What Happened on December 29th in History
30 historical events on this date
USS Constitution, under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three-hour battle.
USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides, is a three-masted wooden-hulled heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She is the world's oldest commissioned warship still afloat. She was launched...
The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.
The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on December 29, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia, by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction,...
The United States annexes the Republic of Texas and admits it as the 28th state.
The Texas annexation was the incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States by joint resolution of Congress, culminating in its admission to the Union as the 28th state on December...
The launch of HMS Warrior, with her combination of screw propeller, iron hull and iron armour, renders all previous warships obsolete.
HMS Warrior is a 40-gun steam-powered armoured frigate built for the Royal Navy in 1859–1861. She was the name ship of the Warrior-class ironclads. Warrior and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were...
American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou ends in a Union defeat as forces under General William T. Sherman are repulsed with heavy losses by Confederate troops under General John C. Pemberton.
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the...
The military coup of Gen. Martinez Campos in Sagunto ends the failed First Spanish Republic and the monarchy is restored as Prince Alfonso is proclaimed King of Spain.
Arsenio Martínez-Campos y Antón, was a Spanish officer who rose against the First Spanish Republic in a military revolution in 1874 and restored Spain's Bourbon dynasty. Later, he became...
The Ashtabula River railroad disaster occurs, leaving 64 injured and 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio.
The Ashtabula River railroad disaster was caused by the collapse of a bridge over the Ashtabula River near the town of Ashtabula, Ohio, in the United States on Friday, December 29, 1876. The Pacific...
Wounded Knee Massacre: On Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 300 Lakota are killed by the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment.
The Wounded Knee Massacre, also known as the Battle of Wounded Knee, was an 1890 armed conflict between Native Americans and the United States Army. It was part of the U.S. Army’s Pine Ridge...
Mongolia gains independence from the Qing dynasty, enthroning 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu as Khagan of Mongolia.
Mongolia is a landlocked country in the East Asia region. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, and covers an area of 1,564,116 square kilometers, making it the 18th-largest...
Cecil B. DeMille starts filming Hollywood's first feature film, The Squaw Man.
Cecil Blount DeMille, often known in popular culture as Mr. DeMille, was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he created 70 features including silent and sound films. He is...
Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the two-nation theory and outlines a vision for the creation of Pakistan.
Sir Muhammad Iqbal was an Islamic philosopher and poet. His poetry in Urdu is considered to be among the greatest of the 20th century, and his vision of a cultural and political ideal for the...
Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction....
The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.
The Irish Free State, also known by its Irish name Saorstát Éireann, was the Irish state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921, initially as a Dominion. The...
World War II: in the Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, England, killing almost 200 civilians.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar) crashes in the Florida Everglades on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101 of the 176 people on board.
Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a scheduled flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, to Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida. Shortly before midnight on...
A bomb explodes at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and injuring more than 75.
On December 29, 1975, a bomb detonated near the Trans World Airlines (TWA) baggage reclaim terminal at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, United States, killing 11 people and seriously injuring 74...
Czech writer, philosopher and dissident Václav Havel is elected the first post-communist President of Czechoslovakia.
Václav Havel was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on...
The Nikkei 225 for the Tokyo Stock Exchange hits its all-time intra-day high of 38,957.44 and closing high at 38,915.87, serving as the apex of the Japanese asset price bubble.
The Nikkei 225, or the Nikkei Stock Average , more commonly called the Nikkei or the Nikkei index, is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It is a price-weighted index, operating...
Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tries to resign amidst corruption charges, but is then impeached.
Fernando Affonso Collor de Mello is a Brazilian politician who served as the 32nd president of Brazil from 1990 to 1992, when he resigned in a failed attempt to stop his impeachment trial by the...
Turkish Airlines Flight 278 (a Boeing 737-400) crashes on approach to Van Ferit Melen Airport in Van, Turkey, killing 57 of the 76 people on board.
Turkish Airlines Flight 278, operated by a Boeing 737-4Y0 registered TC-JES and named Mersin, was a domestic scheduled flight from Ankara Esenboğa Airport to Van Ferit Melen Airport in eastern...
Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war.
Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in northern Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to...
Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the Cambodian genocide that claimed over one million lives.
Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and by extension to Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name...
The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct.
Akkala Sámi, also referred to, particularly in Russia, as Babin Sámi, was a Sámi language spoken in the Sámi villages of Aʼkkel, Čuʼkksuâl and Sââʼrvesjäuʼrr, in the inland parts of the Kola...
The UK settles its Anglo-American loan, post-WWII loan debt.
The Anglo-American loan, officially the Anglo-American Loan Agreement, was a loan made to the United Kingdom by the United States on 15 July 1946. The loan helped keep the British economy afloat...
A Tupolev Tu-204 airliner crashes in a ditch between the airport fence and the M3 highway after overshooting a runway at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, killing five people and leaving three others critically injured.
The Tupolev Tu-204 is a twin-engined medium-range narrow-body jet airliner capable of carrying 210 passengers, designed by Tupolev and produced by Aviastar-SP and Kazan Aircraft Production...
A suicide bomb attack at the Volgograd-1 railway station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd kills at least 18 people and wounds 40 others.
In December 2013, two separate suicide bombings a day apart targeted mass transportation in the city of Volgograd, in the Volgograd Oblast of Southern Russia, killing 34 people overall, including...
Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher suffers a massive head injury while skiing in the French Alps.
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel, single-seater formula racing cars run by the Formula One Group and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de...
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hits near the town of Petrinja in Sisak-Moslavina County, Croatia, killing seven people.
At 12:19 PM CET on 29 December 2020, an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 Mw hit central Croatia, with an epicenter located roughly 3 km (1.9 mi) west-southwest of Petrinja. The maximum felt intensity was...
South Africa files a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice over Israeli conducts in the Gaza Strip.
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. Its nine provinces are bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres of coastline that stretches along...
Jeju Air Flight 2216 crashes into a wall in Muan, South Korea, killing 179 of the 181 occupants. It is the worst aircraft accident on South Korean soil in history.
Jeju Air Flight 2216 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Jeju Air from Suvarnabhumi Airport near Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan International Airport in Muan County, South Korea....