This Day in History on October 29 - History and Headlines

October 29, 2018: National Cat Day! (Laser Pointers Beware) 10 Reasons to Love Cats

By Major Dan on October 29, 2018 Animals/Pets, October 29

A Brief History On October 29, 2018, Americans celebrate National Cat Day, or at least some Americans do. Those with bumper stickers that say “Cats, the Other White Meat” probably pass on the opportunity to regale themselves in cat trivia. If you are one of these anti-cat people (“I Like Cats, They’re Delicious” bumper sticker), pass this article up and wait for National Dachshund Day or something! (For the record, we are “Dog people,” not “Cat people,” though we do see the brighter side of having cats around.) Feel free to take exception to any of our reasons to love…

October 29, 1955: 8 Ways Wars Keep Killing After They are “Over”

By Major Dan on October 29, 2017 Lists, Military, October 29

A Brief History On October 29, 1955, the Soviet battleship Novorossiysk struck a mine in Sevastopol Harbor and sank, taking the lives of 608 crewmen. Even when we think a war is over, the terrible price cannot yet be calculated, because wars have ways of continuing to kill past the date History claims ended the war. Here we list 8 of those sad ways wars continue to kill people beyond what seems to be their time frame. Digging Deeper 1. Anti-ship mines. As noted above, the former Italian battleship, Giulio Cesare, renamed by the Soviet Union the Novorossiysk after the USSR…

October 29, 1998: Old People Rejoice! 77 Year Old Becomes Oldest Astronaut

By Major Dan on October 29, 2016 October 29, Science & Technology

A Brief History On October 29, 1998, former fighter pilot, test pilot, pioneering astronaut and US Senator from Ohio, John Glenn, blasted off aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, becoming the oldest person at age 77 to go into space. And he was an actively sitting US Senator at the time! Digging Deeper Despite John Glenn’s long, varied, and illustrious career, he is best remembered as the first American to orbit the Earth, when he took three laps around the planet in his Mercury 7 space capsule in 1962. Glenn had been a US Marine Corps fighter pilot in World War…

History: October 29, 1918: German Navy Refuses to Fight, Triggers Revolution

By Major Dan on October 29, 2015 Military, October 29

A Brief History On October 29, 1918, a disheartened and disgusted German Navy had enough of the slaughter, mismanagement and bungling of World War I and mutinied when ordered to sail out for one last ‘glorious’ mission that amounted to a suicide mission when the war was already lost. Digging Deeper The German High Seas Fleet had basically been bottled up in port after the enormous naval Battle of Jutland, in which an outnumbered Imperial German fleet acquitted itself quite well. Despite many pleas by the Navy for other chances to contribute to the war effort, German leadership kept them…

Which Witch is Which? The First Secular Trials of Witches

By Major Dan on October 29, 2014 Crime, October 29

A Brief History On October 29, 1390, Paris, France got its first taste of professional witch hunting when the first of two witchcraft trials began in the French capital. Religious persecution of witches was nothing new, with records of arraignments by ecclesiastical authorities going back to 1275, but now the secular authorities, i.e. the state authorities, were involved. History and Headlines Note: Exactly 302 years later, on October 29, 1692, the Court of Oyer and Terminer in Salem, Massachusetts was dissolved after having presided over the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Digging Deeper This particular case involved two women who had conspired with the devil to create…