Good morning. A familiar voice can place you in another year before you have time to think about it. Today, Whitney Houston supplies the soundtrack to a Tuesday in 1985, Kansas City has a championship to celebrate, and a courtroom thriller leads the weekend box office.
First, October 29 takes us from a royal execution to a computer message that did not quite get finished.
📅 On This Day — October 29
1618 — Raleigh’s final chapter. Writer, explorer and former royal favorite Sir Walter Raleigh is executed outside the Palace of Westminster in London. King James I has revived a death sentence imposed years earlier.
1923 — A republic is proclaimed. Turkey becomes a republic, and Mustafa Kemal is elected its president. The proclamation marks a defining change in the country’s government after the end of the Ottoman Empire.
1929 — Black Tuesday. Selling overwhelms Wall Street as the stock market collapses. The date becomes one of the enduring symbols of the crash of 1929; the Great Depression’s causes and course extend well beyond a single trading day.
1956 — War in the Sinai. Israeli forces invade Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, opening the military phase of the Suez Crisis. British and French forces will intervene days later.
1969 — A connection, briefly. At UCLA, an attempt to log in to a computer at Stanford Research Institute sends the letters “l” and “o” before the system crashes. The short ARPANET exchange is a milestone in the development of computer networking.
⏪ REWIND: 1985
Tuesday, October 29, 1985
Imagine opening a newspaper to the evening television page. A family comedy, an action adventure and a dramatic movie are competing for your attention. You can circle a choice—or leave the paper open for somebody else to make the case for theirs.
Away from the television listings, another argument is being made in Washington: what should a fairer tax system look like?
📰 The Headlines
Reagan makes a family argument for tax reform
On October 29, 1985, President Ronald Reagan addressed religious and lay leaders at the Old Executive Office Building, urging support for an overhaul of the federal tax code.
He framed the proposal around family finances. In his account, inflation had eroded the value of personal exemptions, leaving families with a heavier burden than the figures on paper suggested. He advocated larger personal exemptions and a higher standard deduction, and argued for broader retirement-saving opportunities for spouses without wage income.
These were proposals being promoted, not a new law taking effect that Tuesday.
The discussion also reached beyond the White House. An alert published in the University of Pennsylvania’s Almanac that same day described proposed pension changes under consideration in the House Ways and Means Committee and urged faculty to pay attention.
That contrast gives our Tuesday its texture: the administration was making a case for reform, while people affected by particular provisions were examining what might change. Behind the language of deductions and exemptions were ordinary questions about household income and retirement.
🎬 At the Movies
A courtroom thriller takes the lead
Jagged Edge led the domestic box office for October 25–27, 1985, taking $3,216,053 over that weekend.
The film pairs Glenn Close, as an attorney, with Jeff Bridges, as a publisher accused of murdering his wife. A defense becomes complicated by attraction and doubt: how well does the lawyer understand the man she is trying to protect?
The courtroom offers one set of arguments; the characters’ private lives make the verdict harder to trust. The film’s suspense lives in the distance between what can be proved and what the attorney wants to believe.
🎵 On the Charts
“Saving All My Love for You” — Whitney Houston
Houston held No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 dated October 26, 1985, with her first chart-topper on that list.
A chart gives a song a number. Memory gives it a place: a ride home, a radio beside the sink, or the room where somebody turned up the volume.
If the opening notes took you straight back to 1985, who would you want there to hear them with you?
🏁 In Sports
Kansas City has its championship
Two days earlier, on October 27, the Royals defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 11–0 in Game 7, completing their first World Series championship.
Bret Saberhagen pitched a five-hit shutout. Kansas City had trailed the Series three games to one before winning the final three.
By our Tuesday, the deciding game is already history. A matchup that had demanded a seventh game ended with a score that left no room for a late comeback.
📺 On Television
A few choices from that Tuesday’s national network evening:
ABC — Who’s the Boss?: “Tony the Matchmaker.”
CBS — Into Thin Air, a television movie.
NBC — The A-Team: “The Road to Hope.”
Would you have stayed with a familiar series, or made room for the evening’s movie?
🏰 Disney Vault
A new stop at the Marketplace
Four days before our Rewind date, on October 25, 1985, Mickey’s Character Shop opened at Disney Village Marketplace at Walt Disney World.
The large store focused on Disney character merchandise. It adds a quieter detail to the resort’s history: alongside the attractions and shows were places where visitors could browse and choose something to take home.
A souvenir does not have to be grand to become the object that brings a trip back to mind.
❤️ Health Snap
Bring the question you do not want to forget
Before your next medical appointment, write down the concerns you want to discuss and put the most important ones first.
Current NIH guidance recommends raising those priorities early, rather than saving the biggest concern for the end of the visit. MedlinePlus also encourages asking questions to make sure you understand what your health care provider is telling you.
A note on paper or your phone can give a forgotten question a better chance of being asked. If an explanation is unclear, ask for it again in language you understand.
🎂 October 29 Birthdays
Bob Ross — would turn 84 (1942–1995). The painter and The Joy of Painting host made a landscape feel like something a viewer could attempt. On our 1985 date, he was turning 43. His patient teaching remains a familiar invitation to pick up a brush.
Richard Dreyfuss — turns 79 (1947). Known for Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, he was turning 38 in 1985. By then, those two very different encounters—with a shark and with visitors from elsewhere—were already part of his screen career.
Winona Ryder — turns 55 (1971). The actor later known for Beetlejuice and Stranger Things was turning 14 on our Rewind date. Her film debut in Lucas would follow in 1986; those familiar later roles were still ahead.
An October 29 birthday in your family? Forward this edition and ask your birthday person which voice, film or television program brings back a year of their own.
Today’s computer message stops after two letters. A tax proposal is still an argument. A young actor’s familiar roles lie ahead. Visiting a date means meeting some stories before we know how they turn out—even when hindsight makes their endings feel inevitable.
If one of these memories belongs to someone you know, send it their way. And if someone shared this edition with you, subscribe free to Yesterday Today for another date with the past.
Until tomorrow,
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