History of 29 August
1944 – During the continuing celebration of the liberation of France from the Nazis, 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris.
1945 – U.S. General Douglas MacArthur left for Japan to officially accept the surrender of the Japanese.
1949 – At the University of Illinois, a nuclear device was used for the first time to treat cancer patients.
1957 – Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina set a filibuster record in the U.S. when he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes.
1962 – The lower level of the George Washington Bridge opened.
1965 – Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles (“Pete”) Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after eight days in space.
1966 – Mia Farrow withdrew from the cast of the ABC-TV’s “Peyton Place.”
1967 – The final episode of “The Fugitive” aired.
1971 – Hank Aaron became the first baseball player in the National League to hit 100 or more runs in each of 11 seasons.
1977 – Lou Brock brought his total of stolen bases to 893. The record he beat was held by Ty Cobb for 49 years.
1983 – Two U.S. marines were killed in Lebanon by the militia group Amal when they fired mortar shells at the Beirut airport.
1983 – The anchor of the USS Monitor, from the U.S. Civil War, was retrieved by divers.
1990 – Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in a television interview, declared that America could not defeat Iraq.
1991 – The Communist Party in the Soviet Union had its bank accounts frozen and activities were suspended because of the Party’s role in the failed coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev.
1991 – The republics of Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement to stay in the Soviet Union.
1992 – The U.N. Security Council agreed to send troops to Somalia to guard the shipments of food.
1994 – Mario Lemieux announced that he would be taking a medical leave of absence due to fatigue, an aftereffect of his 1993 radiation treatments. He would sit out the National Hockey Leagues (NHL) 1994-95 season.
1998 – Northwest Airlines pilots went on strike after their union rejected a last-minute company offer.
2004 – India test-launched a nuclear-capable missile able to carry a one-ton warhead. The weapon had a range of 1,560 miles.
2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing up to 1,836 people and causing $125 billion in damage.
2012 – At least 26 Chinese miners are killed and 21 missing after a blast in the Xiaojiawan coal mine, located at Panzhihua, Sichuan Province.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Geneviève Jeanson, Canadian cyclist
- 1981 – Jay Ryan, New Zealand-Australian actor, and producer
- 1982 – Ruhila Adatia-Sood, Kenyan journalist and radio host (d. 2013)
- 1982 – Carlos Delfino, Argentinian-Italian basketball player
- 1982 – Vincent Enyeama, Nigerian footballer
- 1983 – Antti Niemi, Finnish ice hockey player
- 1986 – Hajime Isayama, Japanese illustrator
- 1986 – Lea Michele, American actress and singer
- 1987 – Tony Kane, Irish footballer
- 1990 – Jakub Kostecki, Polish footballer
- 1990 – Patrick van Aanholt, Dutch footballer
- 1991 – Néstor Araujo, Mexican footballer
- 1991 – Deshaun Thomas, American basketball player
- 1992 – Mallu Magalhães, Brazilian singer-songwriter
- 1992 – Noah Syndergaard, American baseball player
- 1993 – Liam Payne, English singer-songwriter