• 539 BC King Cyrus “the Great” of Persia marches into Babylon, freeing Jewish captives and allowing them to return home.
• 1268 Conradin, the last legitimate male heir of the German Hohenstaufen dynasty of Kings and Holy Roman Emperors, is executed with Frederick I, Margrave of Baden by Charles I of Sicily.
• 1390 First trial for witchcraft in Paris.
• 1591 Giovanni A Facchinetti elected as Pope Innocentius IX
• 1618 English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.
• 1665 Battle of Mbwila [Ambuila],: Portuguese forces defeat forces of the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitate King Antonio I of Kongo / Nvita a Nkanga
• 1692 Court of Oyer and Terminer, convened for Salem witch trials, dissolved
• 1787 Opera “Don Giovanni” is produced (Prague).
• 1859 Spain declares war on Morocco.
• 1863 International Committee of Red Cross forms as result Geneva held conference (Nobel 1917, 1944, 1963).
• 1872 J S Risdon patents metal windmill.
• 1888 Lord Salisbury grants Cecil Rhodes charter for British South Africa Company.
• 1889 Queen Victoria grants Cecil Rhodes rights to Zambezia.
• 1901 In Amherst, Massachusetts, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine.
• 1905 Hottentot chief Hendrik Witbooi fataly injured.
• 1913 Floods in El Salvador kill thousands.
• 1915 Tomáš Masaryk claims independence for Czechoslovakia.
• 1923 Turkey declares independence (successor state to Ottoman Empire)
• 1929 “Black Tuesday” Wall Street Stock Market crashes triggering the “Great Depression”
• 1945 First ballpoint pen goes on sale, manufactured by Biro
• 1947 Trial of art forger Han van Meegeren begins in Amsterdam
• 1954 Sweden begins experimental TV
• 1958 Boris Pasternak refuses Nobel prize for literature.
• 1958 Dr F Mason Sones is first doctor to perform a coronary angiogram.
• 1959 “Asterix” is first published in the French magazine “Pilote” by Rene Goscinny, illustrated by Albert Uderzo.
• 1964 Town of Karmi’el founded in Galilee.
• 1964 The United Republic of Tanganyika & Zanzibar renamed The United Republic of Tanzania
• 1967 London criminal Jack McVitie is murdered by the Kray twins, leading to their eventual imprisonment and downfall.
• 1969 Supreme Court (USA) orders end to all school desegregation “at once”
• 1975 ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ Peter Sutcliffe kills first victim, Wilma McCann.
• 1982 Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson release “Girl is Mine”
• 1983 550 000 Dutch demonstrate against cruise missile.
• 1985 Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multiparty election in Liberia.
• 1988 China announces a herbal male contraceptive.
• 1990 30 die in an (5.7) earthquake in Algeria.
• 1998 In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.
• 1998 En route Adana to Ankara, Turkish Airlines flight with crew of 6 and 33 passengers hijacked by Kurdish militant, orders pilot fly to Switzerland. Pilot lands in Ankara tricking hijacker he was landing in Sofia to refuel.
• 1998 Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, made landfall in Honduras.
• 1999 Deadliest Indian Ocean tropical cyclone hits Orissa, India. This event was known as 1999 Orissa cyclone ever since.
• 2002 Ho Chi Minh City ITC Inferno, a fire destroys a luxurious department store with 1,500 people shopping. Over 60 people died and over 100 are missing. It is the deadliest disaster in Vietnam during peacetime.
• 2004 In Rome, 25 European heads of state sign a Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.
• 2004 Arabic news network, Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a video of Osama bin Laden in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election
• 2005 29 October 2005 Delhi bombings kill more than 60.
• 2007 Argentina elects its first female president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
• 2011 Record-breaking snowstorm in the northeastern United States leaves nearly two million residents without power for more than 36 hours.
• 2012 Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in New Jersey resulting in 110 deaths and $50-billion in damage and forces the New York stock exchange to close.
• 2012 Publishing companies Penguin and Random House merge to form the world’s largest publisher.
• 2015 China announces the end of their one-child policy after 35 years.
Source: www.onthisday.com
