On this day... October 29:

On this day...

October 29:  Republic Day in Turkey (1923) 539 BC – Cyrus the Great captured Babylon, incorporating the Neo-Babylonian Empire and making the Achaemenid Empire the largest in the history of the world. 1792 – Lt. William Broughton, a member of Captain George Vancouver's discovery expedition, observed a peak in what is now Oregon, US, and named it Mount Hood(pictured) after British admiral Samuel Hood. 1929 – About 16 million shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange on "Black Tuesday", a record that stood for almost 40 years, making a total of $30 billion that had been lost over two days. 1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opened the last segment of the M25 motorway, an orbital road encircling London that is one of the world's longest. 2004 – Representatives of the member states of the European Union signed the European Constitution in Rome.