March 29 is the 88th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (89th in Leap years). There are 277 days remaining.

Events

• 537 - Vigilius was consecrated and enthroned as Pope, replacing Silverius.
• 1461 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England.
• 1638 - Swedish colonists establish first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden.
• 1792 - King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade at Stockholm's Royal Opera just 13 days earlier. He is succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf.
• 1799 - New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state
• 1806 - Construction authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway.
• 1809 - King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicated after a coup d'état. At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland's four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden.
• 1847 - Mexican-American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.
• 1848 - An upstream ice jam stops almost all water flow over Niagara Falls.
• 1849 - The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab
• 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Appomattox Court House begins
• 1867 - Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes the Dominion of Canada on July 1.
• 1871 - The Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.
• 1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
• 1882 - The Knights of Columbus are established.
• 1911 - Designed by John Browning, the M1911 semi-automatic handgun became the standard-issue handgun in the United States Army, and was subsequently widely used in World War I, World War II and the Korean War.
• 1930 - Heinrich Brüning is appointed German Reichskanzler.
• 1941 - World War II: British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy forces intercepted those of the Italian Regia Marina off the Peloponnesus coast of Greece in the Battle of Cape Matapan.
• 1945 - World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England.
• 1951 - Red Scare: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.
• 1953 - A fire at a nursing home in Largo, Florida kills 35 people.
• 1961 - The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, DC to vote in presidential elections.
• 1969 - In Madrid, Spain, four different performers tie for first place at the fourteenth Eurovision Song Contest. The medals are shared by Spain's Salomé singing "Vivo cantando" (I live singing), United Kingdom's Lulu singing "Boom Bang-a-bang", Netherlands' Lenny Kuhr singing "De troubadour" (The troubadour), and France's Frida Boccara singing "Un jour, un enfant" (One day, a child...)
• 1971 - My Lai massacre: Lt. William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
• 1971 - A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers.
• 1973 - Vietnam War: The last United States soldiers leave South Vietnam.
• 1974 - NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first spaceprobe to fly by Mercury. It was launched on November 3, 1973.
• 1981 - First running of the London Marathon
• 1982 - The Canada Act 1982 (U.K.) receives the Royal Assent by Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982
• 1982 - Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney release their single Ebony and Ivory
• 1984 - The Baltimore Colts of the NFL moved to Indianapolis in the middle of the night.
• 1985 - The first Care Bears Movie, produced by Canadian animation studio Nelvana Limited, is released in US theatres by The Samuel Goldwyn Company.
• 1993 - Catherine Callbeck becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island and Canada's first female premier.
• 1993 - Edouard Balladur becomes Prime Minister of France
• 1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10006.78 – above the 10,000 mark for the first time ever.
• 2001 - A chartered Gulfstream III jet crashes into a hillside during approach into Aspen, Colorado, killing 18 people.
• 2004 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members.
• 2004 - The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.
• 2006 - Predicted total solar eclipse.

Births

• 1790 - John Tyler, 10th President of the United States (d. 1862)
• 1826 - Wilhelm Liebknecht, journalist and politician (d. 1900)
• 1835 - Gustaf Zander , physician (d. 1920)
• 1867 - Cy Young, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1955)
• 1874 - Lou Hoover, First Lady of the United States (d. 1944)
• 1889 - Warner Baxter, actor (d. 1951)
• 1891 - Yvan Goll, lyricist and dramatist (d. 1950)
• 1892 - József Cardinal Mindszenty, Hungarian Cardinal (d. 1975)
• 1895 - Ernst Jünger, author (d. 1998)
• 1897 - Ruby Muhammad, Mother of Islam
• 1899 - Lavrenty Beria, Soviet Communist leader (d. 1953)
• 1900 - John McEwen, eighteenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1980)
• 1901 - Carl Barks, cartoonist, inventor of Duckburg (d. 2000)
• 1901 - Andrija Maurovic, Croatian illustrator (d. 1981)
• 1902 - Marcel Aymé, narrator and dramatist, humorist and satirist (d. 1967)
• 1902 - William Walton, composer (d. 1983)
• 1905 - Philip Ahn, Korean-American actor (d. 1978)
• 1908 - Arthur O'Connell, actor (d. 1981)
• 1908 - Dennis O'Keefe, American actor (d. 1968)
• 1911 - Brigitte Horney , actress (d. 1988)
• 1912 - Hanna Reitsch, German aviator (d. 1979)
• 1913 - Tony Zale, world champion boxer (d. 1997)
• 1913 - R. S. Thomas, Welsh poet (d. 2000)
• 1914 - Phil Foster , American actor (d. 1985)
• 1916 - Eugene McCarthy, American politician
• 1918 - Pearl Bailey, singer, actress (d. 1990)
• 1918 - Sam Walton, US businessman, founder of Wal-Mart (d. 1992)
• 1919 - Eileen Heckart, American actress (d. 2001)
• 1927 - John McLaughlin, American political commentator
• 1929 - Lennart Meri, Estonian writer, politician
• 1931 - Aleksei Gubarev, cosmonaut
• 1936 - Judith Guest , American author
• 1937 - Billy Carter, Presidential brother (d. 1988)
• 1940 - Ray Davis (aka Stingray Davis), musician (P-Funk)
• 1943 - Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, aka Vangelis, new age musician
• 1943 - Eric Idle, actor, writer, composer (Monty Python's Flying Circus)
• 1943 - John Major, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1944 - Denny McLain, baseball pitcher
• 1944 - Terry Jacks, Canadian musician, songrwriter, activist
• 1945 - Walt Frazier, basketball player
• 1948 - Bud Cort, American actor
• 1952 - Teofilo Stevenson, boxer
• 1954 - Karen Ann Quinlan, right-to-die activist (d. 1985)
• 1955 - Earl Campbell, American football star
• 1955 - Christopher Lawford, American actor
• 1956 - Kurt Thomas , gymnast
• 1957 - Christopher Lambert, French actor
• 1959 - Perry Farrell, musician ("Jane's Addiction", "Porno for Pyros")
• 1960 - Marina Sirtis, actress (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
• 1964 - Elle Macpherson, model
• 1968 - Lucy Lawless, actress (Xena: Warrior Princess), singer
• 1976 - Jennifer Capriati, professional tennis player

Deaths

• 1058 - Pope Stephen X
• 1772 - Emanuel Swedenborg, philosopher and mathematician (b. 1688)
• 1792 - King Gustav III of Sweden, after being shot on March 16 (b. 1746)
• 1826 - Johann Heinrich Voß, German poet (b. 1751)
• 1855 - Henri Druey, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1799)
• 1906 - Slava Raskaj, painter (b. 1878)
• 1912 - Robert Falcon Scott, explorer (b. 1868)
• 1934 - Otto Hermann Kahn, millionaire and benefactor (b. 1867)
• 1937 - Karol Szymanowski, composer (b. 1882)
• 1959 - Barthelemy Boganda , first President of the Central African Republic
• 1972 - Lord J. Arthur Rank, movie theater owner (b. 1888)
• 1980 - Mantovani, "easy listening" conductor and arranger (b. 1905)
• 1985 - Luther Terry , Surgeon General of the United States
• 1991 - Lee Atwater, Republican advisor (b. 1951)
• 1999 - Joe Williams, American jazz singer, actor
• 1992 - Paul Henreid, actor (b. 1908)
• 1994 - Eugène Ionesco, Romanian playwright
• 1994 - Bill Travers , British actor
• 1999 - Joe Williams, jazz singer (b. 1918)
• 2001 - Helge Ingstad, explorer (b. 1899)
• 2001 - John Lewis, American jazz pianist
• 2003 - Dr. Carlo Urbani, discoverer of SARS (b. 1956)
• 2004 - Sir Peter Ustinov, British actor (b. 1921)
• 2005 - Johnnie Cochran, American lawyer (b. 1937)
• 2005 - Grant Johannesen, American concert pianist (b. 1921)

Holidays and observances

• Festival of Ishtar

External links

• BBC: On This Day

March 28 - March 30 - February 28 (February 29) - April 29 -- listing of all days