Today is Friday, Oct. 29, the 303rd day of 2004. There are 63 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Friday, Oct. 29, the 303rd day of 2004. There are 63 days left in the year. On this date in 1929, "Black Tuesday" descends upon the New York Stock Exchange. Prices collapse amid panic selling and thousands of investors are financially wiped out as America's Great Depression begins.
In 1682, the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, lands at what is now Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1901, President McKinley's assassin, Leon Czolgosz, is electrocuted. In 1923, the Republic of Turkey is proclaimed. In 1947, former first lady Frances Cleveland Preston dies in Baltimore at age 83. In 1956, during the Suez Canal crisis, Israel launches an invasion of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. In 1964, thieves make off with the Star of India and other gems from the American Museum of Natural History in New York. (The Star and most of the other gems are recovered; three men are convicted of stealing them.) In 1966, the National Organization for Women is founded. In 1967, the counter-culture musical "Hair" opens off-Broadway. In 1979, on the 50th anniversary of the great stock market crash, anti-nuclear protesters try but fail to shut down the New York Stock Exchange. In 1998, Ohio Sen. John Glenn, at age 77, roars back into space aboard the shuttle Discovery.
October 29, 1979: General Motors President E.M. "Pete" Estes announces that the Lordstown GM Plant will produce a new line of front-wheel-drive compact cars known as J-cars. The car is expected to sell for $5,000 to $6,000.
The State Highway Patrol is opening a recruitment drive for men and women in an attempt to fill its ranks in accordance with an equal employment opportunity agreement it made with federal officials in 1975.
The American Electric Power Co., the nation's largest shareholder-owned power system, will move its corporation headquarters from New York to Columbus.
October 29, 1964: Directors of the General Fireproofing Co. authorize the purchase of 121,558 shares of GF common stock from Rockwell-Standard Corp. of Pittsburgh, president John A. Saunders announces.
Students of Kenyon College, voting in a mock election, support President Johnson over Sen. Barry Goldwater, but vote 67 percent for Republican Robert Taft Jr. in his challenge of U.S. Sen. Stephen M. Young, a Democrat and Kenyon alumnus.
October 29, 1954: A bomb blast wrecks the front door and shatters 42 windows in the Warren Richey Elementary School on Youngstown's East Side. It is believed to be the first bombing of a school in the city's history.
Television history is made by WMFJ-TV when it hosts Youngstown's first televised candidates rally, which was sponsored by the League of Women Voters.
J.L. Mauthe, president of Youngstown Sheet & amp; Tube Co. joins Eugene G. Grace, chairman of Bethlehem Steel Corp., in declaring that a merger of the two companies would contribute much to the economy of the country.
October 29, 1929: The board of governors of the New York Stock Exchange holds a special meeting and decides to keep the exchange open despite a gigantic crash that sees prices drop $10 to $70 per share in heavy trading.
Youngstown Mayor Joseph L. Heffernan, acting on a recommendation of a citizens committee, plans to name 100 citizen motorists who will be alert to reckless drivers on the road and will report what they see to Traffic Commissioner Carl Olson. Olson will issue warnings to the violators. A second report will result in arrest.