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