July 29

Events

Pre-1600

• 587 BC - The Neo-Babylonian Empire sacks Jerusalem and destroys the First Temple.
• 615 - Pakal ascends the throne of Palenque at the age of 12.
• 904 - Sack of Thessalonica: Saracen raiders under Leo of Tripoli sack Thessaloniki, the Byzantine Empire's second-largest city, after a short siege, and plunder it for a week.
• 923 - Battle of Firenzuola: Lombard forces under King Rudolph II and Adalbert I, margrave of Ivrea, defeat the dethroned Emperor Berengar I of Italy at Firenzuola.
• 1014 - Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Battle of Kleidion: Byzantine emperor Basil II inflicts a decisive defeat on the Bulgarian army, and his subsequent treatment of 15,000 prisoners reportedly causes Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria to die of a heart attack less than three months later, on October 6.
• 1018 - Count Dirk III defeats an army sent by Emperor Henry II in the Battle of Vlaardingen.
• 1030 - Ladejarl-Fairhair succession wars: Battle of Stiklestad: King Olaf II fights and dies trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes.
• 1148 - The Siege of Damascus ends in a decisive crusader defeat and leads to the disintegration of the Second Crusade.
• 1565 - The widowed Mary, Queen of Scots marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Duke of Albany, at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, Scotland, in a Catholic ceremony.
• 1567 - The infant James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.
• 1588 - Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: English naval forces under the command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France.

  1601–1900

• 1693 - War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Landen: France wins a victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands.
• 1775 - Founding of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps: General George Washington appoints William Tudor as Judge Advocate of the Continental Army.
• 1818 - French physicist Augustin Fresnel submits his prizewinning "Memoir on the Diffraction of Light", precisely accounting for the limited extent to which light spreads into shadows, and thereby demolishing the oldest objection to the wave theory of light.
• 1836 - Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France.
• 1848 - Great Famine of Ireland: Tipperary Revolt: In County Tipperary, Ireland, then in the United Kingdom, 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.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.
• 1871 - The Connecticut Valley Railroad opens between Old Saybrook, Connecticut and Hartford, Connecticut in the United States.
• 1899 - The First Hague Convention is signed.
• 1900 - In Italy, King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci. His son, Victor Emmanuel III, 31 years old, succeeds to the throne.

  1901–present

• 1901 - Land lottery begins in Oklahoma.
• 1907 - Sir Robert Baden-Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England. The camp runs from August 1 to August 9 and is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement.
• 1910 - The two-day Slocum massacre commences in Texas, a race riot in which more than 100 African Americans are murdered.
• 1914 - The Cape Cod Canal opened.
• 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, D.C., troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans using arson, bayonets, sabers, tanks, tear gas, and vomit gas.
• 1937 - Tongzhou mutiny: In Tongzhou, China, the East Hebei Army attacks Japanese troops and civilians.
• 1945 - The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music.
• 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, open in London.
• 1950 - Korean War: After four days, the No Gun Ri Massacre ends when the US Army 7th Cavalry Regiment is withdrawn.
• 1957 - The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.
• 1957 - Tonight Starring Jack Paar premieres on NBC with Jack Paar beginning the modern day talk show.
• 1958 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
• 1959 - First United States Congress 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.
• 1967 - Vietnam War: Off the coast of North Vietnam the catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134.
• 1967 - During the fourth day of celebrating its 400th anniversary, the city of Caracas, Venezuela is shaken by an earthquake, leaving approximately 500 dead.
• 1972 - Two Avianca Douglas DC-3 airliners collide over Colombia, killing 38.
• 1973 - Greeks vote to abolish the monarchy, beginning the first period of the Metapolitefsi.
• 1973 - Driver Roger Williamson is killed during the Dutch Grand Prix, after a suspected tire failure causes his car to pitch into the barriers at high speed.
• 1976 - In New York City, David Berkowitz kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks.
• 1980 - Iran adopts a new "holy" flag after the Islamic Revolution.
• 1981 - A worldwide television audience of around 750 million people watch the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
• 1981 - After impeachment on June 21, Abolhassan Banisadr flees with Massoud Rajavi to Paris, in an Iranian Air Force Boeing 707, piloted by Colonel Behzad Moezzi, to form the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
• 1985 - Space Shuttle Challenger launches on STS-51-F. The shuttle ends up in a lower orbit than planned due to an engine failure during ascent.
• 1987 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel.
• 1987 - Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and President of Sri Lanka J. R. Jayewardene sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord on ethnic issues.
• 1993 - The Supreme Court of Israel acquits alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.
• 1996 - The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act is struck down by a U.S. federal court as too broad.
• 2005 - Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris.
• 2010 - An overloaded passenger ferry capsizes on the Kasai River in Bandundu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in at least 80 deaths.
• 2013 - Two passenger trains collide in the Swiss municipality of Granges-près-Marnand near Lausanne injuring 25 people.
• 2015 - The first piece of suspected debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is discovered on Réunion Island.
• 2019 - The 2019 Altamira prison riot between rival Brazilian drug gangs leaves 62 dead.
• 2021 - The International Space Station temporarily spins out of control, moving the ISS 45 degrees out of attitude, following an engine malfunction of Russian module Nauka.
• 2024 - Three children are stabbed to death and 10 other people injured at a dance studio in Southport, England. This incident, coupled with widespread online misinformation, leads to various racially motivated riots across the UK.

  Births

Pre-1600

• 869 - Muhammad al-Mahdi, The 12th Imam of Muslims
• 996 - Fujiwara no Norimichi, Japanese nobleman
• 1166 - Henry II, French nobleman and king of Jerusalem
• 1356 - Martin the Elder, king of Aragon, Valencia and Majorca
• 1537 - Pedro Téllez-Girón, Spanish nobleman
• 1573 - Philip II, duke of Pomerania-Stettin
• 1580 - Francesco Mochi, Italian sculptor

  1601–1900

• 1605 - Simon Dach, German poet and hymn-writer
• 1646 - Johann Theile, German organist and composer
• 1744 - Giulio Maria della Somaglia, Italian cardinal
• 1763 - Philip Charles Durham, Scottish admiral and politician
• 1797 - Daniel Drew, American businessman and financier
• 1801 - George Bradshaw, English cartographer and publisher
• 1805 - Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and philosopher
• 1806 - Horace Abbott, American businessman and banker
• 1817 - Ivan Aivazovsky, Armenian-Russian painter and illustrator
• 1817 - Martin Körber, German pastor, composer, and conductor
• 1841 - Gerhard Armauer Hansen, Norwegian physician
• 1843 - Johannes Schmidt, German linguist and academic
• 1846 - Sophie Menter, German pianist and composer
• 1846 - Isabel, Brazilian princess
• 1849 - Max Nordau, Hungarian physician, author, and critic, co-founded the World Zionist Organization
• 1859 - Francisco Rodrigues da Cruz, Portuguese priest
• 1860 - Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, English politician, 8th Governor of Queensland
• 1867 - Berthold Oppenheim, Moravian rabbi
• 1869 - Booth Tarkington, American novelist and dramatist
• 1871 - Jakob Mändmets, Estonian writer and journalist
• 1872 - Eric Alfred Knudsen, American author, lawyer, and politician
• 1874 - J. S. Woodsworth, Canadian minister and politician
• 1876 - Maria Ouspenskaya, Russian-American actress and acting teacher
• 1878 - Don Marquis, American author, poet, and playwright
• 1883 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and author
• 1883 - Benito Mussolini, Italian fascist revolutionary and politician, 27th Prime Minister of Italy
• 1884 - Ralph Austin Bard, American financier and politician, 2nd Under Secretary of the Navy
• 1885 - Theda Bara, American actress
• 1887 - Sigmund Romberg, Hungarian-American pianist and composer
• 1891 - Bernhard Zondek, German-Israeli gynecologist and academic
• 1892 - William Powell, American actor and singer
• 1896 - Maria L. de Hernández, Mexican-American rights activist
• 1897 - Neil Ritchie, Guyanese-English general
• 1898 - Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize Laureate
• 1899 - Walter Beall, American baseball player
• 1900 - Mary V. Austin, Australian community worker and political activist
• 1900 - Eyvind Johnson, Swedish novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize Laureate
• 1900 - Teresa Noce, Italian labor leader, activist, and journalist
• 1900 - Don Redman, American composer, and bandleader