On this day: ARPANET, the precursor to the internet Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 29 October 29 October National Day of Turkey. 1787: Mozart's opera Don Giovanni was first performed, in Prague. 1859: Spain declared war on Morocco. 1863: Swiss philanthropist Henri Dunant founded the International Red Cross. 1929: "Black Tuesday" - so-called when Wall Street crashed, leading to the Great Depression. 1956: Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula and troops pushed on towards the Suez Canal, just 20 miles away. 1964: A collection of gems, including the 565 carat (113g) Star of India, were stolen by thieves from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. 1967: London criminal Jack McVitie was murdered by the Kray twins, leading to their eventual imprisonment. 1969: The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the internet. 1983: More than half-a-million people demonstrated against cruise missiles in The Hague, Netherlands. 1985: Lester Piggott rode Full Choke at Nottingham to record his 4,349th winner. This was thought to be the end of his career in Britain - he eventually retired in 1995. 1986: The final section of the M25 motorway around London was opened by prime minister Margaret Thatcher. 1987: Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns won the world middleweight title, making him the first boxer to win a world title at four different weights. 1991: The American Galileo spacecraft made its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid. 1994: A man was arrested outside the White House in Washington after spraying the building with automatic gunfire while Bill Clinton, the president, watched television inside. 1995: Orkney police started an investigation after 25 grey seal pups were found shot near Burwick on South Ronaldsay. 1998: A fire at The Gothenburg nightclub in Sweden claimed 63 lives and injured 200. 2004: In Rome, European heads of state signed the Treaty and Final Act to establish the first European Constitution. 2005: More than 60 people die in a series of bombings in Delhi. 2008: Delta Air Lines merged with Northwest Airlines to create the world's largest airline. Yasmin Le Bon, model, 49; Angela Douglas, actress, 73; Richard Dreyfuss, actor, 66; Ian Durrant, Scottish footballer and coach, 47; Robert Hardy CBE, actor and writer, 88; Kate Jackson, American actress, 65; Michael Jayston, actor, 78; Denny Laine, rock musician (Wings), 69; Winona Ryder, actress, 42; Frank Sedgman, Australian tennis champion, 86; Rufus Sewell, actor, 46; Jack Shepherd, actor and director, 73; Michael Vaughan OBE, former England cricket captain, 39. Births: 1656 Edmund Halley, astronomer; 1740 James Boswell, Edinburgh-born diarist and biographer of Samuel Johnson; 1891 Fanny Brice, actress and singer; 1897 Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister; 1904 Vivian Ellis, composer and author. Deaths: 1618 Sir Walter Raleigh, seafarer; 1911 Joseph Pulitzer, American newspaper publisher; 1924 Frances Burnett, novelist and dramatist; 2009 Norman Painting OBE, actor (Phil Archer in The Archers); 2011 Jimmy Savile, media personality.