December 29: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 2 days remaining.

Events

• 1170 - Thomas Becket is slain in his own cathedral by knights eager to please Henry II of England.
• 1813 - War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.
• 1835 - The Treaty of New Echota, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi to the United States, is signed.
• 1845 - Texas is admitted as the 28th U.S. state.
• 1851 - The first American-based YMCA opens, in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1860 - The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, the HMS Warrior is launched.
• 1862 - American Civil War: End of the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou.
• 1876 - The Ashtabula River Railroad bridge disaster, 64 injured, 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio.
• 1890 - Wounded Knee Massacre: The United States soldiers massacred over 400 men, women and children of the Great Sioux Nation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
• 1891 - Thomas Edison patents the radio.
• 1911 - Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China.
• 1913 - The first serial motion picture, The Unwelcome Throne is released by Seligs Polyscope Company.
• 1921 - William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1934 - The first college basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York City is played, between the University of Notre Dame and New York University.
• 1934 - Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
• 1937 - The Irish Free State was replaced by a new state called Ireland when a new constitution was adopted.
• 1940 - The Second Great Fire of London: Luftwaffe firebombs City of London, killing almost 200 civilians.
• 1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.
• 1972 - An Eastern Airlines Lockheed "Tristar" crashed on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101.
• 1975 - A bomb explodes at New York City's LaGuardia Airport killing 11.
• 1987 - Yuri Romanenko of USSR returns to Earth after 326 days in space.
• 1989 - Václav Havel becomes President of Czechoslovakia.
• 1989 - Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
• 1989 - On the final day of trading for the year and decade, the Japanese Nikkei 225 Average closes at an all-time high of 38,915.87.
• 1992 - Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, resigned.
• 1993 - Construction of the Tian Tan Buddha, the world's tallest outdoor bronze statue of the seated Buddha, was completed.
• 1996 - Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord that ends a 36 year civil war.
• 1997 - Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's chickens (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.
• 1998 - Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million in the 1970s.
• 2001 - A massive fire in the historic district of downtown Lima kills at least 274 people.
• 2005 - A shooting at the Indian Institute of Science in the Indian city of Bangalore leaves one person killed and four others injured.

• 1709 - Empress Elizabeth of Russia (d. 1762)
• 1721 - Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France (d. 1764)
• 1796 - Johann Christian Poggendorff, German physicist (d. 1877)
• 1800 - Charles Goodyear, American inventor and businessman (d. 1860)
• 1808 - Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (d. 1875)
• 1809 - William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1897)
• 1816 - Carl Ludwig, German physician (b. 1895)
• 1876 - Pablo Casals, Catalan cellist and conductor (d. 1973)
• 1881 - Jess Willard, American boxer (d. 1968)
• 1899 - Nie Rongzhen, Chinese Communist military leader (d. 1992)
• 1908 - Helmut Gollwitzer, German theologian (d. 1993)
• 1910 - Ronald Coase, British economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner
• 1914 - Billy Tipton, American musician (d. 1989)
• 1914 - Albert Tucker, Australian artist (d 1999)
• 1917 - Tom Bradley, Mayor of Los Angeles, California (d. 1998)
• 1927 - Andy Stanfield, American athlete (d. 1985)
• 1928 - Bernard Cribbins, British actor
• 1931 - Prince Gu of Korea (d. 2005)
• 1934 - Tom Jarriel, American correspondent
• 1936 - Mary Tyler Moore, American actress
• 1936 - Ray Nitschke, American football player (d. 1998)
• 1937 - Barbara Steele, British actress
• 1938 - Jon Voight, American actor
• 1941 - Ray Thomas, British musician (The Moody Blues)
• 1942 - Rick Danko, Canadian musician (The Band) (d. 1999)
• 1946 - Marianne Faithfull, English singer
• 1947 - Ted Danson, American actor
• 1951 - Yvonne Elliman, American disco singer
• 1952 - Gelsey Kirkland, American dancer
• 1953 - Gali Atari, Israeli singer
• 1954 - Roger Voudouris, American singer and songwriter
• 1959 - Patricia Clarkson, American Actress
• 1963 - Francisco Bustamante, Filipino billiard player
• 1963 - Dave McKean, English artist and filmmaker
• 1965 - Dexter Holland, American singer and guitarist (The Offspring)
• 1967 - Andy Wachowski, American director
• 1967 - Ashleigh Banfield, Canadian journalist
• 1970 - Aled Jones, Welsh singer and television presenter
• 1970 - Kevin Weisman, American actor
• 1970 - Glen Phillips, American singer/songwriter (Toad The Wet Sprocket)
• 1972 - Jason Kreis, American soccer player
• 1972 - Jude Law, English actor
• 1973 - Theo Epstein, baseball general manager
• 1974 - Richie Sexson, baseball player
• 1978 - Alexis Amore, Peruvian actress, dancer, and model
• 1978 - Kieron Dyer, English footballer
• 1978 - LaToya London, American singer
• 1981 - Angela Via, American singer

• 1170 - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (assassinated)
• 1563 - Sebastian Castellio, French theologian (b. 1515)
• 1634 - John Albert Vasa, Polish bishop (b. 1612)
• 1661 - Antoine Gérard de Saint-Amant, French poet (b. 1594)
• 1689 - Thomas Sydenham, English physician (b. 1624)
• 1731 - Brook Taylor, English mathematician (b. 1685)
• 1785 - Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian poet (b. 1742)
• 1825 - Jacques-Louis David, French painter (b. 1748)
• 1891 - Leopold Kronecker, mathematician (b. 1823)
• 1894 - Christina Rossetti, English poet (b. 1830)
• 1916 - Grigori Rasputin, Russian monk (b. 1869)
• 1924 - Carl Spitteler, Swiss writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1845)
• 1926 - Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian writer (b. 1875)
• 1929 - Wilhelm Maybach, German automobile designer (b. 1846)
• 1937 - Don Marquis, American author (b. 1878)
• 1960 - Eden Phillpotts, British writer (b. 1862)
• 1967 - Paul Whiteman, American musician and conductor (b. 1890)
• 1980 - Tim Hardin, American musician (b. 1941)
• 1980 - Nadezhda Mandelstam, Russian writer (b. 1899)
• 1986 - Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1894)
• 2003 - Earl Hindman, American actor (lung cancer) (b. 1942)
• 2003 - Dinsdale Landen, English actor (cancer) (b. 1932)
• 2003 - Bob Monkhouse, English comedian and game show host (b. 1928)
• 2004 - Julius Axelrod, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1912)
• 2004 - Liddy Holloway, New Zealand actress (b. 1947)

• The fourth day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
• R.C. Saints - Thomas Becket (optional memorial)
• Also see December 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• USA - Admission Day of Texas (28th state, 1845)

December 28 - December 30 - November 29 - January 29 -- listing of all days