October 29

Events
Up to 1900
312 - Constantine I enters Rome after his victory at the Milvian Bridge.
969 - Byzantine troops occupy Antioch, Syria.
1390 - The first witchcraft trial to take place in Paris begins, later ending in three people being executed.
1422 - Charles VII of France becomes king.
1618 - English explorer and statesman Walter Raleigh is executed.
1675 - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz makes the first use of the long s as a symbol of the integral in calculus.
1787 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni is publicly performed for the first time, in Prague.
1792 - The Mount Hood volcano in Oregon is given its name.
1863 - At a meeting in Geneva, 18 countries agree to form the International Red Cross.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie takes place.
1867 - Near the British Virgin Islands, the British ship RMS Rhone sinks in a strong hurricane, killing at least 24 people.
1886 - The first ticker-tape parade takes place in New York City to celebrate the inauguration, on the previous day, of the Statue of Liberty.
1888 - The Convention of Constantinople is signed. It guarantees free maritime passage through the Suez Canal, both in peace-time and in times of war.
1894 - New Zealand passenger steamer Wairarapa strikes a reef off eastern Australia and sinks, killing 121 people.
1900 - An explosion at a New York chemical factory kills almost 200 people.
1901 1950
1901 - For fatally shooting US President William McKinley, Leon Czolgosz is executed by electrocution.
1901 - American nurse Jane Toppan is arrested, after autopsies of the Davies family found traces of poison. It is later revealed that she was a serial killer.
1917 - Max Meiser of Berlin sets the first rules for the game of handball.
1918 - The German High Sea fleet is grounded when sailors mutiny on the night to October 30.
1921 - The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti begins in the United States.
1922 - Victor Emmanuel III of Italy appoints Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister.
1923 - The Republic of Turkey is declared by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ankara becomes the capital city.
1929 - The New York Stock Exchange collapses, starting the Great Depression.
1941 - Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto, over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers.
1942 - World War II: German U-boat U 575 sinks British passenger ship Abosso in the North Atlantic Ocean, killing 362 people.
1944 - World War II: The city of Breda in the Netherlands is liberated by the 1st Polish Armoured Division.
1945 - Brazilian President Getulio Vargas resigns.
1951 2000
1955 - The Soviet battleship Novorossiysk is sunk by an explosion in Sevastopol, killing 608 officers.
1956 - Suez Canal: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsulaand push Egyptian forces back to the Suez Canal.
1956 - The Tangier Protocol is signed. The international city of Tangier is returned to Morocco.
1960 - In Louisville, Kentucky, Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) wins his first professional fight.
1964 - The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar changes its name to Tanzania, with Julius Nyerere as President.
1967 - End of the Montreal World's Fair.
1969 - The first-ever computer-to-computer link is created by ARPANET, a forerunner to the internet.
1973 - The Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul is opened by Turkey's then-President Fahri Koroturk, to mark 50 years of the Republic.
1983 - 500,000 people protest against cruise missiles in The Hague, Netherlands.
1986 - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway.
1991 - The American Galileo spacecraft approaches the 951 Gaspra asteroid.
1994 - Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House. He is arrested in suspicion of trying to kill Bill Clinton.
1998 - Hurricane Mitch wreaks havoc across Central America, causing destruction, flooding a several deaths after making landfall.
1998 - South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission condemns all sides for human rights violations.
1998 - American astronaut John Glenn becomes the oldest person in space.
1998 - A Turkish airliner with 39 people on board, flying from Adana to Ankara, is hijacked by Kurdish militants, demanding the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The pilot successfully lands in Ankara after tricking the militants into thinking that he was flying to Sofia, Bulgaria to refuel.
1998 - A nightclub fire in Gothenburg, Sweden kills 63 people.
1999 - A tropical cyclone hits southern and eastern India, particularly affecting the state of Orissa. 10,000 people are estimated to have been killed and 1.5 million made homeless.
From 2001
2002 - A department store fire in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam kills at least 60 people and leaves around 100 missing.
2004 - Norodom Sihamoni officially succeeds his father Norodom Sihanouk as King of Cambodia.
2005 - Terrorist bombings occur in Delhi, India.
2006 - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is elected to a second term as President of Brazil.
2008 - Delta Airlines merges with Northwest Airlines.
2012 - After leaving a trail of destruction across the Caribbean, killing 67 people, Hurricane Sandy strikes the east coast of the United States, causing major flooding, and in some parts snowfall, to several Eastern and Great Lakes states as well as parts of southern Canada. New York City is among the major cities affected. At least 33 people are killed.
2013 - A new underground railway tunnel across the Bosphorus, in Istanbul, is opened.
2015 - The People's Republic of China abandons its one-child policy.
2018 - Lion Air Flight 610 crashes into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
2018 - Angela Merkel announces her intention to resign as Chancellor of Germany in 2021.
2019 - United Kingdom general election, 2019: The House of Commons of the United Kingdom votes in favour of holding the country's first December general election (on December 12) in 96 years.
Births
Up to 1900
1017 - Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1056)
1463 - Alessandro Achillini, Italian physician and philosopher (d. 1512)
1504 - Shin Saimdang, Korean writer, artist and poet (d. 1551)
1507 - Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba (d. 1582)
1704 - John Byng, English admiral (d. 1757)
1740 - James Boswell, Scottish biographer of Samuel Johnson (d. 1795)
1745 - William Hayley, English poet, biographer and patron of the arts (d. 1820)
1811 - Louis Blanc, French politician and historian (d. 1882)
1813 - Narciso Campero, President of Bolivia (d. 1896)
1815 - L'udovit Stur, Slovakian politician and writer of the Slovak language (d. 1856)
1815 - Daniel Emmett, American composer (d. 1904)
1816 - King Ferdinand II of Portugal (d. 1885)
1822 - Mieczyslaw Halka Ledochowski, Polish Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1902)
1828 - Thomas Francis Bayard, American statesman, diplomat and lawyer (d. 1898)
1831 - Othniel Charles Marsh, American paleontologist (d. 1899)
1832 - Narcisa de Jesus, Ecuadorean saint (d. 1869)
1837 - Abraham Kuyper, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1920)
1855 - Jacques Curie, French physicist (d. 1941)
1855 - Moses McNeil, Scottish footballer, founding member of Rangers F.C. (d. 1938)
1861 - Andrei Ryabushkin, Russian painter (d. 1904)
1866 - Antonio Luna, Filipino revolutionary general (d. 1899)
1875 - Marie of Edinburgh, Queen of Romania (d. 1938)
1875 - Alva B. Adams, United States Senator from Colorado (d. 1941)
1877 - Narcisa de Leon, Filipino movie producer (d. 1966)
1878 - Alexander von Falkenhausen, German general and resistance activist (d. 1966)
1879 - Franz von Papen, German politician (d. 1969)
1880 - Abram Ioffe, Soviet physicist (d. 1960)
1881 - John DeWitt, American athlete (d. 1930)
1882 - Jean Giraudoux, French writer (d. 1944)
1883 - Victor Hochepied, French swimmer (d. 1966)
1888 - Li Dazhao, Chinese intellectual (d. 1927)
1890 - Alfredo Ottaviani, Italian cardinal (d. 1979)
1891 - Fanny Brice, American comedienne (d. 1951)
1892 - Ottla Kafka, sister of Franz Kafka (d. 1943)
1892 - Wendy Wood, Scottish independence activist, artist, sculptor and painter (d. 1981)
1897 - Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda (d. 1945)
1899 - Akim Tamiroff, Russian-American actor (d. 1972)
1901 1950
1905 - Henry Green, English writer (d. 1973)
1906 - Fredric Brown, American science fiction and mystery writer (d. 1972)
1907 - Lotfia ElNady, Egyptian aviatrix (d. 2002)
1908 - Jimmy Simpson, Scottish footballer (d. 1972)
1910 - Alfred Jules Ayer, British philosopher (d. 1989)
1913 - Al Suomi, American ice hockey player (d. 2014)
1914 - Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria (d. 2012)
1915 - William Berenberg, American physician (d. 2005)
1917 - Eddie Constantine, American actor and singer (d. 1993)
1917 - Harold Garfinkel, American sociologist (d. 2011)
1917 - Henry Carlsson, Swedish footballer (d. 1999)
1918 - Diana Serra Cary, American actress
1920 - Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan-born immunologist, Nobel Prize winner (d. 2011)
1922 - Neal Hefti, American jazz musician (d. 2008)
1923 - Carl Djerassi, Austrian-American chemist, novelist and playwright (d. 2015)
1923 - Gerda van der Kade-Koudijs, Dutch athlete (d. 2015)
1924 - Danielle Mitterrand, French activist and former First Lady of France (d. 2011)
1924 - Zbigniew Herbert, Polish writer (d. 1998)
1925 - Robert Hardy, English actor (d. 2017)
1925 - Klaus Roth, German-British mathematician (d. 2015)
1925 - Dominick Dunne, American journalist and author (d. 2009)
1925 - Zoot Sims, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1985)
1926 - Necmettin Erbakan, Turkish politician and former Prime Minister of Turkey (d. 2011)
1927 - Frank Sedgman, Australian tennis player
1929 - Yevgeny Primakov, Russian politician (d. 2015)
1930 - Bertha Brouwer, Dutch sprinter (d. 2006)
1930 - Niki de Saint Phalle, French sculptor and painter (d. 2002)
1930 - Omara Portuondo, Cuban singer and dancer
1931 - Franco Interlenghi, Italian actor (d. 2015)
1931 - Vaali, Indian actor, poet and songwriter (d. 2013)
1932 - Joyce Gould, Baroness Gould of Portnewton, English pharmacist and politician
1932 - Charlotte Knobloch, German actress
1932 - Ronald Kitaj, American artist (d. 2007)
1932 - Velma Barfield, American serial killer (d. 1984)
1933 - John Andrews, Australian-Canadian architect
1933 - Alex Wilson, Scottish footballer (d. 2010)
1934 - Richard, 6th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, German nobleman (d. 2017)
1935 - Isao Takahata, Japanese animated movie director (d. 2018)
1936 - Akiko Kojima, Japanese model
1938 - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia, Nobel Peace Prize winner
1938 - Ralph Bakshi, American movie director
1938 - Wilbert McClure, American boxer
1940 - Connie Mack, United States Senator
1940 - Frida Boccara, French singer (d. 1996)
1941 - Paul Tyler, Baron Tyler, English politician
1942 - Bob Ross, American painter (d. 1995)
1943 - Wolfgang Kosack, German egyptologist
1943 - Don Simpson, American movie producer (d. 1996)
1944 - Denny Laine, British musician
1944 - Otto Wiesheu, German politician
1945 - Melba Moore, American singer
1946 - Peter Green, British musician (Fleetwood Mac) (d. 2020)
1947 - Thorsteinn Palsson, former Prime Minister of Iceland
1947 - Richard Dreyfuss, American actor
1947 - Helen Coonan, Australian politician
1948 - Kate Jackson, American actress
1949 - James Williamson, American musician (The Stooges)
1950 - Rino Gaetano, Italian singer and musician (d. 1981)
1950 - Abdullah Gul, 11th President of Turkey
1951 1975
1951 - Dirk Kempthorne, 30th Governor of Idaho
1953 - Denis Potvin, American ice hockey player
1953 - Lorelei King, American voice actress
1954 - Hisao Sekiguchi, Japanese footballer
1955 - Roger O'Donnell, British musician (The Cure)
1955 - Kevin DuBrow, American rock singer (d. 2007)
1957 - Dan Castellaneta, American actor, voice of Homer Simpson
1958 - Stefan Dennis, Australian actor
1958 - David Remnick, American writer and editor
1959 - John Magufuli, 5th President of Tanzania (d. 2021)
1959 - Kuniharu Nakamoto, Japanese footballer
1960 - Fabiola Gianotti, Italian physicist
1961 - Joel Otto, American ice hockey player and coach
1961 - Randy Jackson, American musician
1962 - Einar Orn Benediktsson, Icelandic musician
1964 - Yasmin Le Bon, British model
1964 - Luciana Littizzetto, Italian actress
1966 - Ian Durrant, Scottish footballer
1967 - Rufus Sewell, British actor
1967 - Joely Fisher, American actress
1968 - Johann Olav Koss, Norwegian speed skater
1970 - Edwin van der Sar, Dutch footballer
1970 - Phillip Cocu, Dutch footballer
1971 - Chiara Badano, Italian teenager and saint (d. 1990)
1971 - Daniel J. Bernstein, German-American mathematician, professor and computer programmer
1971 - Greg Blewett, Australian cricketer
1971 - Matthew Hayden, Australian cricketer
1971 - Winona Ryder, American actress
1972 - Gabrielle Union, American actress
1973 - Masakiyo Maezono, Japanese footballer
1973 - Robert Pires, French footballer
1974 - Alexandre Lopes, Brazilian footballer
1974 - Michael Vaughan, English cricketer
1975 - Kelly Lin, Chinese actress
1975 - Frank Baumann, German footballer
From 1976
1976 - Stephen Craigan, Northern Irish footballer
1976 - Milena Govich, American actress
1977 - Brendan Fehr, American actor
1978 - Kelly Smith, English footballer
1980 - Ben Foster, American actor
1980 - Kaine Robertson, New Zealand-born Italian rugby player
1981 - Lene Alexandra, Norwegian singer and model
1981 - Amanda Beard, American swimmer
1981 - Ruslan Rotan, Ukrainian footballer
1981 - Reemma Sen, Indian actress
1982 - Chelan Simmons, Canadian actress
1983 - Johnny Lewis, American actor (d. 2012)
1984 - Chris Baio, American rock musician
1984 - Eric Staal, Canadian ice hockey player
1985 - Cal Crutchlow, British motorcycle racer
1985 - Janet Montgomery, English actress and dancer
1985 - Vijendar Singh, Indian boxer
1986 - Derek Theler, American actor and model
1987 - Tove Lo, Swedish singer
1987 - Makoto Ogawa, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
1988 - Andy King, Welsh footballer
1988 - Kayne Vincent, New Zealand footballer
1990 - Amarna Miller, former Spanish porn actress, vlogger & YouTuber
1990 - Eric Saade, Swedish singer
1991 - Nikita Zaitsev, Russian ice hockey player
1993 - India Eisley, American actress
1998 - Lance Stross, Canadian racing driver
Deaths
Up to 1900
1038 - Aethelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury
1138 - Boleslaw III Wrymouth, Polish prince (b. 1086)
1268 - Conradin, Italian King (b. 1252)
1268 - Frederick I, Margrave of Baden (b. 1249)
1321 - King Stephen Uros II Milutin of Serbia (b. 1253)
1618 - Walter Raleigh, English explorer and political figure (b. c. 1552)
1783 - Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician (b. 1717)
1829 - Maria Anna Mozart, Austrian musician (b. 1751)
1873 - John of Saxony (b. 1801)
1877 - Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Confederate General (b. 1821)
1885 - George B. McClellan, American general and politician (b. 1826)
1889 - Nikolay Chernyshevsky, Russian writer, publicist, critic and revolutionary (b. 1828)
1897 - Henry George, American writer and politician (b. 1839)
1901 2000
1901 - Leon Czolgosz, assassin of William McKinley (b. 1873)
1911 - Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-American newspaper publisher (b. 1847)
1914 - Felix Bracquemond, French painter (b. 1833)
1916 - John Sebastian Little, 21st Governor of Arkansas (b. 1851)
1918 - Rudolf Tobias, Estonian composer (b. 1873)
1919 - Albert Benjamin Simpson, Canadian preacher, theologian and author (b. 1843)
1924 - Frances Hodgson Burnett, English-American playwright and author (b. 1849)
1932 - Joseph Rabinski, Polish-French neurologist (b. 1857)
1933 - Albert Calmette, French physician (b. 1863)
1933 - Paul Painleve, French mathematician and politician, Prime Minister of France (b. 1853)
1936 - Ramiro de Maeztu, Spanish writer and political theorist (b. 1874)
1940 - Phan Boi Chau, Vietnamese activist (b. 1863)
1947 - Frances Folsom Cleveland, First Lady of the United States (b. 1864)
1950 - King Gustav V of Sweden (b. 1858)
1956 - Walter Evans Edge, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1873)
1957 - Rosemarie Nitribitt, German call girl and murder victim (b. 1933)
1957 - Louis B. Mayer, American movie producer (b. 1885)
1971 - Arne Tiselius, Swedish chemist (b. 1902)
1971 - Duane Allman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1946)
1977 - Chiyonoyama Masanobu, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1926)
1980 - Giorgio Borg Olivier, 7th Prime Minister of Malta (b. 1911)
1981 - Georges Brassens, French singer-songwriter and poet (b. 1921)
1987 - Woody Herman, American musician (b. 1913)
1988 - Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Indian activist (b. 1903)
1991 - Mario Scelba, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1901)
1995 - Terry Southern, American writer (b. 1924)
1997 - Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan (b. 1930)
1997 - Andreas Gerasimos Michalitsianos, Greek-American astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1947)
1998 - Paul Misraki, French composer (b. 1908)
From 2001
2002 - Glenn McQueen, American animator (b. 1960)
2003 - Franco Corelli, Italian tenor (b. 1921)
2003 - Hal Clement, American science fiction writer (b. 1922)
2004 - Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, British royal (b. 1901)
2004 - Edward Oliver LeBlanc, 1st Prime Minister of Dominica (b. 1923)
2009 - Norman Painting, British radio actor (b. 1924)
2011 - Jimmy Savile, British television personality and sexual abuser (b. 1926)
2012 - J. Bernlef, Dutch writer (b. 1937)
2012 - Albano Harguindeguy, Argentine general (b. 1927)
2014 - Klas Ingesson, Swedish footballer (b. 1968)
2015 - Ernesto Boy Herrera, Filipino politician (b. 1942)
2017 - Ninian Stephen, Governor-General of Australia (b. 1923)
2017 - Tony Madigan, Australian boxer and rugby player (b. 1930)
2017 - Dennis Banks, Native American teacher, activist and author (b. 1937)
2017 - Manfredi Nicoletti, Italian architect (b. 1930)
2017 - Linda Nochlin, American art historian and essayist (b. 1931)
2017 - Richard E. Cavazos, American army general (b. 1929)
2017 - Frank Holder, Guyanese jazz singer and percussionist (b. 1925)
2017 - Peter Schutz, German-born American businessman (b. 1930)
2018 - Lodi Gyari Rinpoche, Tibetan diplomat (b. 1949)
2019 - Gerald Baliles, American politician, Governor of Virginia (b. 1940)
2019 - John Witherspoon, American actor and comedian (b. 1942)
2021 - Ashley Mallett, Australian cricketer (b. 1945)
2021 - Clement Mouamba, Congolese politician (b. 1943)
2021 - Puneeth Rajkumar, Indian actor (b. 1975)
2021 - Rossano Rubicondi, Italian actor (b. 1972)
Observances
Coronation Day (Cambodia)
Republic Day (Turkey), to mark the declaration of the Republic by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923.
Cyrus the Great Day (Iran)
World Stroke Day
National Cat Day (United States)
Days of the year