History of 29 July
1914 – The first transcontinental telephone service was inaugurated when two people held a conversation between New York, NY and San Francisco, CA.
1940 – John Sigmund of St. Louis, MO, completed a 292-mile swim down the Mississippi River. The swim from St. Louis to Caruthersville, MO took him 89 hours and 48 minutes.
1950 – Disney’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” was released.
Disney movies, music, and books
1957 – Jack Paar began hosting the “Tonight” show on NBC-TV. The name of the show was changed to “The Jack Paar Show.” Paar was the host for five years.
1957 – The International Atomic Energy Agency was established.
1958 – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was authorized by the U.S. Congress.
1968 – Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s stance against artificial methods of birth control.
1975 – OAS (Organization of American States) members voted to lift collective sanctions against Cuba. The U.S. government welcomed the action and announced its intention to open serious discussions with Cuba on normalization.
1981 – England’s Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married.
1983 – Steve Garvey (Los Angeles Dodgers) set the National League consecutive game record at 1,207.
1985 – General Motors announced that Spring Hill, TN, would be the home of the Saturn automobile assembly plant.
1993 – The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard “Ivan the Terrible.” His death sentence was thrown out and he was set free.
1997 – Minamata Bay in Japan was declared free of mercury 40 years after contaminated food fish were blamed for deaths and birth defects.
1998 – The United Auto Workers union ended a 54-day strike against General Motors. The strike caused $2.8 billion in lost revenues.
2005 – Astronomers announced that they had discovered a new planet (Xena) larger than Pluto in orbit around the sun.
2010 – An overloaded passenger ferry capsizes on the Kasai River in Bandundu Province, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in at least 80 deaths.
2013 – Two passenger trains collide in the Swiss municipality of Granges-près-Marnand near Lausanne injuring 25 people.
Celebrating Birthday Today
1981 – Fernando Alonso, Spanish race car driver
1981 – Andrés Madrid, the Argentinian footballer
1981 – Troy Perkins, American soccer player
1982 – Janez Aljančič, Slovenian footballer
1982 – Jônatas Domingos, Brazilian footballer
1982 – Allison Mack, American actress, and criminal
1983 – Jason Belmonte, Australian bowler
1983 – Inés Gómez Mont, Mexican journalist, and actress
1983 – Alexei Kaigorodov, Russian ice hockey player
1983 – Jerious Norwood, American football player
1983 – Elise Testone, American singer-songwriter
1984 – Oh Beom-Seok, South Korean footballer
1984 – Chad Billingsley, American baseball player
1984 – Wilson Palacios, Honduran footballer
1985 – Besart Berisha, Albanian footballer
1985 – Okinoumi Ayumi, Japanese sumo wrestler
1985 – Simon Santoso, Indonesian badminton player
1988 – Tarjei Bø, Norwegian biathlete
1989 – Grit Šadeiko, Estonian heptathlete
1991 – Dale Copley, Australian rugby league player
1991 – Irakli Logga, Russian footballer
1992 – Karen Torrez, Bolivian swimmer
1993 – Nicole Melichar, an American tennis player
1994 – Liam O’Brien, Canadian ice hockey player