1929 CE

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 devastates global markets, sparking the Great Depression and years of economic hardship; the Lateran Treaty establishes Vatican City as an independent state, resolving the “Roman Question”; the 1929 Palestine riots erupt across Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed, killing hundreds and deepening Jewish-Arab tensions; the Sino-Soviet conflict (1929) erupts over the Chinese Eastern Railway, leading to a brief military clash; the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre shocks Chicago with the murder of seven North Side Gang members during Prohibition; and the 1st Academy Awards are held in Hollywood, inaugurating the Oscars.

In the 1920s, the 20th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

February 9 – "Litvinov's Pact" is signed in Moscow by the Soviet Union, Poland, Estonia, Romania and Latvia, who agree not to use force to settle disputes between themselves.source
9 February – Litvinov's Pact is signed.Soviet Union source
February 11 – The Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See of the Catholic Church sign the Lateran Treaty, to establish the Vatican City as an independent sovereign enclave within Rome, resolving the "Roman Question".source
February 26 – Grand Teton National Park is established by the United States Congress.source
March 4 – The National Revolutionary Party (Partido Nacional Revolucionario) is established in Mexico, by ex-President Plutarco Elías Calles. Under a succession of names, it will hold power in the country continuously for the next 71 years.source
March 4 – Charles Curtis takes office as the first multiracial Vice President of the United States.source
30 March – Romania signs the Litvinov Protocol.Romania source
April 3 – Persia signs the Litvinov Protocol.source
30 May – United Kingdom general election.Northern Ireland source
May 31 – The United Kingdom general election again returns a hung parliament; the Liberals in Parliament determine which party will govern.source
June 3 – The Treaty of Lima settles a border dispute between Peru and Chile.source
June 7 – The Lateran Treaty, making Vatican City a sovereign state, is ratified.source
June 8 – Ramsay MacDonald forms the United Kingdom's second Labour government.source
June 21 – An agreement brokered by U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow helps end the Cristero War in Mexico.source
8 July – Artur Ivens Ferraz takes over as Prime Minister, succeeding José Vicente de FreitasPortugal source
July 24 – The Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it was first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928, by most leading world powers).source
July 27 – Geneva Convention (1929), also known as "Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Geneva July 27, 1929", is signedSwitzerland source
July 29 – the French prime minister Raymond Poincaré resigns, and is succeeded by Aristide Briand.source
August 31 – The Young Plan, which sets the total World War I reparations owed by Germany at US$26,350,000,000 to be paid over a period of 58½ years, is finalized.source
September 5 – Aristide Briand presents his plan for the United States of Europe.source
October 3 – The country officially known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes changes its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.source
October 12 – 1929 Australian federal election: The Labor Party, led by James Scullin, defeats the Nationalist/Country Coalition Government, led by Prime Minister Stanley Bruce. Scullin will be sworn in on October 22. Notably, this is the first occasion in Australian political history where a sitting prime minister loses his own seat (the second being John Howard in 2007).source
November 1 – Conscription in Australia ends.source
November 17 – 1929 Mexican presidential election: Pascual Ortiz Rubio of the National Revolutionary Party is elected the new President. It is now widely thought that the election was rigged.Mexico source
December 29 – The All India Congress in Lahore demands Indian independence.source
Slavery in Jordan is abolished.source
The Zionist Commission renames itself as the Palestine Zionist Executive.Mandatory Palestine source
Ruling party – Republican People's Party (CHP)Turkey source

Conflict & Security

January 6 – 6 January Dictatorship: King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution.source
January 17 – Kabul falls to Habibullāh Kalakāni's forces, beginning a 9-month period of Saqqawist rule in Afghanistan while the Afghan Civil War continues.source
February 14 – "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre": Five gangsters (rivals of Al Capone), plus a civilian, are shot dead in Chicago.source
February 21 – In the first battle of the Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong against the Nationalist government of China, a 24,000-strong rebel force led by Zhang Zongchang is defeated at Zhifu by 7,000 NRA troops.source
March 3 – A revolt by Generals José Gonzalo Escobar and Jesús María Aguirre fails in Mexico.source
March 3 – Escobar Rebellion: A revolt by Generals José Gonzalo Escobar and Jesús María Aguirre, challenging the power of Plutarco Elías Calles, ends in failure.Mexico source
March 28 – Japanese forces withdraw from Shandong province to their garrison in Qingdao, bringing an end to the Jinan Incident.source
June 1 – The 1st Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires.source
9 July – Hans Andersen Foss, author, newspaper editor and temperance leader in America (born 1851)Norway source
22 July – 9 September – Sino-Soviet conflict (1929)Soviet Union source
July 27 – The Geneva Convention addresses the treatment of prisoners of war.source
August 16 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out between Palestinians and Jews in Mandatory Palestine, and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Palestinians are killed.source
16 August – Tensions are raised in Jerusalem by a 2,000-strong Muslim counter-demonstration after Friday prayers during which youths chase Jewish worshippers from the Western Wall and burn prayer petitions and books.Mandatory Palestine source
September 17 – A coup ousts Augustinas Voldemaras from his prime minister position in Lithuania; he is replaced by the brother-in-law of President Antanas Smetona, Juozas Tūbelis.source
October 13 – Afghan Civil War ends.source
October 18–24: battle at Zhengzhou, Henan between Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army and National Revolutionary ArmyChina source
October 22 – The government of Aristide Briand falls in France.source
5 November – Nightmarch wins the Melbourne Cup.Australia source
December 28 – "Black Saturday" in Samoa: New Zealand colonial police kill 11 unarmed demonstrators, an event which leads the Mau movement to demand independence for Samoa.source
Wop May and Vic Horner brave poor visibility and −30 °C temperatures in an open cockpit to rush diphtheria anti-toxin to Fort Vermilion.Canada source
23–24 August – 1929 Palestine riots: In the 1929 Hebron massacre, Arab rioters massacre 67 Jews and wound 60 others; 435 Jews survive by virtue of the shelter and assistance offered them by their Arab neighbours, who hid them.Mandatory Palestine source
Men: Sloan Morpeth (Maungakiekie) – 3rd titleNew Zealand source

Exploration & Expansion

27 March - The opening of Gueiren Agriculture School in Tainan Prefecture.Taiwan source
March 30 – Imperial Airways begins operating the first commercial flights between London and Karachi.source
April 15 – Hankyu Department Store Osaka Umeda officially open in Kita-ku, Osaka.Japan source
31 July – Free State – Arlington to Lindley, 12 mi 26 ch.South Africa source
August 8–29 – German rigid airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin makes a circumnavigation of the Northern Hemisphere eastabout out of Lakehurst, New Jersey, including the first nonstop flight of any kind across the Pacific Ocean (Tokyo–Los Angeles).source
25 October – First international air mail (Between İstanbul and Berlin)Turkey source
The Australia national rugby league team embarked on the 1929–30 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain.Australia source
8–29 August – Rigid airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin makes a circumnavigation of the Northern Hemisphere eastabout out of Lakehurst, New Jersey, including the first nonstop flight of any kind across the Pacific Ocean (Tokyo–Los Angeles).Germany source
The founding of the agricultural settlement Pardes Hanna by the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association. The settlement is named after Hannah Rothschild, daughter of Nathan Mayer Rothschild.Mandatory Palestine source
Ballinger Belt – William Masefield (Sounds)New Zealand source

Religion & Belief

January 6 – Albanian missionary sister Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, later known as Mother Teresa, arrives in Calcutta from Ireland to begin her work in India.source
6 January - The abbey on Caldey Island is handed over by the Benedictine order to its new owners, Belgian Cistercians.Wales source
23 May – The religious Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva is founded in Jerusalem.Mandatory Palestine source
June 21 – Cristero War: The Mexican government and Archbishop Leopoldo Ruiz y Flóres sign an agreement which allowed worship to resume in Mexico and granted three concessions to the Catholics, bringing an end to the Cristero War.Mexico source
23 July – The Pro-Wailing Wall Committee is established by Joseph Klausner, Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University, to defend Jewish rights at the Western Wall.Mandatory Palestine source
July 25 – Pope Pius XI emerges from the Apostolic Palace, and enters St. Peter's Square in a huge procession witnessed by about 250,000 persons, thus ending nearly 60 years of self-imposed status by the papacy as Prisoner in the Vatican.source
2 October – the Union between the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland takes place.Scotland source
11 November: Edmonds Band Rotunda is formally opened in Christchurch.New Zealand source
19 November – Torleiv Hannaas, philologist (born 1874)Norway source
15 December – Beatification of the One Hundred and Seven Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Pius XI.United Kingdom source
December 27 – Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class".source

Economy & Finance

July 24 – Union Airways Pty. Ltd. is founded, to be nationalised as South African Airways, on 1 February 1934.source
17 August – The League Against Usury, a single-issue party founded in response to the Great Depression.Romania source
September 3 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks at 381.17, a height it would not reach again until November 1954.source
October 24–29 – Wall Street Crash of 1929: Three multi-digit percentage drops wipe out more than $30 billion from the New York Stock Exchange (10 times greater than the annual budget of the federal government).source
29 October - The US stock market crash causes a fall in coffee quotations to 60%.Brazil source
29 October: Black Tuesday. Wall Street crash triggers the 10-year Great Depression.New Zealand source
October – The Wall Street crash of 1929 marks a major turning point in Germany: following prosperity under the government of the Weimar Republic, foreign investors withdraw their German interests, beginning the crumbling of the Republican government in favor of Nazism. The number of unemployed reaches three million.Germany source
November 20 – Taiping Fire and Marine Insurance, as predecessor of China Taiping Insurance was founded in Shanghai.China source
Economic Depression in Estonia.Estonia source
The newspaper Ísafold merged with MorgunblaðiðIceland source

Technology & Infrastructure

January 10 – The first appearance of Hergé's Belgian comic book hero Tintin, as Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter..., au pays des Soviets), begins serialization in the children's newspaper supplement, Le Petit Vingtième.source
12 January – The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company broadcasts its first program for children, Children's Hour (Ora copiilor).Romania source
January 27 – An auto parts brand, Akebono Brake was founded, as predecessor name of Akebono Asbest Manufacturing.Japan source
March 2 – The longest bridge in the world at this time, the San Francisco Bay Toll-Bridge, opens.source
April 14 – The first edition of the Monaco Grand Prix is held.source
June 27 – The first public demonstration of color TV is held, by H. E. Ives and his colleagues at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York. The first images are a bouquet of roses and an American flag. A mechanical system is used to transmit 50-line color television images between New York and Washington.source
23 July – Construction of the first 1000 ft (300 m)-long ocean liner, RMMV Oceanic, for the White Star Line, begun by Harland and Wolff in Belfast in 1928, is cancelled.Northern Ireland source
July 25 – the Soviet government's Assistant Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Lev Karakhan, had issued a manifesto to the Chinese government promising the return of the Chinese Eastern Railway to Chinese control with no financial cost. (Sino-Soviet conflict (1929))China source
August 20 – John Logie Baird's experimental 30-line television system is first transmitted, by the British Broadcasting Corporation in London.source
September 30 – Fritz von Opel pilots the first rocket-powered aircraft, the Opel RAK.1, in front of a large crowd in Frankfurt am Main.source
1 October – The opening of Fugang railway station in Shinchiku Prefecture.Taiwan source
October 8 – Cubana de Aviación is founded.source
11 October – The maintenance of the Turkish battleship Yavuz was completedTurkey source
November – Vladimir Zworykin takes out the first patent for color television.source
German car company Opel is taken over by American company General Motors. General Motors assumed full control in 1931.Germany source
The first two of eight Class GL 4-8-2+2-8-4 Double Mountain type Garratt locomotives on the Durban-Cato Ridge section in Natal.South Africa source

Science & Discovery

7 February – The Monetary Act lays down the gold standard for the Romanian leu.Romania source
5 April – Ivar Giaever, physicist, shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973Norway source
April – The first of the Saccopastore skulls is discovered.Italy source
July 27 – The Red Crescent is adopted as an additional emblem of the League of Red Cross Societies.source
October 18 – On appeal from the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of "The Famous Five" Canadian women in the landmark case of Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General), the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the United Kingdom announces that women are "persons" under the British North America Acts, and thus eligible for appointment to the Senate of Canada.source
November 1 – An annular solar eclipse is seen over the Atlantic Ocean and Africa.source
November 29 – Bernt Balchen, U.S. Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Captain Ashley McKinley and Harold June become the first to fly over the South Pole.source
November 29 – Bernt Balchen, U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd, Captain Ashley McKinley, and Harold June, become the first to fly over the South Pole.United States source
Graça Aranha - A Viagem MaravilhosaBrazil source
Frozen fish fillets are introduced by the Biological Board of Canada developed by Archibald Huntsman.Canada source
26–31 August – The 18th Scandinavian Scientist Conference is held in Copenhagen.Denmark source
Date unknown: Steroid hormone Estrogen was isolated and purified estrone, the first estrogen to be discovered by Adolf ButenandtGermany source

Health & Medicine

6 January – Mother Teresa arrives in Kolkata to work amongst poor and sickIndia source
January 10 – Lomer Gouin becomes Quebec's 15th lieutenant governor, serving until his death on March 28, 1929.Canada source
May 20 – The Wickersham Commission begins its investigation of alcohol prohibition in the United States.United States source
July 27 – Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field (1929) is signedSwitzerland source
November – The Red Spear Society ceases to exist on the northern Shandong Peninsula as result of Liu Zhennian's counter-insurgency campaign.China source
Date unknown – Clinical application of cardiac catheterization begins with German physician Werner Forssmann in 1929, who inserted a catheter into the vein of his own forearm, guided it fluoroscopically into his right atrium, and took an X-ray picture of it.Germany source
Estimated population as of 31 December: 1,486,100.New Zealand source
Mads Gram, physician (born 1875)Norway source

Crime & Justice

18 January – Sir John Longstaff wins the 1928 Archibald Prize for his portrait of Alexander Leeper.Australia source
8 February – A Belfast court sentences Fianna Fáil leader Éamon de Valera to one month in jail for illegally entering County Armagh.Northern Ireland source
February – Pierre Charles becomes European heavyweight champion.Belgium source
8 March – Litla-Hraun prison establishedIceland source
2 May – Anders Svor, sculptor (born 1864)Norway source
May 13 – The National Crime Syndicate is founded in Atlantic City.United States source
October 25 – Former U.S. Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall is convicted of bribery for his role in the Teapot Dome scandal, becoming the first Presidential cabinet member to go to prison for actions in office.source
December – New York toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe popularizes Bingo after coming across the game of "Beano" in Atlanta, Georgia. After someone accidentally yells "bingo" instead of "beano" with a group of friends in Brooklyn, New York, he begins production of the game, going on to develop more than 6,000 card combinations under the E. S. Lowe company, as the popularity of the game grows to become a national pastime.source
Sangue Mineiro, directed by Humberto MauroBrazil source
Men's pair champions – A.G. Kinvig, F. Laurenson (skip) (Linwood Bowling Club)New Zealand source

Disasters & Accidents

21 January – Great fire in IstanbulTurkey source
March 22 – The Canadian schooner and rum-runner I'm Alone is sunk by the US Coast Guard's USCGC Dexter.Canada source
17 April – Rail disaster when Paris to Brussels Express runs into a goods train near Halle in thick mist.Belgium source
May 15 – Cleveland Clinic Fire of 1929United States source
9 July - After a collision with another vessel, HMS L12, the Royal Navy submarine H47 sinks off the Pembrokeshire coast, killing 21 crewmen.Wales source
August 29 – The SS San Juan collides with the oil tanker S.C.T. Dodd off the California coast, causing the San Juan to sink in 3 minutes, killing 77 people.source
September 6 – 1929 Jask Imperial Airways de Havilland Hercules crash.Iran source
September 7 – The steamship SS Kuru sank in Lake Näsijärvi near Tampere, Finland, leading to 138 people drowning.source
November 15 – Atlantic, a film drama about the sinking of the RMS Titanic, is released in the U.K. The simultaneously shot German-language version is the first sound film feature to be released in Germany.source
16 December – Rothbury Riot in which police shoot at locked out miners, killing Norman Brown.Australia source
31 December – Glen Cinema Disaster in Paisley: 69 children die trying to escape smoke.Scotland source

Climate & Environment

5 January – Schelde dike breached; flooding around Dendermonde.Belgium source
9 March: 1929 Arthur's Pass earthquake: A quake of Richter Magnitude 7.1 in the Arthur's Pass area causes extensive landslips and damage to roads and railways. There are no injuries.New Zealand source
4 April – 1929 Tasmanian floods: A dam on the Cascade River in Tasmania collapses. The subsequent torrent floods the town of Derby, killing fourteen people.Australia source
May 1 – The 7.2 Mw Kopet Dag earthquake shakes the Iran-Turkmenistan border region, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing up to 3,800 and injuring 1,121.source
May 1 – 1929 Kopet Dag earthquake.Iran source
1 May – 1929 Kopet Dag earthquakeSoviet Union source
8 May – Norway annexed the volcanic island Jan Mayen located in the Arctic Ocean.Norway source
11 November - 8.3 in of rain falls within a single day at Lluest-wen Reservoir, a record for a place in Wales. Below in the Rhondda this month, 400 people are made homeless by flooding.Wales source
November 18 – The 1929 Grand Banks earthquake occurs.source
Elisabeth Inglis-Jones - Starved FieldsWales source

Culture & Society

January 17 – The comic strip hero Popeye first appears in Thimble Theatre.source
January 29 – All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues), by Erich Maria Remarque, is published in book form.source
March 5 – Yi Peiji was appointed as the president of the National Palace Museum and the curator of the antiquities museum by Nationalist Government.China source
March 17 – The second of the Davos University Conferences opens in Switzerland; this includes the Cassirer–Heidegger debate in philosophy.source
10 April – Cape – Ceres to Prince Alfred Hamlet, 6 mi 25 ch.South Africa source
11 May – The first Balkan Cup is initiated with Romania a founding competitor.Romania source
May 16 – The 1st Academy Awards are presented in a 15-minute ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, honoring the best movies of 1927 and 1928, Wings (1927) winning Best Picture. Gerald Duffy (died 1928) receives the only Academy Award for Best Title Writing ever awarded (for his intertitles to the silent film The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927)).source
1 June – The 1st Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America opens in Buenos Aires.Argentina source
October 6 – Serie A, the top-class professional football league of Italy, replaces the Divisione Nazionale.source
November 7 – In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opens to the public. The first exhibition Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh and Seurat (November 7 – December 7) is seen by 47.000 visitors; the curator is Alfred H. Barr.source
Victor Horta, Palace of Fine Arts, Brussels (begun 1923)Belgium source
Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues) is first published in book formatGermany source
Bombay Flying Club is founded by JRD Tata.India source
1929 UCI Road World Championships took place in ZurichSwitzerland source

Births

9 January – Brian Friel, playwright (died 2015).Northern Ireland source
January 15 – Martin Luther King Jr., African-American civil rights leader and Nobel laureate (died 1968)source
January 27 – Mohamed Al-Fayed, Egyptian business magnate (died 2023)source
23 February – Jaan Einasto, Estonian astrophysicistEstonia source
April 24 – Rajkumar, Indian actor and singer (died 2006)source
May 4 – Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-born British actress and activist (died 1993)source
June 12 – Anne Frank, German-born diarist, Holocaust victim (died 1945)source
July 2 – Imelda Marcos, former First Lady of the Philippinessource
July 9 – King Hassan II of Morocco (died 1999)source
July 28 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States (died 1994)source
August 24 – Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader, Nobel laureate (died 2004)source
September 17 – Stirling Moss, British Formula One racing driver (died 2020)source
September 28 – Lata Mangeshkar, Indian singer (died 2022)source
28 September – Nikolai Ryzhkov, politician (died 2024)Soviet Union source
October 21 – Ursula K. Le Guin, American science-fiction, fantasy author (died 2018)source
November 12 – Grace Kelly, American actress, later Princess of Monaco (died 1982)source
December 9 – Bob Hawke, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia (died 2019)source
Yasser Arafat, Palestine leader who served as President of Palestine between1989 to 2004. (died 2004)Mandatory Palestine source

Deaths

January 13 – Wyatt Earp, American gunfighter and sheriff (born 1848)source
15 January – Priscilla Studd, Protestant Christian missionary, died in Spain (born 1864).Northern Ireland source
29 January – Jens Christian Johansen, engineer (born 1868 in Denmark)Estonia source
February 12 – Lillie Langtry, British singer, actress (born 1853)source
February 14 – St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven gangsters, rivals of Al Capone, are murdered in Chicago.United States source
18 March – Hamza Hakimzade Niyazi, Uzbek author, composer, playwright, poet, scholar, and political activist (born 1889)Soviet Union source
March 20 – Ferdinand Foch, French commander of Allied forces in World War I (born 1851)source
March 23 – Maurice Sarrail, French general (born 1856)source
April 4 – Karl Benz, German automotive pioneer (born 1844)source
May 21 – Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1847)source
August 3 – Thorstein Veblen, Norwegian-American economist (born 1857)source
August 23–24 – The 1929 Hebron massacre: 65–68 Jews are killed by Palestinians and the remaining Jews are forced to leave Hebron.source
23 August – 1929 Palestine riots: The 1929 Palestine riots break out following months of tension over the Western Wall, a large violent mob of Arabs, armed with knives, stormed out of the Damascus Gate and attacked the Jewish neighborhoods located outside the gate. 19 Jews are killed, a synagogue and other houses are destroyed and burned.Mandatory Palestine source
August 29 – The 1929 Palestine riots: 18–20 Jews are killed in Safed by Palestinian Arabs.source
August – Mary MacLane, Canadian feminist writer (born 1881)source
October 20 – José Batlle y Ordóñez, 3-time President of Uruguay (born 1856)source
October 28 – Bernhard von Bülow, German count and statesman, 8th Chancellor of Germany (born 1849)source
November 24 – Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France, leader during World War I (born 1841)source
December 10 – Harry Crosby, American publisher, poet (born 1898)source