On this day: May 29

Events on May 29

• 757 Election of pope Paul I following the death of pope Stephen II in the previous month. Wikipedia
• 1176 Wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines: Troops of the Lombard League defeated forces of the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Legnano in present-day Italy. Wikipedia
• 1233 Mongol–Jin War: The Mongols entered and began looting Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin dynasty of China, after a 13-month siege. Wikipedia
• 1416 A squadron of the Venetian navy captured many Ottoman ships at the Battle of Gallipoli, confirming Venetian naval superiority in the Aegean Sea for the next few decades. Wikipedia
• 1453 With the fall of Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans. Wikipedia
• 1660 English Restoration: Charles II is restored to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. Wikipedia
• 1790 Rhode Island becomes the last of North America's original Thirteen Colonies to ratify the Constitution and become one of the United States. Wikipedia
• 1792 The Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was disbanded following the Russian invasion of Poland. Wikipedia
• 1851 Sojourner Truth delivered her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at the Woman's Rights Convention in Akron. Wikipedia
• 1852 Swedish operatic soprano Jenny Lind concluded a successful concert tour of the United States under the management of showman P. T. Barnum. Wikipedia
• 1867 The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 ("the Compromise") is born through Act 12, which establishes the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Wikipedia
• 1900 N'Djamena, now the capital of Chad, was founded as Fort-Lamy by French commander Émile Gentil. Wikipedia
• 1911 English dramatist W. S. Gilbert of the songwriting duo Gilbert and Sullivan died while saving a young woman from drowning in his lake. Wikipedia
• 1913 During the premiere of the ballet Le Sacre du printemps by Igor Stravinsky at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a near-riot in the audience. Wikipedia
• 1918 World War I: Armenian forces defeated Ottoman troops at the Battle of Sardarabad, halting the Turkish advance and preventing further destruction of the Armenian nation. Wikipedia
• 1935 A strike by copper miners in Northern Rhodesia ended after six workers were shot and killed by police. Wikipedia
• 1942 Bing Crosby recorded his version of the song "White Christmas", which went on to become the best-selling single worldwide, with more than 50 million copies sold. Wikipedia
• 1953 The mountaineers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Wikipedia
• 1954 Diane Leather became the first woman to run a mile in less than five minutes. Wikipedia
• 1964 The Arab League meets in East Jerusalem to discuss the Palestinian question, leading to the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Wikipedia
• 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster: Thirty-nine association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses. Wikipedia
• 1989 Signing of an agreement between Egypt and the United States that allows for the manufacture of F-16 Falcon parts in Egypt. Wikipedia
• 1999 Charlotte Perrelli, representing Sweden, won the Eurovision Song Contest, the first edition not to feature an orchestra or live accompaniment. Wikipedia
• 1999 President Olusegun Obasanjo took office as Nigeria's first elected and civilian head of state after 16 years of military dictatorship. Wikipedia
• 2011 Residents of Portland, Oregon, held a rally called Hands Across Hawthorne in response to an attack against a gay couple holding hands while crossing the Hawthorne Bridge. Wikipedia
• 2020 An oil spill in Norilsk released 17,500 tons of diesel oil into nearby rivers. Wikipedia

Born on May 29

• 1630 Charles II of England (died 1685) Wikipedia
• 1736 Patrick Henry, American lawyer and politician, 1st Governor of Virginia (died 1799) Wikipedia
• 1860 Isaac Albéniz, Spanish pianist and composer (died 1909) Wikipedia
• 1874 G. K. Chesterton, English essayist, poet, and playwright (died 1936) Wikipedia
• 1880 Oswald Spengler, German historian and philosopher (died 1936) Wikipedia
• 1892 Alfonsina Storni, Swiss-Argentinian poet and author (died 1938) Wikipedia
• 1903 Bob Hope, English-American actor, singer, and producer (died 2003) Wikipedia
• 1914 Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese-Indian mountaineer (died 1986) Wikipedia
• 1917 John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (died 1963) Wikipedia
• 1926 Abdoulaye Wade, Senegalese academic and politician, 3rd President of Senegal Wikipedia
• 1929 Peter Higgs, English-Scottish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1953 Danny Elfman, American film composer, singer-songwriter, producer, and actor Wikipedia
• 1958 Annette Bening, American actress Wikipedia
• 1959 Rupert Everett, English actor and novelist Wikipedia
• 1967 Noel Gallagher, English singer-songwriter and guitarist Wikipedia
• 1972 Laverne Cox, American actress and LGBT advocate Wikipedia
• 1973 Alpay Özalan, Turkish footballer Wikipedia
• 1977 Massimo Ambrosini, Italian footballer Wikipedia
• 1979 Arne Friedrich, German footballer Wikipedia
• 1981 Andrey Arshavin, Russian footballer Wikipedia
• 1984 Carmelo Anthony, American basketball player Wikipedia
• 2006 Gukesh Dommaraju, Indian chess player Wikipedia

Died on May 29

• 1453 Constantine XI Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (born 1404) Wikipedia
• 1500 Bartolomeu Dias, Portuguese explorer and navigator (born 1451) Wikipedia
• 1814 Joséphine de Beauharnais, French empress, first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte (born 1763) Wikipedia
• 1829 Humphry Davy, English-Swiss chemist and academic (born 1778) Wikipedia
• 1892 Bahá'u'lláh, Persian religious leader, founded the Baháʼí Faith (born 1817) Wikipedia
• 1910 Mily Balakirev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1837) Wikipedia
• 1958 Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1881) Wikipedia
• 1979 Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress, producer, and screenwriter, co-founder of United Artists (born 1892) Wikipedia
• 1982 Romy Schneider, German-French actress (born 1938) Wikipedia
• 1987 Charan Singh, Indian politician, 5th Prime Minister of India (born 1902) Wikipedia
• 1994 Erich Honecker, German lawyer and politician, leader of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) (born 1912) Wikipedia
• 2010 Dennis Hopper, American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1936) Wikipedia
• 2011 Sergei Bagapsh, Abkhazian politician, 2nd President of Abkhazia (born 1949) Wikipedia
• 2017 Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and politician, Military Leader of Panama (born 1934) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Army Day (Argentina) Wikipedia
• Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh (Baháʼí Faith) (Only if Baháʼí Naw-Rúz falls on March 21 of the Gregorian calendar) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bona of Pisa Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Hypomone (Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Joseph Gérard Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maximin of Trier Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Alexander of Alexandria (Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Paul VI Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Richard Thirkeld Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Theodosia of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ursula Ledóchowska Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: May 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers (International) Wikipedia
• Oak Apple Day (England), and its related observance: Castleton Garland Day (Castleton) Wikipedia
• Veterans Day (Sweden) Wikipedia
• Democracy Day (Nigeria) Wikipedia

Sources

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