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
• 1778 American Revolutionary War: British forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell defeat American forces under Major General Robert Howe and capture the port city of Savannah, Georgia. Wikipedia
• 1835 The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States. Wikipedia
• 1845 The Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States, becoming the 28th state to be admitted to the Union. Wikipedia
• 1862 American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou ends in a Union defeat as forces under General William T. Sherman are repulsed with heavy losses by Confederate troops under General John C. Pemberton. Wikipedia
• 1874 The military coup of Gen. Martinez Campos in Sagunto ends the failed First Spanish Republic and the monarchy is restored as Prince Alfonso is proclaimed King of Spain. 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
• 1911 Mongolia gains independence from the Qing dynasty, enthroning 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu as Khagan of Mongolia. Wikipedia
• 1913 Cecil B. DeMille started filming Hollywood's first feature film, The Squaw Man (featured). Wikipedia
• 1913 Cecil B. DeMille starts 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
• 1930 Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the two-nation theory and outlines a vision for the creation of Pakistan. Wikipedia
• 1937 The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: in the Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, England, killing almost 200 civilians. 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
• 1989 Czech writer, philosopher and dissident Václav Havel is elected the first post-communist President of Czechoslovakia. 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
• 1994 Turkish Airlines Flight 278 (a Boeing 737-400) crashes 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
• 2013 Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher suffers a massive head injury while skiing in the French Alps. 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
• 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 crashes into a wall in Muan, South Korea, killing 179 of the 181 occupants. It is the worst aircraft accident on South Korean soil in history. 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
• 1844 Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee, Indian barrister and first president of Indian National Congress (died 1906) 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
• 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 Francisco Bustamante, Filipino billiards player 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
• 1995 Rina Ikoma, Japanese singer and actress (Nogizaka46 and AKB48) 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
• 1944 Khasan Israilov, Chechen rebel (born 1910) 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
• 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

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 2026-10-09 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.