October 29
Events
Pre-1600
- 312 - Constantine the Great enters Rome after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, stages a grand adventus in the city, and is met with popular jubilation. Maxentius' body is fished out of the Tiber and beheaded.
- 437 - Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople unifying the two branches of the House of Theodosius.
- 1390 - First trial for witchcraft in Paris leading to the death of three people.
- 1467 - Battle of Brustem: Charles the Bold defeats Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
1601–1900
- 1611 - Russian homage to the King of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa.
- 1621 - The London Pageant of 1621 celebrates the inauguration of Edward Barkham.
- 1658 - Second Northern War: Naval forces of the Dutch Republic defeat the Swedes in the Battle of the Sound.
- 1665 - Portuguese forces defeat the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitate King António I of Kongo, also known as Nvita a Nkanga.
- 1675 - Leibniz makes the first use of the long s as a symbol of the integral in calculus.
- 1792 - Mount Hood is named after Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who sighted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.
- 1863 - Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant repel a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet in one of the few night battles of the war, protecting the Union's recently opened supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee.
- 1888 - The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.
1901–present
- 1914 - World War I : the Ottoman Empire enters the war on the side of the Central Powers.
- 1918 - World War I: the German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny, an action which would trigger the German Revolution of 1918–19.
- 1923 - Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1929 - Black Tuesday: The New York Stock Exchange crashes, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and eventually contributing to the Great Depression.
- 1941 - The Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto, over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the "Great Action".
- 1944 - World War II: The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division.
- 1944 - World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary.
- 1948 - Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Safsaf massacre: Israeli soldiers capture the Palestinian village of Safsaf in the Galilee; afterwards, between 52 and 64 villagers are massacred by the IDF.
- 1953 - BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco.
- 1955 - The sinks after probably striking a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol, with a loss of more than 600 sailers.
- 1956 - Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.
- 1957 - Israel's prime minister David Ben-Gurion and five of his ministers are injured when Moshe Dwek throws a grenade into the Knesset.
- 1960 - An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio.
- 1964 - The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed to the United Republic of Tanzania.
- 1964 - Biggest jewel heist in American history when Murph the Surf and gang burgle the American Museum of Natural History stealing the Star of India and other gems.
- 1967 - Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors.
- 1969 - The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.
- 1972 - The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of the hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615.
- 1980 - Demonstration flight of a secretly modified C-130 for an Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in a crash landing at Eglin Air Force Base's Duke Field, Florida, leading to the cancellation of Operation Credible Sport.
- 1985 - Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced as the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia.
- 1986 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway.
- 1991 - The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.
- 1994 - Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill U.S. President Bill Clinton.
- 1998 - In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.
- 1998 - Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space at that time.
- 1998 - ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with live coverage of the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission.
- 1998 - Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras.
- 1998 - The Gothenburg discothèque fire in Sweden kills 63 and injures over 200.
- 1999 - A large cyclone devastates Odisha, India.
- 2002 - A fire destroys a luxurious department store in Ho Chi Minh City, where 1,500 people are shopping. More than 60 people die and over 100 are unaccounted for in the deadliest peacetime disaster in Vietnam.
- 2004 - The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election.
- 2005 - Bombings in Delhi, India kill 67 and injure over 200 people.
- 2006 - ADC Airlines Flight 053 crashes after takeoff from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Nigeria killing 96 people and injuring nine.
- 2008 - Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five.
- 2008 - A pair of deadly earthquakes hits Baluchistan, Pakistan, killing 215.
- 2012 - Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing hundreds, while leaving nearly $70 billion in damages and causing major power outages.
- 2014 - A mud slide; the 2014 Badulla landslide, in south-central Sri Lanka, kills at least 16 people, and leaves hundreds of people missing.
- 2015 - China announces the end of its one-child policy after 35 years.
- 2018 - A Boeing 737 MAX plane crashes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia killing 189 people on board. This is the first of two crashes that will lead to the plane being grounded worldwide.
- 2020 - Jeremy Corbyn, former Leader of the Labour Party and of the Opposition in the United Kingdom is suspended from the Labour Party following his response to findings from the EHRC on the issue of antisemitism within the party.
- 2022 - At least 156 die at a crowd crush during a Halloween celebration in Itaewon district, Seoul, South Korea.
- 2022 - At least 100 people are killed and over 300 are injured by a double car bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1463 - Alessandro Achillini, Italian physician and philosopher
- 1497 - Benedetto Accolti the Younger, Italian cardinal
- 1504 - Shin Saimdang, South Korean painter and poet
- 1507 - Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Spanish general
- 1562 - George Abbot, English archbishop and academic
1601–1900
- 1682 - Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, French historian, explorer, and author
- 1690 - Martin Folkes, English mathematician and astronomer
- 1704 - John Byng, English admiral and politician, 11th Commodore Governor of Newfoundland
- 1711 - Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and academic, first woman to have doctorate in science
- 1740 - James Boswell, Scottish lawyer and author
- 1808 - Caterina Scarpellini, Italian astronomer and meteorologist
- 1812 - Louise Granberg, Swedish playwright
- 1815 - Dan Emmett, American composer
- 1822 - Mieczysław Halka-Ledóchowski, Russian-Polish cardinal
- 1831 - James Boucaut, English-Australian politician, 11th Premier of South Australia
- 1832 - Narcisa de Jesús, Ecuadorian saint
- 1837 - Harriet Powers, American folk artist and quilter
- 1855 - Paul Bruchési, Canadian archbishop
- 1855 - Paul-Jacques Curie, French physicist and academic
- 1861 - Andrei Ryabushkin, Russian painter
- 1866 - Antonio Luna, Filipino general and politician
- 1866 - Carl Gustav Witt, German astronomer
- 1875 - Marie of Romania
- 1877 - Narcisa de Leon, Filipino film producer
- 1877 - Wilfred Rhodes, English cricketer and coach
- 1879 - Alva B. Adams, American lawyer and politician
- 1879 - Franz von Papen, German soldier and politician, Chancellor of Germany
- 1880 - Abram Ioffe, Russian physicist and academic
- 1881 - John DeWitt, American football player and hammer thrower
- 1882 - Jean Giraudoux, French author and playwright
- 1883 - Victor Hochepied, French swimmer and water polo player
- 1891 - Fanny Brice, American actress and singer
- 1897 - Joseph Goebbels, German lawyer and politician, Chancellor of Nazi Germany
- 1897 - Billy Walker, English footballer
- 1898 - Alan Barker, English soldier
- 1899 - Akim Tamiroff, Georgian-American actor