May 29

May 29 is the 149th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (150th in leap years). There are 216 days remaining.

Events

• 757 - Paul I succeeds Stephen III as pope
• 1167 - Battle of Legano, in which The Lombard League defeats Emperor Frederick I.
• 1414 - Council of Constance.
• 1453 - Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih capture Constantinople after a siege, ending the Byzantine Empire.
• 1660 - English Restoration: Charles II is restored to the throne of England.
• 1677 - Treaty of Middle Plantation establishes peace between the Virginia colonists and the local Indians.
• 1727 - Peter II becomes Tsar of Russia.
• 1733 - Right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves upheld at Quebec City.
• 1790 - Rhode Island becomes the last of the original United States colonies to ratify the Constitution and is admitted as the 13th U.S. state.
• 1848 - Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state.
• 1864 - Emperor Maximilian of Mexico arrives in Mexico for the first time.
• 1867 - Austro-Hungarian agreement called Ausgleich ("the Compromise") is born through Act 12, which established the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy; on June 8 Emperor Francis Joseph was crowned King of Hungary
• 1886 - Chemist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, the ad appearing in the Atlanta Journal.
• 1886 - Putney Bridge opened in west London.
• 1913 - Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring is premiered in Paris.
• 1914 - Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; 1,024 lives lost.
• 1919 - Observation of shifted star positions during a solar eclipse confirm Albert Einstein's theory of relativity (see Arthur Eddington).
• 1950 - St. Roch, first ship to circumnavigate North America, arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
• 1953 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay are the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• 1977 - Janet Guthrie becomes the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.
• 1985 - Heysel Stadium disaster: In Brussels, Belgium, 39 football fans die and hundreds are injured during a riot at a European Cup match.
• 1985 - Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia after 14 months.
• 1999 - In Jerusalem, Israel, Charlotte Nilsson wins the forty-fourth Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden singing "Take Me To Your Heaven".
• 2005 - Dan Wheldon wins a history-making 89th Indianapolis 500, in that Danica Patrick finishes fourth (the highest position ever obtained by a female driver) and also becomes the first ever to lead a lap.
• 2005 - France, one of the founders of a united Europe, resoundingly rejects the European Constitution, throwing the idea of a European Union into question and leaving the continent in a state of anxiety and uncertainty (see French referendum on the European Constitution)

Births

• 1265 - Dante Alighieri, Florentine poet (d. 1321)
• 1594 - Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, Bavarian general (d. 1632)
• 1627 - Anne, Duchess of Montpensier, French writer (d. 1693)
• 1630 - King Charles II of England (d. 1685)
• 1660 - Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, English friend of Queen Anne of England (d. 1744)
• 1736 - Patrick Henry, American patriot (d. 1799)
• 1860 - Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer (d. 1909)
• 1863 - Arthur Mold, controversial Lancashire fast bowler and alleged "chucker" (d. 1921)
• 1874 - G. K. Chesterton, English novelist (d. 1936)
• 1880 - Oswald Spengler, German philosopher (d. 1936)
• 1893 - Max Brand, American author, war correspondent (d. 1944)
• 1894 - Beatrice Lillie, Canadian actress (d. 1989)
• 1894 - Josef von Sternberg, Austrian-American writer, director (d. 1969)
• 1897 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Austrian composer (d. 1957)
• 1903 - Bob Hope, British-born American comedian and actor (d. 2003)
• 1906 - T.H. White, British author (d. 1964)
• 1913 - Tony Zale, American boxer, world middleweight champion (d. 1997)
• 1914 - Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (d. 1986)
• 1914 - Eduard Pestel, scientist and engineer (d. 1988)
• 1915 - Karl Münchinger, German conductor (d. 1990)
• 1917 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (d. 1963)
• 1922 - Iannis Xenakis, composer (d. 2001)
• 1933 - John Mayall, musician
• 1933 - Helmuth Rilling, German conductor
• 1933 - Edward Whittemore, writer
• 1938 - Fay Vincent, former commissioner of baseball
• 1939 - Al Unser, race car driver
• 1940 - Farooq Leghari, former President of Pakistan
• 1942 - Kevin Conway, actor
• 1944 - Helmut Berger, actor
• 1946 - Fernando Buesa, Basque politician (d. 2000)
• 1948 - Anthony Geary, actor
• 1953 - Danny Elfman, composer, musician ("Oingo Boingo")
• 1955 - John Hinckley Jr., assassin (attempted)
• 1956 - LaToya Jackson, musician
• 1957 - Jeb Hensarling, American politician
• 1958 - Annette Bening, actress
• 1959 - Rupert Everett, actor
• 1959 - Adrian Paul, actor
• 1961 - Melissa Etheridge, musician
• 1963 - Lisa Whelchel, actress
• 1967 - Noel Gallagher, musician, Oasis
• 1975 - Melanie Brown, musician, actress
• 1984 - Carmelo Anthony, NBA basketball player
• 1991 - James Eastman

Deaths

• 1259 - King Christopher I of Denmark (b. 1219)
• 1379 - King Henry II of Castile (b. 1334)
• 1405 - Philippe de Mézières, advisor to Charles V of France
• 1453 - Constantine XI Palaeologus, last Byzantine emperor (b. 1404)
• 1500 - Bartolomeu Dias, Portuguese explorer
• 1691 - Cornelis Tromp, Dutch admiral (b. 1629)
• 1814 - Joséphine de Beauharnais, Empress of France (b. 1763)
• 1866 - Winfield Scott, American general and presidential candidate (b. 1786)
• 1892 - Bahá'u'lláh, Persian founder of the Bahá'í Faith (b. 1817)
• 1903 - Alexander Obrenovich, King of Serbia (b. 1876)
• 1910 - Mily Balakirev, Russian composer (b. 1837)
• 1911 - William S. Gilbert, English dramatist (b. 1836)
• 1935 - Josef Suk, Czech composer and violinist (b. 1874)
• 1942 - John Barrymore, American actor (b. 1882)
• 1948 - Dame May Whitty, actress (b. 1865)
• 1951 - Fanny Brice, American singer, comedienne, and actress (b. 1891)
• 1953 - Man Mountain Dean, professional wrestler (b. 1891)
• 1958 - Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet (b. 1881)
• 1979 - Mary Pickford, actress and studio founder (b. 1892)
• 1982 - Romy Schneider, Austrian actress (cardiac arrest) (b. 1938)
• 1989 - John Cipollina, American musician (Quicksilver Messenger Service) (b. 1943)
• 1993 - Billy Conn, American boxer, world light-heavyweight champion.
• 1994 - Erich Honecker, leader of East Germany (b. 1912)
• 1997 - Jeff Buckley, musician (accidental drowning) (b. 1966)
• 1998 - Barry M. Goldwater, U.S. Senator from Arizona (b. 1909)
• 2004 - Sam Dash, chief counsel to Senate Watergate Committee (b. 1925)
• 2004 - Archibald Cox, Jr., Watergate special prosecutor, (b. 1912)
• 2005 - George Rochberg, American composer (b. 1918)

Holidays and observances

• Bahá'í Faith: Ascension of Bahá'u'llah
• United Kingdom: Oak Apple Day
• Nigeria: Democracy Day Nigeria returns to democratical form of governance after 16 years of military dictatorship.

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• Today in History: May 29

May 28 - May 30 - April 29 - June 29 - listing of all days