April 29th in History

Michael Dobson | April 29

Richard Nixon, with edited transcripts of the Nixon White House tape conversations, released April 29, 1974

Today in History

  • Captain James Cook reaches (and names) Botany Bay, Australia (1770)
  • American Civil War: Maryland votes not to secede from the Union (1861)
  • American Civil War: New Orleans falls to Union forces (1862)
  • The Easter Rising ends with the surrender of Irish nationalists to British authorities (1916)
  • World War II: The German army in Italy surrenders to the Allies (1945)
  • World War II: In the Führerbunker, Adolf Hitler marries his mistress Eva Braun and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor (1945)
  • World War II: The Dachau concentration camp is liberated (1945)
  • An episode of the TV series Space Patrol is broadcast in 3-D, the first experiment of that technology in the US (1953)
  • Muhammad Ali is stripped of his heavyweight boxing title for his refusal to be inducted into the US Army (1967)
  • The musical Hair opens on Broadway (1968)
  • Watergate: Nixon announces the release of edited White House tape recording transcripts (1974)
  • Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of US citizen from Saigon, begins, bringing US involvement in the war to an official end (1975)
  • Following the acquittal of police officers charged with beating Rodney King, riots break out in Los Angeles (1992)
  • Oldsmobile builds its final car (2004)
  • British royal heir Prince William marries Kate Middleton (2011)

Birthdays

  • Алекса́ндр II Освободитель (Alexander II the Liberator), tsar of all the Russians (1818 — O.S.* 17 April)
  • Henri Poincaré, mathematician (1854)
  • William Randolph Hearst, publisher (1863)
  • Rafael Sabatini, author (1875)
  • Harold Urey, chemist (1893)
  • Duke Ellington, composer and bandleader (1899)
  • 裕仁/昭和天皇 (Hirohito/Shōwa Emperor), Japanese monarch (1901)
  • Jack Williamson, science fiction writer (1908)
  • Tom Ewell, actor (1909)
  • Celeste Holm, actress (1917)
  • George Allen, football player and coach (1918)
  • Irvin Kershner, director (1923)
  • Al Balding, golfer (1924)
  • Rod McKuen, singer-songwriter and poet (1933)
  • Zubin Mehta, conductor (1936)
  • Bernie Madoff, financier and fraudster (1938)
  • Richard Kline, actor (1944)
  • Tommy James, singer-songwriter (1947)
  • Johnny Miller, golfer (1947)
  • Dale Earnhardt, racer (1951)
  • Jerry Seinfeld, comedian (1954)
  • Kate Mulgrew, actress (1955)
  • Daniel Day-Lewis, actor (1957)
  • Michelle Pfeiffer, actress (1958)
  • Carnie Wilson, singer-songwriter (1968)
  • Andre Agassi, tennis player (1970)
  • Uma Thurman, actress (1970)
*O.S., or Old Style, refers to the fact that Russia did not convert from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar until 1918.
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Deaths

  • Catherine of Sienna, saint (1380)
  • Michiel de Ruyter, Dutch admiral (1676)
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher (1951)
  • Alfred Hitchcock, filmmaker (1980)
  • Mike Royko, columnist (1997)
  • John Kenneth Galbraith, economist (2006)
  • Alfred Hofmann, chemist who developed LSD (2008)
  • Amarillo Slim, poker player (2012)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Confederate Memorial Day (Mississippi)
  • Day of Remembrance for All Victims of Chemical Warfare (worldwide)
  • International Dance Day (worldwide)
  • National Shrimp Scampi Day (US food holidays)
  • 昭和の日 (Shōwa Day) (Japan)
  • Queen’s Night (the Netherlands)
Informal and made-up holidays include Greenery Day, National Puppetry Day, National Zipper Day, One Day Without Shoes Day, Peace Rose Day, and World Wish Day.
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April 29 is the 119th day of the year (120th in leap years). There are 246 days remaining until the end of the year.