This Day in History – 5 Cheshvan/October 29

In 5228/1467, Jews in Landau, Germany, were ordered to wear the yellow badge.

Yahrtzeiten

5491/1730, Harav Moshe Birdugo, zt”l, a Moroccan Rav and mechaber of Rosh Mashbir

5551/1790, Harav Meshulam Zalman Chassid of Frankfurt, zt”l

5623/1862, Harav Avraham Yosef Rice, zt”l

5635/1874, Harav Tzvi Hirsh Kalisher,zt”l,Rav of Tohran

Harav Tzvi Hirsh Kalisher was born in Lissa in 5555/1795. His father was Harav Shlomo.

He learned in the yeshivah of Harav Akiva Eiger in Posen and in the yeshivah of the Chavas Daas in Lissa.

After his marriage, Reb Tzvi Hirsh settled in Tohran, his wife’s hometown. He devoted himself to Torah, while his wife took care of the family business.

After a few years, the kehillah appointed Reb Tzvi Hirsh to serve as Rav in the city. He held this position for the next 40 years, until his petirah. Reb Tzvi Hirsh never accepted a salary for his position as Rav.

Reb Tzvi Hirsh devoted himself to helping orphans and widows. He was also very supportive of yishuv Eretz Yisrael.

Reb Tzvi Hirsh wrote numerous sefarim. Among them are Moznayim LaMishpat on Choshen Mishpat; Sefer HaBris on the Torah; Emunah Yesharah; Even Bochen; and Pesach Hadaas.

Reb Tzvi Hirsh was niftar on 5 Cheshvan 5635/1874 at the age of 80.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

Oct. 29

In 1929, Wall Street crashed on “Black Tuesday,” heralding the start of America’s Great Depression.

In 1940, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number — 158 — in America’s first peacetime military draft.

In 1956, during the Suez Canal crisis, Israel invaded Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

In 1964, thieves made 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 were recovered; three men were convicted.)

In 1966, the National Organization for Women was formally organized during a conference in Washington, D.C.

In 1979, on the 50th anniversary of the great stock market crash, anti-nuclear protesters tried but failed to shut down the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1994, Francisco Martin Duran fired more than two dozen shots from a semiautomatic rifle at the White House.

In 1998, Sen. John Glenn, at age 77, roared back into space aboard the shuttle Discovery, retracing the trail he’d blazed for America’s astronauts 36 years earlier.

In 2012, Superstorm Sandy came ashore in New Jersey and slowly marched inland, devastating coastal communities and causing widespread power outages; the storm and its aftermath are blamed for at least 182 deaths in the U.S.