130 things happened on 29 October, from AD 437 to 2024. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1740 · 286 years ago
James Boswell was a Scottish writer and lawyer, born in Edinburgh in 1740. He is best known for his Life of Samuel Johnson, the story of the English writer's life. Many people call it the greatest biography ever written in English. A biography is the story of…
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
William Broughton, an officer in the Royal Navy, spotted a mountain peak in what is now the US state of Oregon. He named it Mount Hood, after the British admiral Samuel Hood. Broughton commanded HMS Chatham on Captain George Vancouver's expedition. The expedition explored and mapped the north-west Pacific coast of North America.
UK story
Israel invaded Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, beginning what became known as the Suez Crisis. Egypt's president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, had recently nationalised the Suez Canal, meaning his government took control of it. Two days later Britain and France joined the invasion, aiming to remove Nasser and regain control of the canal. The canal links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and is a key trade route between Europe and Asia.
UK story
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opened the last section of the M25, the motorway that circles most of Greater London. At 188 kilometres (117 miles) long, it became the longest ring road in Europe when it opened. A ring road is a road that goes all the way round a city. The M25 is one of the most important and busiest roads in the UK.
UK story
The London Pageant of 1621 celebrates the inauguration of Edward Barkham (Lord Mayor).
UK story
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.
Representatives of 18 countries met in Geneva, Switzerland, and agreed to form the International Red Cross. Its committee, based in Geneva, is a humanitarian organisation, which means it works to help people in need. It helped to create rules of war that protect wounded soldiers and other victims of war. The committee has won the Nobel Prize three times.
The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed, after the end of the Ottoman Empire. A republic is a country that is not ruled by a monarch, such as a king or a sultan. The day is now a public holiday in Turkey called Republic Day. Celebrations begin on the afternoon of 28 October and carry on for 35 hours.
Prices on the New York Stock Exchange crashed on a day remembered as Black Tuesday. A stock exchange is a market where people buy and sell shares in companies. The Wall Street Crash ended the boom years of the 1920s and shook confidence in American banks. It helped lead to the Great Depression, a long and serious economic slump around the world.
The first ever link between two computers was made on ARPANET, an early computer network. ARPANET was set up by an agency of the United States Department of Defense. It was one of the first networks to use a set of rules called TCP/IP. Its technology became the foundation of the Internet that we use now.
NASA's Galileo space probe flew past the asteroid 951 Gaspra, becoming the first spacecraft to visit an asteroid. Asteroids are rocky, metallic or icy objects, smaller than planets, that travel around the Sun. Galileo was on its way to Jupiter, where it arrived in December 1995. It was named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei.
Former astronaut John Glenn flew into space again, aged 77, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. In 1962 he had become the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times. Between his two spaceflights, he served as a United States senator for Ohio. Discovery itself launched and landed 39 times in its 27 years of service.
The first part of the Marmaray rail project opened in Istanbul, Turkey. It included a railway tunnel under the Bosphorus, the strait that separates Europe from Asia. The undersea tunnel is 13.5 kilometres long and has three underground stations. It created the first standard-gauge rail link between Europe and Asia.
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.
Battle of Brustem: Charles the Bold defeats Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
Russian homage to the King of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa.
Second Northern War: Naval forces of the Dutch Republic defeat the Swedes in the Battle of the Sound.
Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus.
American Civil War: The Battle of Wauhatchie, one of the few night battles of the war, concluded with the Union Army opening a supply line to troops in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The Nanbu clan of Honshu surrendered to imperial forces during the Boshin War.
The San Francisco Mint signed a contract to produce the Kalākaua coinage (coin pictured) for the Hawaiian Kingdom.
The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.
World War I : the Ottoman Empire enters the war on the side of the Central Powers.
World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary.
World War II: The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division.
The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed to the United Republic of Tanzania.
Singaporean leftist opposition leader Chia Thye Poh was detained under the Internal Security Act, which allows for preventive detention, and held for 32 years.
Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors.
Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced as the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia.
Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras.
Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five.
Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, made landfall in New Jersey and caused nearly $75 billion in damages, becoming the second-most destructive storm in U.S. history.
China announces the end of its one-child policy after 35 years.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year did this happen: “Margaret Thatcher opens the final section of the M25”?
C: 1986. 1986 — that’s 40 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “Israel invades Egypt, starting the Suez Crisis”?
B: 1956. 1956 — that’s 70 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
B: William Broughton spots a peak and names it Mount Hood. 1956: Israel invades Egypt, starting the Suez Crisis · 1792: William Broughton spots a peak and names it Mount Hood · 1986: Margaret Thatcher opens the final section of the M25 Find it on the page
“William Broughton spots a peak and names it Mount Hood” happened in 1792. How many years ago was that?
C: 234 years. 2026 − 1792 = 234. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 29 October.
UK story
James Boswell was a Scottish writer and lawyer, born in Edinburgh in 1740. He is best known for his Life of Samuel Johnson, the story of the English writer's life. Many people call it the greatest biography ever written in English. A biography is the story of a person's life written by someone else.
UK story
Robert Hardy was an English actor, born in 1925, with a long career in theatre, film and television. His roles included Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter films and Siegfried Farnon in the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small. He also played Winston Churchill in several productions. He was nominated for two BAFTA awards for Best Actor.
Well-known people who died on 29 October.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 29 October somewhere in the world.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
Stories with a heading have been written for young readers by A Day in the Past, using the linked articles as sources. Other entries show text from Wikipedia’s “October 29” page and its “On this day” feed, written by Wikipedia contributors and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Each “Read more” link goes to the article an entry is based on. Photos are credited under each picture. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us.