Today is Tuesday, Oct. 29, the 303rd day of 1996. There are 63 days left in the year.
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 the Great Depression began.
On this date:
In 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh, the English courtier, military adventurer and poet, was executed in London.
In 1682, the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, landed at what is now Chester, Penn.
In 1901, President William McKinley's assassin, Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted.
In 1911, American newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer died in Charleston, S.C.
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 1947, former first lady Frances Cleveland Preston died in Baltimore at age 83.
In 1956, 40 years ago, during the Suez Canal crisis, Israel launched an invasion of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
In 1956, "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" premiered as NBC's nightly television newscast, replacing "The Camel News Caravan."
In 1966, 30 years ago, 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 1994, a gunman fired more than two-dozen shots at the White House; Francisco Martin Duran was later convicted of trying to assassinate President Clinton and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Ten years ago: Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Saudi Arabia's oil minister since 1962 and one of the best-known figures of OPEC, was dismissed.
Five years ago: On the eve of a historic Middle East peace conference in Spain, President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met at the Soviet Embassy in Madrid, Spain, and expressed hope for a positive outcome. President Bush imposed trade sanctions against Haiti to pressure its new leaders to restore ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.
One year 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.)
Today's Birthdays: Singer Melba Moore is 51. Actor Richard Dreyfuss is 49. Actress Kate Jackson is 48. Senator Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, is 45. Singer Randy Jackson is 35. Rock musician Peter Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is 31. Actress Winona Ryder is 25.
Thought for Today: "Good taste is the worst vice ever invented." - Dame Edith Sitwell, English poet (1887-1964).