October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 63 days remaining until the end of the year.
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 Atatürk. 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 Inácio 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.
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 León, 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 Pálsson, 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 Gül, 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 Pirès, 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
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 - Félix 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 Painlevé, 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 - Clément Mouamba, Congolese politician (b. 1943)
- 2021 - Puneeth Rajkumar, Indian actor (b. 1975)
- 2021 - Rossano Rubicondi, Italian actor (b. 1972)
- Coronation Day (Cambodia)
- Republic Day (Turkey), to mark the declaration of the Republic by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923.
- Cyrus the Great Day (Iran)
- World Stroke Day
- National Cat Day (United States)
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