July 29
July 29 is the 210th day (211th in
leap years) of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar, with 155 days remaining.
*
1014 -
Byzantine-Bulgar Wars:
Battle of Kleidion:
Byzantine emperor Basil II inflicts a decisive defeat on the
Bulgarian army, but his subsequent savage treatment of 15,000 prisoners reportedly causes
Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria to die of shock.
*
1030 -
Ladejarl-
Fairhair succession wars:
Battle of Stiklestad -
King Olaf II fights and dies trying to regain his
Norwegian throne from the
Danes.
*
1565 -
Mary Stuart, widowed, marries
Lord Darnley,
duke of
Albany.
*
1567 -
James VI is crowned
King of
Scotland at
Stirling.
*
1588 -
Anglo-Spanish War:
Battle of Gravelines -
English naval forces under command of
Lord Charles Howard and
Sir Francis Drake defeats the
Spanish Armada off the coast of
Gravelines,
France.
*
1693 -
War of the Grand Alliance:
Battle of Landen -
France wins a
Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the
Netherlands.
*
1793 -
John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at
Toronto, having sailed into the bay there.
*
1830 - Abdication of
Charles X of France.
*
1836 - Inauguration of the
Arc de Triomphe in
Paris.
*
1847 -
Cumberland School of Law founded in
Lebanon,
Tennessee,
USA. At the end of
1847 only 15 law schools exist in the
United States.
*
1848 -
Irish Potato Famine:
Tipperary Revolt - In
Tipperary, an unsuccessful
nationalist revolt against
British rule is put down by
police.
*
1851 -
Annibale de Gasparis discovers
asteroid 15 Eunomia.
*
1858 -
United States and
Japan sign the
Harris Treaty.
*
1864 -
American Civil War:
Confederate spy
Belle Boyd is arrested by
Union troops and detained at the
Old Capitol Prison in
Washington, DC.
*
1899 - The
First Hague Convention is signed.
*
1900 - In
Italy, King
Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by
Italian-born
anarchist Gaetano Bresci.
*
1907 -
Sir Robert Baden-Powell sets up the
Brownsea Island Scout camp in
Poole Harbour on the south coast of
England. The camp ran from
August 1-9,
1907, and is regarded as the founding of the
Scouting movement.
*
1920 - Construction of the
Link River Dam begins as part of the
Klamath Reclamation Project.
*
1921 -
Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the
National Socialist German Workers Party.
*
1932 -
Great Depression: In
Washington, DC,
U.S. troops disperse the last of the "
Bonus Army" of
World War I veterans.
*
1945 - The
BBC Light Programme radio station was launched for
mainstream light entertainment and
music.
*
1947 - After being shut off on
November 9,
1946 for a memory upgrade,
ENIAC, the world's first all-electronic digital
computer, is reactivated. It will remain in continuous operation until
October 2,
1955.
*
1948 -
Olympic Games:
The Games of the XIV Olympiad - After a hiatus of 12 years caused by
World War II, the first
Summer Olympics to be held since the
1936 Summer Olympics in
Berlin opened in
London.
*
1957 - The
International Atomic Energy Agency is established.
*
1958 - The
U.S. Congress formally creates the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (
NASA).
*
1959 - First
congressional elections in
Hawaii as a
state of the
Union.
*
1965 -
Vietnam War: The first 4,000
101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in
Vietnam, landing at
Cam Ranh Bay.
*
1966 -
Musician Bob Dylan crashes his
Triumph motorcycle in upstate
New York. He goes into seclusion for over a year before reemerging and reinventing himself artistically.
*
1967 -
Vietnam War: Off the coast of
North Vietnam the
USS Forrestal catches on fire in the worst
U.S. naval disaster since
World War II, killing 134.
* 1967 - At the fourth day of celebrating its 400th anniversary, the city of
Caracas,
Venezuela was shaken by an
earthquake, leaving approximately 500 dead.
*
1976 - In
New York City, the "
Son of Sam" kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks.
*
1981 -
Lady Diana Spencer marries
Charles, Prince of Wales.
*
1987 -
British PM Margaret Thatcher and
French president François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build the
tunnel under the
English Channel (
Eurotunnel).
* 1987 -
Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi and
Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayawardene sign the
Indo-Lankan Pact on ethnic issue.
*
1993 - The
Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused
Nazi death camp guard
John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.
*
1996 - The controversial child protection portion of the
Communications Decency Act (
1996) is struck down as too broad by a
U.S. federal court.
*
2004 -
U.S. Senator John F. Kerry of
Massachusetts accepts the
Democratic nomination for
President of the United States at the
2004 Democratic National Convention in
Boston, Massachusetts.
*
2005 -
Astronomers announce their discovery of a possible
10th planet.
*
1166 -
Henry II of Champagne (d.
1197)
*
1605 -
Simon Dach, German poet (d.
1659)
*
1801 -
George Bradshaw, English publisher (d.
1853)
*
1805 -
Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and political scientist (d.
1859)
*
1843 -
Johannes Schmidt, German linguist (d.
1901)
*
1849 -
Max Nordau, Austrian author, philosopher, and Zionist leader (d.
1923)
*
1865 -
Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer (d.
1936)
*
1869 -
Booth Tarkington, American author (d.
1946)
*
1872 -
Eric Alfred Knudsen, American author, folklorist (d.
1957)
*
1874 -
James Shaver Woodsworth, Canadian minister, social worker, and politician (d.
1942)
*
1876 -
Maria Ouspenskaya, Russian-born actress (d.
1949)
*
1878 -
Don Marquis, American author (d.
1937)
*
1883 -
Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (d.
1942)
* 1883 -
Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator (d.
1945)
*
1884 -
Ralph A. Bard, U.S. Navy Undersecretary (d.
1975)
*
1887 -
Sigmund Romberg, Hungarian-born composer (d.
1951)
*
1892 -
William Powell, American actor (d.
1984)
*
1897 - Sir
Neil Ritchie, British general (d.
1983)
*
1898 -
Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist,
Nobel Prize Laureate (d.
1988)
*
1900 -
Eyvind Johnson, Swedish writer,
Nobel Prize Laureate (d.
1976)
*
1904 -
J. R. D. Tata, Indian pioneer aviator and entrepreneur (d.
1993)
*
1905 -
Clara Bow, American actress (d.
1965)
* 1905 -
Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish 2nd
UN Secretary-General,
Nobel Prize Laureate (d.
1961)
* 1905 -
Stanley Kunitz, American poet (d.
2006)
* 1905 -
Thelma Todd, American actress (d.
1935)
*
1906 -
Diana Vreeland, French-born fashion editor (d.
1989)
*
1907 -
Melvin Belli, American lawyer and actor (d.
1996)
*
1913 -
Erich Priebke, Nazi war criminal
*
1914 -
Irwin Corey, American stand-up comedian.
*
1916 -
Charlie Christian, American jazz guitar virtuoso (d.
1942)
*
1918 -
Edwin O'Connor, American novelist and
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (d.
1968)
*
1920 -
Rodolfo Acosta, Mexican actor (d.
1974)
*
1924 -
Lloyd Bochner, Canadian actor (d.
2005)
*
1925 -
Mikis Theodorakis, Greek composer
* 1925 -
Ted Lindsay, professional ice hockey player
*
1927 -
Harry Mulisch, Dutch author
*
1929 -
Jean Baudrillard, French philosopher
*
1930 -
Paul Taylor, American dancer and choreographer
*
1932 -
Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker,
U.S. Senator from Kansas*
1933 -
Lou Albano, Wrestling manager
*
1935 -
Peter Schreier, German tenor
*
1936 -
Elizabeth Dole,
U.S. Senator from North Carolina*
1937 -
Daniel McFadden, American economist,
Nobel Prize Laureate*
1938 -
Peter Jennings, Canadian-born television journalist (d.
2005)
*
1941 -
David Warner, Canadian actor
*
1942 -
Tony Sirico, American actor
*
1943 -
David Taylor, English snooker player
*
1951 -
Dan Driessen, baseball player
*
1953 -
Ken Burns, American producer and director
* 1953 -
Geddy Lee, Canadian bassist and vocalist (
Rush)
*
1957 -
Nellie Kim, Russian gymnast
*
1955 -
Dave Stevens, Illustrator
*
1959 -
Sanjay Dutt, Indian actor
* 1959 -
Ruud Janssen, Dutch writer and artist
* 1959 -
Dave LaPoint, baseball player
*
1962 -
Scott Steiner, US professional wrestler
*
1965 -
Chang-Rae Lee, Korean-born author
* 1965 -
Luis Alicea, Baseball player
*
1966 -
Martina McBride, American singer
*
1972 -
Wil Wheaton, American actor
*
1973 -
Stephen Dorff, American actor
* 1973 -
Wanya Morris, American singer (
Boyz II Men)
*
1975 -
Corrado Grabbi, Italian footballer
*
1976 -
Josh Radnor, American actor
*
1979 -
Abs Breen, English singer
* 1979 -
Karim Essediri, Tunisian footballer
*
1980 -
Fernando González, Chilean tennis player
*
1981 -
Fernando Alonso, Spanish race car driver
*
1982 -
Allison Mack, American actress
*
238 -
Pupienus,
Roman Emperor (assassinated)
* 238 -
Balbinus,
Roman Emperor (assassinated)
*
1030 - King
Olaf II of Norway (b.
995)
*
1099 -
Pope Urban II (b.
1042)
*
1108 - King
Philip I of France (b.
1081)
*
1507 -
Martin Behaim, German-born navigator and geographer (b.
1459)
*
1612 -
Jacques Bongars, French scholar and diplomat (b.
1554)
*
1644 -
Pope Urban VIII (b.
1568)
*
1752 -
Peter Warren, British admiral
*
1792 -
René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou, Chancellor of France (b.
1714)
*
1813 -
Jean-Andoche Junot, French general (suicide) (b.
1771)
*
1833 -
William Wilberforce, English campaigner against slavery (b.
1759)
*
1844 -
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian composer (b.
1791)
*
1856 -
Robert Schumann, German composer (b.
1810)
*
1887 -
Agostino Depretis, Italian statesman (d.
1813)
*
1890 -
Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (b.
1853)
*
1900 - King
Umberto I of Italy (b.
1844)
*
1913 -
Tobias Michael Carel Asser, Dutch jurist,
Nobel Prize Laureate (b.
1838)
*
1938 -
Nikolai Krylenko, Russian/Soviet jurist and politician (b.
1885)
*
1951 -
Hozumi Shigeto, Japanese author (b.
1883)
*
1954 -
Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (b.
1879)
*
1970 -
John Barbirolli, English conductor (b.
1899)
*
1973 -
Roger Williamson, English racing driver (b.
1948)
*
1974 -
Cass Elliot, American musician (b.
1941)
* 1974 -
Erich Kästner, German author (b.
1899)
*
1975 -
James Blish, American writer (b.
1921)
*
1979 -
Herbert Marcuse, German philosopher (b.
1898)
* 1979 -
Bill Todman, American television producer (b.
1916)
*
1981 -
Robert Moses, New York public works official (b.
1888)
*
1982 -
Harold Sakata, Japanese-American actor best known as the character of
Oddjob in the
James Bond movie,
Goldfinger. (b.
1920)
* 1982 -
Vladimir Zworykin, Russian physicist and inventor (b.
1889)
*
1983 -
Luis Buñuel, Spanish director (b.
1900)
* 1983 -
Raymond Massey, Canadian actor (b.
1896)
* 1983 -
David Niven, English actor (b.
1910)
*
1984 -
Fred Waring, American band leader and inventor (b.
1900)
*
1990 -
Bruno Kreisky,
Chancellor of Austria (b.
1911)
*
1994 -
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British chemist,
Nobel Prize Laureate (b.
1910)
* 1994 -
Megan Kanka, rape victim, basis of
Megan's Law (b.
1986)
*
1996 -
Jason Thirsk, American bassist (
Pennywise) (b.
1967)
*
1998 -
Jerome Robbins, American choregrapher (b.
1918)
*
2001 -
Edward Gierek, Polish politician (b.
1913)
* 2001 -
Wau Holland, German hacker (b.
1951)
* 2003 -
Foday Sankoh, Sierra Leonean rebel leader (b.
1937)
*
2004 -
Rena Vlahopoulou, Greek comedian and actress (b.
1923)
*
Norway -
St. Olav's Day.
*
Faroe Islands -
Ã"lavsøka: opening of the
Løgting session.
*
National Anthem Day in
Romania.
*
Roman Catholicism - the feasts of at least 8 saints:
**St.
Olaf (
Olaf II of Norway), patron of woodcarvers.
**St.
Olaf of Sweden**St.
Martha, sister of
Lazarus, patron of cooks and dieticians.
**
Pope Felix I,
saint and
martyr.
**Sts.
Simplicius,
Faustinus, and
Beatrice (siblings).
**St.
William Pinchon.
*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This Day*
On This Day in CanadaJuly 28 -
July 30 -
June 29 -
August 29 --
listing of all days
