**Today is Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025 — the 302nd day of the year. There are 63 days left in 2025.**
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### Today in History
**October 29, 1929: “Black Tuesday”**
The New York Stock Exchange plunged amid panicked selling. Stock prices collapsed, $14 billion in value was lost, and thousands of investors were wiped out, triggering America’s Great Depression.
**October 29, 1618:**
Sir Walter Raleigh, the English courtier, military adventurer, and poet, was executed in London for allegedly conspiring against King James I.
**October 29, 1922:**
Benito Mussolini, the founder of fascism, was appointed Italian Prime Minister by King Victor Emmanuel III. Mussolini was dismissed by the king in 1943 after the Allied invasion of Italy and was executed by partisans in 1945.
**October 29, 1940:**
Blindfolded Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number, 158, from a glass bowl in America’s first peacetime military draft.
**October 29, 1956:**
The Suez Crisis began as Israel invaded Egypt to seize control of the vital waterway, backed by France and Britain, following Egypt’s nationalization of the canal. Allied forces eventually withdrew after U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration refused to back the effort and threatened sanctions.
**October 29, 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.
**October 29, 1998:**
Senator John Glenn, at age 77, returned to space aboard the shuttle *Discovery*, retracing his trail as the first American to orbit the Earth in the 1962 Friendship 7 Mercury space capsule.
**October 29, 2012:**
Superstorm Sandy slammed ashore in New Jersey, slowly marching inland and devastating coastal communities. The storm caused widespread power outages and was blamed for at least 182 deaths in the U.S.
**October 29, 2018:**
A Boeing 737 MAX operated by Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. Five months later, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crashed after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. These crashes led to the 737 MAX being grounded worldwide and implicated a flight-control system in the accidents.
**October 29, 2022:**
More than 150 people were killed and dozens injured in South Korea after being crushed by a large crowd pushing forward on a narrow street during Halloween festivities in Seoul.
**October 29, 2024:**
Hezbollah announced cleric Naim Kassem as its new leader following the killing of longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb in late September.
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### Today’s Birthdays
[Insert notable birthdays here.]
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*Stay tuned for more historical insights and daily updates.*
https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/10/29/today-in-history-october-29-black-tuesday-signals-start-of-great-depression/