On this day in History - Dec. 29

• 0721 - Empress Gemmei of Japan (b. 0661).
• 1170 - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1118), was murdered by four knights acting under the orders of Henry II.
• 1223 - El Papa Honorio III aprueba la regla de la Orden de los Frailes Menores (Franciscanos) fundada por San Francisco de Asis en 1209.
• 1563 - Sebastian Castellio dies (b. 1515). French theologian.
• 1586 - Francisco de Moncada was born. Spanish earl of Osuna/marquis of Aytona.
• 1634 - John Albert Vasa dies (b. 1612). Polish bishop.
• 1661 - Antoine Gérard de Saint-Amant dies (b. 1594). French poet.
• 1673 - D. Manuel Luís Baltazar da Câmara dies (b. 1630). Portuguese nobleman.
• 1678 - Gotthard Wagner was born. Composer.
• 1689 - Thomas Sydenham dies (b. 1624). English physician who has been called “the English Hippocrates” as a founder of clinical medicine and epidemiology, emphasizing detailed observations of patients and maintaining accurate records.
• 1709 - Elisabeth Petrovna, Elizabeth of Russia, was born (d. 1762). Tsarina of Russia, daughter of Peter the Great .
• 1721 - Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (Madame de Pompadour) was born [† 15 Apr 1764]. Mistress of French King Louis XV.
• 1721 - Occupation de l'Île Maurice par les Français, qu'ils baptisent Ile de France .
• 1731 - Brook Taylor dies [b. 1685]. British mathematician noted for his contributions to the development of calculus. In 1708, Taylor produced a solution to the problem of the centre of oscillation. His (1715) “Direct and Indirect Methods of Incrementation” introduced what is now called the calculus of finite differences.
• 1737 - Joseph Saurin dies (b. 1659). French mathematician.
• 1743 - Hyacinthe Rigaud dies in Paris. One of the most prolific and successful French portrait painters of the Baroque period.
• 1766 - Charles Macintosh, was born in Glasgow [d. 1843]; Scottish chemist and manufacturer. He developed his famous method of waterproofing cloth (1823) .
• 1778 - American Revolutionary War: 3,500 British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell captures Savannah, Georgia without firing a shot.
• 1785 - Johan Herman Wessel dies (b. 1742). Norwegian poet.
• 1786 - French Revolution: The Assembly of Notables is convoked.
• 1788 - Christian Jürgensen Thomsen was born [d.1865) Danish archaeologist who devoloped the three-part system of prehistory, naming the Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages for the successive stages of man's technological development in Europe.
• 1796 - Johann Christian Poggendorff was born (d. 1877). German physicist.
• 1799 - Joaquín Acosta was born [d. 1852]; Colombian scientist, historian, and statesman who sought to preserve knowledge of his country's early history.
• 1800 - Charles Goodyear was born (d. 1860). American inventor (vulcanized rubber).
• 1808 - Andrew Johnson was born (d. 1875). 17th President of the United States and the first ever to be impeached.
• 1809 - William Ewart Gladstone was born [d. 1897]. Statesman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1812 - USS Constitution (Captain William Bainbridge) captures HMS Java off Brazil after a three hour battle.
• 1813 - Alexander Parkes was born [d. 1890]; British chemist and inventor who developed various industrial processes and materials.
• 1813 - War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.
• 1816 - Carl Friedrich Ludwig was born [d. 1895]; he was a founder of the physicochemical school of physiology in Germany. He developed the kymograph (1847) and a mercurial blood-gas pump (1859) which enables the separation of blood from the mixture of gases in it for analysis.
• 1825 - Simon Bolivar Palacios abandonne la Présidence de la Bolivie, qu'il laisse à son lieutenant Antonio José de Sucre Alcala.
• 1825 - Jacques-Louis David dies (b. 1748). French painter.
• 1835 - The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.
• 1840 - Anton Dohrn was born (d. 1909). Zoologist.
• 1841 - Se le concede por gracia la nacionalidad chilena al naturalista francés Claudio Gay.
• 1843 - Elisabeth of Wied (pen name was Carmen Sylva) was born (d. 1916). Queen of Romania and writer.
  
• 1845 - Texas is admitted as the 28th U.S. state.
• 1851 - The first American-based YMCA opens, in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1853 - João Gomes de Oliveira Guimarães [Abade de Tagilde] was born (d. 20 Apr. 1912). Portuguese historian and politician.
  
• 1856 - Thomas Joannes Stieltjes was born (d. 1894). Dutch mathematician.
• 1859 - Venustiano Carranza was born (d. 1920). 54th President of México (1915-20) .
• 1860 - The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, the HMS Warrior is launched.
• 1862 - American Civil War: End of the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou.
• 1865 - Abolitionist crusader William Lloyd Garrison published the last issue of The Liberator.
• 1869 - Se funda el Observatorio Astrónomico de Córdoba, Argentina.
• 1876 - The Ashtabula River Railroad bridge disaster, 64 injured, 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio.
• 1876 - Pablo Casals was born in Venrdell (d. 1973). Spanish cellist, conductor and composer.
• 1877 - Adolfo Alsina dies. Argentine politician.
• 1881 - Jess Willard was born (d. 1968). American boxer.
• 1888 - Gustavo Barroso was born Fortaleza (d. 1959). Brazilian writer.
• 1890 - United States soldiers clash with members of the Great Sioux Nation in the Wounded Knee Massacre.
• 1891 - Thomas Edison patents the radio.
• 1891 - Leopold Kronecker dies (b. 1823). German mathematician. His major contributions in elliptic functions, the theory of algebraic equations, and the theory of algebraic numbers. However the topics he studied were restricted by the fact that he believed in the reduction of all mathematics to arguments involving only the integers and a finite number of steps.
• 1893 - Vera Brittain was born. Novelist, poet .
• 1894 - Christina Rossetti dies (b. 1830). English poet.
• 1895 - Leander Starr Jameson launched an abortive raid into the Transvaal to overthrow the Boer government of Paul Kruger.
• 1896 - David Alfaro Siqueiros was born (d. 1974). Mexican painter/muralist (Liberation of Chile).
• 1897 - William James Linton dies (b. 1812). American wood engraver and political reformer.
  
• 1898 - Se estrena en Munich el poema sinfónico Don Quijote, de Richard Straus.
• 1899 - Nie Rongzhen was born (d. 1992). Chinese Communist military leader.
• 1900 - Osvaldo Orico was born (d. 1981). Brazilian writer.
• 1902 - Nels Stewart was born (d. 1957). National Hockey League player.
• 1903 - Candido Portinari was born (d. 1962). Brazilian painter.
• 1908 - Helmut Gollwitzer was born (d. 1993). German theologian.
• 1910 - Ronald Coase was born. British economist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1911 - Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China.
• 1911 - Mongolia gains independence from the Qing dynasty.
• 1911 - Klaus Fuchs was born [d.1988]; Emil Klaus Julius Fuchs was a German-born physicist and spy who was arrested and convicted (1950) for giving vital American and British atomic-research secrets to the Soviet Union.
• 1911 - Alves Redol was born in Vila Franca de Xira (d. 29 Nov 1969). Portuguese writer (Gaibéus).
• 1913 - The first serial motion picture, The Unwelcome Throne is released by Seligs Polyscope Company.
• 1914 - Billy Tipton was born (d. 1989). American musician.
• 1914 - Albert Tucker was born (d. 1999). Australian artist.
• 1915 - Bill Osmanski was born (d. 1996). American football player.
• 1916 - Grigori Rasputin dies (b. 1869). Russian monk.
• 1917 - Tom Bradley was born (d. 1998). Mayor of Los Angeles, California.
• 1917 - Ramanand Sagar was born (d. 2005). Indian film director.
• 1920 - Viveca Lindfors was born (d. 1995). Swedish-American actress.
• 1921 - William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1921 - Robert C. Baker was born (d. 2006). Inventor of the chicken nugget.
• 1922 - William Gaddis was born (d. 1998). American writer.
• 1924 - Carl Spitteler dies (b. 1845). Swiss writer, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1925 - French Comunist Party is created.
• 1925 - Pete Dye was born. American golf course architect.
• 1926 - Rainer Maria Rilke dies (4 Dec 1875). German poet.
• 1927 - Andy Stanfield was born (d. 1985). American athlete.
• 1928 - Bernard Cribbins was born. British actor.
• 1929 - Wilhelm Maybach dies (b. 1846). German engineer and industrialist who was the chief designer of the first Mercedes automobiles (1900-01).
• 1930 - Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the Two-Nation Theory and outlines a vision for the creation of Pakistan.
• 1931 - Prince Gu of Korea was born (d. 2005).
• 1932 - Inga Swenson was born. American actress.
• 1934 - The first college basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York City is played, between the University of Notre Dame and New York University .
• 1934 - Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
• 1934 - Ed Flanders was born (d. 1995). American actor.
• 1934 - Tom Jarriel was born. American correspondent.
• 1936 - Mary Tyler Moore was born. American actress.
• 1936 - Ray Nitschke was born (d. 1998). American football player.
• 1936 - Angelina Muñiz-Huberman was born. French-born Mexican writer (Dulcinea encantada; Huerto cerrado, huerto sellado; De magias y prodigios; La memoria del aire).
• 1936 - John Cornford dies murdered in Madrid (b. 27 Dec 1915). English author [The Last Mile to Huesca (1936) and Poems from Spain (1936)].
• 1937 - The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.
• 1937 - Barbara Steele was born. British actress.
• 1937 - Wayne Huizenga was born. American football team owner.
• 1937 - Don Marquis dies (b. 1878). American author.
• 1938 - Harvey Smith was born. English showjumper.
• 1938 - Jon Voight was born. American actor (Deliverance, Midnight Cowboy) .
• 1939 - First flight of the Consolidated B-24.
• 1940 - During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London, killing almost 200 civilians.
• 1941 - Tullio Levi-Civita dies [b. 1873]; Italian mathematician known for his work on the absolute differential calculus with its applications to the theory of relativity.
• 1941 - Ray Thomas was born. British musician (The Moody Blues).
• 1942 - Rick Danko was born (d. 1999) Canadian musician (The Band).
• 1942 - Rajesh Khanna was born. Indian actor.
• 1946 - Abel de Lima Salazar dies in Lisbon (b. 19 Jul 1889). Portuguese physician, scientist and painter.
• 1946 - Marianne Faithfull was born. British singer.
• 1947 - Ted Danson was born. American actor.
• 1947 - Cozy Powell was born (d. 1998). English rock drummer.
• 1947 - Vincent Winter was born (d. 1998). British actor.
• 1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.
• 1949 - David Topliss was born. English rugby league player.
• 1949 - Syed Kirmani was born. Cricket player.
• 1951 - Georges Thurston was born (d. 2007). Canadian singer.
  
• 1951 - Yvonne Elliman was born. American disco singer.
• 1952 - Gelsey Kirkland was born. American dancer.
• 1952 - A coelacanth, once thought to have been extinct for 75 million years, is caught off the Comoros and sent to scientists in South Africa.
• 1953 - Gali Atari was born. Israeli singer.
• 1953 - Stanley Tookie Williams was born (d. 2005). American author/murderer.
• 1953 - Violet MacMillan dies (b. 1887). American Broadway theatre actress.
  
• 1954 - Prince Takamado of Japan was born (d. 2002).
• 1954 - Roger Voudouris was born. American singer and songwriter.
• 1954 - William Merriam Burton dies [b. 1865]; American chemist who developed a thermal cracking process for increasing the proportion of gasoline obtainable from crude petroleum.
• 1956 - Fred MacAulay was born. Scottish comedian.
• 1956 - Metro of Lisbon (Portugal) is inaugurated.
• 1957 - Singers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were married in Las Vegas.
• 1957 - Brad Grey was born. American film producer.
• 1957 - Paul Rudnick was born. American screenwriter/playwright.
• 1958 - Nancy J. Currie was born. American astronaut.
• 1959 - Paula Poundstone was born. American comedian.
• 1959 - Patricia Clarkson was born. American actress.
• 1960 - David Boon was born. Australian cricketer.
• 1960 - Thomas Lubanga was born. Founder and leader of Union of Congolese Patriots.
  
• 1960 - Frederick Fuller Russell dies [b. 1870]; American scientist who developed the first successful U.S. typhoid fever vaccine.
• 1960 - Henri-Gaston Busignies was born [d. 1981]; French-born American electronics engineer permitted the U.S. Navy during World War II to detect enemy transmissions ( from wich a radio transmission was coming) throught his high-frequency direction finders (HF/DF) Busignies invented also the radiocompass (1926) .
• 1960 - Eden Phillpotts dies (b. 1862). British writer.
• 1960 - Philippe Panneton dies (b. 1895). Quebec physician, diplomat and writer.
• 1961 - Kevin Granata was born (d. 2007). American associate professor at Virginia Tech, victim of the Virginia Tech massacre.
  
• 1961 - Jim Reid was born. Scottish singer (The Jesus and Mary Chain, Freeheat).
• 1961 - Anton Flettner dies (b. 1885). German inventor of the rotor ship, a vessel propelled by revolving cylinders mounted vertically on the deck. He also developed a device that allowed airplane pilots to raise or lower a plane's nose for better control. 1963 - Francisco Bustamante was born. Filipino billiard player.
• 1962 - Blake Mitchell was born. American adult actress.
• 1962 - Devon White was born. Jamaican baseball player.
• 1963 - Twenty-two people perish in the Hotel Roosevelt fire, the worst fire to occur in Jacksonville, Florida since the Great Fire of 1901.
• 1963 - Dave McKean was born. English artist and filmmaker.
• 1963 - Des Foy was born. British rugby league player.
• 1963 - Francisco Bustamante was born. Filipino billiard player.
• 1963 - Sean Payton was born. American football coach.
• 1965 - Dexter Holland was born. Rock musician (The Offspring).
• 1966 - Stefano Eranio was born. Italian football player.
• 1967 - Andy Wachowski was born. American director.
• 1967 - Ashleigh Banfield was born. Canadian journalist.
• 1967 - Chris Barnes was born. American singer.
• 1967 - Paul Whiteman dies (b. 1890). The “King of Jazz”. His sucesses includes “My Blue Heaven” and “All of Me”.
• 1967 - Edson Cordeiro was born. Brazilian singer.
• 1968 - Numa operação antiterrorista, comandos israelitas destroem 13 aviões de guerra libaneses.
• 1968 - Austin Farrer dies (b. 1904). English theologian and philosopher.
  
• 1969 - Allan McNish was born. Scottish race car driver.
• 1969 - Jennifer Ehle was born. American actress.
• 1970 - Aled Jones was born. Welsh singer and television presenter.
• 1970 - Enrico Chiesa was born in Genoa. Italian football player.
• 1970 - Kevin Weisman was born. American actor.
• 1970 - Glen Phillips was born. American singer/songwriter (Toad The Wet Sprocket).
• 1970 - Hidetoshi Mitsusada was born. Japanese racing driver.
• 1970 - Marie Menken dies (b. 1909). American experimental filmmaker and socialite.
• 1972 - An Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a Lockheed "Tristar") crashed on approach to Miami International Airport killing 101.
• 1972 - Asheru was born. American rapper.
• 1972 - Evan Seinfeld was born. American musician (Biohazard) and actor.
• 1972 - Jason Kreis was born. American soccer player.
• 1972 - Jude Law was born. English actor.
• 1973 - Pimp C was born. American rapper (UGK).
• 1973 - Theo Epstein was born. Baseball general manager.
• 1974 - Mekhi Phifer was born. American actor.
• 1974 - Richie Sexson was born. Baseball player.
• 1975 - A bomb explodes at New York City's LaGuardia Airport killing 11.
• 1975 - Jaret Wright was born. American baseball player.
• 1976 - Daniel de Oliveira was born. Brazilian composer and musician.
• 1976 - Danny R. McBride was born. American actor, writer, and producer.
• 1976 - Filip Kuba was born. Czech hockey player, defenseman for the Ottawa Senators.
• 1976 - Katherine Moennig was born. American actress.
• 1976 - Ivo Van Damme dies (b. 1954). Belgian athlete.
• 1977 - Jimmy Journell was born. American baseball player.
• 1978 - Alexis Amore was born. Peruvian actress, dancer and model.
• 1978 - Kieron Dyer was born. English footballer.
• 1978 - LaToya London was born. American singer.
• 1979 - Closing night of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea at the Hammersmith Odeon; a benefit concert for the citizens of Cambodia who were victims of dictator Pol Pot.
• 1979 - Ariel Schrag was born. American cartoonist.
• 1979 - Diego Luna was born. Mexican actor.
• 1979 - Justin Roberts was born. American wrestling announcer.
• 1979 - Mitsuhiro Ishida was born. Japanese mixed-martial arts fighter.
• 1980 - Nadezhda Mandelstam was born (b. 1899). Russian writer.
• 1980 - Tim Hardin dies (b. 1941). American musician.
• 1981 - Angela Via was born. American singer.
• 1981 - Shizuka Arakawa was born. Japanese figure skater.
• 1981 - Miroslav Krleža dies (b. 1893). Croatian writer.
• 1982 - Gabrielle Destroismaisons was born. Quebec singer.
• 1983 - Mariage de Caroline de Monaco et Stefano Casiraghi.
• 1983 - Jessica Andrews was born. American country music artist
• 1984 - Rajiv Gandhi wins landslide election victory (BBC)
• 1986 - Kim Ok-bin was born. South Korean actress and model.
• 1986 - Andrei Tarkovsky dies (b. 1932). Russian director.
• 1986 - Harold Macmillan dies in Sussex, England. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1986 - Joaquim Namorado dies (b. 1914). Portuguese poet.
• 1987 - Yuri Romanenko, cosmonaute soviétique, revient sur terre après avoir établi le record de la plus longue mission dans l'espace soit 326 jours, 11 heures et 40 minutes.
• 1987 - Yuhi Sekiguchi was born. Japanese racing driver.
• 1988 - Agnes Szavay was born. Hungarian tennis player.
• 1988 - Samantha Lainez was born. Peruvian actress.
• 1988 - Mike Beuttler dies (b. 1940). British racing driver.
  
• 1989 - Vaclav Havel was elected President of Czechoslovakia. Novelist and playwright Václav Havel was unanimously elected president of Czechoslovakia without having to face an opposing candidate.
• 1989 - Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
• 1989 - On the final day of trading for the year and decade, the Japanese Nikkei 225 Average closes at an all-time high of 38,915.87.
• 1989 - Nathan Forbes was born. British footballer.
• 1989 - Hermann Julius Oberth dies [b. 1894]; German scientist who is considered to be one of the founders of modern astronautics.
• 1992 - Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tries to resign among corruption charges, but ended up being impeached.
• 1992 - Itamar Franco is the new President of Brazil.
• 1992 - President Daniel Torotich arap Moi wins the first multi-party elections held in Kenya for 26 years.
• 1993 - Construction of the Tian Tan Buddha, the world's tallest outdoor bronze statue of the seated Buddha, was completed.
• 1993 - The Convention on Biological Diversity (United Nations) entered in force. (It was opened for signature on 5 June 1992 and entered into force on 29 December0 1993).
• 1993 - Frunzik Mkrtchyan dies (b. 1930). Soviet Armenian actor.
• 1994 - Princess Kako of Akishino of Japan was born.
• 1995 - Nello Celio dies at 81. President of Switzerland (1972).
• 1995 - Lita Grey dies (b 1908). American actress.
  
• 1996 - Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord that ends a 36 year a civil war.
• 1996 - Mireille dies (b. 1906). French singer and actress.
• 1997 - Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's chickens (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.
• 1998 - Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million in the 1970s.
• 1998 - Six people have died after mountainous seas smashed into yachts taking part in the prestigious Sydney to Hobart race.
• 1998 - Jean-Claude Forest dies (b. 1930). Writer and illustrator of comics (Barbarella).
• 1999 - Jerzy Waldorff dies (b. 1910). Polish film and music critic.
• 1999 - Leon Radzinowicz dies (b. 1906). British criminologist.
• 1999 - The Nasdaq composite index closed above 4,000 for the first time, ending the day at 4,041.46.
• 2001 - Mesa Redonda shopping center fire, Lima, Peru, at least 291 killed.
• 2001 - Cássia Eller dies in Rio de Janeiro (b. 10 Dec 1962). Brazilian singer and musician.
• 2001 - Takashi Asahina dies (b. 1908). Japanese conductor.
• 2002 - Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field is demolished.
• 2003 - Bob Monkhouse dies (b. 1928). English comedian and game show host.
• 2003 - Dinsdale Landen dies (b. 1932). English actor.
• 2003 - Earl Hindman dies (b. 1942). American actor.
• 2004 - Julius Axelrod dies (b. 1912). American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• 2004 - Liddy Holloway dies (b. 1947). New Zealand actress.
• 2004 - Ken Burkhart dies (b. 1915). Baseball player.
• 2005 - Officials Hope to Free Hostages in Yemen Soon. Yemeni authorities say they are hopeful of a speedy release of a kidnapped former high-ranking German official and his family seized by tribesmen in the eastern part of the country.
• 2005 - Gerda Boyesen dies (b. 1922). Norwegian-born body psychotherapist.
• 2007 - Kevin Greening dies (b. 1962). British radio presenter.
• 2007 - Phil O'Donnell dies (b. 1972). Scottish footballer.