March 29
Events
Pre-1600
- 1430 - The Ottoman Empire under Murad II captures Thessalonica from the Republic of Venice.
- 1461 - Battle of Towton: Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England, bringing a temporary stop to the Wars of the Roses.
- 1549 - The city of Salvador, Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded.
1601–1900
- 1632 - Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629.
- 1792 - King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade ball at Stockholm's Royal Opera 13 days earlier.
- 1806 - Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway.
- 1809 - King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a coup d'état.
- 1809 - At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland's four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden.
- 1847 - Mexican–American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.
- 1849 - The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab.
- 1857 - Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry mutinies against the East India Company's rule in India and inspires the protracted Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny.
- 1867 - Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes Canada on July 1.
- 1871 - Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.
- 1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
- 1882 - The Knights of Columbus is established.
1901–present
- 1927 - Sunbeam 1000hp breaks the land speed record at Daytona Beach, Florida.
- 1936 - The 1936 German parliamentary election and referendum seeks approval for the recent remilitarization of the Rhineland.
- 1941 - The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement goes into effect at 03:00 local time.
- 1941 - World War II: British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy forces defeat those of the Italian Regia Marina off the Peloponnesian coast of Greece in the Battle of Cape Matapan.
- 1942 - The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II is the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city.
- 1947 - The Malagasy Uprising against French colonial rule begins in Madagascar.
- 1951 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.
- 1951 - Hypnosis murders in Copenhagen.
- 1957 - The New York, Ontario and Western Railway makes its final run, the first major U.S. railroad to be abandoned in its entirety.
- 1961 - The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.
- 1962 - Arturo Frondizi, the president of Argentina, is overthrown in a military coup by Argentina's armed forces, ending an day constitutional crisis.
- 1968 - The funeral of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, started in Moscow, with thousands of people in attendance.
- 1971 - My Lai massacre: Lieutenant William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
- 1973 - Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.
- 1973 - Operation Barrel Roll, a covert American bombing campaign in Laos to stop communist infiltration of South Vietnam, ends.
- 1974 - NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first space probe to fly by Mercury.
- 1974 - Terracotta Army was discovered in Shaanxi province, China.
- 1979 - Quebecair Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport in Quebec City, killing 17.
- 1982 - The Canada Act 1982 receives the Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982.
- 1984 - The Baltimore Colts load its possessions onto fifteen Mayflower moving trucks in the early morning hours and transfer its operations to Indianapolis.
- 1990 - The Czechoslovak parliament is unable to reach an agreement on what to call the country after the fall of Communism, sparking the so-called Hyphen War.
- 1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark for the first time, during the height of the dot-com bubble.
- 1999 - A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in India strikes the Chamoli district in Uttar Pradesh, killing 103.
- 2001 - A Gulfstream III crashes on approach to Aspen/Pitkin County Airport in Aspen, Colorado. All 18 people on board are killed.
- 2002 - In reaction to the Passover massacre two days prior, Israel launches Operation Defensive Shield against Palestinian militants, its largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.
- 2004 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia join NATO as full members.
- 2004 - The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat certifies Taipei 101 as the world's tallest building, based on the building having been topped out on 1 July 2003, even though the building was not completed until 31 December 2004.
- 2010 - Two suicide bombers hit the Moscow Metro system at the peak of the morning rush hour, killing 40.
- 2013 - At least 36 people are killed when a 16-floor building collapses in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
- 2014 - The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed.
- 2015 - Air Canada Flight 624 skids off the runway at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, after arriving from Toronto shortly past midnight. All 133 passengers and five crews on board survive, with 23 treated for minor injuries.
- 2016 - A United States Air Force F-16 crashes during takeoff from Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.
- 2017 - Prime Minister Theresa May invokes Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, formally beginning the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.
- 2021 - The ship Ever Given was dislodged from the Suez Canal.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1187 - Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, grandson of King Henry II of England
- 1561 - Santorio Santorio, Italian biologist
- 1584 - Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English general and politician
1601–1900
- 1602 - John Lightfoot, English priest, scholar, and academic
- 1713 - John Ponsonby, Irish politician
- 1735 - Johann Karl August Musäus, German author
- 1747 - Johann Wilhelm Hässler, German pianist and composer
- 1769 - Jean-de-Dieu Soult, French general and politician, 12th Prime Minister of France
- 1780 - Jørgen Jørgensen, Danish adventurer
- 1790 - John Tyler, American lawyer and politician, 10th President of the United States
- 1799 - Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1802 - Johann Moritz Rugendas, German landscape painter
- 1824 - Ludwig Büchner, German physiologist, physician, and philosopher
- 1826 - Wilhelm Liebknecht, German journalist and politician
- 1853 - Elihu Thomson, English-American engineer and inventor
- 1860 - William Benham, New Zealand zoologist
- 1862 - Adolfo Müller-Ury, Swiss-American painter
- 1863 - Walter James, Australian politician, 5th Premier of Western Australia
- 1867 - Cy Young, American baseball player and manager
- 1869 - Edwin Lutyens, British architect
- 1871 - Tom Hayward, English cricketer
- 1872 - Hal Colebatch, English-Australian politician, 12th Premier of Western Australia
- 1873 - Tullio Levi-Civita, Italian mathematician and academic
- 1874 - Lou Henry Hoover, American philanthropist and geologist, 33rd First Lady of the United States
- 1883 - Donald Van Slyke, Dutch-American biochemist
- 1885 - Dezső Kosztolányi, Hungarian author and poet
- 1889 - Warner Baxter, American actor
- 1889 - Howard Lindsay, American producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor
- 1890 - Harold Spencer Jones, English astronomer
- 1891 - Yvan Goll, French-German poet and playwright
- 1892 - József Mindszenty, Hungarian cardinal
- 1895 - Ernst Jünger, German philosopher and author
- 1896 - Wilhelm Ackermann, German mathematician
- 1899 - Lavrentiy Beria, Georgian-Russian general and politician
- 1900 - John McEwen, Australian farmer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Australia
- 1900 - Charles Sutherland Elton, English zoologist and animal ecologist
1901–present
- 1902 - Marcel Aymé, French author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 1902 - William Walton, English composer
- 1903 - Douglas Harkness, Canadian colonel and politician, Canadian Minister of National Defence
- 1907 - Braguinha, Brazilian singer-songwriter and producer
- 1908 - Arthur O'Connell, American actor
- 1908 - Dennis O'Keefe, American actor and screenwriter
- 1909 - Moon Mullican, American singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1912 - Hanna Reitsch, German soldier and pilot
- 1913 - Phil Foster, American actor
- 1913 - Jack Jones, British trade union leader, General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union
- 1914 - Chapman Pincher, Indian-English historian, journalist, and author
- 1916 - Peter Geach, English philosopher and academic
- 1916 - Eugene McCarthy, American poet and politician
- 1917 - Tommy Holmes, American baseball player
- 1917 - Ieuan Maddock, Welsh scientist and nuclear researcher
- 1918 - Pearl Bailey, American actress and singer
- 1918 - Lê Văn Thiêm, Vietnamese mathematician and academic
- 1918 - Sam Walton, American businessman, founded Walmart and Sam's Club
- 1919 - Eileen Heckart, American actress
- 1920 - John M. Belk, American businessman and politician
- 1920 - Clarke Fraser, American-Canadian geneticist and academic
- 1920 - Pierre Moinot, French author
- 1920 - Theodore Trautwein, American lawyer and judge
- 1921 - Sam Loxton, Australian cricketer, footballer, and politician
- 1923 - Geoff Duke, English-Manx motorcycle racer
- 1923 - Betty Binns Fletcher, American lawyer and judge
- 1926 - Vladimir Bolotin, Russian physicist
- 1927 - Martin Fleischmann, British chemist
- 1927 - John McLaughlin, American journalist and producer
- 1927 - John Vane, English pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1928 - Romesh Bhandari, Pakistani-Indian politician, 13th Foreign Secretary of India
- 1928 - Keith Botsford, Belgian-American journalist, author, and academic
- 1928 - Vincent Gigante, American boxer and mobster
- 1929 - Sheila Kitzinger, English activist, author, and academic
- 1929 - Richard Lewontin, American biologist, geneticist, and academic
- 1929 - Lennart Meri, Estonian director and politician, 2nd President of Estonia
- 1929 - Utpal Dutt, Indian actor, director and playwright
- 1930 - Anerood Jugnauth, Mauritian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Mauritius
- 1931 - Aleksei Gubarev, Russian general, pilot and cosmonaut
- 1931 - Norman Tebbit, English journalist and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
- 1935 - Ruby Murray, Northern Irish singer
- 1936 - Richard Rodney Bennett, English-American composer and educator
- 1936 - John A. Durkin, American lawyer and politician
- 1936 - Joseph P. Teasdale, American lawyer and politician, 48th Governor of Missouri
- 1937 - Roberto Chabet, Filipino painter and sculptor
- 1937 - Smarck Michel, Haitian businessman and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Haiti
- 1937 - Gordon Milne, English footballer
- 1939 - Roland Arnall, French-American businessman and diplomat, 63rd United States Ambassador to the Netherlands
- 1939 - Hanumant Singh, Indian cricketer
- 1940 - Ray Davis, American bass singer
- 1942 - Scott Wilson, American actor
- 1943 - John Major, English banker and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1943 - Vangelis, Greek keyboard player and songwriter
- 1943 - Eric Idle, English actor, comedian, musician and writer
- 1945 - Speedy Keen, English singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
- 1946 - Billy Thorpe, English-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1947 - Frank Bowe, American academic
- 1947 - Robert Gordon, American singer and actor
- 1948 - Barbara Clare Foley, American author and educator
- 1949 - Michael Brecker, American saxophonist and composer
- 1949 - Joe Ehrmann, American football player and writer
- 1949 - Israel Finkelstein, Israeli archaeologist and professor
- 1949 - Dave Greenfield, English musician
- 1949 - Pauline Marois, Canadian social worker and politician, 30th Premier of Quebec
- 1949 - John Spenkelink, American murderer
- 1950 - Mory Kanté, Guinean vocalist
- 1951 - David Cheriton, Canadian computer scientist, mathematician and businessman
- 1951 - William Clarke, American harmonica player
- 1951 - Roger Myerson, American economist and professor
- 1951 - Nick Ut, Vietnamese-American photographer
- 1952 - Jo-Ann Mapson, American author
- 1952 - Teófilo Stevenson, Cuban boxer and engineer
- 1952 - Bola Tinubu, Nigerian politician, President-elect of Nigeria
- 1952 - Alec Wilkinson, American writer
- 1954 - Mario Clark, American football player
- 1954 - Martha A. Sandweiss, American historian
- 1954 - Suzanna Sherry, American legal scholar
- 1954 - Evelyn C. White, American writer and editor
- 1955 - Earl Campbell, American football player
- 1955 - Gillian Conoley, American poet
- 1955 - Brendan Gleeson, Irish actor
- 1955 - Marina Sirtis, British-American actress
- 1956 - Patty Donahue, American singer
- 1956 - Mary Gentle, English author
- 1956 - William Gurstelle, American writer and inventor
- 1956 - Ted Staunton, Canadian author
- 1956 - Kurt Thomas, American gymnast
- 1957 - Elizabeth Hand, American author
- 1957 - Mark Hudson, British writer, journalist and art critic
- 1957 - Christopher Lambert, American-French actor
- 1957 - Kathryn Tanner, American theologian
- 1958 - Travis Childers, American businessman and politician
- 1958 - Nouriel Roubini, Iranian-American economic consultant, economist and writer
- 1959 - Brad McCrimmon, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1960 - Jo Nesbø, Norwegian writer, musician and football player
- 1961 - Todd G. Buchholz, American economist and author
- 1961 - Helen Humphreys, Canadian poet and novelist
- 1961 - Amy Sedaris, American actress and comedian
- 1961 - Michael Winterbottom, English director and producer
- 1962 - Billy Beane, American baseball player and manager
- 1962 - Igor Klebanov, Ukrainian-American theoretical physicist
- 1962 - Kirk Triplett, American golfer
- 1963 - Padraic Kenney, American writer, historian and educator
- 1964 - Catherine Cortez Masto, American attorney and politician
- 1964 - Elle Macpherson, Australian model and actress
- 1965 - Todd F. Davis, American poet and critic
- 1965 - Ayun Halliday, American writer and actor
- 1965 - Brooks Hansen, American novelist, screenwriter and illustrator
- 1965 - Maia Szalavitz, American journalist and author
- 1965 - Bradford Tatum, American actor
- 1966 - Dwayne Harper, American football player
- 1967 - Michel Hazanavicius, French director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1967 - Brian Jordan, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1967 - Edmundo Paz Soldán, Bolivian writer
- 1968 - Chris Calloway, American football player
- 1968 - Lucy Lawless, New Zealand actress
- 1969 - Ted Lieu, American politician and AFRC colonel
- 1969 - Jimmy Spencer, American football player and coach
- 1970 - J. A. Konrath, American author
- 1971 - Robert Gibbs, American political adviser, 28th White House Press Secretary
- 1971 - Lara Logan, South African television and radio journalist and war correspondent
- 1971 - Hidetoshi Nishijima, Japanese actor
- 1972 - Ernest Cline, American novelist, poet and screenwriter
- 1972 - Stina Leicht, American author
- 1972 - Priti Patel, British Indian politician, Secretary of State for the Home Department
- 1973 - Marc Overmars, Dutch footballer and coach
- 1974 - Alex Cuba, Cuban-Canadian singer-songwriter
- 1976 - Jennifer Capriati, American tennis player
- 1977 - Nina Riggs, American writer and poet
- 1978 - Ian Holding, Zimbabwean writer
- 1979 - Luis Ortiz, Cuban boxer
- 1980 - Hamzah bin Hussein, Jordanian prince
- 1980 - Molly Brodak, American poet and writer
- 1980 - Chris D'Elia, American stand-up comedian, actor and writer
- 1980 - Bill Demong, American skier
- 1981 - Jasmine Crockett, American attorney and politician
- 1981 - Megan Hilty, American actress and singer
- 1981 - PJ Morton, American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer
- 1981 - Jlloyd Samuel, Trinidadian footballer
- 1983 - Efstathios Aloneftis, Greek-Cypriot footballer
- 1983 - Chokwe Antar Lumumba, American attorney, activist and politician
- 1985 - Fernando Amorebieta, Venezuelan footballer
- 1986 - Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, English footballer
- 1986 - Lucas Elliot Eberl, American actor and director
- 1989 - James Tomkins, English footballer
- 1990 - Lyle Taylor, English footballer
- 1991 - Irene, South Korean idol, actress and television host
- 1991 - N'Golo Kanté, French footballer
- 1993 - Thorgan Hazard, Belgian footballer
- 1994 - Jung Jae-won, South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, and actor
- 1994 - Matt Olson, American baseball player
- 1996 - Wade Baldwin IV, American basketball player
- 2004 - Kim Ju-chan, South Korean footballer