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 Oct. 29, 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 United States.
On this date
1618 — Sir Walter Raleigh, the English courtier, military adventurer and poet, was executed in London for treason. 1787 — The opera “Don Giovanni” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had its world premiere in Prague. 1901 — President William McKinley’s assassin, Leon Czolgosz, was electrocuted. 1929 — Wall Street crashed on “Black Tuesday,” heralding the start of America’s Great Depression. 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. 1947 — Former first lady Frances Cleveland Preston died in Baltimore at age 83. 1956 — During the Suez Canal crisis, Israel invaded Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” premiered as NBC’s nightly television newscast. 1957 — Former MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer died in Los Angeles. 1967 — The counterculture rock musical “Hair” officially opened off-Broadway at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater 12 days after beginning previews. 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.
Ten years ago
Authorities in Chad charged six French charity workers with kidnapping after they tried to put 103 children on a plane to France, claiming they were orphans from Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region. (The charity workers were later convicted, jailed for several months, then pardoned.)
A Moscow court sentenced Alexander Pichushkin, convicted of 48 murders, to life imprisonment, ending one of Russia’s worst serial killer cases.
Today’s Birthdays
Bluegrass singer-musician Sonny Osborne (The Osborne Brothers) is 80. Country singer Lee Clayton is 75. Singer Melba Moore is 72. Musician Peter Green is 71. Actor Richard Dreyfuss is 70. Actress Kate Jackson is 69. Actor Dan Castellaneta (TV: “The Simpsons”) is 60. Country musician Steve Kellough (Wild Horses) is 60. Comic strip artist Tom Wilson (“Ziggy”) is 60. Actress Finola Hughes is 58. Singer Randy Jackson is 56. Rock musician Peter Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is 52. Actress Joely Fisher is 50. Rapper Paris is 50. Actor Rufus Sewell is 50. Actor Grayson McCouch is 49. Actress Winona Ryder is 46. Actress Gabrielle Union is 45. Actor Trevor Lissauer is 44. Actress Milena Govich is 41. Actor Jon Abrahams is 40. Actor Brendan Fehr is 40. Actor Ben Foster is 37. Rock musician Chris Baio (Vampire Weekend) is 33. Actress India Eisley is 24.