TODAY IN HISTORY

OCTOBER 29

 1998:Sen. John Glenn briefly returns to work for NASA, lifting off into space as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery. At age 77 Glenn is the world's oldest astronaut, setting another record alongside his 1962 achievement as the first American to orbit the Earth.

1929: The Crash hits the New York Stock Exchange on a day remembered ruefully as Black Tuesday. The carefree and prosperous Roaring '20s come to an end as 16 million shares are traded in panic. Thousands of investors lose their entire savings when stock prices plummet, leading to bank closures, unemployment and the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s.

1966: The Feminine Mystique author Betty Friedan leads the organizing conference of the National Organization for Women in Washington, D.C., with the aim to bring "women into full participation in the mainstream of American society."


1969:First computer-to-computer link established on ARPANET, precursor to Internet.

1863:16 countries form International Red Cross

1996:AOL stops charging for time spent on the web - and instead switches to a flat rate monthly rate - changing the web forever.

1682:Famous Quaker William Penn lands in what will be Pennsylvania.