On this day: May 29

Events on May 29

• 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
• 1416 Battle of Gallipoli: The Venetians under Pietro Loredan defeat a much larger Ottoman fleet off Gallipoli. Wikipedia
• 1453 With the fall of Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans. Wikipedia
• 1453 Fall of Constantinople: Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II capture Constantinople after a 53-day siege, ending the Roman Empire after over 2,000 years. Wikipedia
• 1555 The Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire sign a peace treaty to end the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1532–1555. 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
• 1852 Jenny Lind leaves New York after her two-year American tour. Wikipedia
• 1913 Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, France, provoking a near-riot. Wikipedia
• 1918 Armenia defeats the Ottoman Army in the Battle of Sardarabad. 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
• 1919 Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin. Wikipedia
• 1932 World War I veterans begin to assemble in Washington, D.C., in the Bonus Army to request cash bonuses promised to them to be paid in 1945. Wikipedia
• 1953 Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay's (adopted) 39th birthday. Wikipedia
• 1973 Tom Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, California. Wikipedia
• 1974 SETA, a Finnish LGBT rights organisation, is founded in Helsinki. Wikipedia
• 1985 Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months. Wikipedia
• 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster: Thirty-nine association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses. Wikipedia
• 1988 U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. 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
• 1993 The Miss Sarajevo beauty pageant is held in war-torn Sarajevo drawing global attention to the plight of its citizens. Wikipedia
• 1999 Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule. Wikipedia
• 2004 The National World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. Wikipedia
• 2005 France rejects the Constitution of the European Union in a national referendum. Wikipedia
• 2008 A doublet earthquake, of combined magnitude 6.1, strikes Iceland near the town of Selfoss, injuring 30 people. Wikipedia
• 2021 A Cessna Citation I/SP crashes into Percy Priest Lake in Tennessee, killing all six people on board, including actor Joe Lara and his wife Gwen Shamblin Lara. 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
• 1920 John Harsanyi, Hungarian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2000) 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
• 1955 John Hinckley Jr., American attempted assassin of Ronald Reagan Wikipedia
• 1958 Annette Bening, American actress Wikipedia
• 1959 Rupert Everett, English actor and novelist Wikipedia
• 1967 Noel Gallagher, English singer-songwriter and guitarist Wikipedia
• 1979 Arne Friedrich, German footballer Wikipedia
• 1981 Andrey Arshavin, Russian footballer Wikipedia
• 1984 Carmelo Anthony, American basketball player Wikipedia
• 2000 Gennaro Nigro, American soccer 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
• 1919 Robert Bacon, American colonel and politician, 39th United States Secretary of State (born 1860) Wikipedia
• 1946 Martin Gottfried Weiss, German SS officer, commandant of the Dachau concentration camp, executed war criminal (born 1905) 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
• 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
• 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

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 2026-10-09 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.