Today is Saturday, Oct. 29, the 302nd day of 2005. There are 63 days left in the year. A reminder: Daylight-Saving Time ends Sunday at 2 a.m. local time. Clocks should be moved back one hour.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 29, 1929, Black Tuesday descended upon the New York Stock Exchange. Prices collapsed amid panic selling and thousands of investors were wiped out as America’s Great Depression began.
On this date:
In 1682, the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, landed at what is now Chester, Pa.
In 1901, President McKinley’s assassin, Leon Czolgosz, was electrocuted.
In 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed.
In 1947, former first lady Frances Cleveland Preston died in Baltimore at age 83.
In 1956, during the Suez Canal crisis, Israel launched an invasion of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
In 1964, thieves made off with the Star of India and other gems from the American Museum of Natural History in New York. (The Star and most of the other gems were recovered; three men were convicted of stealing them.)
In 1966, the National Organization for Women was founded.
In 1967, the counter-culture musical “Hair” opened off-Broadway.
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 1998, Sen. John Glenn, at age 77, roared back into space aboard the shuttle Discovery.
Ten years ago: Palestinians burned American and Israeli flags and swore revenge for the assassination of Dr. Fathi Shakaki, the leader of the radical Islamic Jihad and a top architect of terror attacks against Israel. (Shakaki was gunned down three days earlier in Malta, reportedly by Israeli intelligence.)
Five years ago: The wounded destroyer USS Cole departed Aden, Yemen, towed by tugboats to a Norwegian heavy-lift ship to be taken home to repair the gaping hole in its side; 17 sailors were killed in a suicide bombing attack on Oct. 12.
One year ago: Osama bin Laden, in a videotaped statement, directly admitted for the first time that he’d ordered the Sept. 11 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 Kennedy, died in Auburn, Maine, at age 68.
Today’s Birthdays: Bluegrass singer-musician Sonny Osborne (The Osborne Brothers) is 68. Country singer Lee Clayton is 63. Rock musician Denny Laine is 61. Singer Melba Moore is 60. Musician Peter Green is 59. Actor Richard Dreyfuss is 58. Actress Kate Jackson is 57. Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne is 54. Country musician Steve Kellough (Wild Horses) is 48. Singer Randy Jackson is 44. Rock musician Peter Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is 40. Actress Joely Fisher is 38. Rapper Paris is 38. Rock singer SA Martinez (311) is 35. Musician Toby Smith is 35. Actress Winona Ryder is 34. Actress Tracee Ellis Ross is 33. Actor Trevor Lissauer is 32. Actress Gabrielle Union is 32. Actor Brendan Fehr is 28.
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).