On this day, Oct. 29
1918 A group of the city’s leading citizens met and formulated the Citizens Committee on City Plan for Pittsburgh; C.D. Armstrong was elected president; R.B. Mellon, vice president; and J.D. Hailman, secretary.
1929 “Black Tuesday” descended upon the New York Stock Exchange. Prices collapsed amid panic selling and thousands of investors were wiped out as America’s “Great Depression” began.
1947 President Richard K. Mellon of the Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association, at its annual dinner, announced plans for redevelopment of 70 acres of the Lower Hill District and creation there of a “Pittsburgh Center,” to include a sports arena for 18,000, apartment housing, a new street pattern and other improvements.
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.
1997 Joan Apt, founder of Pittsburgh Public Theater, was inducted as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania.
2018 A new-generation Boeing jet operated by the Indonesian budget airline Lion Air crashed in the Java Sea minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. It was the first of two deadly crashes involving the 737 Max, causing the plane to be grounded around the world for nearly two years as Boeing worked on software changes to a flight-control system.
Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).
— Compiled by Rick Nowlin
Today’s birthdays: Bluegrass singer-musician Sonny Osborne (The Osborne Brothers), 84. Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 83. Country singer Lee Clayton, 79. Rock musician Denny Laine, 77. Singer Melba Moore, 76. Actor Richard Dreyfuss, 74. Actor Kate Jackson, 73. Country musician Steve Kellough (Wild Horses), 65. Actor Dan Castellaneta (TV: “The Simpsons”), 64. Comic strip artist Tom Wilson (“Ziggy”), 64. Actor Finola Hughes, 62. Singer Randy Jackson, 60. Rock musician Peter Timmins (Cowboy Junkies), 56. Actor Joely Fisher, 54. Rapper Paris, 54. Actor Rufus Sewell, 54. Actor Grayson McCouch, 53. Rock singer SA Martinez (311), 52. Actor Winona Ryder, 50. Actor Tracee Ellis Ross, 49. Actor Gabrielle Union, 49. Actor Trevor Lissauer, 48. Olympic gold medal bobsledder Vonetta Flowers, 48. Actor Milena Govich, 45. Actor Jon Abrahams, 44. Actor Brendan Fehr, 44. Actor Ben Foster, 41. Rock musician Chris Baio (Vampire Weekend), 37. Actor Janet Montgomery, 36.
Thought for today: “It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.”
– Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (1901-1978).