29th November

Events

• 1777 - San Jose, California, founded. It is the first pueblo in Alta California.
• 1864 - Indian Wars: Sand Creek Massacre - Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 400 Cheyenne and Arapahoe noncombatants at Sand Creek, Colorado (where they had been given permission to camp).
• 1872 - Indian Wars: Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.
• 1877 - Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.
• 1890 - The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan and the first Diet convenes.
• 1890 - In West Point, New York, the United States Navy defeats the United States Army 24 to 0 in the first Army-Navy football game.
• 1929 - US Admiral Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole.
• 1944 - World War II: Albania is liberated from German occupation.
• 1945 - The People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is declared (this day was celebrated as Republic Day until the 1990s).
• 1947 - The United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine between Arabs and Jews.
• 1948 - The children's television program Kukla, Fran and Ollie debuts.
• 1950 - Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force a desperate retreat of United Nations forces from North Korea.
• 1952 - Korean War: US president-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.
• 1954 - The main immigration port-of-entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island closes (the facility had processed more than 20 million immigrants since opening in 1892).
• 1961 - Mercury program: Mercury-Atlas 5 is launched with Enos the chimp aboard (the spacecraft orbited the Earth twice and splashed-down off the coast of Puerto Rico).
• 1963 - John F. Kennedy assassination: US President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
• 1963 - A Douglas DC-8 carrying Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 831 crashes into a wooded hillside after taking-off from Dorval Airport near Montreal, killing all 118 on board (for many years this was the worst air disaster in Canada's history).
• 1967 - Vietnam War: US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his pending resignation and that he will become president of the World Bank. This action was the result of US President Lyndon B. Johnson's outright rejection of McNamara's early November recommendations to freeze troop levels, stop bombing North Vietnam and handing over ground fighting to South Vietnam.
• 1975 - The name "Micro-soft" (for microcomputer software) is used by Bill Gates in a letter to Paul Allen for the first time (Microsoft became a registered trademark on November 26, 1976).
• 1981 - Off Santa Catalina Island, 43-year old actress Natalie Wood drowns during a boating accident.
• 1982 - Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: The United Nations General Assembly passes United Nations Resolution 3737, stating that the Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan.
• 1987 - A Korean Air Boeing 707 exploded over the Thai-Burmese border killing 155.
• 1990 - Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.
• 1992 - Dennis Byrd of the New York Jets is paralyzed by a neck injury during a football game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Births

• 1762 - Pierre-Andre Latreille, French zoologist (d. 1833)
• 1797 - Gaetano Donizetti, opera composer (d. 1848)
• 1803 - Gottfried Semper, architect (d. 1879)
• 1803 - Christian Doppler, physicist (d. 1853)
• 1813 - Franz von Miklosich, linguist (d. 1891)
• 1816 - Morrison Waite, 7th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1888)
• 1832 - Louisa May Alcott, writer (d.1888)
• 1849 - Sir Ambrose Fleming, physicist (d. 1945)
• 1856 - Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, German Reichskanzler and Prime Minister of Prussia (d. 1921)
• 1876 - Nellie Tayloe Ross, politician (d. 1977)
• 1881 - Julius Raab, politician and Austrian Bundeskanzler (d. 1964)
• 1895 - Busby Berkeley, film director, choreographer (d. 1976)
• 1895 - William Tubman, president of Liberia (d. 1971)
• 1896 - Yakima Canutt, actor, stunt man (d. 1986)
• 1898 - C. S. Lewis, writer (d. 1963)
• 1904 - Egon Eiermann, architect (d. 1970)
• 1908 - Adam Clayton Powell Jr., U.S. civil rights leader and politician (d. 1972)
• 1915 - Billy Strayhorn, musician, composer (d. 1967)
• 1917 - Merle Travis, country music singer (d. 1983)
• 1921 - Dagmar, television personality (d. 2001)
• 1927 - Vin Scully, baseball announcer
• 1932 - Diane Ladd, actress
• 1932 - Jacques Chirac, French political leader
• 1933 - John Mayall, blues musician
• 1938 - Michel Duchaussoy
• 1940 - Chuck Mangione, musician
• 1943 - Sue Miller, author
• 1947 - Petra Kelly, politician (d. 1992)
• 1949 - Garry Shandling, comedian, actor, writer, producer, director
• 1953 - Christine Pascale, actress (d. 1996)
• 1954 - Joel Coen, director, producer, writer
• 1955 - Howie Mandel, actor
• 1956 - Hinton Battle, dancer
• 1960 - Cathy Moriarty, actress
• 1961 - Kim Delaney, actress
• 1963 - Andrew McCarthy, actor
• 1964 - Don Cheadle, actor
• 1971 - Gena Lee Nolin, actress

Deaths

• 1314 - King Philippe IV of France
• 1530 - Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, adviser to King Henry VIII of England
• 1643 - Claudio Monteverdi, Italian composer
• 1694 - Marcello Malpighi, Italian physician
• 1847 - Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, Washington state pioneers
• 1924 - Giacomo Puccini, composer
• 1953 - Sam De Grasse, pioneer Hollywood actor
• 1954 - Enrico Fermi, physicist
• 1957 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold, composer
• 1975 - Graham Hill, automobile racer
• 1981 - Natalie Wood, actress
• 1986 - Cary Grant, actor
• 1991 - Frank Yerby, author
• 1999 - Gene Rayburn, game show host
• 2001 - George Harrison, musician (The Beatles)

Holidays and observances

• International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
• National Day in Albania

See also

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December