1901 -
Leon Czolgosz, American assassin of U.S. President
William McKinley (b.
1873)
*
1905 -
Etienne Desmarteau, Canadian athlete (b.
1873)
*
1911 -
Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-born newspaper publisher (b.
1847)
*
1919 -
A. B. Simpson, Canadian preacher (b.
1843)
*
1932 -
Joseph Babiński, Polish-French neurologist (b.
1857)
*
1933 -
Albert Calmette, French physician (b.
1863)
*
1949 -
G. I. Gurdjieff, Armenian mystic (b.
1872)
*
1950 - King
Gustaf V of Sweden (b.
1858)
*
1953 -
William Kapell, American pianist (b.
1922)
*
1957 -
Louis B. Mayer, American film producer (b.
1885)
* 1957 -
Rosemarie Nitribitt, German call girl (b.
1933)
*
1958 -
Zoe Akins, American playwright (b.
1886)
*
1963 -
Adolphe Menjou, American actor (b.
1890)
* 1963 -
U. Muthuramalingam Thevar, Indian politician (b.
1908)
*
1971 -
Duane Allman, American musician (b.
1946)
* 1971 -
Arne Tiselius, Swedish chemist,
Nobel laureate (b.
1902)
*
1981 -
Georges Brassens, French singer (b.
1921)
*
1987 -
Woody Herman, American musician (b.
1913)
*
1997 -
Anton LaVey, American founder of the Church of Satan (b.
1930)
*
2003 -
Hal Clement, American writer (b.
1922)
* 2003 -
Franco Corelli, Italian tenor (b.
1921)
*
2004 -
Edward Oliver LeBlanc, Dominican politician (b.
1923)
* 2004 -
Vaughn Meader, American comedian (b.
1936)
* 2004 -
Peter Twinn, English mathematician (b.
1916)
*
R.C. Saints -
October 29th is the
feast day of the following
Roman Catholic Saints:
** Saint Narcissus of Jerusalem, Diwali in 1989.
** St. Abraham of Rostov
**
St. Anne** St. Bond
** Saint Colman of Kilmacduagh
** St. Donatus of Corfu
**
Douai Martyrs** St. Elfleda
** St. Hyacinth
** St. Ida of Leeuw
** St. John of Autun
**
St. Maximillian** St. Terence of Metz
**
St. Theodore** St. Zenobius
*
Anglican Church -
James Hannington*
Turkey -
Republic Day (
1923)
*
BBC: On This DayOctober 28 -
October 30 -
September 29 -
November 29 - more
historical anniversaries
