On this day...

539 -BC- Babylon falls to Cyrus the Great of Persia
1682 William Penn lands in what will become Pennsylvania
1727 Severe earthquake in New England
1787 The opera "Don Giovanni" is produced (Prague)
1811 First Ohio River steamboat leaves Pittsburgh for New Orleans
1833 First US college fraternity to have a fraternity house founded
1863 International Commission of the Red Cross founded (Nobel 1917, 1944, 1963)
1867 Mail packets "Rhone" & "Wye" capsizes off St Thomas Virgin Islands
1889 NY Giants (NL) beat Bkln (AA) in world series 6 games to 3
1889 Stanley Park dedicated in Vancouver, BC
1894 First election of the Hawaiian Republic
1904 First intercity trucking service (Colorado City & Snyder, Texas)
1910 Bob Simpson of Hamilton Tigers kicks record 11 singles in a game
1920 Edward Barrow named Yankee general manager
1923 "Runnin' Wild" (introducing the Charleston) opens on Broadway
1923 Turkey proclaimed a republic (National Day)
1924 "Dixie to Broadway," opens at Broadhurst Theater
1929 "Black Tuesday," Stock Market crashes triggers "Great Depression"
1930 First football game in eastern Canada played under floodlights
1932 French liner Noprmandie is launched
1939 Golden Gate International Exposition closes (First closure)
1940 Sec. of War Henry L. Stimson drew First number-158-in First peacetime military draft in US history
1942 16,000 Jews killed in Pinsk Russia
1942 Alaska highway completed
1942 Branch Rickey named president/GM of Brooklyn Dodgers
1945 First ball point pen goes on sale, 57 years after it was patented
1956 Chet Huntley & David Brinkley, NBC News, team up
1956 IDF crosses Egyptian territory in the Sinai
1956 International zone of Tangier returned to Morocco
1956 Israeli paratroopers drop into the Sinai to open Straits of Tiran
1957 A hand grenade explodes in Israel's Knesset (Parliament)
1959 10 nation soccer league to play all games on NY Randalls Is, announced
1960 Chartered C46 carrying Cal State's football team crashes, kills 16
1960 Muhammad Ali's First professional fight, beats Tunney Hunsaker in 6
1963 "Meet the Beatles" booklet is published
1964 Star of India & other jewels are stolen in NY
1964 Town of Karmiel founded in the Galilee
1966 National Organization of Women founded
1972 Don Cockroft of Cleveland Browns kicks 57-yard field goal
1975 Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffer kills first
1979 Billy Martin fired as Yankee manager (2nd time)
1982 Car maker John DeLorean indicted for drug trafficking, later acquitted
1982 Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson release "The Girl is Mine"
1984 Orlando Pizzolato (2:14:53) & Greta Weitz (2:29:30) win NY Marathon
1987 Thomas Hearns wins unprecedented 4th different weight boxing title
1988 2,000 US anti-abortion protesters arrested for blocking clinics
1988 China announces a herbal male contraceptive
1988 Jim Elliott (US) begins 24-hr paced outdoor race for 548.9 mi
1988 Soviets first scheduled shuttle launch (postponed)
1989 NYC MTA opens the 63rd street extension to the subway
1990 30 die in a (5.7) earthquake in Algeria
1991 Galileo wlll pass within 600 miles of the asteroid Gaspra

Birthdays which occurred on October 29:

1740 James Boswell, Scotland, Samuel Johnson's biographer
1859 Charles Ebbets (namesake of Ebbets Field, Brooklyn)
1873 Guillermo Valencia, Colombia, poet/translator/statesman
1875 Marie, queen consort of Ferdinand I of Romania (1914-27)
1882 Jean Giraudoux, Bellac France, playwright (Provinciales)
1884 Bela Lugosi ,horror actor (Dracula, Body Snatcher)
1891 Fanny Brice, singing comedienne (Ziegeld Follies, Baby Snooks)
1897 Hope Emerson, Hawarden Iowa, actress (I Married Joan, Peter Gunn)
1897 Paul Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propagandist
1906 Fredric Brown, American writer (US Army in Transition)
1910 Alfred J. Ayer, England, Neopositivist philosopher/logician
1917 Henry Carlsson, Sweden, soccer (Olympic-gold-1948)
1921 Bill Mauldin, political cartoonist
1921 Ed Kemmer, Reading PA, actor (Buzz Corey-Space Patrol)
1921 William Henry Mauldin, US, political cartoonist (Pulitzer-1945, 59)
1922 Neal Hefti, Hastings Nebraska, orchestra leader (Kate Smith Show)
1925 Geraldine Brooks, NYC, actr (Faraday & Co, Dumplings, Act of Murder)
1926 Jon(athan Stewart) Vickers Prince Albert, Canada, tenor
1934 Robert E. Hughes, NYC, orchestra leader (Rich Little Show)
1937 Michael Ponti, Freiburg Germany, pianist (Boston Competition 1964)
1945 Melba Moore, NYC, singer/actress (Ellis Island)
1947 Richard Dreyfuss, Brooklyn, actor (Jaws, Nuts)
1948 Kate Jackson, Birmingham, actress (Rookies, Charlie's Angels)
1953 Denis Potvin, Ottawa Ontario, NY Islander defenseman (Norris trophy)
1959 Jesse Barfield, outfielder (Blue Jays, Yankees, 1986 HR leader)
1960 Finola Hughes, actress (Anna-General Hospital, Staying Alive)
1961 Randy Jackson, rocker (Jacksons-ABC)
1965 Steven Sweet, Wadsworth Ohio, heavy metal artist (Warrant)
1971 Winona Ryder [Horowitz], actress (Heathers, Edward Scissorhand)

Deaths which occurred on October 29:

1618 Sir Walter Raleigh is executed in London
1885 George B. McClellan, Union army general, dies at 58
1901 Leon Czolcosz, assassin of President McKinley, is executed
1911 Joseph Pulitzer, American newspaperman, dies in Charleston, SC
1947 Frances Cleveland Preston, former First Lady, dies in Balt at 83
1957 Louis B. Mayer, MGM producer, dies at 71
1963 Adolphe Menjou, actor (Front Page, Star is Born), dies at 73
1971 Duane Allman, dies at 24 in a motorcycle accident
1975 John Scott Trotter, orchestra leader (George Gobel Show), dies at 67
1981 William O. Walker, publisher of the Cleveland Call Post, dies at 85
1987 Kamal El Mallakh, dies at 57
1987 Woody Herman, bandleader/composer (Thundering Herds), dies at 74
1990 William French Smith, attorney general (1980), dies at 73 from cancer