April 29 - Definition and Overview

April 29 is the 119th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (120th in leap years). There are 246 days remaining.

Events

1400-1799

• 1429 - Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc relieves Orléans from English siege.
• 1661 - China's Ming Dynasty occupies Taiwan.
• 1672 - Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
• 1770 - James Cook arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia.

1800-1899

• 1854 - The Ashmun Institute is officially chartered, becoming the first college for African American students.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Maryland's House of Delegates votes not to secede from the Union
• 1862 - American Civil War: New Orleans falls to Union forces under Admiral David Farragut.

1900-1999

• 1903 - A 30,000,000-cubic-metre landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta, Canada.
• 1916 - Easter Rebellion: Martial law in Ireland is lifted and the rebellion is officially over with the surrender of Irish nationalists to British authorities in Dublin.
• 1932 - The radio program One Man's Family debuts.
• 1944 - Dancing Romeo, the last Our Gang film, premiers.
• 1945 - World War II: The German Army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.
• 1945 - Adolf Hitler marries his long-time partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and he designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor.
• 1945 - Holocaust: The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.
• 1946 - Former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders are indicted for war crimes.
• 1960 - Payola Scandal: Radio disk jockey Dick Clark denies involvement in the scandal in front of a United States House of Representatives subcommittee.
• 1967 - After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.
• 1969 - Jazz musician Duke Ellington receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
• 1974 - Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings related to the scandal.
• 1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind - The last American citizens begin evacuation from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover. United States involvement in the war comes to an end.
• 1988 - Glasnost: Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev promises increased religious freedoms.
• 1991 - Richard Cheney gives a speech at the Washington Institute's Soref Symposium explaining why he believed it would have been "a mistake" to invade Iraq.
• 1992 - 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles: Riots in Los Angeles, California, following the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 54 people will be killed and hundreds of buildings will be destroyed.
• 1997 - The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 enters into force, outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons among its signatories.

2000-2099

• 2002 - The United States is re-elected to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights one year after losing the seat it had held for 50 years.
• 2004 - Richard Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.

Births

1600-1799

• 1667 - John Arbuthnot, English physician and satirist (d. 1735)
• 1780 - Charles Nodier, French writer (d. 1844)

1800-1899

• 1863 - William Randolph Hearst, American publisher (d. 1951)
• 1879 - Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor (d. 1961)
• 1885 - Egon Erwin Kisch, journalist and author (d. 1948)
• 1893 - Harold Urey, chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (d. 1981)
• 1894 - Paul Hörbiger (d. 1981)
• 1895 - Malcolm Sargent, English conductor (d. 1967)
• 1899 - Duke Ellington, American jazz pianist, bandleader (d. 1974)

1900-1999

• 1901 - Hirohito, Japanese emperor (d. 1989)
• 1907 - Fred Zinnemann, film director (d. 1997)
• 1909 - Tom Ewell, actor (d. 1994)
• 1918 - George Allen, American football coach, Pro Football Hall of Famer (d. 1990)
• 1919 - Celeste Holm, actress
• 1920 - Harold Shapero, composer
• 1929 - Walter Kempowski, author
• 1929 - Peter Sculthorpe, Australian composer
• 1930 - Jean Rochefort, French actor
• 1931 - Frank Auerbach, painter
• 1931 - Lonnie Donegan, musician (d. 2002)
• 1933 - Mark Eyskens, Belgian minister and Prime Minister
• 1933 - Rod McKuen, poet, composer
• 1934 - Otis Rush, blues musician
• 1936 - Zubin Mehta, musician
• 1937 - Jill Paton Walsh, writer
• 1942 - Klaus Voormann, illustrator
• 1946 - John Waters, director, writer
• 1947 - Olavo de Carvalho, philosopher
• 1947 - Tommy James, musician
• 1951 - Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR racer (d. 2001)
• 1952 - David Icke, controversial conspiracy writer
• 1954 - Jerry Seinfeld, comedian
• 1955 - Kate Mulgrew, actress (Star Trek: Voyager)
• 1957 - Daniel Day-Lewis, actor
• 1958 - Michelle Pfeiffer, actress
• 1958 - Eve Plumb, actress (The Brady Bunch)
• 1960 - Robert J. Sawyer, science fiction writer
• 1964 - Federico Castelluccio, actor
• 1966 - Phil Tufnell, cricketer
• 1967 - Curtis Joseph, NHL goalie
• 1968 - Carnie Wilson, singer
• 1969 - Master P, rap musician, composer, actor, athlete, sports agent
• 1970 - Andre Agassi, tennis player
• 1970 - Uma Thurman, actress

Deaths

1700-1899

• 1707 - George Farquhar, Irish dramatist (b. 1678)

1900-1999

• 1937 - William Gillette, actor (b. 1853)
• 1951 - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born philosopher (b. 1889)
• 1957 - Belle Baker, American 1920s torch singer, film & tv actress, (b. 1893)
• 1966 - William Eccles, physicist, radio pioneer
• 1980 - Alfred Hitchcock, director (b. 1899)
• 1997 - Mike Royko, columnist (b. 1932)

2000-2099

• 2003 - Franco Corelli, Italian tenor (b. 1921)

Holidays and observances

• Roman Empire - second day of the Floralia in honor of Flora
• Catholicism - Feast of Saint Catherine of Siena

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