Today in History - Oct. 29

Today's Highlight in History:

On Oct. 29, 1929 — known as "Black Tuesday" — Wall Street crashed, heralding the beginning of the Great Depression.

On this date:

In 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh, the English courtier, military adventurer and poet, was executed in London.

In 1901, President William McKinley's assassin, Leon Czolgosz, was electrocuted.

In 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed.

In 1940, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number — 158 — in the lottery for America's first peacetime military draft.

In 1956, during the Suez Canal crisis, Israel invaded Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" premiered as NBC's nightly TV newscast.

In 1966, the National Organization for Women was formally organized during a conference in Washington, D.C.

In 1967, Expo 67 in Montreal closed after six months.

In 1979, on the 50th anniversary of the great stock market crash, anti-nuclear protesters tried but failed to shut down the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1994, gunman Francisco Martin Duran fired more than two dozen shots from a semiautomatic rifle at the White House. (Duran was later convicted of trying to assassinate President Bill Clinton and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.)

In 1998, Sen. John Glenn, at age 77, roared back into space aboard the shuttle Discovery, retracing the trail he'd blazed for America's astronauts 36 years earlier.

Ten years ago: A panel of European Union scientists ruled that British beef was safe for export, rejecting French scientific arguments to continue a ban because of fears of mad cow disease. Some 3,000 people attended a memorial service in Orlando, Fla., for golfer Payne Stewart, who was killed along with five other people in the crash of their Learjet.

Five years ago: Osama bin Laden, in a videotaped statement, directly admitted for the first time that he'd ordered the Sept. 11th attacks and told America "the best way to avoid another Manhattan" was to stop threatening Muslims' security. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was flown to Paris for medical treatment. European Union leaders signed the EU's first constitution. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was sent home after a week in the hospital for treatment of thyroid cancer. Comedian Vaughn Meader, who'd gained fame satirizing President John F. Kennedy, died in Auburn, Maine, at age 68.

One year ago: A 6.4-magnitude earthquake in southwestern Pakistan killed at least 215 people. Nearly 50 hours after Game 5 started but was stopped by rain, the Philadelphia Phillies finished off the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 in a three-inning sprint to win the World Series for the first time since 1980.

Today's Birthdays: Bluegrass singer-musician Sonny Osborne (The Osborne Brothers) is 72. Country singer Lee Clayton is 67. Rock musician Denny Laine is 65. Singer Melba Moore is 64. Musician Peter Green is 63. Actor Richard Dreyfuss is 62. Actress Kate Jackson is 61. The president of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, is 59. Actor Dan Castellaneta ("The Simpsons") is 52. Country musician Steve Kellough (Wild Horses) is 52. Comic strip artist Tom Wilson ("Ziggy") is 52. Actress Finola Hughes is 50. Singer Randy Jackson is 48. Rock musician Peter Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is 44. Actress Joely Fisher is 42. Rapper Paris is 42. Actor Rufus Sewell is 42. Rock singer SA Martinez (311) is 40. Musician Toby Smith is 39. Actress Winona Ryder is 38. Actress Tracee Ellis Ross is 37. Actor Trevor Lissauer is 36. Actress Gabrielle Union is 36. Olympic gold medal bobsledder Vonetta Flowers is 36. Actress Milena Govich is 33. Actor Jon Abrahams is 32. Actor Brendan Fehr is 32. Actor Ben Foster is 29. Rock musician Chris Baio (Vampire Weekend) is 25.

Thought for Today: "It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good." — Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (1901-1978).

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Oct 28, 2009 - 12:01 p.m. EDT

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