1453 Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire falls to the Turks under Mehmed II; ends the Byzantine Empire

1592 Battle of Sacheon: Korean navy led by Admiral Yi Sun Shin repels a Japanese fleet - first use of Korean Turtle ship

1660 On his 30th birthday Charles II returns to London from exile in the Netherlands to claim the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth comes to an end

1851 Sojourner Truth addresses 1st Black Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio

1953 Edmund Hillary (NZ) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) are first to reach the summit of Mount Everest as part of a British Expedition

May 29 in Film & TV

1942 Bing Crosby records "White Christmas", world's best-selling single (estimated 100 million copies sold)

1942 "Yankee Doodle Dandy", based on life of George M. Cohan, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring James Cagney and Joan Lesley, premieres in NYC (Academy Awards Best Actor 1943)

May 29 in Sport

1922 US Supreme Court rules organized baseball is a sport and not a business and thus not subject to antitrust laws

Did You Know?

American chemist John Pemberton begins to advertise Coca-Cola

On May 29, 1886

Famous Birthdays

Charles II
(1630 - 1685)

Patrick Henry
(1736 - 1799)

Bob Hope
(1903 - 2003)

Tenzing Norgay
(1914 - 1986)

John F. Kennedy
(1917 - 1963)

Annette Bening
63 Years Old


Would You Believe?

15 young women are fired by Curtis Publishing in Philadelphia for dancing the "Turkey Trot" during their lunch break

On May 29, 1912

Famous Weddings

1506 Earl Willem I van Nassau-Dillenburg weds countess Walburg van Egmont

1849 Bacteriologist Louis Pasteur (26) weds secretary Marie Laurent (23) in Strasbourg, France

1884 Irish writer Oscar Wilde marries Constance Lloyd at St. James Church, Paddington, London

Famous Divorces

1952 Country music legend Hank Williams and Audrey Sheppard granted divorce for the second and final time after seven years of marriage. Their first divorce was in 1948.

2010 Five-time Grammy Award singer Shania Twain (42) divorces music producer Robert John Lange (59) after 14 years of marriage

Famous Deaths

Bartolomeu Dias
( - 1500)

William Schwenck Gilbert
(1836 - 1911)

Mary Pickford
(1892 - 1979)

Dennis Hopper
(1936 - 2010)

Manuel Noriega
(1934 - 2017)


Articles

A Modern Major-General of Light Entertainment

William Gilbert, celebrated as the unique lyricist behind the highly popular Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, met his death in highly unexpected circumstances.

May 29, 1911

Tenzing Norgay on the Summit of Mount Everest

Tenzing Norgay brandishes his ice axe on the summit of Mount Everest

May 29, 1953


© 2000-2021 OnThisDay.com