Today in History: July 29

587 BC       The Neo-Babylonian Empire sacks Jerusalem and destroys the First Temple

238   The Praetorian Guard storm the palace and capture Pupienus and Balbinus. They are dragged through the streets of Rome and executed. On the same day, Gordian III, age 13, is proclaimed emperor.

615   Pakal ascends the throne of Palenque at the age of 12.

362   Emperor Julianus of Constantinople ends education laws

626   Avaren/Slaves under khagan Bajan begin siege of Constantinople

904   Thessalonica is sacked by Saracen pirates led by renegade Leo of Tripoli

1014 Battle of Strumitsa-valley: Byzantine destroys Bulgarian armies

1030 Battle at Stiklestad (Trondheim)

1148 The Siege of Damascus ends in a decisive crusader defeat and leads to the disintegration of the Second Crusade

1221 Emperor Go-Horikawa aged only 10 years old ascends to the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan

1567 James VI is crowned King of Scots at Stirling

1585 University of Franeker/ University of Friesland opens in the Netherlands

1588 Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: English naval forces under the command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France.

1609 Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years

1655 Biggest townhall in the world opens in Amsterdam

1676 Nathaniel Bacon declared a rebel for assembling frontiersmen to protect settlers from Indians

1693 War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Landen/Neerwinden – France wins Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands

1696 King Louis XIV of France and Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy sign Peace of Turin, a turning point in the War of the League of Augsburg

1751 First international world title prize fight: Jack Stack of England, beats challenger M. Petit of France in 29 mins in England

1783 Skaptar Volcano on Iceland erupts killing about 9,000

1786 First newspaper published west of Alleghanies, Pitts Gazette

1835 First sugar plantation in Hawaii begins

1848 Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt – an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule put down by police

1851 Annibale de Gasparis discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia

1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce/Harris Treaty signed between US and Japan opening Japanese ports to trade

1864 American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.

1874 Major Walter Copton Wingfield patents a portable tennis court

1884 Society of Independent Artists founded in Paris by Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac

1899 First motorcycle race, Manhattan Beach, NY

1899 Southern California Golf Association forms

1899 The First Hague Convention is signed.

1900 In Italy, King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by Italian-born anarchist Gaetano Bresci

1905 US Secretary of State William Howard Taft makes secret agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Katsura agreeing to Japanese free rein in Korea in return for non-interference with the US in the Philippines

1907 First helicopter ascent in Douai, France

1907 Sir Robert Baden-Powell forms Boy Scouts in England setting up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbor on the south coast of England. The camp runs from August 1 to August 9, 1907, and is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement.

1910 JWEL Hilgers is the first Dutchman to fly above Dutch territory

1913 Independence of the Principality of Albania recognized by the Conference of London

1914 First transcontinental phone link made between New York City and San Francisco

1920 First transcontinental airmail flight from New York to San Francisco

1920 Construction of the Link River Dam begins as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.

1921 Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party

1923 Albert Einstein speaks on pacifism in Berlin

1927 First iron lung installed (Bellevue hospital, NY)

1928 Test footage first created for Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” with Mickey Mouse

1930 115°F (46°C), Holly Springs, Mississippi (state record)

1930 Airship R100, First passenger-carrying flight from England to Canada

1932 Great Depression: in Washington, D.C., U.S. troops disperse the last of the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans

1937 Japanese troops occupies Peking and Tientsin

1937 Tongzhou Incident: East Hopei Army mutinies against Japanese troops and civilians

1938 Olympic National Park forms

1943 One million inhabitants flee Hamburg

1943 Nazi’s evacuate Hollandsche Theater in Amsterdam

1944 Allied air force bomb Germany for 6 hours

1944 US 4th Armour division occupiers Avranches

1945 The BBC Light Program radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music

1948 Olympic Games: The Games of the XIV Olympiad: After a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, open in London.

1949 Moscow ends the blockade of West Berlin

1952 First nonstop transpacific flight by a jet

1950 Korean War: After four days, the No Gun Ri Massacre ends when the US Army 7th Cavalry Regiment is withdrawn.

1953 US bomber shot down by Soviet Air Defense Forces in the Sea of Japan, north of Vladivostok

1954 Publication of “Fellowship of the Ring” 1st volume of “Lord of the Rings” by J. R. R. Tolkien published by George Allen and Unwin in London

1955 USSR performs nuclear Test

1956 Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso anchors in 7,500 m of water (record)

1957 UN forms International Atomic Energy Agency

1958 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

1959 First United States Congress elections in Hawaii as a state of the Union.

1961 Wallis and Futuna Islands become a French overseas territory

1965 USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1965 Vietnam War: The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay

1966 In Nigerian counter-coup, Head of State General Aguiyi Ironsi murdered, Yakubu Gowon appointed his successor

1967 Fire aboard carrier USS Forrestal in Gulf of Tonkin kills 134

1967 Vietnam War: Off the coast of North Vietnam the USS Forrestal catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134

1967 During the fourth day of celebrating its 400th anniversary, the city of Caracas, Venezuela is shaken by an earthquake, leaving approximately 500 dead

1969 Mariner 6 begins transmitting far-encounter photos of Mars

1972 France performs nuclear Test at Mururoa atoll

1973 Led Zeppelin have more than $200,000 in cash stolen from a safety-deposit box at the New York Hilton

1973 Greeks vote to abolish the monarchy, beginning the first period of the Metapolitefsi.

1973 During the Dutch Grand Prix driver Roger Williamson was killed in the race, after a suspected tire failure caused the car to pitch into the barriers at high speed.

1974 France performs nuclear Test at Mururoa atoll

1975 Ford became the first US President to visit Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz

1975 Military coup by General Mohammed leads to firing of President Jakubu Gowon

1976 USSR performs underground nuclear Test

1976 In New York City, the “Son of Sam” kills one person and seriously wounds another in first of a series of attacks

1978 Penny Dean swims English Channel in record 7h40m

1978 Pioneer 11 transmits images of Saturn and its rings

1981 A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watch the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

1981 After impeachment on June 21, Abolhassan Banisadr flees with Massoud Rajavi to Paris, in an Iranian Air Force Boeing 707, piloted by Colonel Behzad Moezzi, to form the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

1985 19th Space Shuttle Mission (51-F)-Challenger 8-launched

1987 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel (Eurotunnel)

1987 Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and President of Sri Lanka J. R. Jayewardene sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord on ethnic issues

1988 Judge orders NASA to release unedited tape from Challenger cockpit

1989 Javier Sotomayor of Cuba sets high jump record (8’0″) in San Juan

1993 The Supreme Court of Israel acquits alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free

1994 200,000 Muslims demand the death of feminist writer Taslima Nasrin in Bangladesh

1994 Corrupt Italian ex-premier Craxi gets 8½ year jail sentenced

1994 India army kills 27 Muslim militants

1996 The controversial child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act (1996) is struck down as too broad by a U.S. federal court

2005 Astronomers announce their discovery of dwarf planet Eris

2010 An overloaded passenger ferry capsizes on the Kasai River in Bandundu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in at least 80 deaths

2012 Tropical Storm Khanun kills 88 people and leaves 60,000 homeless in North Korea

2013 44 people are killed in a wave of car bombings in Iraq

2013 Two passenger trains collide in the Swiss municipality of Granges-près-Marnand near Lausanne injuring 25 people

2013 300 prisoners are freed after a Taliban attack in Dera Ismal Khan, Pakistan

2013 €103 million of diamonds is stolen from the Carton Intercontinental Hotel, Cannes, France

2014 100 Gazans killed overnight by Israeli strikes

2015 Over 3,500 immigrants over 2 days attempt to enter the Channel Tunnel at Calais, to cross into Britian

2015 Mohammed Omar, mullah and Taliban leader is confirmed dead (killed 2013) by the Afghan government

2015 Part of missing airline MH370 is found on the island of Reunion

2015 Microsoft launches Windows 10

2015 Zion Harvey became the first paediatric patient to receive a double hand transplant at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

2015 27 people are killed and 149 are injured after a truck runs into a religious procession in Zacatecas, Mexico

2016 Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic nomination for US President at Democratic convention in Philadelphia – first woman by a major US party

2017 Terrorist plot to bring down a plane averted in Sydney, Australia, 4 arrested

2018 Ethiopian state funeral for murdered dam engineer Simegnew Bekele in Addis Ababa prompts unrest