IT HAPPENED TODAY

OCTOBER 29

1618: Sir Walter Raleigh (above), English seafarer, once a favourite of Elizabeth I, was beheaded at Whitehall, falsely accused of treason.

1740: James Boswell, Scottish diarist and biographer of Samuel Johnson, was born. He accompanied Johnson on a tour, retold in Journal Of A Tour To The Hebrides, before producing his Life Of Samuel Johnson in 1791.

1787: Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni was first performed in Prague.

1929: So-called ‘Black Tuesday’ when Wall Street crashed, leading to the Great Depression.

1945: First ballpoint pen goes on sale, manufactured by Biro.

1956: Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula and troops pushed on towards the Suez Canal.

1982: Car maker John DeLorean (below) indicted for drug trafficking, later acquitted.

1982: Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson release Girl Is Mine.

1986: The final section of the M25 around London was opened.

1987: Thomas ‘Hit Man’ Hearns won the world middleweight title, making him the first boxer to win a world title at four different weights.

2015: China announced the end of one-child per family policy after 35 years.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Global health leaders warned that more than nine in 10 children around the world were living in areas of toxic air pollution.

BIRTHDAYS: Jack Shepherd, actor and playwright, 79; Denny Laine, rock musician (Wings), 75; Richard Dreyfuss, actor, 72; Kate Jackson, actress, 71; Yasmin Le Bon ( above), model, 55; Greg Blewett, former cricketer and commentator, 48; Winona Ryder, actress, 48; Michael Vaughan, former cricketer, 45.