April
29
Events
711 – Islamic
conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad
land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula
(Al-Andalus).
1091 – Battle of Levounion: The Pechenegs are defeated by Byzantine
Emperor Alexius I.
1429 – Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans.
1483 – Gran Canaria, the main island of the Canary Islands is
conquered by the Kingdom of Castile.
1587 – Francis Drake leads a raid in the Bay of Cádiz, sinking
at least 23 ships of the Spanish fleet.
1672 – Franco-Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
1770 – James Cook arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: British and French ships
clash in the Battle of Fort Royal off the coast of Martinique.
1832 – Évariste Galois is released from prison.
1861 – American Civil War: Maryland's House of Delegates votes
not to secede from the Union.
1862 – American Civil War: New Orleans, Louisiana falls to Union
forces under Admiral David Farragut.
1864 – Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, the only fraternity to be founded during the Civil
War.
1882 – The "Elektromote" – forerunner of the trolleybus
– is tested by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin.
1903 – A 30 million cubic-metre landslide kills 70 in Frank,
Alberta, Canada.
1910 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the People's
Budget, the first budget in British history with the expressed
intent of redistributing wealth among the British public.
1916 – World War I: The British 6th Indian Division surrenders
to Ottoman Forces at the Siege of Kut in one of the largest
surrenders of British forces up to that point.
1916 – Easter Rising: Martial law in Ireland is lifted and the
rebellion is officially over with the surrender of Irish nationalists
to British authorities in Dublin.
1945 – World War II: The German army in Italy unconditionally
surrenders to the Allies.
1945 – World War II: Start of Operation Manna.
1945 – World War II: The Captain class frigate HMS Goodall K479
is torpedoed by U-286 outside the Kola Inlet becoming the last
ship of the Royal Navy sunk in the European theatre of World
War II.
1945 – World War II – Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler marries his
longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates
Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun
commit suicide the following day.
1945 – The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United
States troops.
1945 – The Italian commune of Fornovo di Taro is liberated from
German forces by Brazilian forces.
1946 – The International Military Tribunal for the Far East
convenes and indicts former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo
and 28 former Japanese leaders for war crimes.
1946 – Father Divine, a controversial religious leader who claims
to be God, marries the much-younger Edna Rose Ritchings, a celebrated
anniversary in the International Peace Mission movement.
1951 – Tibetan delegates to the Central People's Government
arrive in Beijing and draft a Seventeen Point Agreement for
Chinese sovereignty and Tibetan autonomy.
1953 – The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an
episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.
1965 – Pakistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission
(SUPARCO) successfully launches its seventh rocket in its Rehber
series.
1967 – After refusing induction into the United States Army
the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali is stripped
of his boxing title.
1968 – The controversial musical Hair opens on Broadway.
1970 – Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces
invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
1974 – Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces
the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings
relating to the scandal.
1975 – Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The U.S. begins
to evacuate U.S. citizens from Saigon prior to an expected North
Vietnamese takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an
end.
1986 – A fire at the Central library of the City of Los Angeles
Public Library damages or destroys 400,000 books and other items.
1991 – A cyclone strikes the Chittagong district of southeastern
Bangladesh with winds of around 155 miles per hour (249 km/h),
killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as 10 million
homeless.
1992 – Los Angeles riots: Riots in Los Angeles, California,
following the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive
force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days
53 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.
1997 – The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 enters into force,
outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons
by its signatories.
1999 – The Avala TV Tower near Belgrade is destroyed in the
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
2004 – Dick Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11
Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.
2004 – Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production.
2005 – Syria completes withdrawal from Lebanon, ending 29 years
of occupation.
2011 – Wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Kate
Middleton.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Catherine of Siena
Endelienta (Roman Catholic and Anglican Church)
Hugh of Cluny
Robert of Molesme
Torpes of Pisa
April 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
International Dance Day (International)
Queen's Night (the Netherlands)
Shōwa Day, traditionally the start of the Golden Week holiday
period. (Japan)
The beginning of Arita Ceramic Fair (Arita, Saga, Japan)
The ninth day of Ridván (Bahá'í Faith)
Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare
For details, contact Datacentre
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