On this day

539BC: Cyrus the Great (founder of Persian Empire) entered the capital of Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to their land.

1390: First trial for witchcraft in Paris led to the death of three people.

1618: English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.

1918: The German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny on the night of the 29th30th, an action which would trigger the German Revolution of 1918–19.

1922: King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy appoints Benito Mussolini as prime minister.

1923: Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1929: The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Black Tuesday, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.

1941: In the Kaunas Ghetto, Lithuania, more than 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the Great Action. 1961: Syria exits from the United Arab Republic. 1994: Francisco Martin Duran fires more than two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill US President Bill Clinton. 2005: Bombings in New Delhi kill more than 60. 2012: Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing 148 directly and 138 indirectly, while leaving nearly $70 billion worth of damage and causing major power cuts.