On this day: March 29

Events on March 29

• 845 Viking expansion: Viking raiders, possibly led by the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok, plundered and occupied Paris, holding the city for a large ransom. Wikipedia
• 1430 After an eight-year siege, the Ottoman Empire captured the city of Thessalonica from the Republic of Venice. Wikipedia
• 1461 Wars of the Roses: The Yorkists defeated the Lancastrian army at the Battle of Towton, allowing Edward IV to secure the English throne. Wikipedia
• 1800 William Matthews was ordained as the first Catholic priest born in British America. Wikipedia
• 1807 German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered Vesta, the brightest asteroid and second-most massive body in the asteroid belt. Wikipedia
• 1823 Joaquín de Oreamuno led a coup d'état that overthrew Rafael Francisco Osejo, attempting to restore allegiance to the Mexican Empire. Wikipedia
• 1831 Authorities held an inquest at New Town, Tasmania, into the deaths of a woman and two children who were fatally poisoned after eating smooth toadfish. Wikipedia
• 1857 Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry mutinies against the East India Company's rule in India and inspires the protracted Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny. Wikipedia
• 1865 American Civil War: The Appomattox campaign opened with the Battle of Lewis's Farm, in which the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was forced into a series of retreats that would culminate in their surrender. Wikipedia
• 1882 The Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization, was founded by Michael J. McGivney in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. Wikipedia
• 1941 The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement to define technical standards for AM band radio stations came into effect. Wikipedia
• 1941 Second World War: British and Australian ships defeated Italian Regia Marina vessels at the Battle of Cape Matapan. Wikipedia
• 1951 The King and I, a musical about Mongkut of Siam by Rodgers and Hammerstein, premiered on Broadway. Wikipedia
• 1968 The funeral of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, began in Moscow with tens of thousands of people in attendance. Wikipedia
• 1973 Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam. Wikipedia
• 1974 NASA's Mariner 10 became the first space probe to make a flyby of Mercury. Wikipedia
• 1974 A group of farmers in the Chinese province of Shaanxi discovered a vast collection of terracotta statues depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. Wikipedia
• 1975 Jeff Beck released Blow by Blow, his most successful album in the U.S., reaching the top five and selling over one million copies. Wikipedia
• 1981 Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen jointly won the Men's Elite Race and Joyce Smith won the Women's Elite Race in the inaugural London Marathon. Wikipedia
• 1982 Queen Elizabeth II granted royal assent to the Canada Act 1982, which ended any remaining constitutional dependence of Canada on the United Kingdom by a process known as patriation. Wikipedia
• 1999 The Chamoli earthquake, one of the strongest to hit the foothills of the Himalayas in more than 90 years, killed at least 100 people. Wikipedia
• 2004 Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia join NATO as full members. Wikipedia
• 2010 Islamist separatists of the Caucasus Emirate detonated two bombs on the Moscow Metro, killing 40 people and injuring 102 others. Wikipedia
• 2014 The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales took place following the passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. Wikipedia
• 2017 British prime minister Theresa May invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, formally beginning the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. Wikipedia
• 2021 The ship Ever Given is dislodged from the Suez Canal. Wikipedia

Born on March 29

• 1790 John Tyler, American lawyer and politician, 10th President of the United States (died 1862) Wikipedia
• 1799 Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1869) Wikipedia
• 1874 Lou Henry Hoover, American philanthropist and geologist, 33rd First Lady of the United States (died 1944) Wikipedia
• 1889 Warner Baxter, American actor (died 1951) Wikipedia
• 1895 Ernst Jünger, German philosopher and author (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1899 Lavrentiy Beria, Georgian-Russian general and politician (died 1953) Wikipedia
• 1918 Sam Walton, American businessman, founded Walmart and Sam's Club (died 1992) Wikipedia
• 1929 Lennart Meri, Estonian director and politician, 2nd President of Estonia (died 2006) Wikipedia
• 1943 John Major, English banker and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Wikipedia
• 1943 Vangelis, Greek keyboard player and songwriter (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1943 Eric Idle, English actor, comedian, musician and writer Wikipedia
• 1951 Roger Myerson, American economist and professor Wikipedia
• 1952 Bola Tinubu, Nigerian politician, President-elect of Nigeria Wikipedia
• 1955 Brendan Gleeson, Irish actor Wikipedia
• 1957 Christopher Lambert, American-French actor Wikipedia
• 1960 Jo Nesbø, Norwegian writer, musician and football player Wikipedia
• 1964 Elle Macpherson, Australian model and actress Wikipedia
• 1967 Michel Hazanavicius, French director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1968 Lucy Lawless, New Zealand actress Wikipedia
• 1976 Jennifer Capriati, American tennis player Wikipedia
• 1991 N'Golo Kanté, French footballer Wikipedia
• 1991 Irene, South Korean idol, actress and television host Wikipedia

Died on March 29

• 1058 Pope Stephen IX (born 1020) Wikipedia
• 1772 Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish astronomer, philosopher, and theologian (born 1688) Wikipedia
• 1792 Gustav III, Swedish king (born 1746) Wikipedia
• 1848 John Jacob Astor, German-American businessman (born 1763) Wikipedia
• 1891 Georges Seurat, French painter (born 1859) Wikipedia
• 1912 Robert Falcon Scott, English lieutenant and explorer (born 1868) Wikipedia
• 1937 Karol Szymanowski, Polish pianist and composer (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 1982 Carl Orff, German composer and educator (born 1895) Wikipedia
• 2016 Patty Duke, American actress (born 1946) Wikipedia
• 2017 Alexei Abrikosov, Russian physicist, 2003 Nobel laureate in Physics (born 1928) Wikipedia
• 2019 Agnès Varda, French film director (born 1928) Wikipedia
• 2020 Krzysztof Penderecki, Polish composer and conductor (born 1933) Wikipedia
• 2024 Louis Gossett Jr., American actor (born 1936) Wikipedia
• 2025 Richard Chamberlain, American actor (born 1934) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Armogastes Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Berthold of Calabria Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gwynllyw Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jonas and Barachisius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ludolph of Ratzeburg Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: March 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Boganda Day (Central African Republic) Wikipedia
• Commemoration of the 1947 Rebellion (Madagascar) Wikipedia
• National Vietnam War Veterans Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Day of the Young Combatant (Chile) Wikipedia
• Youth Day (Taiwan) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “March 29” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/March 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 “March 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 March 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.