Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
On this day in 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded. The Massachusetts Bay Colony declared itself independent on this day in 1652. John Hancock resigned as President of the Continental Congress on this day in 1777. In 1787 on this day, Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" premiered in Prague. The Stock Market crashed on this day in 1929 and started the Great Depression. On this day in 1956, Israel invaded Egypt, which began the Suez Canal Crisis. In 1998 on this day, South Africa's Truth & Reconciliation Commission condemned acts of violence by the apartheid government as well as the African National Congress (ANC). European Union established a Constitution for Europe on this day in 2004. China ended the one child policy on this day in 2015.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
• On this day in 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded under a sentence that had been brought against him 15 years earlier for conspiracy against King James I.
Oct 29, 1618: Sir Walter Raleigh executed
Sir Walter Raleigh, English adventurer, writer, and favorite courtier of Queen Elizabeth I, is beheaded in London, under a sentence brought against him 15 years earlier for conspiracy against King James I.
During Elizabeth's reign, Raleigh organized three major expeditions to America, including the first English settlement in America, in 1587—the ill-fated Roanoke settlement located in present-day North Carolina. Raleigh later fell out of favor with Elizabeth after she learned of his secret marriage to Bessy Throckmorton, one of her maids-of-honor, and he was imprisoned with his wife in the Tower of London. After buying his freedom, Raleigh married Bessy and distanced himself from the jealous English queen.
After Elizabeth died in 1603, Raleigh was implicated as a foe of King James I and imprisoned with a death sentence. The death sentence was later commuted, and in 1616 Raleigh was freed to lead an expedition to the New World, this time to establish a gold mine in the Orinoco River region of South America. However, the expedition was a failure, and when Raleigh returned to England the death sentence of 1603 was invoked against him.
Oct 29, 1618: Sir Walter Raleigh executed History.com Editors, May 28, 2025:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/october-29/sir-walter-raleigh-executed
• In 1652 on this day, the Massachusetts Bay Colony proclaimed itself to be an independent commonwealth.
• On this day in 1682, William Penn landed at what is now Chester, PA. He was the founder of Pennsylvania.
Early version of the American flag used during the Revolutionary War for Independence
• On this day in 1777. John Hancock resigned as the President of the Continental Congress
John Hancock resigns his position as president of the Continental Congress, due to a prolonged illness, on this day in 1777. Hancock was the first member of the Continental Congress to sign the Declaration of Independence and is perhaps best known for his bold signature on the ground-breaking document.
First elected to the Continental Congress in 1774 as a delegate from Massachusetts, Hancock became its president upon the resignation of Peyton Randolph in May 1775. During his tenure as president, Hancock presided over some of the most historic moments of the American Revolution, culminating in the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.
After resigning his position as president, Hancock returned to his home state of Massachusetts, where he continued his work in public service. After helping to establish the state's first constitution, Hancock was elected first governor of the commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1780 and served for five years. He declined to run for reelection in 1785, but returned after a two-year absence and was elected governor for a second time in 1787. He held the position until his death in 1793.
Hancock will forever be remembered for his bold and defiant signature on the Declaration of Independence, but "bold" and "defiant" could also describe the way he lived. The wealthiest colonist in New England, Hancock risked losing everything he had for the cause of American independence. Nothing better exemplifies Hancock's defiance than the first words he spoke after signing the Declaration of Independence. In response to the bounty the British had placed on the heads of prominent revolutionary leaders, Hancock replied, "The British ministry can read that name without spectacles; let them double their reward." Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
Bust of Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• In 1787 on this day, Mozart's opera Don Giovanni debuted in Prague.
• The International Committee of the Red Cross was founded on this day in 1863.
• On this day in 1901, Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President McKinley, was electrocuted.
Flag of Turkey
• On this day in 1923, Turkey formally became a republic after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The first president was under Mustafa Kemal Ataturkl, later known as Kemal Ataturk.
1929 The New York Stock Exchange crashed on Black Tuesday, precipitating the Great Depression.
• The Great Depression began with the crash of the New York Stock Exchange in Wall Street on this day in 1929, on what came to be known as "Black Tuesday."
Oct 29, 1929: Stock market crashes
Black Tuesday hits Wall Street as investors trade 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression.
During the 1920s, the U.S. stock market underwent rapid expansion, reaching its peak in August 1929, a period of wild speculation. By then, production had already declined and unemployment had risen, leaving stocks in great excess of their real value. Among the other causes of the eventual market collapse were low wages, the proliferation of debt, a weak agriculture, and an excess of large bank loans that could not be liquidated.
Stock prices began to decline in September and early October 1929, and on October 18 the fall began. Panic set in, and on October 24—Black Thursday—a record 12,894,650 shares were traded. Investment companies and leading bankers attempted to stabilize the market by buying up great blocks of stock, producing a moderate rally on Friday. On Monday, however, the storm broke anew, and the market went into free fall. Black Monday was followed by Black Tuesday, in which stock prices collapsed completely.
After October 29, 1929, stock prices had nowhere to go but up, so there was considerable recovery during succeeding weeks. Overall, however, prices continued to drop as the United States slumped into the Great Depression, and by 1932 stocks were worth only about 20 percent of their value in the summer of 1929. The stock market crash of 1929 was not the sole cause of the Great Depression, but it did act to accelerate the global economic collapse of which it was also a symptom. By 1933, nearly half of America's banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15 million people, or 30 percent of the workforce. It would take World War II, and the massive level of armaments production taken on by the United States, to finally bring the country out of the Depression after a decade of suffering.
Oct 29, 1929: Stock market crashes History.com Editors, May 28, 2025:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/october-29/stock-market-crashes
• The first peacetime military draft began in the U.S. on this day in 1940.
• 1945 - The first ballpoint pens to be made commercially went on sale at Gimbels Department Store in New York at the price of $12.50 each.
Flag of Israel
• 1956 - Israel invaded Egypt's Sinai Peninsula during the Suez Canal Crisis.
Oct 29, 1956: Israel invades Egypt; Suez Crisis begins
Israeli armed forces push into Egypt toward the Suez Canal, initiating the Suez Crisis. They would soon be joined by French and British forces, creating a serious Cold War problem in the Middle East.
The catalyst for the joint Israeli-British-French attack on Egypt was the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian leader General Gamal Abdel Nasser in July 1956. The situation had been brewing for some time. Two years earlier, the Egyptian military had begun pressuring the British to end its military presence (which had been granted in the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty) in the canal zone. Nasser's armed forces also engaged in sporadic battles with Israeli soldiers along the border between the two nations, and the Egyptian leader did nothing to conceal his antipathy toward the Zionist nation. Supported by Soviet arms and money, and furious with the United States for reneging on a promise to provide funds for construction of the Aswan Dam on the Nile River, Nasser ordered the Suez Canal seized and nationalized. The British were angry with the move and sought the support of France (which believed that Nasser was supporting rebels in the French colony of Algeria), and Israel (which needed little provocation to strike at the enemy on its border), in an armed assault to retake the canal. The Israelis struck first, but were shocked to find that British and French forces did not immediately follow behind them. Instead of a lightening strike by overwhelming force, the attack bogged down. The United Nations quickly passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire.
The Soviet Union began to issue ominous threats about coming to Egypt's aid. A dangerous situation developed quickly, one that the Eisenhower administration hoped to defuse before it turned into a Soviet-U.S. confrontation. Though the United States sternly warned the Soviet Union to stay out of the situation, Eisenhower also pressured the British, French, and Israeli governments to withdraw their troops. They eventually did so in late 1956 and early 1957.
Oct 29, 1956: Israel invades Egypt; Suez Crisis begins History.com Editors, May 28, 2025:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/october-29/israel-invades-egypt-suez-crisis-begins
1956 - "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" premiered on NBC. The show replaced "The Camel News Caravan." 1959 - General Mills became the first corporation to use close-circuit television.
• 1960 - Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) won his first professional fight.
• On this day in 1965, the Autobiography of Malcolm X was published nine months after he had been assassinated.
• The National Organization for Women was founded on this day in 1966.
• 1969 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered an immediate end to all school segregation.
• 1974 - U.S. President Gerald Ford signed a new law forbidding discrimination in credit applications on the basis of sex or marital status
1985 - It was announced that Maj. Gen. Samuel K. Doe had won the first multiparty election in Liberia.
Flag of the United Nations
• 1990 - The U.N. Security Council voted to hold Saddam Hussein's regime liable for human rights abuses and war damages during its occupation of Kuwait.
• 1991 - The U.S. Galileo spacecraft became the first to visit an asteroid (Gaspra).
• 1991 - Trade sanctions were imposed on Haiti by the U.S. to pressure the new leaders to restore the ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.
• 1992 - Depo Provera, a contraceptive, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. 1995 - Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers became the NFL's career leader in receiving yards with 14,040 yards.
This was a picture (which I have since cropped) of the new South Africa flag of the post-apartheid era. I actually took this one at the apartheid museum, as this was the final display, if you will, of the museum, the symbol of the emergence of a "new South Africa."
• 1998 - South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission condemned both apartheid and violence committed by the African National Congress.
Yes, on October 29, 1998, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its final report, which condemned both the apartheid government and the African National Congress (ANC) for human rights violations and violence. The commission, headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, aimed to uncover the truth about the past and promote healing by hearing testimony from victims and perpetrators on all sides of the conflict.
Picture of the space shuttle at Expo Park in Los Angeles, California
• 1998 - The space shuttle Discovery blasted off with John Glenn on board. Glenn was 77 years old. In 1962 he became the first American to orbit the Earth.
• 1998 - The oldest known copy of Archimedes' work sold for $2 million at a New York auction.
Flag of the European Union (EU)
• On October 29, 2004, the leaders of the 25 European Union member states signed the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe in Rome. The treaty's goal was to streamline EU institutions, affirm shared values, and strengthen the role of citizens and fundamental rights. Although the treaty was approved by the European Parliament, it was ultimately rejected in referenda by France and the Netherlands and never came into force, leading to the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009.
The flag of the People's Republic of China
• In 2015 on this day, China announced that it was ending it's highly controversial one child policy.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
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