/year

October 29 in history

186 sourced entries recorded on October 29, from 539 BCE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 539 BCEFall of Babylon: Achaemenid troops under Gobryas enter Babylon unopposed. Cyrus enters the city, incorporating the Neo-Babylonian Empire into the Achaemenid Empire and turning the latter into the largest in the history of the world up until that point.source
  • 312Constantine enters Rome; he stages a grand adventus in the city, and is met with popular jubilation. Maxentius' body is fished out of the Tiber and decapitated.source
  • 437Valentinian III cements an alliance with the eastern emperor, Theodosius II, by marrying his daughter Licinia Eudoxia in Constantinople. This marks the reunion of the two branches of the House of Theodosius.source
  • 1174Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa), on his fifth Italian campaign, begins the siege of Alessandria in northern Italy. He is opposed by the Lombard League (now joined by Venice, Sicily and Constantinople).source
  • 1184The 18-year-old Prince Henry, eldest surviving son of Frederick I, is engaged to Princess Constance, heiress to the Kingdom of Sicily, at Augsburg in the episcopal palace.source
  • 1187Gregory VIII issues the bull Audita tremendi, proposing the Third Crusade and negotiates with Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa).source
  • 1191Richard I marches with the Crusader forces onto the plains east of Jaffa and begins the slow, steady work of rebuilding a string of sites through which to advance on Jerusalem. During this period, the Third Crusade degenerates into a series of skirmishes. Richard uses diplomacy alongside military threats, hoping to bring Saladin to the point of submission before he has to make the siege of Jerusalem itself.source
  • 1232Gregory IX orders the Stedinger Crusade to be proclaimed in northern Germany.source
  • 1281Second Battle of Homs: In a pitched battle, Mamluk forces (some 30,000 men) led by Qalawun destroy the Mongol center; Möngke Temür is wounded and flees. He orders a retreat, followed by a disorganized army. The Armenian-Georgian auxiliaries under Leo III fight their way back northwards. The Mongol army recrosses the Euphrates without losses; the river remains the frontier between the Mongols and the Mamluk Sultanate.source
  • 1309Archbishop Cassone della Torre of Milan is exiled to Bologna by his cousin Guido, who is later excommunicated.source
  • 1312the Treaty of Inverness between Robert the Bruce of Scotland and Haakon V of Norway reaffirmed the Treaty of Perth (1266). Bruce personally represented Scotland at Inverness.source
  • 1319(Gen'ō 1, 15th day of 9th month) Nichiin of Japan's Daimoku sect refutes all other sects of Buddhism during an interrogation by the Kamakura shogunate, permitting the sect to continue.source
  • 1400Jingnan campaign: In China, Prince Zhu Di of Yan expands his conquests with the capture of Cangzhou in Heibei province.source
  • 1401King Zsigmond of Hungary is released from imprisonment by order of the Royal Council.source
  • 1436The regents for King Henry VI summon members of the English Parliament to assemble on January 21 at Westminster.source
  • 1449The French recapture Rouen from the English.source
  • 1449The French recapture Rouen from the English which the English captured in the 1418/1419 siege of Rouen.source
  • 1465The treaty of Saint-Maur is signed between King Louis XI of France and the nobles of the League of the Public Weal (Ligue du bien public), ending the War of the Public Weal.source
  • 1467At the Battle of Brustem, Charles the Bold defeats the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.source
  • 1483Battle of Una: Forces of the Kingdom of Croatia defeat the army of the Ottoman Empire.source
  • 1560Queen Elizabeth directs the minting of the first machine produced coins in the Kingdom to completely replace hammered coinage, produced manually.source
  • 1569Sweden conquer Åhus.source
  • 1591Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti is elected on the third ballot to succeed the late Pope Gregory XIV, after Cardinal Ludovico Madruzzo withdraws his candidacy. and takes the name Pope Innocent IX.source
  • 1629Public celebrations ordered for the birth (on 17 October) of Balthasar Charlessource
  • 1642King Charles enters Oxford and establishes his court there.source
  • 1653Pierre-Esprit Radisson, a French Canadian teenager who had been captured by a Mohawk raiding party two years earlier and then tortured, escapes captivity in what is now the U.S. state of New York.source
  • 1658The 45-ship fleet of the Netherlands arrives at Denmark and begins its counterattack on Sweden's army and navy with three squadrons.source
  • 1658In the Battle of the Sound, a Dutch fleet come in support of Denmark which forces the Swedish fleet to end the blockade of Copenhagen. Soon after, Sweden has to abandon the siege of the city and withdraw from the Danish isles while they remain present in Jutland.source
  • 1665Battle of Mbwila: Portuguese forces defeat and kill King António I of Kongo.source
  • 1669Ukrainian Cossack General Mykhailo Khanenko is defeated by Petro Doroshenko at the Battle of Stebliv after attempting to wrest control of Ukraine's territory on the west side of the Dnieper River from Doroshenko.source
  • 1669Isaac Newton appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.source
  • 1675Gottfried Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus.source
  • 1677Michel le Tellier becomes Chancellor of France.source
  • 1680At the request of King Charles XI of Sweden, the Riksdag in Sweden enacts the Great Reduction, returning fiefs which had been granted to the Swedish nobility to the Crown. The nation becomes an absolute monarchy under the rule of Charles.source
  • 1693The Great Storm changes the course of rivers and alters the coastline from Virginia to Long Island in America.source
  • 1706Swedish defeat in the Battle of Kalisz.source
  • 1762Battle of Freiberg: Prince Henry of Prussia, Frederick's brother, defeats the Austrian army of Marshal Serbelloni.source
  • 1768French colonists in Louisiana refuse to accept the colony's acquisition by Spain and begin an uprising that forces Spanish Governor Antonio de Ulloa to flee.source
  • 1768French colonists in Louisiana refuse to accept the colony's acquisition by Spain and begin an uprising that forces Spanish Governor Antonio de Ulloa to fleesource
  • 1787Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte) premieres in the Estates Theatre in Prague.source
  • 1792Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after British Admiral Lord Hood by Lt. William Broughton of the Vancouver Expedition, who spots the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.source
  • 1807The exiled Louis XVIII of France arrives at Great Yarmouth with his entourage. It is only on 2 November that they receive permission to go ashore .source
  • 1813October 24–November 5 – Persia and Russia sign the Treaty of Gulistan at the end of the Russo-Persian War, by which Persia loses modern-day Georgia, Dagestan and most of Azerbaijan to Russia.source
  • 1821Governor Macquarie lays foundation stone for first Catholic church in Australia, St Mary's.source
  • 1831The 1831 Bristol riots ("Queen Square riots") in Bristol (England) begin, in connection with the Great Reform Bill controversy. Quelled by the authorities and the military on October 31, 100 city centre properties are destroyed, at least 120 are estimated to have been killed, 31 of the rioters will be sentenced to death and a colonel facing court-martial for failure to control the riot commits suicide.source
  • 1832Alpha Delta Phi, the sixth-oldest college fraternity, is founded as a literary society by Samuel Eells at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.source
  • 1842The Iberian Peninsula is struck by a category 2 hurricane.source
  • 1855October 28–31 – 1855 Fiji expedition: The U.S. Navy dispatches the USS John Adams to Viti Levu, Fiji, to protect American interests. One American sailor is killed and two Marines are wounded.source
  • 1857St Deiniol's Church, Hawarden, badly damaged by arson.source
  • 1863October 26–29 – The Resolutions of the Geneva International Conference are signed by sixteen countries meeting in Geneva agreeing to form the International Red Cross.source
  • 1863October 26–29 – The Grand Duchy of Baden, Kingdom of Bavaria, Kingdom of Hanover, Grand Duchy of Hesse, Kingdom of Prussia and Kingdom of Saxony are among the signatories to the Resolutions of the Geneva International Conference leading to formation of the International Red Cross and the German Red Cross.source
  • 1863American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie – Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant, having fought through the night, ward off a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet. Union forces thus open a supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee.source
  • 1867A hurricane hits the Danish West Indies.source
  • 1873At Dresden, Albrecht I becomes new King Albrecht I of King of Saxony, an independent state within the German Empire, upon the death of his father King Johann, who had ruled since 1854.source
  • 1876October 28-November 5 - Hagi Rebellionsource
  • 1880Wells lifeboat disaster: RNLI life-boat Eliza Adams of Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, capsizes on service; 11 of 13 crew lost.source
  • 1881Judge magazine is first published.source
  • 1881The satirical magazine Judge is first published in the United States.source
  • 1888Borki train disaster.source
  • 1889The British South Africa Company receives a Royal Charter.source
  • 1889British South Africa Company receives a Royal Charter.source
  • 1897Henry Emmerson becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing James Mitchell.source
  • 1899The Battle of Kouno ends after two days in Chad, as French Army Captain Émile Gentil leads a force of 344 troops against a much larger force of Sudanese Arabs, led by the warlord Rabih az-Zubayr. Gentil routs the Sudanese.source
  • 1900Sir Rodmond Roblin becomes premier of Manitoba, replacing Hugh John Macdonald.source
  • 1901In Amherst, New York, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine; she will confess to at least 31 killings.source
  • 1901In Amherst, New Hampshire, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine; she will confess to at least 31 killings.source
  • 1905Russian Revolution of 1905: The Imperial Russian Army opens fire on a meeting at a street market in Tallinn, Governorate of Estonia, killing 94 and injuring over 200 people.source
  • 1905The Circum-Baikal Railway is brought into permanent operation, completing through rail communication on the Trans-Siberian Railway.source
  • 1908Olivetti, the well-known typewriter and business equipment company, is founded in Italy.source
  • 1908The Italian business machine manufacturer Olivetti is founded in Ivrea, producing typewriters.source
  • 1909The South Melbourne Swans defeat the Carlton Blues 4.14 (38) to 4.12 (36) in the 1909 VFL Grand Final.source
  • 1909A mining accident at Darren Colliery, New Tredegar, kills 26 men.source
  • 1919King George V approves the award of a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) to ‘Abdu’l-Baha, following a recommendation by the British military administration in Palestine, citing his cooperation and influence in Haifa during the period of British occupation.source
  • 1919November 29 – First Annual Meeting of the International Labour Conference.source
  • 1921Construction of the Link River Dam, a part of the Klamath Project in Oregon, is completed.source
  • 1921Centre College's American football team, led by quarterback Bo McMillin, defeats Harvard University 6–0, to break Harvard's five-year winning streak. For decades afterward, this is called "football's upset of the century".source
  • 1923Turkey becomes a republic, following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire; Kemal Atatürk is elected as first president.source
  • 1925October 19–29 – Incident at Petrich: A brief conflict occurs between Bulgaria and Greece after a Greek soldier accidentally crosses into the Bulgarian side and is shot by border guards.source
  • 1929October 24–29 – Wall Street Crash of 1929: Three multi-digit percentage drops wipe out more than $30 billion from the New York Stock Exchange (10 times greater than the annual budget of the federal government).source
  • 1929The US stock market crash causes a fall in coffee quotations to 60%.source
  • 1929Black Tuesday. Wall Street crash triggers the 10-year Great Depression.source
  • 1934October 20–November 3 – Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean, from his native Brisbane, Australia, to San Francisco, in the Lockheed Altair Lady Southern Cross. The November 3 Hawaii–San Francisco leg is the first eastward flight from Hawaii to North America.source
  • 1938Ralph Bakshi, Israeli-American director of animated and live-action filmssource
  • 1940The Selective Service System lottery is held in Washington, D.C..source
  • 1942The Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.source
  • 1945At Gimbels Department Store in New York City, the first ballpoint pens go on sale at $12.50 each.source
  • 1947November 25 – Campaign in the Eastern Foothills of the Funiu Mountainssource
  • 1950Upon the death of Gustaf V of Sweden, he is succeeded as king by his 68-year-old son Gustaf VI Adolf.source
  • 1955Soviet battleship Novorossiysk explodes at moorings in Sevastopol Bay, killing 608 (the Soviet Union's worst naval disaster to date).source
  • 1956Tangier Protocol: The international city Tangier is reintegrated into Morocco.source
  • 1956Suez Crisis: Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula and pushes Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.source
  • 1956The Huntley-Brinkley Report debuts on NBC-TV in the United States.source
  • 1959First appearance of Astérix the Gaul, in a French comic magazine.source
  • 1961Devrim, the first ever car designed and produced in Turkey, is released. The project has been completed in only 130 days almost from scratch, a period including decision on the project, research, design, development and production of four vehicles.source
  • 1961DZBB-TV Channel 7, the Philippines' third TV station, is launched.source
  • 1964A collection of irreplaceable gemstones, including the 565 carats Star of India, is stolen from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.source
  • 1965An 80-kiloton nuclear device is detonated at Amchitka Island, Alaska, as part of the Vela Uniform program, code-named Project Long Shot.source
  • 1967Expo 67 closes in Montreal, after having attracted more than 50 million visitors in six months.source
  • 1968Disagreements over the budget for the following year lead to the collapse of the Werner-Cravatte Government.source
  • 1969The first electronic message is sent between two computers connected via ARPANET between University of California, Los Angeles and SRI International in California at around 10:30pm local time, the initial forerunning technology to the Internet.source
  • 1971Vietnam War – Vietnamization: The total number of American troops still in Vietnam drops to a record low of 196,700 (the lowest since January 1966).source
  • 1971The Odisha cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, in Orissa State in India, kills 10,000.source
  • 1981withdrawal of Libyan forces from Chadian territory, completed by 16 November. The Libyans were to be replaced by an OAU Inter-African Force (IAF).source
  • 1986British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher officially opens the M25 Motorway, which encircles Greater London, in a ceremony on the carriageway near Potters Bar. It became Europe's second longest orbital road upon completion, and provides the first and only full bypass of London.source
  • 1988Pakistan's General Rahimuddin Khan resigns from his post as the governor of Sindh, following attempts by the President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, to limit the powers Rahimuddin had accumulated.source
  • 1990In Norway, the government headed by Prime Minister of Norway Jan P. Syse collapses.source
  • 1991NASA's Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.source
  • 1991October 28–November 4 – The 1991 Perfect Storm strikes the northeastern U.S. coast and Atlantic Canada, causing over US$200 million of damage and resulting in 12 direct fatalities.source
  • 1993October 27–31 – The Southland Firestorm, formed of more than fourteen separate fires in Southern California burning simultaneously, burns more than 700 homes and 160,000 acres. Two of these fire are the Laguna Fire which burned more than 16,000 acres (6,500 hectares), destroyed hundreds of homes and caused $528 million in damage in Orange County, California, and the Kinneloa Fire in Los Angeles County, California which caused a fatality.source
  • 1997Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq says it will begin shooting down Lockheed U-2 surveillance planes being used by UNSCOM inspectors.source
  • 1998Hurricane Mitch makes landfall in Central America, killing an estimated 11,000 people.source
  • 19991999 Odisha cyclone: A super cyclonic storm impacts Orissa, India, killing approximately 10,000 people.source
  • 2004European heads of state sign in Rome the Treaty and Final Act, establishing the first European Constitution.source
  • 2004Osama bin Laden releases a video taking credit for the September 11 attacks.source
  • 2007The UK embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, is closed as a precaution after a terrorist attack in the city is prevented. The US embassy also closes its doors after the Azerbaijan Government reports of the thwarting of a "large-scale, horrifying terror attack."source
  • 2009Two hundred Tunisian families crossed the border between Algeria and Tunisia in late October. They occupied tents in the El Mezara region, in the town of Bir El Ater, Tébessa Province. They have requested political asylum from Algerian authorities after fleeing Hogra injustice.source
  • 2011Michael D. Higgins is elected President of Ireland.source
  • 2011A large snowstorm produced unusual amounts of early snowfall across the northeastern United States and the Canadian Maritimes, leaving 1.7 million people without power and disrupting travel.source
  • 2012switching to digital televisionsource
  • 2012October 22 – November 2 – Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record (as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spanning 900 miles (1,400 km)), wreaks havoc, resulting in 233 total deaths and $68.7 billion (2012 USD) damage.source
  • 2018Lion Air Flight 610 crashes off the coast of Java, killing all 189 people on board.source
  • 2020The Prophet's Birthdaysource
  • 2020140 migrants drown when a boat from M'Bour that was bound for the Canary Islands capsizes near Saint-Louis. The national government and the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) dispatched a mission to assess needs and provide assistance to survivors. It is the deadliest shipwreck recorded so far in 2020.source
  • 2021Two employees of the Canadian mining company Iamgold are reported missing following an attack on their convoy in Burkina Faso while travelling to Essakane.source
  • 20222022 Russian invasion of Ukraine: In response to an alleged Ukrainian drone attack against the Black Sea Fleet, Russia suspends its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative.source
  • 2022A double car bombing by al-Shabaab in Mogadishu, Somalia kills at least 121 people and injures around 300.source
  • 20242024 Spanish floods: Spain experiences its worst flooding in half a century, with over 200 killed and many more missing, as a year's worth of rain falls in eight hours.source
  • 20252025 Dutch general election: Social liberal party Democrats 66 ties with right-wing populist party Party for Freedom in most number of seats.source

Births

  • 1109Injong of Goryeo, Korean king (died 1146)source
  • 1127Yang Wanli, Chinese politician and poet (died 1206)source
  • 1449Peter of Foix the Younger (Fr.: Pierre de Foix, le jeune), French Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal (died 1490)source
  • 1497Benedetto Accolti the Younger, Italian cardinal (died 1549)source
  • 1504Shin Saimdang, Korean calligraphist and noted poet (died 1551)source
  • 1507Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Spanish general (died 1582)source
  • 1515Mary of Bourbon, daughter of Charles, Duke of Vendôme (died 1538)source
  • 1547Princess Sophia of Sweden, Swedish princess (died 1611)source
  • 1560Christian I, Elector of Saxony (died 1591)source
  • 1648John Verelst, Dutch Golden Age painter (died 1734)source
  • 1652Jan Wyck, Dutch military painter (died 1702)source
  • 1656Edmond Halley, scientist (died 1742)source
  • 1682Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, French historian (died 1761)source
  • 1704John Byng, British admiral (died 1757)source
  • 1738Charles Spalding, Scottish inventor and underwater diver (died 1783)source
  • 1740James Boswell, Scottish author (died 1795)source
  • 1740James Boswell, author (died 1795)source
  • 1791John Elliotson, British physician (died 1868)source
  • 1792Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, explorer, Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Australia (died 1855)source
  • 1807Anđeo Kraljević, Herzegovinian Catholic bishop (died 1879)source
  • 1831Othniel Charles Marsh, American paleontologist (died 1899)source
  • 1866Antonio Luna, Filipino general (died 1899)source
  • 1870Samuel Alfred Ross, Vice President of Liberia (1920–1924), in Greenville (died 1929)source
  • 1879Franz von Papen, German diplomat and politician; Chancellor (1932) and Vice-Chancellor (1933–34; under Adolf Hitler) (died 1969)source
  • 1897Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi propagandist (died 1945)source
  • 1926Necmettin Erbakan, prime minister (54th government of Turkey)source
  • 1938Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 24th President of Liberiasource

Deaths

  • 632Saint Colman mac Duagh, Irish abbot and bishopsource
  • 1050Eadsige, archbishop of Canterburysource
  • 1219Ch'oe Ch'ung-hŏn, Korean ruler (born 1149)source
  • 1266Margaret of Austria, queen consort of Germany and later of Bohemia (born 1204)source
  • 1268Conradin, Duke of Swabia (executed) (born 1252)source
  • 1268Conradin, the last legitimate male heir of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty of Kings of Germany and Holy Roman Emperors, is executed, along with his companion Frederick I, Margrave of Baden, by Charles I of Sicily, a political rival and ally to the hostile Roman Catholic Church.source
  • 1268Frederick I, Margrave of Baden (executed) (born 1249)source
  • 1312Landolfo Brancaccio, Italian aristocrat and cardinalsource
  • 1321Stefan Milutin, Serbian king (born 1253)source
  • 1321King Stefan Milutin of Serbia dies after a 39-year reign. His son Stefan Konstantin claims the throne, but Konstantin's elder half-brother Stefan Dečanski starts a civil war and succeeds him.source
  • 1339Grand Prince Aleksandr Mikhailovich of Tver (born 1301)source
  • 1339Ruaidhri O Ceallaigh is killed lby Cathal mac Aodh mac Eoghain O Conchobhairsource
  • 1537Elizabeth Lucar, English calligrapher (born 1510)source
  • 1585Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha, Ottoman (Turkish) grand vizier (born 1526)source
  • 1618English adventurer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded at the Palace of Westminster, for allegedly conspiring treasonably against James I of England in 1603, following pressure from the Spanish government, over his attack on their settlement on the Orinoco, on his last (1617–18) voyage.source
  • 1618Sir Walter Raleigh, English soldier, politician, courtier, explorer, Virginia settler, historian, poet and spy (executed) (born 1552 of 1554)source
  • 1650David Calderwood, Scottish historian (born 1575)source
  • 1662William Pynchon, English colonist and fur trader in North America (born 1590)source
  • 1666James Shirley, English dramatist (born 1596)source
  • 1783Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician (born 1717)source
  • 1804Sarah Crosby, the first female Methodist preacher (born 1729)source
  • 1829Maria Anna Mozart ("Nannerl"), Austrian musician and composer, sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (born 1751)source
  • 1877Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Confederate Civil War General, first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (born 1821)source
  • 1885George B. McClellan, American Civil War general, politician (born 1826)source
  • 1897Henry George, American economist (born 1839)source
  • 1901Leon Czolgosz is executed in the electric chair for the assassination of William McKinley in Buffalo, New York on September 6.source
  • 1911Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-born newspaper publisher, journalist (born 1847)source
  • 1913Darío de Regoyos. (born 1857)source
  • 1949George Gurdjieff, Soviet spiritual teacher (born 1866)source
  • 2017Frank Holder, jazz singer and percussionist (born 1925).source
  • 2022At least 158 people are killed and another 197 injured in a crowd crush during Halloween festivities in Seoul, South Korea.source