This Day in History

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December 29

There are 2 days remaining in 2016.


Events

875 – Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor Charles II.

1170 – Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II; he subsequently becomes a saint and martyr in the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church.

1778 – American Revolutionary War: Three thousand British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia.

1835 – The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.

1845 – In accordance with International Boundary delimitation, the United States annexes the Republic of Texas, following the manifest destiny doctrine. The Republic of Texas, which had been independent since the Texas Revolution of 1836, is thereupon admitted as the 28th U.S. state.

1851 – The first American YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.

1876 – The Ashtabula River railroad disaster occurs, leaving 64 injured and 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio.

1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre occurs on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. 300 Lakota, including 65 women and 24 children, are killed by the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment.

1916 – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the first novel by James Joyce, was first published as a book by American publishing house B. W. Huebschis after it had been serialized in The Egoist (1914–15).

1937 – The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.

1949 – KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.

1989 – Czech writer, philosopher and dissident Václav Havel is elected the first post-communist President of Czechoslovakia.

1997 – Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's 1.25 million chickens to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.

1998 – Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over one million lives.

2003 – The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct.

Births

1766 – Charles Macintosh (inventor of waterproof fabric); 1800 – Charles Goodyear (developed vulcanized rubber); 1808 – Andrew Johnson (17th POTUS); 1876 – Pablo Casals♪ ♫; 1879 – Billy Mitchell; 1881 – Jess Willard; 1911 – Klaus Fuchs; 1915 – Robert Ruark (adventurer and big game hunter); 1915 – Jo Van Fleet (East of Eden, Cool Hand Luke); 1920 – Viveca Lindfors; 1923 – Dina Merrill; 1929 – Matt 'Guitar' Murphy; 1932 – Inga Swenson (Benson); 1934 – Ed Flanders ('Ed', not 'Ned', St. Elsewhere); 1936 – Mary Tyler Moore; 1938 – Jon Voight; 1939 – Ed Bruce♪ ♫(Maverick(1981 tv series, co-wrote Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys); 1941 – Ray Thomas♪ ♫(Moody Blues); 1943 – Bill Aucoin (manager/discovered KISS, manager Billy Idol); 1943 – Rick Danko(The Band); 1946 – Marianne Faithfull♪ ♫; 1947 – Ted Danson; 1947 – Cozy Powell(Jeff Beck Group, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Emerson, Lake & Powell, et al); 1951 – Yvonne Elliman♪ ♫(sang "If I Can't Have You"); 1953 – Stanley Williams (founder of street gang The Crips); 1959 – Patricia Clarkson; 1959 – Paula Poundstone; 1961 – Jim Reid♪ ♫(The Jesus & Mary Chain); 1967 – Ashleigh Banfield; 1967 – Evan Seinfeld(Biohazard); 1972 – Jude Law; 1974 – Mekhi Phifer; 1976 – Danny McBride

Deaths

1170 – Thomas Becket; 1929 – Wilhelm Maybach (of the Mercedes tuning Maybachs); 1980 – Tim Hardin♪ ♫; 2012 – Mike Auldridge(The Seldom Scene)