29 October: Three anniversaries. Two crashes. One spectacular launch.
What connects the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the birth of the internet in 1969 and John Glenn’s return to space in 1998?
All three events happened on 29 October, but there’s a rather more entertaining connection.
Two involved crashes. The third involved a launch.
📉 1929 — Black Tuesday: Wall Street Crashes
On 29 October 1929, the New York Stock Exchange experienced one of the most devastating trading days in its history.
Known as Black Tuesday, the market collapse saw approximately 16.4 million shares traded as panic selling swept Wall Street.
The crash helped usher in the Great Depression, which would transform economies and societies around the world.
The first crash was financial.
💻 1969 — The Internet’s First Message Crashes
Exactly 40 years later, on 29 October 1969, researchers at UCLA attempted to send a message to a computer at Stanford Research Institute.
The message was supposed to be LOGIN.
But something unexpected happened.
The receiving computer crashed after just two letters had been transmitted:
LO
And so the first message sent over ARPANET, the precursor to today’s internet, was simply LO.
The connection was successfully completed about an hour later.
The second crash was technological.
🚀 1998 — John Glenn Launches Again
On 29 October 1998, American astronaut John Glenn returned to space aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.
Glenn had made history in 1962 as the first American to orbit Earth.
Now, 36 years later, he was back.
At 77 years old, Glenn became the oldest person to travel into space at that time.
His mission, STS-95, also involved scientific research into ageing and the effects of spaceflight.