This day in history

[October 29, 2010]  (AP)  Today is Friday, Oct. 29, the 302nd day of 2010. There are 63 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Oct. 29, 1929, Wall Street crashed on "Black Tuesday," heralding the beginning of America's 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 (CHAWL'-gahsh), was electrocuted.

In 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed.

In 1940, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number -- 158 -- in 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 television newscast.

In 1960, a chartered plane carrying the California Polytechnic State University football team crashed on takeoff from Toledo, Ohio, killing 22 of the 48 people on board.

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

In 1967, Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 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 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: 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.

Five years ago: Three blasts ripped through markets in New Delhi, India, killing 62 people. Hundreds of people slowly filed past the body of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Ala., just miles from the downtown street where she'd made history by refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man. Saint Liam won the Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont Park.

One year ago: President Barack Obama paid a post-midnight visit to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to honor the return of 18 soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Deposed President Manuel Zelaya and his opponents agreed to a U.S.-brokered deal to end the power crisis that had paralyzed Honduras following a coup.

Today's birthdays: Bluegrass singer-musician Sonny Osborne (The Osborne Brothers) is 73. Country singer Lee Clayton is 68. Rock musician Denny Laine is 66. Singer Melba Moore is 65. Musician Peter Green is 64. Actor Richard Dreyfuss is 63. Actress Kate Jackson is 62. The president of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, is 60. Actor Dan Castellaneta ("The Simpsons") is 53. Country musician Steve Kellough (Wild Horses) is 53. Comic strip artist Tom Wilson ("Ziggy") is 53. Actress Finola Hughes is 51. Singer Randy Jackson is 49. Rock musician Peter Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is 45. Actress Joely Fisher is 43. Rapper Paris is 43. Actor Rufus Sewell is 43. Actor Grayson McCouch (mih-COOCH') is 42. Rock singer SA Martinez (311) is 41. Musician Toby Smith is 40. Actress Winona Ryder is 39. Actress Tracee Ellis Ross is 38. Actor Trevor Lissauer is 37. Actress Gabrielle Union is 37. Olympic gold medal bobsledder Vonetta Flowers is 37. Actress Milena Govich is 34. Actor Jon Abrahams is 33. Actor Brendan Fehr is 33. Actor Ben Foster is 30. Rock musician Chris Baio (Vampire Weekend) is 26.

Thought for today: "Numerous politicians have seized absolute power and muzzled the press. Never in history has the press seized absolute power and muzzled the politicians." -- David Brinkley, American broadcast journalist (1920-2003)

[Associated Press]

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