29 August

Events

Pre-1600

* 708 – Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).
* 870 – The city of Melite surrenders to an Aghlabid army following a siege, putting an end to Byzantine Malta.
*1009 – Mainz Cathedral suffers extensive damage from a fire, which destroys the building on the day of its inauguration.
* 1219 – Battle of Fariskur during the Fifth Crusade
* 1261 – Pope Urban IV succeeds Pope Alexander IV, becoming the 182nd pope.
*1315 – Battle of Montecatini: The army of the Republic of Pisa, commanded by Uguccione della Faggiuola, wins a decisive victory against the joint forces of the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Florence despite being outnumbered.
* 1350 – Battle of Winchelsea (or Les Espagnols sur Mer): The English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships.
* 1475 – The Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between the kingdoms of France and England.
* 1484 – Pope Innocent VIII succeeds Pope Sixtus IV.
* 1498 – Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to Kingdom of Portugal.
* 1521 – The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade).
* 1526 – Battle of Mohács: The Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeat and kill the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia.
* 1541 – The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.
*1588 – Toyotomi Hideyoshi issues a nationwide sword hunting ordinance, disarming the peasantry so as to firmly separate the ''samurai'' and commoner classes, prevent peasant uprisings, and further centralise his own power.

1601–1900

* 1728 – The city of Nuuk in Greenland is founded as the fort of Godt-Haab by the royal governor Claus Paarss.
*1741 – The eruption of Oshima–Ōshima and the Kampo tsunami: At least 2,000 people along the Japanese coast drown in a tsunami caused by the eruption of Oshima.
*1756 – Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years' War in Europe.
*1758 – The Treaty of Easton establishes the first American Indian reservation, at Indian Mills, New Jersey, for the Lenape.
* 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and American forces battle indecisively at the Battle of Rhode Island.
* 1779 – American Revolutionary War: American forces battle and defeat the British and Iroquois forces at the Battle of Newtown.
*1786 – Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
*1807 – British troops under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeat a Danish militia outside Copenhagen in the Battle of Køge.
*1825 – Portuguese and Brazilian diplomats sign the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, which has Portugal recognise Brazilian independence, formally ending the Brazilian war of independence. The treaty will be ratified by the King of Portugal three months later.
* 1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
*1842 – Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.
*1861 – American Civil War: The Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries gives Federal forces control of Pamlico Sound.
* 1869 – The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens, making it the world's first mountain-climbing rack railway.
* 1871 – Emperor Meiji orders the abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures as local centers of administration. (Traditional Japanese date: July 14, 1871).
*1885 – Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first internal combustion motorcycle, the '' Reitwagen''.
*1898 – The Goodyear tire company is founded.

1901–present

* 1903 – The , the last of the five s, is launched.
*1907 – The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers.
* 1910 – The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, also known as the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, becomes effective, officially starting the period of Japanese rule in Korea.
*1911 – Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.
* 1911 – The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy.
*1912 – A typhoon strikes China, killing at least 50,000 people.
*1914 – World War I: Start of the Battle of St. Quentin in which the French Fifth Army counter-attacked the invading Germans at Saint-Quentin, Aisne.
*1915 – US Navy salvage divers raise , the first U.S. submarine sunk in an accident.
*1916 – The United States passes the Philippine Autonomy Act.
*1918 – World War I: Bapaume taken by the New Zealand Division in the Hundred Days Offensive.
*1930 – The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.
*1941 – World War II: Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is occupied by Nazi Germany following an occupation by the Soviet Union.
*1943 – World War II: German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy; Germany dissolves the Danish government.
*1944 – World War II: Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.
*1948 – Northwest Airlines Flight 421 crashes in Fountain City, Wisconsin, killing all 37 aboard.
*1949 – Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as ''First Lightning'' or ''Joe 1'', at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
*1950 – Korean War: British troops arrive in Korea to bolster the US presence there.
*1952 – American experimental composer John Cage’s '' 4’33”'' premieres at Maverick Concert Hall, played by American pianist David Tudor.
*1958 – United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
*1965 – The Gemini V spacecraft returns to Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean.
*1966 – The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
* 1966 – Leading Egyptian thinker Sayyid Qutb is executed for plotting the assassination of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
*1970 – Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, East Los Angeles, California. Police riot kills three people, including journalist Rubén Salazar.
*1975 – El Tacnazo: Peruvian Prime Minister Francisco Morales Bermúdez carries out a coup d’état in the city of Tacna, forcing the sitting President of Peru, Juan Velasco Alvarado, to resign and assuming his place as the new President.
*1982 – The synthetic chemical element Meitnerium, atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.
*1987 – Odaeyang mass suicide: 33 individuals linked to a religious cult are found dead in the attic of a cafeteria in Yongin, South Korea. Investigators attribute their deaths to a murder-suicide pact.
*1991 – Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
* 1991 – Libero Grassi, an Italian businessman from Palermo, is killed by the Sicilian Mafia after taking a solitary stand against their extortion demands.
*1996 – Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard.
*1997 – Netflix is launched as an internet DVD rental service.
* 1997 – At least 98 villagers are killed by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.
*1998 – Eighty people are killed when Cubana de Aviación Flight 389 crashes during a rejected takeoff from the Old Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, Ecuador.
*2001 – Four people are killed when Binter Mediterráneo Flight 8261 crashes into the N-340 highway near Málaga Airport.
*2003 – Sayed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.
*2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing up to 1,836 people and causing $125 billion in damage.
*2012 – At least 26 Chinese miners are killed and 21 missing after a blast in the Xiaojiawan coal mine, located at Panzhihua, Sichuan Province.
* 2012 – The XIV Paralympic Games open in London, England, United Kingdom.

Births

Pre-1600

* 979 – Otto (or Eudes), French nobleman (d. 1045)
* 1321 – John of Artois, French nobleman (d. 1387)
*1347 – John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, English nobleman and soldier (d. 1375)
*1434 – Janus Pannonius, Hungarian bishop and poet (d. 1472)
*1514 – García Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Marquis of Villafranca, Spanish noble and admiral (d. 1577)
*1534 – Nicholas Pieck, Dutch Franciscan friar and martyr (d. 1572)
*1597 – Henry Gage, Royalist officer in the English Civil War (d. 1645)

1601–1900

*1619 – Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French economist and politician, Controller-General of Finances (d. 1683)
*1628 – John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1701)
*1632 – John Locke, English physician and philosopher (d. 1704)
*1724 – Giovanni Battista Casti, Italian poet and author (d. 1803)
*1725 – Charles Townshend, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1767)
* 1728 – Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony, electress of Bavaria (d. 1797)
*1756 – Jan Śniadecki, Polish mathematician and astronomer (d. 1830)
*1756 – Count Heinrich von Bellegarde, Austrian general and politician (d. 1845)
*1772 – James Finlayson, Scottish Quaker (d. 1852)
* 1773 – Aimé Bonpland, French botanist and explorer (d. 1858)
*1777 – Hyacinth, Russian religious leader, founded Sinology (d. 1853)
*1780 – Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French painter and illustrator (d. 1867)
*1792 – Charles Grandison Finney, American minister and author (d. 1875)
* 1805 – Frederick Denison Maurice, English priest, theologian, and author (d. 1872)
*1809 – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., American physician and author (d. 1894)
*1810 – Juan Bautista Alberdi, Argentinian theorist and diplomat (d. 1884)
*1813 – Henry Bergh, American activist, founded the ASPCA (d. 1888)
*1842 – Alfred Shaw, English cricketer, rugby player, and umpire (d. 1907)
* 1843 – David B. Hill, American lawyer and politician, 29th Governor of New York (d. 1910)
* 1844 – Edward Carpenter, English anthologist and poet (d. 1929)
*1857 – Sandford Schultz, English cricketer (d. 1937)
*1861 – Byron G. Harlan, American singer (d. 1936)
*1862 – Andrew Fisher, Scottish-Australian politician and diplomat, 5th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1928)
* 1862 – Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)
* 1871 – Albert François Lebrun, French engineer and politician, 15th President of France (d. 1950)
*1875 – Leonardo De Lorenzo, Italian flute player and educator (d. 1962)
*1876 – Charles F. Kettering, American engineer and businessman, founded Delco Electronics (d. 1958)
* 1876 – Kim Koo, South Korean politician, 6th President of The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (d. 1949)
* 1879 – Han Yong-un, Korean independence activist, reformer, and poet (d. 1944)
*1887 – Jivraj Narayan Mehta, Indian physicians and politician, 1st Chief Minister of Gujarat (d. 1978)
* 1888 – Salme Dutt, Estonian-English politician (d. 1964)
*1890 – Peder Furubotn, Norwegian Communist and anti-Nazi Resistance leader (d.1975)
* 1891 – Marquis James, American journalist and author (d. 1955)
*1898 – Preston Sturges, American director and producer (d. 1959)

1901–present

*1901 – Aurèle Joliat, Canadian ice hockey player and referee (d. 1986)
*1904 – Werner Forssmann, German physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
*1905 – Dhyan Chand, Indian field hockey player (d. 1979)
* 1905 – Arndt Pekurinen, Finnish activist (d. 1941)
* 1910 – Vivien Thomas, American surgeon and academic (d. 1985)
*1911 – John Charnley, British orthopedic surgeon (d. 1982)
*1912 – Sohn Kee-chung, South Korean runner (d. 2002)
* 1912 – Barry Sullivan, American actor (d. 1994)
* 1912 – Wolfgang Suschitzky, Austrian-English cinematographer and photographer (d. 2016)
*1913 – Len Butterfield, New Zealand cricketer (d. 1999)
*1913 – Jackie Mitchell, American baseball pitcher (d. 1987)
*1915 – Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (d. 1982)
* 1915 – Nathan Pritikin, American nutritionist and author (d. 1985)
*1916 – Luther Davis, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 2008)
* 1917 – Isabel Sanford, American actress (d. 2004)
*1920 – Charlie Parker, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1955)
* 1920 – Herb Simpson, American baseball player (d. 2015)
* 1920 – Otis Boykin, American inventor and engineer (d. 1982)
*1922 – Richard Blackwell, American actor, fashion designer, and critic (d. 2008)
* 1922 – John Edward Williams

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