On this day: August 29

Events on August 29

• 708 Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708). Wikipedia
• 1498 Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to the Kingdom of Portugal. Wikipedia
• 1521 The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade). Wikipedia
• 1728 The city of Nuuk in Greenland is founded as the fort of Godt-Haab by the royal governor Claus Paarss. Wikipedia
• 1741 The eruption of Oshima–Ōshima and the Kampo tsunami: At least 2,000 people along the Japanese coast drown in a tsunami caused by the eruption of Oshima. Wikipedia
• 1786 Angered by high tax burdens and disfranchisement, farmers in western Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays began an armed uprising against the U.S. federal government. Wikipedia
• 1786 Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens. Wikipedia
• 1807 British troops under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeat a Danish militia outside Copenhagen in the Battle of Køge. Wikipedia
• 1831 Michael Faraday first experimentally demonstrated electromagnetic induction, leading to the formulation of the law of induction named after him. Wikipedia
• 1831 Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction. Wikipedia
• 1842 Under the Treaty of Nanking, an "unequal treaty" that ended the First Opium War, the Chinese island from which Hong Kong would grow was ceded to Britain. Wikipedia
• 1911 Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: Start of the Battle of St. Quentin in which the French Fifth Army counter-attacked the invading Germans at Saint-Quentin, Aisne. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is occupied by Nazi Germany following an occupation by the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
• 1949 Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. Wikipedia
• 1959 Mona Best opened the Casbah Coffee Club with a performance by the Quarrymen, the precursor of the Beatles. Wikipedia
• 1965 The Gemini V spacecraft returns to Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean. Wikipedia
• 1966 The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Wikipedia
• 1982 Meitnerium, a synthetic chemical element with the atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany. Wikipedia
• 1997 At least 98 villagers are killed by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria. Wikipedia
• 1998 Eighty people are killed when Cubana de Aviación Flight 389 crashes during a rejected takeoff from the Old Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, Ecuador. Wikipedia
• 2003 Sayed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf. Wikipedia
• 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing up to 1,392 people and causing $125 billion in damage. Wikipedia
• 2007 Six nuclear warheads were mistakenly loaded onto a United States Air Force heavy bomber that flew from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Wikipedia
• 2007 Six nuclear warheads were mistakenly loaded onto a United States Air Force heavy bomber that flew from North Dakota to Louisiana. Wikipedia
• 2012 The XIV Paralympic Games open in London, England, United Kingdom. Wikipedia

Born on August 29

• 1619 Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French economist and politician, Controller-General of Finances (died 1683) Wikipedia
• 1632 John Locke, English physician and philosopher (died 1704) Wikipedia
• 1772 James Finlayson, Scottish Quaker (died 1852) Wikipedia
• 1777 Hyacinth, Russian religious leader, founded Sinology (died 1853) Wikipedia
• 1780 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French painter and illustrator (died 1867) Wikipedia
• 1809 Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., American physician and author (died 1894) Wikipedia
• 1854 William C. White, American Seventh-day Adventist Church minister (died 1937) Wikipedia
• 1862 Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1949) Wikipedia
• 1862 Andrew Fisher, Scottish-Australian politician and diplomat, 5th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1928) Wikipedia
• 1871 Albert François Lebrun, French engineer and politician, 15th President of France (died 1950) Wikipedia
• 1904 Werner Forssmann, German physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1979) Wikipedia
• 1915 Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (died 1982) Wikipedia
• 1920 Charlie Parker, American saxophonist and composer (died 1955) Wikipedia
• 1923 Richard Attenborough, English actor, director, and producer (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1936 John McCain, American captain and politician (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1943 Arthur B. McDonald, Canadian astrophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1946 Demetris Christofias, Cypriot businessman and politician, 6th President of Cyprus (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1947 James Hunt, English race car driver and sportscaster (died 1993) Wikipedia
• 1958 Michael Jackson, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actor (died 2009) Wikipedia
• 1959 Ramón Díaz, Argentine footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1971 Carla Gugino, American actress Wikipedia
• 1993 Liam Payne, English singer-songwriter from One Direction (died 2024) Wikipedia

Died on August 29

• 886 Basil I, Byzantine emperor (born 811) Wikipedia
• 1533 Atahualpa, Inca emperor (born 1497) Wikipedia
• 1780 Jacques-Germain Soufflot, French architect, co-designed The Panthéon (born 1713) Wikipedia
• 1799 Pius VI, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1717) Wikipedia
• 1891 Pierre Lallement, French businessman, invented the bicycle (born 1843) Wikipedia
• 1904 Murad V, Ottoman sultan (born 1840) Wikipedia
• 1966 Sayyid Qutb, Egyptian theorist, author, and poet (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 1975 Éamon de Valera, Irish soldier and politician, 3rd President of Ireland (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 1982 Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 1987 Lee Marvin, American actor (born 1924) Wikipedia
• 2016 Gene Wilder, American stage and screen comic actor, screenwriter, film director, and author (born 1933) Wikipedia
• 2018 James Mirrlees, Scottish economist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1936) Wikipedia
• 2021 Ed Asner, American actor (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2021 Jacques Rogge, Belgian orthopedic surgeon, Olympic sailor and the 8th President of the International Olympic Committee (born 1942) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Adelphus of Metz Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Beheading of St. John the Baptist Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bronislava of Poland Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Eadwold of Cerne Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Euphrasia Eluvathingal (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jeanne Jugan Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Bunyan (Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Sabina Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Teresa Bracco Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Vitalis, Sator and Repositus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: August 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• International Day against Nuclear Tests Wikipedia
• Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine (Ukraine) Wikipedia
• National Sports Day (India) Wikipedia
• Slovak National Uprising Anniversary (Slovakia) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “August 29” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.