Historical Events on October 29

  • 1390: In Paris, the first trial for witchcraft is held; It would lead to the death of three people.
  • 1591: Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti becomes Pope Innocent IX.
  • 1618: Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for supposedly conspiring against King James I of England.
  • 1863: The International Red Cross is organized by Eighteen countries who met in Geneva.
  • 1901: Serial killer Jane Toppan – also known as Jolly Jane – is arrested for murdering the Davis family in Boston using an overdose of morphine. Over the next year, she would confess to a total of 33 murders.
  • 1923: After the Ottoman Empire is dissolved, Turkey becomes a republic.
  • 1929: The Crash of 1929 – also known as Black Tuesday – occurs on this day when the New York Stock Exchange crashes. This would be considered by historians to be the beginning of the Great Depression.
  • 1941: German occupiers massacre over 10,000 Jews in the Kaunas Ghetto.
  • 1944: Soviet forces enter Hungary during WWII.
  • 1944: The First Polish Armored Division liberates the Dutch city of Breda during WWII.
  • 1960: Cassius Clay – who would later change his name to Muhammad Ali – wins his first fight on the professional level in Louisville, Kentucky.
  • 1961: Syria parts ways with the United Arab Republic.
  • 1967: Expo 67 – otherwise known as the International and Universal Expo – in Montreal closes out its run. 50.3 million visitors visited this expo.
  • 1971: Duane Allman is killed in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia.

Famous Birthdays on October 29

  • German lawyer, politician and Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels is born in 1897.
  • English footballer Billy Walker is born in 1897.
  • American author Fredric Brown is born in 1906.
  • English author and philosopher A.J. Ayer is born in 1910.
  • Austrian-American chemist Carl Djerassi is born in 1923.
  • English actor Robert Hardy is born in 1925.
  • British mathematician Klaus Roth is born in 1925.
  • American actor Richard Dreyfuss is born in 1947.
  • American actress and producer Kate Jackson is born in 1948.
  • Scottish guitarist David Paton is born in 1949.
  • English author Lee Child is born in 1954.