On This Day October 29th

 OTD

October 98th is the 302nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 63 days remain until the end of the year.

 

Events

1390 – First trial for witchcraft in Paris, leading to the death of three people.

1618 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.

1675 – Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus.

1787 – Mozart's opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in Prague.

1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross.

1888 – The Convention of Constantinople was signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.

1921 – The Harvard University football team loses to Centre College, ending a 25-game winning streak. This is considered one of the biggest upsets in college football.

1929 – Black Tuesday: The New York Stock Exchange crashes, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.

1964 – Biggest jewel heist involving the Star of India (gem) in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City by Murph the Surf and gang.

1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway.

1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.

2022 – At least 156 die at a crowd crush during a Halloween celebration in Itaewon district, Seoul, South Korea.

 

Birthdays

1711 – Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and academic, first woman to have a doctorate in science (d. 1778)

1808 – Caterina Scarpellini, Italian astronomer and meteorologist (d. 1873)

1906 – Fredric Brown, American author (d. 1972)

1923 – Carl Djerassi, Austrian-American chemist, author, and playwright (d. 2015)

1925 – Dominick Dunne, American journalist and author (d. 2009)

1937 – Sonny Osborne, American bluegrass singer and banjo player (d. 2021)

1955 – Kevin DuBrow, American heavy metal singer-songwriter (d. 2007)

1971 – Winona Ryder, American actress and producer

1989 – Irina Karamanos, Chilean anthropologist and political scientist, First Lady of Chile

 

Holiday Spotlight

National Oatmeal Day

  Oatmeal, while praised today by nutritionists and health gurus, comes from very humble beginnings. The last cereal grains to be domesticated by Western society 3,000 years ago, the oats for oatmeal came from weeds that grew in fields prepared for other crops.

 Ancient Romans saw oats as an unfortunate and diseased wheat and used them as cheap horse food. They scoffed in disgust at societies that ate oats in their meals, such as the Germanic tribes who conquered the West Roman Empire as well as the Scottish, whom the Romans were never able to beat. Huh, it almost sounds like the Romans should have eaten their oats.

 Though oats are still used in horse food today, a portion is set aside for human consumption. And for good reason! The fiber within oats is more soluble than any other grain. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and turns into a thick, viscous gel, which moves slowly through the body. This means it keeps you full for long periods. Soluble fiber also slows down the body’s process of glucose absorption. It inhibits the re-absorption of bile into the system, meaning you avoid sugar highs and lows while your liver gets its needed cholesterol from your blood. So, eating oatmeal makes you more robust than a Roman. Who knew?

 

Others Include

International Internet Day

National Cat Day

National Hermit Day

Read for the Record Day

Reformation Sunday

Turkey Republic Day

Visit a Cemetery Day

World Psoriasis Day

World Stroke Day

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