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HISTORY & TIMELINE
29 October

A journey through
29 October in history

Don Giovanni in 1787, the Red Cross in 1863, the crash of 1929 and the first message on the ARPANET in 1969: 29 October has been a day of beginnings as often as endings. This timeline follows it from 1787 to 1969.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1787
The Estates Theatre in Prague, where Mozart conducted the first performance.The Estates Theatre in Prague, where Mozart conducted the first performance.Image: VitVit · CC BY-SA 4.0
culture · Europe

Don Giovanni opens in Prague

Mozart conducted the first performance of Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague on 29 October 1787, to a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. Prague had taken to Figaro in a way Vienna had not, and the new opera was commissioned for the city. It was a great success, and went on from there to the rest of Europe. The Estates Theatre still stands and still works — the only surviving theatre in which Mozart conducted the premiere of one of his own operas.

Source: National Theatre, Prague: The Estates Theatre, history ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1863
Henry Dunant, whose account of Solferino led to the conference.Henry Dunant, whose account of Solferino led to the conference.Image: Frédéric Boissonnas · Public domain
world · Europe

The Red Cross takes shape at Geneva

An international conference held at Geneva from 26 to 29 October 1863 turned Henry Dunant’s proposals, written after he saw the aftermath of the battle of Solferino, into an organisation. The delegates agreed to set up national relief societies for wounded soldiers and adopted a single emblem to protect medical staff on the battlefield: a red cross on a white ground. The following August a dozen states signed the first Geneva Convention, which made the arrangements law.

Source: International Committee of the Red Cross: Founding and early years of the ICRC, 1863-1914 ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1914
The German battlecruiser Goeben, which led the raid under the Ottoman name Yavuz Sultan Selim.The German battlecruiser Goeben, which led the raid under the Ottoman name Yavuz Sultan Selim.Image: UnknownUnknown · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
world · Asia

The Ottoman Empire enters the First World War

On 29 October 1914 an Ottoman squadron led by the German battlecruiser Goeben — transferred to the Ottoman navy but still with its German crew — bombarded Odessa and other Russian ports on the Black Sea. Russia declared war on 1 November and Britain and France followed on the 5th. The decision, pushed through by the war minister Enver Pasha, brought the empire in on the side of the Central Powers and opened the fronts at Gallipoli, in Mesopotamia and in the Caucasus.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Ottoman Empire, dissolution of the empire ↗
1969
An Interface Message Processor, the refrigerator-sized machine that connected each ARPANET site.An Interface Message Processor, the refrigerator-sized machine that connected each ARPANET site.Image: Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA · CC BY 2.0
science · Americas

The first message on the ARPANET

On 29 October 1969 a student called Charley Kline, working with Leonard Kleinrock in room 3420 of UCLA’s Boelter Hall, tried to send the word LOGIN to a machine at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park. The system crashed after two letters. ‘LO’, Kleinrock later said, turned out to be a good first word — as in lo and behold. The link was restored shortly afterwards and the full message went through. Two computers talking to each other over a distance is now unremarkable. That evening it was the first time it had happened on the network that became the internet.

Source: UCLA: Leonard Kleinrock ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 29 October, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

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