Holidays Calendar for October 29, 2013

King Norodom Sihamoni's Coronation Day is a Cambodian public holiday celebrated on October 29. The reigning King of Cambodia ascended the throne in 2004, following the abdication of his father Norodom Sihanouk.

Republic Day in Turkey is celebrated on October 29. It is a public holiday that commemorates the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. The celebration begins at 1:00 pm on October 28 and lasts thirty-five hours.

Bishop James Hannington Memorial Day is a Ugandan public holiday celebrated annually on October 29. The government of Uganda established it in 2022 to honor the first Anglican bishop of East Africa.

World Stroke Day is an annual awareness day observed on October 29. It was established to raise awareness of the high rates and serious nature of stroke and educate people about the treatment and prevention of this condition.

World Psoriasis Day is an international awareness day observed on October 29. Its main goal is to raise awareness of an autoimmune disease that affects millions of people all over the world, as well as to combat stigma associated with it.

Security Guard Day, officially named Security Company Employee Day, is a professional holiday celebrated in Kazakhstan on October 29. It was officially established in 2017 to honor the staff of specialized security units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and employees of private security companies.

Military Financier Day is a professional holiday in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Celebrated annually on October 29, it honors all military and civilian personnel of the Department of Finance of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

Cyrus the Great Day, also known as Cyrus Day, is an Iranian observance held on October 26 (7th of Aban in the Zoroastrian calendar). It is dedicated to the Persian king Cyrus II, who became famous as the founder of the Achaemenid Empire that conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia and the Caucasus.

October 29 is celebrated as Ľudovít Štúr's birthday in Slovakia. This official remembrance day is dedicated to the leader of the Slovak national revival who is credited with developing the Slovak language standard.

Serbian Constitutional Referendum Anniversary is an unofficial observance held on October 29 in the Republic of Serbia. It commemorates the 2006 constitutional referendum that resulted in the adoption of the current Constitution of Serbia.

National Oatmeal Day is celebrated every year on October 29. This food-related holiday is dedicated to one of the most popular breakfast cereals which is known for its health benefits.

National Cat Day is observed annually on October 29. It was founded by Colleen Paige, an animal welfare advocate, and is supported by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.


This Day in History

  • 2013 Turkey opened a sea tunnel Marmaray connecting Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul. The length of the tunnel is 46.6 mi (75 km).
  • 2012 Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of the United States. 148 were killed directly and 138 more indirectly. The hurricane caused nearly $70 billion in damages and major power outages.
  • 2004 The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcast an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video, in which the terrorist admitted direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and referenced the 2004 U.S. presidential election.
  • 1998 Hurricane Mitch made a landfall in Honduras. This was the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history: nearly 11,000 people were killed and over 11,000 left missing by the end of the year. Around 2.7 million people were left homeless.
  • 1997 Died: Anton LaVey, American author and occultist, the founder of the Church of Satan and the author of The Satanic Bible. He founded LaVeyan Satanism, that is a synthesized system of his understanding of human nature and the insights of philosophers who advocated individualism and materialism.
  • 1991 The American Galileo spacecraft approached 951 Caspra, an asteroid that orbits very close to the inner edge of the asteroid belt. The spacecraft became the first probe to visit an asteroid.
  • 1990 Born: Eric Saade, Swedish singer and songwriter who represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Germany with the song "Popular", placing third.
  • 1987 Died: Woody Herman, American singer, clarinet player, saxophonist, one of the most popular bandleaders of the 1930s and 1940s. His bands played music that was experimental for that time.
  • 1981 Died: Georges Brassens, French singer and songwriter. During his career as a singer he sand more than hundred of his own poems, as well as texts from many famous and unknown French poets, including Paul Verlaine, Louis Aragon and Victor Hugo.
  • 1972 Born: Gabrielle Union, American actress who rose to prominence after landing her breakthrough role in the teen film Bring It On. In 2020, she was included on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
  • 1971 Died: Arne Tiselius, Swedish biochemist, remembered for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis. This work won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1948.
  • 1971 Born: Winona Ryder, American actress, a Golden Globe winner. Her first successful roles were in dark fairy-tale Edward Scissorhands and Gothic romance Bram Stoker's Dracula.
  • 1969 The first ever computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet.
  • 1964 A group of thieves stole a collection of irreplaceable gems, including the 565 carat sapphire Star of India, 100.32 carat DeLong Star Ruby, and the 16.25 carat Eagle Diamond, from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Some of the gems, including Star of India, were recovered in 1965.
  • 1957 Born: Dan Castellaneta, American actor, best known for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated TV series The Simpsons. He also voices other characters on The Simpsons, including Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Mayor Quimby, Groundskeepers Willie, Krusty the Clown and Hans Moleman.
  • 1954 Born: Lee Child, British author, who became famous for his thriller novels depicting the adventures of a former American military policeman Jack Reacher, who wanders the USA.
  • 1953 Died: William Kapell, American pianist.He achieved fame in his early 20s, but was killed at the age of 31 in the crash of a commercial airliner returning from a concert tour in Australia.
  • 1950 Died: Gustaf V, King of Sweden from 1907 to his death. He became the first Swedish king not to have a coronation and he never wore a crown, this tradition is continued to date.
  • 1947 Born: Richard Dreyfuss, American actor, known for starring in a number of successful films, including American Graffiti, Jaws, The Goodbye Girl, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Day Reagan Was Shot.
  • 1941 Great Action massacre: over 10,000 Jews were shot by German occupiers in the Kaunas Ghetto.
  • 1938 Born: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian politician, the 24th President of Liberia. In 2011 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work. She is listed as the 70th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.
  • 1929 The New York Stock Exchange crashed, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s. This day is known as Black Tuesday and the first day of the Great Depression.
  • 1920 Born: Baruj Benacerraf, American immunologist, known for discover of the major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface protein molecules important for the immune system's distinction between self and non-self. This work brought him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980, that he shared with colleagues Jean Dausset and George Davis Snell.
  • 1911 Died: Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-born American publisher, known for introduction of the techniques of "new journalism" to the newspapers. He is considered to be the father of yellow journalism and today he is best know for the Pulitzer Prize, that was established by him in 1917.
  • 1891 Born: Fanny Brice, American actress and singer, known as the creator and star of the radio-comedy The Baby Snooks Show. Her biography became the basis of the musical Funny Girl, in which Brice was portrayed by Barbara Streisand.
  • 1882 Born: Jean Giraudoux, French author and playwright, considered to be one of the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II.
  • 1877 Died: Nathan Bedford Forrest, American general during the American Civil War. He served as the first Grand Wizard (head of movement) of the Ku Klux Klan, but later distanced himself from it.
  • 1863 18 countries met in Geneva and agreed to form the International Committee of the Red Cross.
  • 1856 Born: Jacques Curie, French physicist and mineralogist. Along with his younger brother Pierre Currie he discovered some of the mechanisms of piezoelectricity.
  • 1783 Died: Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher, remembered for his investigation in the fields of physics. He was also a co-editor of the Encyclopédie, a general French encyclopedia.
  • 1618 Died: Walter Raleigh, English admiral, explorer, and politician. He was in favor of Queen Elizabeth I and knighted. Raleigh is also known for popularizing tobacco in England.
  • 1504 Born: Shin Saimdang, south Korean painter and poet, the mother of the Korean Confucian scholar Yulgok. Shin is often held up as a model of Confucian ideals and she appeared on the 50,000 won note, first issued in June 2009.