August 29

Events
Up to 1900
708 Copper coins are first minted in Japan.
1261 Urban IV becomes Pope, the last man to do so without being a Cardinal first.
1315 Battle of Montecatini: The army of the Republic of Pisa, commanded by Uguccione della Faggiuoli, wins a decisive victory against the joint forces of the Kingdom of Naples and Republic of Florence despite being outnumbered (meaning the opposing armies, combined, had more soldiers).
1350 Battle of Winchelsea: An English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships.
1475 Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between France and England.
1484 Pope Innocent VIII, a staunch supporter of the Spanish Inquisition, is elected Pope.
1498 Vasco da Gama decides to leave Calicut, present-day Kerala, southern India, and return to Portugal.
1521 The Ottoman Turks capture Nandorfehervar, now known as Belgrade.
1526 Battle of Mohacs: The Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeat and kill the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia.
1541 The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.
1728 Nuuk, Greenland, is founded as the fort of Godt-Haab by Danish royal governor Claus Paarss.
1741 The volcanic eruption on Oshima-Oshima Island, Japan, causes tsunamis in the Sea of Japan, which kill around 1600 people.
1751 The world's biggest wine barrel is completed in the cellar of Heidelberg Castle, present-day Germany. It can carry 221,726 liters.
1756 Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years' War.
1782 The British ship HMS Royal George sinks while anchored in the Solent, south coast of England, killing between 800 and 950 people.
1786 Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
1825 Portugal recognizes Brazil as independent.
1831 Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
1833 The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of Slavery in its then-Empire.
1842 The Treaty of Nanking is signed, ending the First Opium War.
1861 American Civil War: A United States Navy squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
1862 Battle of Aspromonte - Italian royal forces defeat rebels.
1871 Emperor Meiji of Japan orders the establishment of prefectures as local centres of administration.
1885 Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle.
1893 Whitcomb Judson gets a US patent for the zipper.
1895 The formation of the Northern Rugby Union at the George Hotel, Huddersfield.
1896 Chop suey is said to have been invented in New York City on this date.
1897 The first Zionist World Congress is held in Basel, Switzerland.
1898 Goodyear tire company is founded.
1901 2000
1907 The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers.
1910 The Japan-Korea Treaty of 1910 becomes effective, officially starting the period of Japanese rule on the Korean peninsula.
1911 Ishi, considered the last Stone Age Native American, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.
1914 World War I: The then-German colony of Samoa is occupied by New Zealand troops.
1915 United States Navy salvage divers raise F-4, the first US submarine sunk in an accident.
1916 The Mount Field and Freycinet National Parks are created in Tasmania.
1916 The US passes the Philippine Autonomy.
1922 The first radio advertisement is broadcast on WEAF-AM in New York City.
1930 The last 36 remaining inhabitants of the remote Scottish island of Saint Kilda, leave forever.
1941 World War II: Tallinn, Estonia, is occupied by Germany, following its occupation by the Soviet Union.
1943 World War II: German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy; Germany dissolves Danish government
1944 Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazi rulers.
1949 The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
1950 Korean War: British troops arrive in Korea to support South Korea and the United States.
1952 Premiere of John Cage's 4'33" in Woodstock, New York
1958 United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
1965 The Gemini V spacecraft returns to Earth.
1966 Last Beatles concert, in San Francisco
1966 Execution of Sayyid Qutb, an important theoretician of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
1968 The future King Harald V of Norway marries Sonja Haraldsen in Oslo.
1982 The synthetic chemical element Meitnerium, atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft fur Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.
1991 Supreme Soviet suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
1995 An assassination attempt is made on President of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze.
1996 A Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard.
1997 At least 98 villagers are killed by the GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.
1997 Serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz bludgeons to death Christopher Maier of Lexington, Kentucky, the first of nine victims.
1999 East Timor votes for independence from Indonesia.
From 2001
2003 Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, was assassinated in a terrorist bombing that killed him along with nearly 100 worshippers as they were leaving a mosque in Najaf.
2004 End of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
2004 Michael Schumacher wins his 7th Formula One world title and his 5th in a row, breaking the record held by Juan Manuel Fangio.
2005 Hurricane Katrina reaches the US' Gulf coast with winds at a speed of 225 kph. The city of New Orleans is among the places that are severely flooded, as over 1,000 people are killed.
2008 US Republican Party Presidential candidate John McCain nominates Sarah Palin as his running mate.
2011 Hurricane Irene dissolves over Eastern Canada, having left a path of destruction over the Caribbean and eastern United States.
2012 The 2012 Summer Paralympics in London begin.
2013 The House of Commons of the United Kingdom votes, by a majority, against military action in Syria.
2015 Three Al-Jazeera journalists are sentenced to three years in prison in Egypt, accused of false reporting and sympathizing with the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
2015 Protests take place in Kuala Lumpur against Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak.
2017 North Korea fires a ballistic missile over the southern part of the Northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Births
Up to 1900
1434 Janus Pannonius, Hungarian bishop, poet and diplomat (d. 1472)
1619 Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French statesman (d. 1683)
1628 John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English statesman (d. 1701)
1632 John Locke, English philosopher (d. 1704)
1664 Giuseppe Toretti, Italian sculptor (d. 1743)
1724 Giovanni Battista Casti, Italian poet and writer (d. 1803)
1725 Charles Townshend, English politician (d. 1767)
1728 Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony (d. 1797)
1756 Heinrich Graf von Bellegarde, Austrian field marshal and statesman (d. 1845)
1756 Jan Sniadecki, Polish mathematician, philosopher and astronomer (d. 1830)
1769 Rose Philippine Duchesne, French nun and saint (d. 1852)
1780 Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, French painter (d. 1867)
1793 Josef Naus, Austrian officer and surveyor, first to climb the Zugspitze (d. 1871)
1809 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American physician and writer (d. 1894)
1810 Juan Bautista Alberdi, Argentine politician and writer (d. 1884)
1842 Alfred Shaw, English cricketer, rugby player and umpire (d. 1907)
1843 David B. Hill, 29th Governor of New York (d. 1910)
1844 Edward Carpenter, English poet (d. 1929)
1862 Andrew Fisher, 5th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1928)
1862 Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer (d. 1949)
1871 Albert Lebrun, President of France (d. 1950)
1875 Leonardo De Lorenzo, Italian flautist and educator (d. 1962)
1876 Charles Franklin Kettering, American inventor (d. 1958)
1876 Kim Gu, Korean politician (d. 1949)
1880 Marie-Louise Meilleur, Canadian supercentenarian (d. 1998)
1881 Albert Henderson, Canadian footballer (d. 1947)
1883 Muriel George, English singer and movie actress (d. 1965)
1887 Jivraj Narayan Mehta, Indian politician, 1st Chief Minister of Gujarat (d. 1978)
1888 Gunichi Mikawa, Japanese admiral (d. 1981)
1898 Preston Sturges, American movie director, screenwriter and playwright (d. 1959)
1901 1950
1904 Werner Forssmann, German physician (d. 1979)
1905 Al Taliaferro, American comic artist (d. 1969)
1907 Takeo Wakabayashi, Japanese footballer (d. 1937)
1910 Vivien Thomas, American surgical technician (d. 1985)
1912 Sohn Kee-chung, South Korean runner (d. 2002)
1912 Barry Sullivan, American actor (d. 1994)
1912 Wolfgang Suschitzky, Austrian-Polish cinematographer (d. 2016)
1913 K. Jeyakody, Sri Lankan Tamil politician
1913 Jan Ekier, Polish pianist and composer (d. 2014)
1915 Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (d. 1982)
1916 Consuelo Velazquez, Mexican musician and composer (d. 2005)
1916 George Montgomery, American actor (d. 2000)
1917 Isabel Sanford, American actress (d. 2004)
1920 Charlie Parker, American musician (d. 1955)
1921 Paddy Roy Bates, English founder of the Sealand micronation (d. 2012)
1922 Arthur Anderson, American actor (d. 2016)
1923 Richard Attenborough, English actor and movie director (d. 2014)
1924 Maria Dolores Pradera, Spanish singer and actress
1924 Dinah Washington, American singer (d. 1963)
1925 Demetrio B. Lakas, 35th President of Panama (d. 1999)
1926 Helene Ahrweiler, Greek historian and academic
1927 Jimmy C. Newman, American singer (d. 2014)
1930 Atef Sedki, Egyptian politician (d. 2005)
1931 Stelios Kazantzidis, Greek singer (d. 2001)
1932 Shen Chun-shan, Taiwanese physicist and academic (d. 2018)
1933 Sorel Etrog, Romanian-Canadian artist, writer and philosopher (d. 2014)
1933 Arnold Koller, Swiss politician
1934 Horst Szymaniak, German footballer (d. 2009)
1935 William Friedkin, American movie director
1935 Hugo Brandt Corstius, Dutch writer (d. 2014)
1936 John McCain, American pilot and politician, 2008 Presidential candidate (d. 2018)
1937 James Florio, former Governor of New Jersey
1938 Elliott Gould, American actor
1938 Robert Rubin, American politician, former United States Secretary of the Treasury
1938 Carlos Moreno, Argentine actor (d. 2014)
1939 Joel Schumacher, American director
1940 James Brady, American activist and 15th White House Press Secretary (d. 2014)
1940 Wim Ruska, Dutch judoka (d. 2015)
1941 Robin Leach, English writer and television host (d. 2018)
1942 Gottfried John, German actor (d. 2014)
1943 Peter von Bagh, Finnish movie historian (d. 2014)
1943 Arthur B. McDonald, Canadian astrophysicist
1945 Wyonia Tyus, American athlete
1946 Demetris Christofias, Cypriot politician, former President of Cyprus
1946 Bob Beamon, American long jumper
1946 Giorgio Orsoni, Italian lawyer and politician, 17th Mayor of Venice
1947 Temple Grandin, American animal welfare and autism expert
1947 James Hunt, English racing driver (d. 1993)
1951 1975
1952 Deborah Van Valkenburgh, American actress
1952 Dave Malone, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1955 Jacob Lew, American politician
1956 GG Allin, American musician (d. 1993)
1958 Michael Jackson, American singer and entertainer (d. 2009)
1958 Lenny Henry, English comedian, actor and writer
1959 Stephen Wolfram, English mathematician
1959 Rebecca De Mornay, American actress
1959 Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut
1959 Eddi Reader, Scottish singer
1959 Ramon Diaz, Argentine footballer
1960 Tony McAlpine, American guitarist, composer and producer
1961 Carsten Fischer, German field hockey player
1962 Jutta Kleinschmidt, German rally driver
1962 Simon Thurley, English architectural historian
1963 Elizabeth Fraser, Scottish singer
1963 Steve Clarke, Scottish footballer and football manager
1964 Zisis Tsekos, Greek footballer
1965 Frances Ruffelle, English actress and singer
1967 Neil Gorsuch, American judge, US Supreme Court Justice
1969 Joe Swail, Northern Irish snooker player
1969 Lucero, Mexican singer and actress
1971 Carla Gugino, American actress
1972 Kentaro Hayashi, Japanese footballer
1972 Bae Yong-jeon, South Korean actor
1973 Daniel Burman, Argentine movie director
1974 Denis Caniza, Paraguayan footballer
1974 Nicola Amoruso, Italian footballer
1975 Kyle Cook, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
From 1976
1976 Pablo Mastroeni, American footballer
1976 Jon Dahl Tomasson, Danish footballer
1976 Stephen Carr, Irish footballer
1977 Jo Weil, German actor
1977 Roy Oswalt, American baseball player
1977 John Hensley, American actor
1979 Justine Pasek, Panamanian model
1980 David Desrosiers, Canadian musician (Simple Plan)
1980 David West, American basketball player
1981 Emilie Duquenne, Belgian actress
1982 Vincent Enyeama, Nigerian footballer
1982 A+, American rapper
1982 Carlos Delfino, Argentine basketball player
1985 Marc Rzepczynski, American baseball player
1986 Lauren Collins, Canadian actress
1986 Lea Michele, American actress and singer
1987 Tony Kane, Irish footballer
1988 Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, British athlete
1990 Patrick van Aanholt, Dutch footballer
1990 Nicole Anderson, American actress
1990 Julia Vlassov, American figure skater
1991 Deshaun Thomas, American basketball player
1993 Liam Payne, English singer (One Direction)
1993 Lucas Cruikshank, American actor
1994 Courtney Stodden, American television personality
Deaths
Up to 1900
886 Basil I, Byzantine Emperor (b. 811)
1093 Hugh I, Duke of Burgundy
1123 Eystein I of Norway (b. 1088)
1315 Charles of Taranto (b. 1296)
1395 Duke Albert III of Austria (b. 1349)
1435 Isabeau de Baviere, queen of Charles VI of France (b. 1371)
1442 John VI, Duke of Brittany (b. 1389)
1526 King Louis II of Hungary (b. 1506)
1533 Atahualpa, last Inca ruler of Peru (b. 1502)
1712 Gregory King, English genealogist, engraver and statistician (b. 1648)
1749 Matthias Bel, Hungarian pastor and polymath (b. 1684)
1769 Edmund Hoyle, English writer and teacher (b. 1672)
1780 Jacques-Germain Soufflot, French architect (b. 1713)
1799 Pope Pius VI (b. 1717)
1816 Johann Hieronymus Schroeter, German jurist and astronomer (b. 1745)
1853 Charles James Napier, British general (b. 1782)
1856 Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, English author (b. 1778)
1866 Tokugawa Iemochi, Japanese shogun (b. 1846)
1877 Brigham Young, Mormon leader (b. 1801)
1889 Stefan Dunjov, Bulgarian military officer (b. 1815)
1891 Pierre Lallement, French inventor (b. 1843)
1901 2000
1904 Murad V, Ottoman sultan (b. 1840)
1918 Max Dauthendey, German writer (b. 1867)
1930 William Archibald Spooner, writer (b. 1844)
1931 David T. Abercrombie, a founder of American clothing retailer Abercrombie and Fitch (b. 1867)
1935 Queen Astrid of Belgium, mother of King Albert II of Belgium (b. 1905)
1946 Grigory Semyonov, Russian general (b. 1890)
1947 Manolete, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1917)
1966 Sayyid Qutb, Egyptian theoretician (b. 1906).
1972 Lale Andersen, German singer (b. 1905)
1973 Stringer Davis, English actor (b. 1899)
1975 Eamon de Valera, Irish statesman and President of Ireland (b. 1882)
1976 Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bengali poet, musician and philosopher (b. 1899)
1981 Lowell Thomas, travel writer (b. 1892)
1982 Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (b. 1915)
1982 Nahum Goldmann, founder of the Jewish World Congress (b. 1895)
1984 Muhammad Naguib, Egyptian politician and President of Egypt (b. 1901)
1984 Pierre Gemayel, Lebanese politician (b. 1905)
1987 Archie Campbell, American comedian, writer and actor (b. 1914)
1987 Lee Marvin, actor (b. 1924)
1989 Peter Scott, English explorer, naturalist and painter (b. 1909)
1992 Teddy Turner, English actor (b. 1917)
1995 Frank Perry, American director (b. 1930)
From 2001
2001 Francisco Rabal, Spanish actor, director and screenwriter (b. 1926)
2003 Michel Constantin, French actor (b. 1924)
2003 Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, Iraqi political leader (b.1939)
2004 Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor (b. 1942)
2007 Pierre Messmer, Prime Minister of France (b. 1916)
2011 David Honeyboy Edwards, American blues musician (b. 1915)
2013 Cliff Morgan, Welsh rugby player (b. 1930)
2013 Bruce C. Murray, American scientist (b. 1931)
2014 Bjorn Waldegard, Swedish rally driver (b. 1943)
2014 David Bala, Singaporean comedian and actor (b. 1947)
2015 Kyle Jean-Baptiste, American actor (b. 1993)
2015 Wayne Dyer, American self-help author and motivational speaker (b. 1940)
2016 Gene Wilder, American actor (b. 1933)
2017 Janine Charrat, French ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1924)
2017 Dmitri Kogan, Russian violinist (b. 1978)
2017 David Tang, Hong Kong businessman (b. 1954)
2018 Stan Brock, English philanthropist (b. 1936)
2018 James Mirrlees, Scottish economist (b. 1936)
2018 Carilda Oliver Labra, Cuban poet (b. 1922)
2018 Marie Severin, American comic book artist (b. 1929)
2018 Paul Taylor, American choreographer (b. 1930)
Observances
Anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising
Telugu language Day (India)
Days of the year