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.