29 October - Definition and Overview

October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 63 days remaining.

Events

• 437 - Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople. This unifies the two branches of the House of Theodosius
• 969 - Byzantines troops occupy Antioch Syria
• 1061 - Emperor disposes of bishop Cadalus & Pope Honorius II
• 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.
• 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.
• 1923 - Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1929 - Great Depression begins: Black Tuesday - The New York Stock Exchange crashes, ushering in what will be a world-wide economic crisis.
• 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 took 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 from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
• 1969 - The first computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET.
• 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).
• 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.
• 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 except from a video of Osama bin Laden in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election.
• 2004 - European heads of state signed in Rome the Treaty and Final Act establishing the first European Constitution.

Births

• 1017 - Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor (1046-56)
• 1656 - Edmond Halley, English astronomer (according to the Julian calendar)
• 1740 - James Boswell, biographer of Samuel Johnson (d. 1795)
• 1815 - Daniel Emmett, composer of Dixie
• 1891 - Fanny Brice, singer (d. 1951)
• 1897 - Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda (d. 1945)
• 1899 - Akim Tamiroff, actor (d. 1972)
• 1921 - Bill Mauldin, cartoonist
• 1923 - Carl Djerassi, chemist, inventor of the birth control pill
• 1925 - Dominick Dunne, author
• 1926 - Jon Vickers, Canadian tenor
• 1929 - Leon Redbone, musician
• 1935 - Takahata Isao, Japanese director of animated movies
• 1938 - Ralph Bakshi, cartoonist, film director, video producer
• 1940 - Cornelius McGillicuddy III (Connie Mack), U.S. Senator from Florida- 1989-2001
• 1944 - Otto Wiesheu, Bavarian Minister
• 1945 - Melba Moore, singer, actress
• 1947 - Richard Dreyfuss, actor
• 1948 - Kate Jackson, actress
• 1956 - Wilfredo Gomez, three time world boxing champion
• 1960 - Finola Hughes, British Actress
• 1961 - Randy Jackson, American musician
• 1971 - Winona Ryder, actress
• 1973 - Gabrielle Union, actress
• 1978 - Travis Henry, American football player
• 1981 - Amanda Beard, Olympic swimmer
• 1983 - Amit Paul, member of the A-Teens