August 29Birthdays & History

On this day: August 29 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 708Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).Asia
2. 870The city of Melite surrenders to an Aghlabid army following a siege, putting an end to Byzantine Malta.Europe
3. 1009Mainz Cathedral suffers extensive damage from a fire, which destroys the building on the day of its inauguration.Europe
4. 1167King Amalric of Jerusalem marries Byzantine princess Maria Komnene in the cathedral of Tyre.Middle EastEurope
5. 1219The Battle of Fariskur occurs during the Fifth Crusade.Middle East
6. 1261Pope Urban IV succeeds Pope Alexander IV, becoming the 182nd pope.Europe
7. 1315Battle 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.Europe
8. 1350Battle of Winchelsea (or Les Espagnols sur Mer): The English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships.Europe
9. 1393Timur takes Baghdad from Sultan Ahmad Jalayir for the first time.Middle East
10. 1475Hundred Years' War: The Treaty of Picquigny formally ends the war between the kingdoms of France and England.Europe
11. 1484Pope Innocent VIII succeeds Pope Sixtus IV.Europe
12. 1498Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to the Kingdom of Portugal.Europe
13. 1521The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade).Middle EastEurope
14. 1526Battle of Mohács: The Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeat and kill the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia.Middle EastEurope
15. 1541The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.Middle EastEurope
16. 1588Toyotomi 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.Asia
17. 1604The Guru Granth Sahib is fully compiled and completed by Guru Arjan.Asia
18. 1728The city of Nuuk in Greenland is founded as the fort of Godt-Haab by the royal governor Claus Paarss.North America
19. 1741The 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.Asia
20. 1756Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years' War in Europe.Europe
21. 1758The Treaty of Easton establishes the first American Indian reservation, at Indian Mills, New Jersey, for the Lenape.North America
22. 1778American Revolutionary War: British and American forces battle indecisively at the Battle of Rhode Island.North AmericaEurope
23. 1779American Revolutionary War: American forces battle and defeat the British and Iroquois forces at the Battle of Newtown.North AmericaEurope
24. 1786Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.North America
25. 1807British troops under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeat a Danish militia outside Copenhagen in the Battle of Køge.Europe
26. 1825Portuguese 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.EuropeLatin America
27. 1831Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.Europe
28. 1842Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.Asia
29. 1861American Civil War: The Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries gives Federal forces control of Pamlico Sound.North America
30. 1869The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens, making it the world's first mountain-climbing rack railway.North America
31. 1871Emperor Meiji orders the abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures as local centers of administration. (Traditional Japanese date: July 14, 1871).Asia
32. 1885Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle with an internal combustion engine, the Reitwagen.Europe
33. 1898The Goodyear tire company is founded in Akron, Ohio.North America
34. 1903The Slava, the last of the five Borodino-class battleships, is launched.Europe
35. 1907The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers.North America
36. 1910The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, also known as the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, becomes effective, officially starting the period of Japanese rule in Korea.AsiaAsia
37. 1911Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.North AmericaEurope
38. 1911The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy.North America
39. 1912A typhoon strikes China, killing at least 50,000 people.Asia
40. 1914World War I: Start of the Battle of St. Quentin in which the French Fifth Army counter-attacked the invading Germans at Saint-Quentin, Aisne.Europe
41. 1915US Navy salvage divers raise F-4, the first U.S. submarine sunk in an accident.North America
42. 1916The United States passes the Philippine Autonomy Act.North AmericaAsia
43. 1918World War I: Bapaume taken by the New Zealand Division in the Hundred Days Offensive.Oceania
44. 1930The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.Europe
45. 1941World War II: Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is occupied by Nazi Germany following an occupation by the Soviet Union.Europe
46. 1943World War II: German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy; Germany dissolves the Danish government.Europe
47. 1944World War II: Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.Europe
48. 1948Northwest Airlines Flight 421 crashes in Fountain City, Wisconsin, killing all 37 aboard.North America
49. 1949Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.EuropeAsia
50. 1950Korean War: British Commonwealth Forces Korea arrives to bolster the US presence.AsiaEuropeNorth America
51. 1952American experimental composer John Cage's 4’33” premieres at Maverick Concert Hall, played by American pianist David Tudor.North America
52. 1958United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.North America
53. 1960Air France Flight 343 crashes on approach to Yoff Airport in Senegal, killing all 63 aboard.EuropeAfrica
54. 1965The Gemini V spacecraft returns to Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean.World
55. 1966The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.North America
56. 1966Leading Egyptian thinker Sayyid Qutb is executed for plotting the assassination of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.Middle East
57. 1970Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, East Los Angeles, California. Police riot kills three people, including journalist Rubén Salazar.AsiaNorth America
58. 1975El Tacnazo: Francisco Morales Bermúdez, Peruvian Prime Minister 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.Latin America
59. 1982Meitnerium, a synthetic chemical element with the atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.Europe
60. 1987Odaeyang mass suicide: Thirty-three 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.Asia
61. 1991Libero Grassi, an Italian businessman from Palermo, is killed by the Sicilian Mafia after taking a solitary stand against their extortion demands.Europe
62. 1991Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.Europe
63. 1996Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard.Europe
64. 1997Netflix is launched as an internet DVD rental service.North America
65. 1997At least 98 villagers are killed by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.Africa
66. 1998Eighty people are killed when Cubana de Aviación Flight 389 crashes during a rejected takeoff from the Old Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, Ecuador.Latin America
67. 2001Four people are killed when Binter Mediterráneo Flight 8261 crashes into the N-340 highway near Málaga Airport.Europe
68. 2003Sayed 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.Middle East
69. 2005Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing up to 1,392 people and causing $125 billion in damage.North America
70. 2012At least 26 Chinese miners are killed and 21 missing after a blast in the Xiaojiawan coal mine, located at Panzhihua, Sichuan Province.Asia
71. 2012The XIV Paralympic Games open in London, England, United Kingdom.Europe
72. 20202020 Women's FA Community Shield.Europe
73. 2022Russo-Ukrainian war: Ukraine begins its southern counteroffensive in the Kherson Oblast, eventually culminating in the liberation of the city of Kherson.Europe

Source: Wikipedia "August 29" / CC BY-SA 4.0