August
29
International
Day against Nuclear Tests
The 64th
session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 29 August
as the International Day against Nuclear Tests through the unanimous
adoption of its resolution 64/35 on 2 December 2009. The Day
is meant to galvanize the efforts of the United Nations, Member
States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations,
academic institutions, youth networks and the media in informing,
educating and advocating the necessity of banning nuclear tests
as a valuable step to achieving a safer world.
Events
708 – Copper
coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese
date: August 10, 708).
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 France
and England.
1498 – Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to
Portugal.
1521 – The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár, now known as
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.
1655 – Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under
the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge.
1756 – Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven
Years' War.
1758 – The first American Indian Reservation is established,
at Indian Mills, New Jersey.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and American forces
battle indecisively at the Battle of Rhode Island.
1786 – Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts
farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
1825 – Portugal recognizes the Independence of Brazil.
1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
1833 – The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of slavery
in its empire.
1835 – The city of Melbourne, Australia is founded.
1842 – Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.
1861 – American Civil War: US Navy squadron captures forts at
Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
1869 – The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens, making it the
world's first 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.
1903 – The Russian battleship Slava, the last of the five Borodino-class
battleships, 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.
1915 – US Navy salvage divers raise F-4, the first U.S. submarine
sunk in accident.
1916 – The United States passes the Philippine Autonomy Act.
1918 – Bapaume taken by the New Zealand Division in the Hundred
Days Offensive.
1922 – The first radio advertisement is broadcast on WEAF-AM
in New York City.
1930 – The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily
evacuated to other parts of Scotland.
1941 – Tallinn, the Capital of Estonia is occupied by Nazi Germany
following an occupation by the Soviet Union.
1943 – German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy; Germany
dissolves the Danish government.
1944 – Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak
troops turn against the Nazis.
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.
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.
1970 – Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, East Los
Angeles, California. Police riot kills three people, including
journalist Ruben Salazar.
1982 – The synthetic chemical element Meitnerium, atomic number
109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung
in Darmstadt, Germany.
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 Mafia after taking a solitary stand against their
extortion demands.
1996 – Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev
Tu-154, crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen,
killing all 141 aboard.
1997 – At least 98 villagers are killed by the Armed Islamic
Group of Algeria GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.
2003 – Ayatollah Sayed 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 more than 1,836
and causing over $80 billion in damage.
2007 – 2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident:
six US cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads are flown
without proper authorization from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale
Air Force Base.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Beheading of St. John the Baptist
Sabina
August 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Slovak National Uprising Anniversary (Slovakia)
The first day of Thoth, the first day of the Egyptian calendar.
For details, contact Datacentre
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