October 29th in History
On This Day in History
- Paris holds its first witchcraft trial, leading to the death of three (1390)
- Mozart’s Don Giovanni is performed for the first time (1797)
- Eighteen countries agree to establish the International Red Cross (1863)
- The first ticker-tape parade takes place in New York City to mark the dedication of the Statue of Liberty (1886)
- Benito Mussolini becomes prime minister of Italy (1922)
- Turkey becomes a republic (1923)
- The Suez Crisis begins (1956)
- Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional boxing match (1960)
- The first computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET (1969)
- NASA’s Galileo spacecraft becomes the first space probe to visit an asteroid (1991)
- John Glenn becomes the oldest man to travel into outer space (1998)
- Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines merge (2008)
Birthdays
- James Boswell, biographer (1740)
- Jean Giraudoux, playwright (1882)
- Fanny Brice, actress (1891)
- Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister (1897)
- Akim Tamiroff, actor (1899)
- Fredric Brown, science fiction and mystery writer (1906)
- Bill Mauldin, cartoonist (1921)
- Dominick Dunne, author (1925)
- Zoot Sims, saxophonist (1925)
- Ralph Bakshi, animator (1938)
- Bob Ross, painter of “happy little trees” (1942)
- Don Simpson, producer (1943)
- Melba Moore, singer (1945)
- Richard Dreyfuss, actor (1947)
- Kate Jackson, actress (1948)
- Lee Child (Jim Grant), mystery writer (1954)
- Finola Hughes, actress (1960)
- Randy Jackson, singer-songwriter (1961)
- Yasmin Le Bon, supermodel (1964)
- Joely Fisher, actress (1967)
- Winona Ryder, actress (1971)
- Gabrielle Union, actress (1972)
- Travis Henry, football player (1978)
- Maurice Clarett, football player (1983)
Deaths
- Sir Walter Raleigh, explorer beheaded for alleged treason (1618)
- Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate general and first Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan (1877)
- Joseph Pulitzer, puiblisher (1911)
- George Gurdjieff, mystic (1949)
- Louis B. Mayer, producer (1957)
- Adolphe Menjou, actor (1963)
- Duane Allman, singer-songwriter (1971)
- Woody Herman, bandleader (1987)
- Terry Southern, screenwriter and novelist (1995)
- Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan (1997)
- Hal Clement, science fiction writer (2003)
- Vaughn Meader, comedian and JFK impersonator (2004)
- Letitia Baldridge, etiquette expert (2012)
Holidays
- Birthday of the Internet (International)
- Coronation Day (Cambodia)
- Cumhuriyet Bayrami (Republic Day) (Turkey)
- Hermit Day (US)
- National Cat Day (US)
- National Disgusting Little Pumpkin-Shaped Candies Day (US)
- National Frankenstein Day (US)
- National Oatmeal Day (US)
- World Psoriasis Day (International)
Photo: John Glenn prior to his Space Shuttle launch, 1998. (NASA)