Today in History – October 29th

Published October 29, 2012 |

969, Byzantine troops occupy Antioch Syria.
1390, 1st trial for witchcraft in Paris leading to the death of three people.
1422, Charles VII of France becomes king in succession to his father Charles VI of France.
1467, Battle of Brustem: Charles the Bold defeats Liege.
1618, English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.
1618, Sir Walter Raleigh, English explorer (b. 1554) died.
1704 aE” John Byng, British admiral (d. 1757) was born.
1787, Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni receives its 1st performance in Prague.
1863, Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross.
1877, Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Confederate general (b. 1821) died.
1888, The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.
1897 aE” Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda (d. 1945) was born.
1901, Capital punishment: Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of US President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution.
1901, In Amherst, Massachusetts nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with overdose of morphine.
1911, Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-born newspaper publisher (b. 1847) died.
1918, The German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny on the night of the 29th-30th.
1921, Harvard University football team loses to Centre College, ending 25 game winning streak.
1922, The King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, appoints Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister.
1923, Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
1929, New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of ’29 or “Black Tuesday”.
1941, The Holocaust: In Kaunas Ghetto over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at 9th Fort, known as the “Great Action”.
1942 aE” Bob Ross, American artist and television host (d. 1995) was born.
1942, In UK, clergymen and political figures hold public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews.
1944, The city of Breda in the Netherlands is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division.
1955, The Soviet battleship Novorossiisk strikes a WWII mine in the harbor at Sevastopol.
1957, Israel’s PM David Ben-Gurion and 5 of his ministers are injured when a hand grenade is tossed into Israel’s parliament.
1957, Louis B. Mayer, American film producer (b. 1885) died.
1960, In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his 1st professional fight.
1961, Syria exits from the United Arab Republic.
1964, The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed the United Republic of Tanzania.
1967, Montreal’s World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors.
1971, In Macon, Georgia, guitarist Duane Allman is killed in a motorcycle accident.
1991, The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming 1st probe to visit an asteroid.
1997, Anton LaVey, American founder of the Church of Satan (b. 1930) died.
1998, Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras.
1998, Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him oldest person to go into space.

Chris Rivait

Chris loves history and hopes that Yesteeyear becomes a place where everyone can share their history knowledge. Chris owns an Internet Marketing company, Arrivait Marketing. He has a wonderful wife and four great children.