TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, OCT. 29, the 302nd day of 2017. There are 63 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 2012, Superstorm Sandy slammed ashore in New Jersey and slowly marched inland, devastating coastal communities and causing widespread power outages; the storm and its aftermath were blamed for at least 182 deaths in the U.S.
In 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh, the English courtier, military adventurer and poet, was executed in London for treason.
In 1787, the opera “Don Giovanni” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had its world premiere in Prague.
In 1929, Wall Street crashed on “Black Tuesday,” heralding the start of America’s Great Depression.
In 1940, a blindfolded Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number — 158 — from a glass bowl in America’s first peacetime military draft.
In 1956, during the Suez Canal crisis, Israel invaded Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
In 1957, former MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer died in Los Angeles.
In 1967, the counterculture rock musical “Hair” officially opened off-Broadway at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater 12 days after beginning previews.
In 1979, on the 50th anniversary of the great stock market crash, anti-nuclear protesters tried but failed to shut down the New York Stock Exchange.
In 1987, following the confirmation defeat of Robert H. Bork to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, President Ronald Reagan announced his choice of Douglas H. Ginsburg, a nomination that fell apart over revelations of Ginsburg’s previous marijuana use.
In 1994, Francisco Martin Duran fired more than two dozen shots from a semiautomatic rifle at the White House. Duran was later convicted of trying to assassinate President Bill Clinton and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Bluegrass singer-musician Sonny Osborne (The Osborne Brothers) is 80. Country singer Lee Clayton is 75. Rock musician Denny Laine is 73. Actor Richard Dreyfuss is
70. Actress Kate Jackson is 69. Actor Dan Castellaneta (TV: “The Simpsons”), country musician Steve Kellough (Wild Horses) and comic strip artist Tom Wilson (“Ziggy”) are 60. Actress Finola Hughes is 58. Singer Randy Jackson is 56. Rock musician Peter Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is 52. Actress Joely Fisher and actor Rufus Sewell are 50. Actress Winona Ryder is 46. Actresses Tracee Ellis Ross is 44. Actress Milena Govich is 41. Actor Ben Foster is 37. Rock musician Chris Baio (Vampire Weekend) is 33. Actress India Eisley is
24.