On this day: October 29

Events on October 29

• 1675 Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus. Wikipedia
• 1792 William Robert Broughton, a member of George Vancouver's expedition, observed a peak in the present-day U.S. state of Oregon and named it Mount Hood after British admiral Samuel Hood. Wikipedia
• 1792 Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who sighted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River. Wikipedia
• 1863 Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I : the Ottoman Empire enters the war on the side of the Central Powers. Wikipedia
• 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". Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division. Wikipedia
• 1953 BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco. Wikipedia
• 1956 Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal. Wikipedia
• 1960 A C-46 airliner carrying the Cal Poly Mustangs football team crashed during takeoff from Toledo Express Airport in Ohio, U.S., resulting in 22 deaths. Wikipedia
• 1964 The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed to the United Republic of Tanzania. Wikipedia
• 1967 Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors. Wikipedia
• 1969 The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1985 Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced as the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia. Wikipedia
• 1986 British prime minister Margaret Thatcher officially opened the M25, one of Britain's busiest motorways. Wikipedia
• 1986 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1998 Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras. Wikipedia
• 2006 ADC Airlines Flight 053 crashes after takeoff from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Nigeria killing 96 people and injuring nine. Wikipedia
• 2012 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. Wikipedia
• 2014 A mud slide; the 2014 Badulla landslide, in south-central Sri Lanka, kills at least 16 people, and leaves hundreds of people missing. Wikipedia
• 2015 China announces the end of its one-child policy after 35 years. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 2022 At least 156 die at a crowd crush during a Halloween celebration in Itaewon district, Seoul, South Korea. Wikipedia

Born on October 29

• 1711 Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and academic, first woman to have doctorate in science (died 1778) Wikipedia
• 1875 Marie of Romania (died 1938) Wikipedia
• 1879 Franz von Papen, German soldier and politician, Chancellor of Germany (died 1969) Wikipedia
• 1882 Jean Giraudoux, French author and playwright (died 1944) Wikipedia
• 1897 Joseph Goebbels, German lawyer and politician, Chancellor of Nazi Germany (died 1945) Wikipedia
• 1910 A. J. Ayer, English philosopher and author (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1920 Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan-American physician and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1926 Necmettin Erbakan, Turkish engineer and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Turkey (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1929 Yevgeny Primakov, Ukrainian-Russian journalist and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Russia (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1935 Isao Takahata, Japanese director (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1938 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian politician, President of Liberia, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1942 Bob Ross, American painter and television host (died 1995) Wikipedia
• 1947 Richard Dreyfuss, American actor and activist Wikipedia
• 1950 Abdullah Gül, Turkish academic and politician, 11th President of Turkey Wikipedia
• 1957 Dan Castellaneta, American actor, voice artist, comedian, singer and producer Wikipedia
• 1959 John Magufuli, Tanzanian politician, 5th President of Tanzania (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1970 Edwin van der Sar, Dutch footballer and sportscaster Wikipedia
• 1970 Phillip Cocu, Dutch footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1971 Winona Ryder, American actress and producer Wikipedia
• 1973 Robert Pires, French footballer Wikipedia
• 1982 Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syrian revolutionary and military leader, President of Syria Wikipedia
• 1998 Lance Stroll, Canadian racing driver Wikipedia

Died on October 29

• 1618 Walter Raleigh, English admiral, explorer, and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Jersey (born 1554) Wikipedia
• 1783 Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (born 1717) Wikipedia
• 1804 Sarah Crosby, English Methodist preacher (born 1729) Wikipedia
• 1877 Nathan Bedford Forrest, American general and KKK leader (born 1821) Wikipedia
• 1897 Henry George, American journalist, philosopher, and economist (born 1839) Wikipedia
• 1901 Leon Czolgosz, American assassin of William McKinley (born 1873) Wikipedia
• 1911 Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-American publisher, lawyer, and politician, founded Pulitzer, Inc. (born 1847) Wikipedia
• 1924 Frances Hodgson Burnett, English-American novelist and playwright (born 1849) Wikipedia
• 1933 Paul Painlevé, French mathematician and politician, 84th Prime Minister of France (born 1853) Wikipedia
• 1949 George Gurdjieff, Armenian-French monk, psychologist, and philosopher (born 1872) Wikipedia
• 1950 Gustaf V of Sweden (born 1858) Wikipedia
• 1971 Arne Tiselius, Swedish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902) Wikipedia
• 1981 Georges Brassens, French singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 1997 Anton LaVey, American occultist, founded the Church of Satan (born 1930) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Abraham of Rostov Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Chiara Badano Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Colman mac Duagh Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Douai Martyrs Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gaetano Errico Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: James Hannington (Anglicanism) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Michele Rua Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Narcissus of Jerusalem Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Theuderius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: October 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Coronation Day (Cambodia) Wikipedia
• National Cat Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Republic Day (Turkey) or Cumhuriyet Bayramı Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “October 29” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.