October 1929


The following events occurred in October 1929:

Tuesday, October 1, 1929

  • Britain restored diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
  • Died: Antoine Bourdelle, 67, French sculptor, painter and teacher

Wednesday, October 2, 1929

Thursday, October 3, 1929

Friday, October 4, 1929

  • The Colorado State Penitentiary riot ended in the early morning with its leaders all dead. With the prospects of escape clearly hopeless, one of the leaders shot his accomplices and then himself. In all, eight prison guards and five inmates were killed.
  • The Victor Talking Machine Company was merged with RCA to form RCA-Victor, with RCA holding 50 percent of the stock, General Electric 30 percent, and Westinghouse Electric 20 percent.
  • Ramsay MacDonald arrived in New York City and proceeded to Washington, D.C., by train, where he had an introductory 20-minute meeting with President Herbert Hoover. MacDonald became the first sitting British Prime Minister to ever visit the United States.
  • The Fritz Lang-directed silent science fiction film Frau im Mond '''' premiered in Berlin.

Saturday, October 5, 1929

Sunday, October 6, 1929

Monday, October 7, 1929

Tuesday, October 8, 1929

  • Mobster Ralph Capone was arrested by federal authorities for tax fraud.
  • Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel were married in the living room of the Ohio farmhouse of William Ernst Kornspeter, Viola's stepfather. Their first child, future astronaut Neil Armstrong, would be born on August 5, 1930.
  • Cuban airline Cubana de Aviación was founded.

Wednesday, October 9, 1929

Thursday, October 10, 1929

Friday, October 11, 1929

  • By two votes, the U.S. Senate eased American censorship laws by passing an amendment to a tariff bill to exempt books and pamphlets from a ban on the importation of obscene content. However, the amendment included a new prohibition against books or drawings urging forcible resistance to the laws of the United States or threats against any American's life. The amendment would be revoked in March 1930.

Saturday, October 12, 1929

Sunday, October 13, 1929

Monday, October 14, 1929

Tuesday, October 15, 1929

Wednesday, October 16, 1929

  • Lists were opened in Germany for the signing of a petition for a national referendum to deny Germany's war guilt and refuse to obey the Young Plan. 10% of all the country's eligible voters would be required to sign up before the referendum could be considered binding.
  • The British government made a concession to the country's coal miners by informing their unions that there would be a uniform reduction of work hours from eight down to seven-and-a-half per day without reduction of wages. The miners had sought repeal of the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1908 – the 'Eight Hour Act' – passed by the Stanley Baldwin government and reversion to the old seven-hour day.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 3.2% as the New York Stock Exchange posted widespread losses, with numerous declines of 10 points or more.
  • Born: S. William Green, politician, in New York City

Thursday, October 17, 1929

Friday, October 18, 1929

Saturday, October 19, 1929

  • The Soviet Union recognized Mohammed Nadir Shah as ruler of Afghanistan.
  • The New York Stock Exchange posted more big losses amid a wave of selling.

Sunday, October 20, 1929

  • In Berlin, two people were reported killed in street fighting that erupted when Der Stahlhelm clashed with police as they demonstrated in favor of the anti-Young Plan referendum and pushed towards the presidential mansion despite a police ban on street parades. Police also repelled a Stahlhelm attempt to storm a Jewish synagogue.
  • Born: Colin Jeavons, Welsh television actor, in Newport, Monmouthshire

Monday, October 21, 1929

  • The Edison Institute of Technology was dedicated in Dearborn, Michigan, on the fiftieth anniversary of Thomas Edison's invention of the lightbulb. "Every American owes a debt to him", President Hoover said in a speech honoring the 82-year-old inventor. "It is not alone a debt for great benefactions he has brought to mankind, but also a debt for the honor he has brought to our country. Mr. Edison, by his own genius and effort, rose from modest beginnings to membership among the leaders of men. His life gives renewed confidence that our institutions hold open the door of opportunity to all those who would enter."
  • The giant Dornier Do X German seaplane had a successful 50-minute test flight over Lake Constance with 169 people aboard.
  • The Dow dropped 3.71%. As panic began to set in, telephone and telegraph lines were swamped with calls and a record 3.1 million shares changed hands in the first two hours after trading opened. Many investors did not know where they stood through the day as the ticker results were delayed more than 60 minutes behind at one point.
  • Born: Ursula K. Le Guin, American science fiction and fantasy author; in Berkeley, California
  • George Stinney, born in Pinewood, South Carolina, was an African-American teenager wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering two white girls Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 7. Exonerated in 2014.

Tuesday, October 22, 1929

  • James Scullin formed a government with his Australian Labor Party to become the ninth Prime Minister of Australia.
  • French Prime Minister Aristide Briand and his entire cabinet resigned after the government was defeated on a confidence vote over its Rhineland evacuation policy.
  • "The present decline is a healthy reaction, which probably has overrun itself. There is nothing alarming about it", National City Bank chairman Charles E. Mitchell said about recent losses in the stock market. "In a market like this fundamentals are the things to look for, and if you can show me anything wrong with the situation generally, then I will be concerned."
  • The New York Stock Exchange gained 1.75% on a day of optimism and relatively light trading. Nine out of ten market letters sent out by commission houses predicted a rally amid a general feeling that the situation had already bottomed out.
  • All 52 of the crew of the train ferry SS Milwaukee drowned when the ship sank in Lake Michigan, off of the Wisconsin coast, during a storm. The ship had no radio equipment and its captain proceeded into the storm despite the heavy seas.
  • The Brazilian airline Panair do Brasil began operation as NYRBA do Brasil S.A.
  • Born: Lev Yashin, footballer, in Moscow, USSR

Wednesday, October 23, 1929

  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 21 points from its value of the previous day, which would cause many stockbrokers to make margin calls— demand for full payment from investors who had bought shares on credit, in effect obligating themselves to a loan from the brokerage— the next morning.
  • A shot was fired at Crown Prince Umberto of Italy in Brussels as he laid a wreath at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier. The would-be assassin was immediately arrested and spirited away as the crowd tried to attack him.
  • Habibullāh Kalakāni and 1,000 loyalists surrendered to the forces of Mohammed Nadir Shah after a week-long siege, on the condition that their lives be spared. Nadir Shah had Habibullah executed anyway, putting him to death on November 1.
  • The laboratory of Consolidated Film Industries in Hollywood was destroyed by fire. 1 was killed and the loss was estimated to be as high as $50 million.

Thursday, October 24, 1929

  • The Wall Street Crash of 1929 began on the day remembered later in history as "Black Thursday". The morning opened with a deluge of panic selling, causing prices to drop sharply. After a midday emergency meeting at J.P. Morgan & Co., prices recovered in the afternoon due in large part to a pool of investment bankers buying to prop up the market, a solution that worked in the short term and limited the market's fall for the day to only 2.09%. A new one-day record 12,880,900 shares were sold.
  • Born: Clifford Rose, actor, in Hamnish Clifford, England

Friday, October 25, 1929

  • The day after Black Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.58%, giving investors hope that the worst was over.
  • President Hoover made a formal statement indirectly addressing the stock market situation. "The fundamental business of the country, that is, the production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis", Hoover said.
  • Steel industrialist Charles M. Schwab told an audience that there was no reason why industrial prosperity should not continue indefinitely if the balance between production and consumption was maintained.
  • Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr. said that from his viewpoint, general business was never so good and that prospects were "bright all over the world". Sears, Roebuck & Company President Robert E. Wood shared his optimism, saying, "We think the outlook remains the same as before the break. We are going to do the biggest month's business in our history this month."
  • Business theorist Roger Babson, who predicted in early September that a stock market crash was coming, said that declines would continue but in a more orderly fashion. "Crazy markets such as we had yesterday must be followed by a resting up", Babson explained, adding, "Speculative buying for profit is over for a while. The buying from now on will be of a legitimate investment nature."
  • In Krasnodar, Soviet authorities executed 21 men for anti-government activities.
  • Ramsay MacDonald ended his visit to the United States and Canada, boarding a ship in Quebec headed back for Britain.

Saturday, October 26, 1929

Sunday, October 27, 1929

  • Parliamentary elections in Czechoslovakia were won by the Republican Party of Agricultural and Smallholder Peoples.
  • In Rome, Benito Mussolini addressed 60,000 Blackshirts gathered to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the March on Rome. "Italy today is what I wanted it to be – an army of citizens and soldiers ready for works of peace, laborious, silent and disciplined", Mussolini declared. "And if tomorrow someone wished to disturb the peaceful rhythm of the development of our people, if someone wanted to break this superb unity of spirit, would you answer to my call, Blackshirts?" The legions roared in the affirmative.
  • Three arrests were made during a demonstration of 500 British Communists outside the American embassy in London protesting the sentences of the textile workers in the Loray Mill Strike.

Monday, October 28, 1929

Tuesday, October 29, 1929

  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped a record 11.73%, four days after having been propped up five days earlier. With all hopes of a quick recovery now gone, sellers outnumbered buyers, 10 to one, as a record 16.4 million shares exchanged hands.
  • Assistant Secretary of Commerce Julius Klein gave a national radio address reassuring the American people that there was no reason to change the president's statement of last Friday. "The number of citizens whose buying ability has been affected by the decline in the value of speculative securities is not very large", Klein said. "Their purchases do not make up a very significant fraction of the demand for goods. There is no reason why the twenty-five or more million families, representing over 95 percent of our population whose incomes remain undiminished should cut down their purchases of commodities, and therefore very few industries should see any appreciable reduction in the sales of their output."
  • Industrialist John J. Raskob announced he was reentering the stock market for the first time in months. "Prudent investors are now buying stocks in huge quantities and will profit handsomely when this hysteria is over and our people have opportunity in calmer moments to appreciate the great stability of business by reason of the sound fundamental economic conditions existing in this great country", Raskob said.
  • The steamboat SS Wisconsin foundered during an early morning storm off the coast of Kenosha, Wisconsin. 60 were rescued but 12 crew were lost.
  • The enrollment period for the German referendum expired.
  • Died:
  • *Emily Robin, 55, English Madame who operated the infamous Gamine brothel in Kingston upon Hull
  • *John Roach Straton, 54, American Baptist minister and temperance activist

Wednesday, October 30, 1929

  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded with a gain of 12.34%, as traders bought shares at lower cost as part of looking for bargains. The volume of trading eased to 10.7 million shares as many investors decided to hold on to their stocks and wait for the market to recover.
  • A 1929 [Ontario general election|general election] was held in the Canadian province of Ontario. The Conservative Party of Ontario|Conservative Party] led by Howard Ferguson was re-elected with an increased majority. Government-controlled liquor sales were legal in Ontario and the Conservatives were the only significant "wet" party, so the matter of prohibition in the province was considered definitively settled.
  • Étienne Clémentel accepted the task of trying to form the next French government after Édouard Daladier was unsuccessful.
  • John D. Rockefeller released a rare public statement from his home. "Believing that fundamental conditions of the country are sound and that there is nothing in the business situation to warrant the destruction of values that has taken place on the exchanges in the last week, my son and I have for some days been purchasing sound common stocks. We are continuing and will continue our purchases in substantial amounts at levels which we believe represent sound investment values", the statement read.

Thursday, October 31, 1929

  • The Dow Jones recovered another 5.82% on a half-day of trading.
  • Nova Scotia voters went in favor of repealing prohibition in 1929 [Nova Scotia Government Control of Liquor referendum|a province-wide referendum], leaving Prince Edward Island as the only "dry" region left in all of Canada.
  • Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, announced that a round table conference would be held to determine the country's future. The declaration included an almost offhand remark that the "natural issue of India's constitutional progress" was "the attainment of Dominion Status", but the statement became very controversial in Britain.
  • Born:
  • *Robert Utley, American author and historian, in Bauxite, Arkansas
  • *Bud Spencer, Italian actor, in Naples, Italy