August 29 is the 241st day of the year (242nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 124 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays
- Christian feast day:
- International Day against Nuclear Tests (international)
- Miners’ Day (Ukraine)
- National Sports Day (India)
- Slovak National Uprising Anniversary (Slovakia)
- Telugu Language Day (India)
- International Bacon Day
- More Herbs, Less Salt Day
History
In 708, Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).
In 1261, Pope Urban IV succeeds Pope Alexander IV as the 182nd pope.
In 1315, Battle of Montecatini: The army of the Republic of Pisa, commanded by Uguccione della Faggiuola, wins a decisive victory against the joint forces of the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Florence despite being outnumbered.
In 1350, Battle of Winchelsea (or Les Espagnols sur Mer): The English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships.
In 1475, The Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between the kingdoms of France and England.
In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII succeeds Pope Sixtus IV.
In 1498, Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to Kingdom of Portugal.
In 1521, The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade).
In 1526, Battle of Mohács: The Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeat and kill the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia.
In 1541, The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.
In 1640, English King Charles I signed a peace treaty with Scotland.
In 1657, John Lilburne, English activist (b. 1614) dies in summer of 1657, while visiting his wife, who was expecting their tenth child. He was also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after the English Civil Wars 1642–1650. He coined the term “freeborn rights“, defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law. In his early life he was a Puritan, though towards the end of his life he became a Quaker. His works have been cited in opinions by the United States Supreme Court. It was while he was in the Tower of London that John Lilburne, William Walwyn, Thomas Prince and Richard Overton wrote the third edition of An Agreement of the Free People of England. Tendered as a Peace-Offering to this distressed Nation. They hoped that this document would be signed like a referendum so that it would become a written constitution for the Commonwealth of England. The late United States Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, who often cited the works of John Lilburne in his opinions, wrote in an article for Encyclopædia Britannica that he believed John Lilburne’s constitutional work of 1649 was the basis for the basic rights contained in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.
In 1728, The city of Nuuk in Greenland is founded as the fort of Godt-Haab by the royal governor Claus Paarss.
In 1742, Edmond Hoyle’s “Short Treatise” on the game of whist was published
In 1756, Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years’ War.
In 1758, The first American Indian reservation is established, at Indian Mills, New Jersey.
In 1776, Americans withdraw from Manhattan to Westchester.
In 1778, American Revolutionary War: British and American forces battle indecisively at the Battle of Rhode Island.
In 1786, Shays’ Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
In 1807, British troops under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeat a Danish militia outside Copenhagen in the Battle of Køge.
In 1825, Kingdom of Portugal recognizes the Independence of Brazil.
In 1828, Robert Turner of Ward, MA, received a patent for his self-regulating, wagon brake.
In 1831, Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
In 1833, Legislation to settle child labor laws was passed in England. The legislation was called the “Factory Act”.
In 1842, Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.
In 1861, American Civil War: United States Navy squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
In 1862, (thru the next day), 75,000 Federals under Gen. John Pope are defeated by 55,000 Confederates under Gen. Stonewall Jackson and Gen. James Longstreet at the second battle of Bull Run in northern Virginia. Once again the Union Army retreats to Washington. The president then relieves Pope.
In 1864, the Democratic National Convention nominated General George B. McClellan to run for President of the United States. McClellan’s campaigned platform called the war in America a failure.
In 1869, The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens, making it the world’s first mountain-climbing rack railway.
In 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).
In 1883, Seismic sea waves created by the Krakatoa eruption create a rise in the English Channel 32 hrs after the explosion.
In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler patents the world’s first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen.
In 1893, The shoe-clasp lock, forerunner of the zipper, is patented by Whitcomb L. Judson.
In 1895, Rugby league is founded by 22 clubs at a meeting in the George Hotel, Huddersfield.
In 1896, The Chinese-American dish chop suey, by one account was invented in New York City by the chef to visiting Chinese Ambassador Li Hung-chang.
In 1898, The Goodyear tire company is founded.
In 1903, The Slava, the last of the five Borodino-class battleships, is launched.
In 1907, The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers.
In 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.
In 1911, Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.
In 1914, Start of the Battle of St. Quentin in which the French Fifth Army counter-attacked the invading Germans at Saint-Quentin, Aisne.
In In 1914, the ‘Arizonan’ was the first vessel to arrive in San Francisco via the Panama Canal.
In 1915, US Navy salvage divers raise F-4, the first U.S. submarine sunk in an accident.
In 1916, The United States passes the Philippine Autonomy Act.
In 1918, Bapaume taken by the New Zealand Division in the Hundred Days Offensive.
In 1922, The first radio advertisement is broadcast on WEAF-AM in New York City.
In 1929, German airship Graf Zeppelin ends a round-the-world flight.
In 1930, The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.
In 1932, International Anti-War Committee forms in Amsterdam.
In 1941, Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is occupied by Nazi Germany following an occupation by the Soviet Union.
In 1943, German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy; Germany dissolves the Danish government.
In 1944, Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.
In 1944, 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs-Élysées (shahm ay-lee-ZAY’) in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis.
In 1945, British liberate Hong Kong from Japan.
In 1945, General MacArthur is named Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan. MacArthur leaves Manila for Japan to accept the Japanese surrender.
In 1946, USS Nevada is decommissioned.
In 1946, United Nations Security Council Resolution 8 relating to applications for membership is adopted.
In 1949, Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
In 1950, Korean War: British troops arrive in Korea to bolster the US presence there.
In 1954, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) opened.
In 1957, Sen. Strom Thurmond (at that time, a Democrat from South Carolina) ended a filibuster against a civil rights bill after talking for a record 24 hours and 18 minutes. In spite of his monumental efforts, a bill establishing the Civil Rights Commission cleared the Senate and was signed into law by President Eisenhower.
In 1958, United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
In 1965, The Gemini V spacecraft returns to Earth, landing in the Atlantic ocean.
In 1966, The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
In 1966, Leading Egyptian thinker Sayyid Qutb is executed for plotting the assassination of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
In 1968, Ulysses S. Grant III, American soldier dies (b. 1881). He was a United States Army officer and planner. He was the son of Frederick Dent Grant, and the grandson of General of the Army and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.
In 1970, Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, East Los Angeles, California. Police riot kills three people, including journalist Rubén Salazar.
In 1973, Judge John Sirica ordered President Nixon to turn over secret Watergate tapes. Nixon refused and appealed the order.
In 1979, Jeffrey R. MacDonald is convicted of the 1970 murders of his then-pregnant wife and two daughters.
In 1979, Sheridan Broadcasting Corp purchases Mutual Black Network.
In 1982, The synthetic chemical element Meitnerium, atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.
In 1988, on the presidential campaign trail, Democrat Michael Dukakis sought to counter Republican George Bush’s salvos against the Massachusetts prison furlough program, while Bush continued to charge that Dukakis was soft on defense.
In 1991, Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
In 1991, Libero Grassi, an Italian businessman from Palermo is killed by the Mafia after taking a solitary stand against their extortion demands.
In 1994, Viacom Inc. buys video rental chain Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. for $8 billion.
In 1996, Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard.
In 1996, In a rousing climax to the Democratic convention in Chicago, President Clinton appealed for a second term, declaring, “Hope is back in America.” The convention also nominated Al Gore for a second term as vice president. Earlier in the day, President Clinton’s chief political strategist, Dick Morris, resigned amid a scandal over his relationship with a prostitute.
In 1997, At least 98 villagers are killed by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.
In 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.
In 2004, Michael Schumacher wins his 5th consecutive Formula One Drivers’ championship (and 7th overall) at the 2004 Belgian Grand Prix by finishing second to Kimi Räikkönen to beat the 47-year-old record held by Juan Manuel Fangio.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing an estimated 1,836 people and causing over $108 billion in damage.
In 2007, Convicted State Sen. John Ford begged for mercy in his sentencing hearing, saying he has no criminal record and shouldn’t face the stiff sentence recommended by the prosecution. In the sentencing hearing, Ford himself took the stand to plead for mercy from the judge. Ford said he was disgusted with his behavior on undercover tapes that showed him bragging, cursing and stuffing cash in his pockets.
Ford: “During that trial I was completely offended with myself, just completely ashamed of myself … You know the worst thing about it, I talk too much.”
In 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.
In 2012, At least 26 Chinese miners are killed and 21 missing after a blast in the Xiaojiawan coal mine, located at Panzhihua, Sichuan Province.
