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
- 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.
- 1886 - Chemist John Pemberton begins to advertise Coca-Cola (ad in the Atlanta Journal).
- 1886 - Putney Bridge opened in west London.
- 1903 - Alexander Obrenovic, king of Serbia assassinated in Belgrade by the Black Hand (Crna Ruka) organization.
- 1913 - Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring is premiered in Paris.
- 1914 - Ocean liner 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.
Births
- 1594 - Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, general (d. 1632)
- 1630 - King Charles II of England (d. 1685)
- 1736 - Patrick Henry, American patriot (d. 1799)
- 1860 - Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer (d. 1909)
- 1874 - G. K. Chesterton, novelist (d. 1936)
- 1880 - Oswald Spengler, philosopher, Decline of the West (d. 1936)
- 1893 - Max Brand, author, war correspondent (d. 1944)
- 1894 - Beatrice Lillie, actress (d. 1989)
- 1894 - Josef von Sternberg, writer, director (d. 1969)
- 1903 - Bob Hope, comedian, actor (d. 2003)
- 1906 - T.H. White, author (d. 1964)
- 1914 - Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (see also 1953 above) (d. 1986)
- 1914 - Eduard Pestel, scientist and engineer (d. 1988)
- 1917 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (d. 1963)
- 1922 - Iannis Xenakis, composer (d. 2001)
- 1933 - John Mayall, musician
- 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")
- 1956 - LaToya Jackson, musician
- 1958 - Annette Bening, actress
- 1959 - Rupert Everett, actor
- 1961 - Melissa Etheridge, musician
Deaths
- 1453 - Constantine XI Palaeologus, last Byzantine emperor (b. 1409)
- 1814 - Joséphine de Beauharnais, Empress of France (b. 1763)
- 1892 - Mírzá Husayn-'Alí (Bahaullah, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith) (b. 1817)
- 1903 - Alexander Obrenovich, king of Serbia (b. 1876)
- 1910 - Mily Balakirev, composer (b. 1837)
- 1911 - William S. Gilbert, dramatist (b. 1836)
- 1942 - John Barrymore, actor (b. 1882)
- 1948 - Dame May Whitty, actress (b. 1865)
- 1951 - Fanny Brice, singer, comedienne, actress (b. 1891)
- 1953 - Man Mountain Dean, professional wrestler (b. 1891)
- 1979 - Mary Pickford, actress, studio founder (b. 1892)
- 1982 - Romy Schneider, actress (cardiac arrest) (b. 1938)
- 1994 - Erich Honecker, former leader of East Germany, while in exile in Chile (b. 1912)
- 1997 - Jeff Buckley, musician (accidental drowning) (b. 1966)
- 1998 - Barry M. Goldwater, Arizona Senator (b. 1909)
- 2004 - Sam Dash, chief counsel to Senate Watergate Committee
- 2004 - Archibald Cox, Jr., Watergate special prosecutor, (b. 1912)
Holidays and observances
May 28 - May 30 - April 29 - June 29 - listing of all days
