October 29

Today in History
• 1390 - First trial for witchcraft in Paris
• 1618 - English adventurer, writer and courtier Walter Raleigh is beheaded
• 1682 - William Penn lands at what is now Chester, Pennsylvania
• 1727 - Severe earthquake in New England
• 1811 - 1st Ohio River steamboat leaves Pittsburgh for New Orleans
• 1814 - "Demologos", 1st steam-powered warship, is launched in New York for the US Navy
• 1872 - J. S. Risdon of Genoa, Illinois, patents the metal windmill
• 1894 - First election of Hawaiian Republic


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• National Cat Day
• National Hermit Day
• National Indigenous People’s Thanksgiving Day
• National Internet Day
• National Oatmeal Day
• Turkey Republic Day
• Visit A Cemetery Day
• World Stroke Day

Birthdays
• 1507 - Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Spanish and diplomat (governor of the Netherlands)
• 1682 - Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, French Jesuit priest and historian
• 1704 - John Byng, English admiral executed by firing squad at 52 for neglecting his duty
• 1822 - Joost Gerard Kist, Dutch lawyer and president of High Council (1885-97)
• 1837 - Abraham Kuyper, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1901-05)
• 1837 - Harriet Powers, African-American slave and quilt maker (Bible Quilt 1886)
• 1875 - Marie, last Queen of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I (1914-27)
• 1879 - Franz JHMM von Papen, German diplomat/chancellor, 1932