Today in History -- October 29

1618 – The father of the tobacco industry, Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded at Whitehall at the age of 66 for alleged treason.

1787 – Mozart's opera Don Giovanni premieres at the Estates Theater in Prague. Turn up the volume and enjoy the incredible Overture.

 

1815 – Songwriter Daniel Decatur Emmett, the author of the Southern anthem "Dixie,"is born at Mount Vernon, Ohio. A staunch opponent of Secession, he will go on to write the fife and drum manual for the Union Army.

1901 – Leon Czolgosz, the anarchist who assassinated President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution at Auburn Prison in New York.

1911 – Joseph Pulitzer, a wealthy businessman who made a great deal of money campaigning against wealthy businessmen, dies on his yacht while traveling to his winter home in Georgia.

1929 – The day after Black Monday, October 28, stocks continue to tumble on "Black Tuesday."  The Great Depression is under way.

1955 – The creator of the Hollywood studio system, Louis B. Mayer (born Lazar Meir in Minsk) dies of leukemia at Los Angeles. On his watch Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer became the most profitable film studio in the world.

1968 – UCLA student Charley Kline transmits the first message ever sent from one computer to another over the new ARPANET system. The system crashes in the middle of the transmission.

2004 – European heads of state sign the Treaty Establishing a European Constitution, which will be submitted to member states of the European Union for ratification.  It will fail.

FGS