On this day: December 29

Events on December 29

• 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. Wikipedia
• 1503 The Battle of Garigliano was fought between a Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba and a French army commanded by Ludovico II, Marquess of Saluzzo. Wikipedia
• 1812 War of 1812: In a three-hour single-ship action, HMS Java was captured by USS Constitution off the coast of Brazil. Wikipedia
• 1845 The Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States, becoming the 28th state to be admitted to the Union. Wikipedia
• 1860 To counter the French Navy's Gloire, the world's first ironclad warship, the Royal Navy launched HMS Warrior, the world's first iron-hulled armoured warship. Wikipedia
• 1876 A railway bridge collapsed over the Ashtabula River in Ohio, killing 92 people and injuring 64 others on a Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway train. Wikipedia
• 1890 Sioux Wars: The United States Army killed 250 to 300 Lakota men, women and children at the Wounded Knee Massacre, beginning the Ghost Dance War. Wikipedia
• 1913 Cecil B. DeMille started filming Hollywood's first feature film, The Squaw Man. Wikipedia
• 1915 First World War: The French parliament passed a law granting the land occupied by British war graves as "the free gift of the French people". Wikipedia
• 1928 The Northern Expedition, a military campaign by the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang, ended with the complete control of the Republic of China. Wikipedia
• 1937 The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution. Wikipedia
• 1940 Second World War: The Luftwaffe began a major night bombing raid on the British capital as part of the Blitz, beginning what was later called the "Second Great Fire of London". Wikipedia
• 1959 American physicist Richard Feynman gave a speech entitled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" at Caltech, anticipating the field of nanotechnology. Wikipedia
• 1972 Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar) crashes in the Florida Everglades on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101 of the 176 people on board. Wikipedia
• 1975 Planted by unknown perpetrators, a bomb exploded at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and seriously injuring 74 others. Wikipedia
• 1989 Czech writer, philosopher and dissident Václav Havel is elected the first post-communist President of Czechoslovakia. Wikipedia
• 1992 Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tries to resign amidst corruption charges, but is then impeached. Wikipedia
• 1994 Turkish Airlines Flight 278 crashed on approach to Van Ferit Melen Airport in Van, Turkey, killing 57 of the 76 people on board. Wikipedia
• 1996 Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war. Wikipedia
• 1998 Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the Cambodian genocide that claimed over one million lives. Wikipedia
• 2003 The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct. Wikipedia
• 2013 A suicide bomb attack at the Volgograd-1 railway station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd kills at least 18 people and wounds 40 others. Wikipedia
• 2013 Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher suffers a massive head injury while skiing in the French Alps. Wikipedia
• 2020 A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hits near the town of Petrinja in Sisak-Moslavina County, Croatia, killing seven people. Wikipedia
• 2023 South Africa files a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice over Israeli conducts in the Gaza Strip. Wikipedia
• 2024 Jeju Air Flight 2216 crashed at Muan International Airport while attempting to perform a belly-landing after losing engine thrust to a flock of Baikal teal. Wikipedia

Born on December 29

• 1709 Elizabeth Petrovna, Russian empress (died 1762) Wikipedia
• 1721 Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV (died 1764) Wikipedia
• 1800 Charles Goodyear, American chemist and engineer (died 1860) Wikipedia
• 1808 Andrew Johnson, American general and politician, 17th President of the United States (died 1875) Wikipedia
• 1809 William Ewart Gladstone, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1898) Wikipedia
• 1843 Elisabeth of Wied (died 1916) Wikipedia
• 1859 Venustiano Carranza, Mexican soldier and politician, 37th President of Mexico (died 1920) Wikipedia
• 1876 Pablo Casals, Catalan cellist and conductor (died 1973) Wikipedia
• 1896 David Alfaro Siqueiros, Mexican painter (died 1974) Wikipedia
• 1910 Ronald Coase, English-American economist, author, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013) Wikipedia
• 1936 Mary Tyler Moore, American actress and producer (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1938 Jon Voight, American actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1945 Birendra of Nepal, King of Nepal from 1972 to 2001 (died 2001) Wikipedia
• 1946 Marianne Faithfull, English singer-songwriter and actress (died 2025) Wikipedia
• 1953 Thomas Bach, German fencer, lawyer and sports administrator; 9th President of the International Olympic Committee Wikipedia
• 1962 Carles Puigdemont, Catalan politician and journalist, former president Wikipedia
• 1963 Ulf Kristersson, Swedish politician, Leader of the Swedish Moderate Party and 35th Prime Minister of Sweden Wikipedia
• 1967 Lilly Wachowski, American director, screenwriter and producer Wikipedia
• 1972 Jude Law, English actor Wikipedia
• 1989 Kei Nishikori, Japanese tennis player Wikipedia
• 1996 Dylan Minnette, American actor, musician and singer Wikipedia
• 1998 Victor Osimhen, Nigerian footballer Wikipedia

Died on December 29

• 1170 Thomas Becket, English archbishop and saint (born 1118) Wikipedia
• 1825 Jacques-Louis David, French painter and illustrator (born 1748) Wikipedia
• 1834 Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist (born 1766) Wikipedia
• 1891 Leopold Kronecker, Polish-German mathematician and academic (born 1823) Wikipedia
• 1894 Christina Rossetti, English poet and hymn-writer (born 1830) Wikipedia
• 1924 Carl Spitteler, Swiss poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1845) Wikipedia
• 1926 Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet and author (born 1875) Wikipedia
• 1986 Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian director and screenwriter (born 1932) Wikipedia
• 1986 Harold Macmillan, English captain and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1894) Wikipedia
• 2004 Julius Axelrod, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1912) Wikipedia
• 2020 Pierre Cardin, Italian-French fashion designer (born 1922) Wikipedia
• 2022 Pelé, Brazilian footballer (born 1940) Wikipedia
• 2022 Vivienne Westwood, English fashion designer (born 1941) Wikipedia
• 2024 Jimmy Carter, American politician, 39th President of the United States (born 1924) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Ebrulf Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Thomas Becket Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Trophimus of Arles Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Ireland) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Mongolia) Wikipedia
• The fifth day of Christmas (Western Christianity) Wikipedia
• The fourth day of Kwanzaa (United States) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “December 29” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/December 29” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 29” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for December 29 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.