Today in History
Today is Sunday, Oct. 29, the 302nd day of 2023. There are 63 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Oct. 29, 1929, “Black Tuesday” descended on the New York Stock Exchange. Prices collapsed amid panic selling and thousands of investors were wiped out as America’s Great Depression began.
ON THIS DATE
› 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 1891, actor, comedian and singer Fanny Brice was born in New York.
› 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 1960, a chartered plane carrying the California Polytechnic State University football team crashed on takeoff from Toledo, Ohio, killing 22 of the 48 people on board.
› In 1987, following the confirmation defeat of Robert H. Bork to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, President Ronald Reagan announced his next choice of Douglas H. Ginsburg, a nomination that fell apart over revelations of Ginsburg’s previous marijuana use.
› In 1998, Sen. John Glenn, at age 77, returned to space aboard the shuttle Discovery, retracing the trail he had blazed as the first American to orbit the Earth 36 years earlier.
› In 2004, Osama bin Laden, in a videotaped statement, directly admitted for the first time that he’d ordered the September 11 attacks, and told Americans “the best way to avoid another Manhattan” was to stop threatening Muslims’ security.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is 85. Rock musician Denny Laine is 79. Singer Melba Moore is 78. Actor Richard Dreyfuss is 76. Actor Kate Jackson is 75. Actor Dan Castellaneta (TV: “The Simpsons”) is 66. Comic strip artist Tom Wilson Jr. (“Ziggy”) is 66. Actor Finola Hughes is 64. Singer Randy Jackson (the Jacksons) is 62. Rock musician Peter Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is 58. Actor Joely Fisher is
56. Rapper Paris is 56. Actor Rufus Sewell is 56. Actor Grayson McCouch (mih-KOOCH’) is 55. Rock singer SA Martinez (311) is 54. Actor Winona Ryder is 52. Actor Tracee Ellis Ross is 51. Actor Gabrielle Union is 51. Actor Trevor Lissauer is
50. Olympic gold medal bobsledder Vonetta Flowers is 50. Actor Jon Abrahams is 46. Actor Brendan Fehr is 46. Actor Ben Foster is 43. Rock musician Chris Baio (Vampire Weekend) is 39. Actor Janet Montgomery is 38. Actor India Eisley is 30.