/year

January 29 in history

177 sourced entries recorded on January 29, from 320 CE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 870Anarchy at Samarra: The rebel Salih ibn Wasif is hunted down and killed in Abbasid Samarra by troops of Musa ibn Bugha al-Kabir.source
  • 1007Ranking ceremony of Murasaki Shikibu – as a renowned writer and lady-in-waiting, tutor of Empress Shōshi, she is elevated to the highest position in the palace below the empress.source
  • 1223Battle of Viljandi: During a church service, the Sakalians attack the Germans inside the stronghold of Viljandi Castle. The Estonian forces kill members of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and many merchants.source
  • 1367At Chur in what is now the Swiss Canton of Raetia, the League of God's House is founded in the Old Swiss Confederacy as an agreement between nine communities to come to each other's aid in the event of a crisis.source
  • 1372John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and the third son of England's King Edward III, begins a claim to the throne of Spain's Crown of Castile after his September 21 marriage to Princess Constance of Castile. King Pedro of Castile, who was killed by his brother, who took control as King Enrique II, in 1369.source
  • 1402King Jogaila of the Poland–Lithuania Union answers the rumblings against his rule of Poland, by marrying Anna of Celje, a granddaughter of Casimir III of Poland.source
  • 1412The "Mining Code" (Zakon o Rudnishma) is enacted in Serbia by the Despot Stefan Lazarević to regulate the extraction of minerals.source
  • 1465Amadeus IX becomes Duke of Savoy.source
  • 1485The siege of Vienna, capital of the Holy Roman Empire, is started by the Black Army of the Kingdom of Hungary in the ninth year of the ongoing Austrian-Hungarian War. Vienna is defended by a force of only 3,000 soldiers and cavalry, against 28,000 soldiers and cavalry of the Black Army, and the city falls to Hungary within four months.source
  • 1487Richard Foxe becomes Bishop of Exeter.source
  • 1510The Mary Rose ship is laid out. The next year the ship is launched on July 29, 1511, and is afterwards towed to London to be fitted, and is finally completed in 1512. In 1545, during the Battle of the Solent, she sank. The reason for her sinking is disputed with contemporary accounts claiming the ship was heeled over or sank by French ships with gunfire, although modern historians believe it was sunk due to being unstable.source
  • 1574Off of the coast of the Netherlands, the Battle of the Scheldt is fought between the Spanish Fleet and a combined Dutch and English fleet of ships. The Spanish Navy loses 15 ships and 1,200 men are killed, wounded or captured.source
  • 1592Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini of San Pancrazio is elected as the new Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church after Ludovico Madruzzo and Giulio Antonio Santori withdraw following 19 rounds of voting by the 54 cardinals present. Cardinal Santori had received 28 votes on the first ballot, eight short of the necessary two-thirds majority required, and fewer on the rounds that followed. Aldobrandini is crowned the next day as Pope Clement VIII, the 231st pope. Clement succeeds Pope Innocent IX, who died on December 30, 1591. He immediately recalls the Sixtine Vulgate.source
  • 1598In what is now South Korea, a force of 50,000 troops of the Korean kingdom of Joseon and Chinese Ming dynasty troops begins the siege of Ulsan, a Japanese-controlled castle located in the southwest port of Ulsan on the Sea of Japan.source
  • 1606Explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queirós of Portugal, accompanied by a party of 160 men on the ships San Pedro, San Pablo and Los Tres Reyes, leads the first Europeans to discover the Pitcairn Islands.source
  • 1616Dutch captain Willem Schouten, in the Eendracht, rounds the southern tip of South America, and names it Kaap Hoorn, after his birthplace in Holland.source
  • 1621Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares the Elector of the Palatinate, Frederick V, to be a traitor to the Empire.source
  • 1645English Civil War: Armistice talks open at Uxbridge.source
  • 164529 January–22 February – English Civil War: Treaty of Uxbridge, armistice talks at Uxbridge, which prove fruitless.source
  • 1649Serfdom in Russia begins legally as the Sobornoye Ulozheniye (Соборное уложение, "Code of Law") is signed by members of the Zemsky Sobor, the parliament of the estates of the realm in the Tsardom of Russia. Slaves and free peasants are consolidated by law into the new hereditary class of "serfs", and the Russian nobility are given the exclusive privilege of owning the serfs.source
  • 1657Rule of the Major-Generals (regional military government) in England is abolished.source
  • 1661The Rokeby baronets, a British nobility title is created.source
  • 1676Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia.source
  • 1686In Guatemala, Spanish Army Captain Melchor Rodríguez Mazariegos leads a campaign to conquer the indigenous Maya people in the rain forests of Lacandona, departing from Huehuetenango to rendezvous with the colonial governor at San Mateo Ixtatán.source
  • 1688Madame Jeanne Guyon, French mystic, is arrested in France and imprisoned for seven months.source
  • 1694French missionary Jean-Baptiste Labat arrives in the New World, landing at the Caribbean island of Martinique.source
  • 1728The Beggar's Opera, the most popular theatrical production of the 18th century, is performed for the first time. The premiere takes place at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London. Written by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch, the ballad opera is a satire of Italian opera.source
  • 1728The first performance of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. A major success it leads to a theatre boom and is followed by a number of other ballad operas imitating its style.source
  • 1735The Kemeys baronetcy of Cefn Mabli becomes extinct on the death of Sir Charles Kemeys, 4th Baronet. His property at Cefn Mably is inherited by Sir Charles Tynte, 5th Baronet.source
  • 1753After a month's absence, Elizabeth Canning returns to her mother's home in London and claims that she was abducted; the following criminal trial causes an uproar.source
  • 1753after a month's absence, Elizabeth Canning returns to her mother's home in London and claims that she was abducted. The following criminal trial causes uproar.source
  • 1765One week before his death, Mir Jafar, who had been enthroned as the Nawab of Bengal and ruler of the Bengali people with the support and protection of the British East India Company, abdicates in favor of his 18-year-old son, Najmuddin Ali Khan.source
  • 1769The Royal Danish Agricultural Society is founded.source
  • 1779After a second petition for partition from its residents, the North Carolina General Assembly abolishes Bute County, North Carolina (established 1764) by dividing it and naming the northern portion Warren County (for Revolutionary War hero Joseph Warren), the southern portion Franklin County (for Benjamin Franklin). The General Assembly also establishes Warrenton (also named for Joseph Warren) to be the seat of Warren County, and Louisburg (named for Louis XVI of France) to be the seat of Franklin County.source
  • 1784Joachim Geelmuyden and his family were ennobled under the name Gyldenkrantz.source
  • 1787States of Brabant, meeting in Brussels, admonish the Emperor that the Joyous Entry cannot be unilaterally altered.source
  • 1789In Vietnam, Emperor Quang Trung crushes the Chinese Qing forces in Ngọc Hồi-Đống Đa. It is considered one of the greatest victories in Vietnamese military history.source
  • 1802The French Saint-Domingue expedition (40,000 troops) led by General Charles Leclerc (Bonaparte's brother-in-law) lands in Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti) in an attempt to restore colonial rule following the Haitian Revolution in which Toussaint Louverture (a black former slave) has proclaimed himself Governor-General for Life and established control over Hispaniola.source
  • 1802Greenock Burns Club holds the first Burns dinner, in Alloway.source
  • 18054th Parliament of Lower Canada session starts, ends April 27, 1808source
  • 1814War of the Sixth Coalition – Battle of Brienne: A French army led by Napoleon is victorious against von Blücher.source
  • 1819Sir Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.source
  • 1820King George IV becomes the new British monarch upon the death his father George III after 59+ years on the throne. The elder George's death ends the 9-year period known as the British Regency.source
  • 1820The Prince of Wales becomes King George IV of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, King George III.source
  • 1840Lieutenant-Governor Captain William Hobson arrives in the Bay of Islands. With Hobson are the members of the Executive Council, Colonial Secretary Willoughby Shortland, Colonial Treasurer George Cooper and Attorney-General Francis Fisher and the Legislative Council comprising the Executive Council and three Justices of the Peace.source
  • 1845The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is published for the first time, in the New York Evening Mirror.source
  • 1846Many persons in the Eastern Townships are arrested on charge of counterfeiting, being afterwards tried before Sir James Stuart and other Judges. Hon L. T. Drummond and Edward Short, (afterwards judges), prosecute; H. B. Terrill (afterwards M.P.P. for Stanstead), defends. All are acquitted.source
  • 1850Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the United States Congress.source
  • 1850'The Blizzard Tuesday', or 'Stormy Tuesday,' strikes large parts of central and southern Sweden, killing roughly 100 people.source
  • 1855Lord Aberdeen resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, over the management of the Crimean War.source
  • 1856The 223-mile North Carolina Railroad is completed from Goldsboro through Raleigh and Salisbury to Charlotte.source
  • 1856Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross as a British military decoration.source
  • 1863American Indian Wars – Bear River Massacre: The United States Army, led by General Patrick Edward Connor, massacres Chief Bear Hunter and forces of the Shoshone, in the Idaho Territory.source
  • 1863Established composer Giacomo Meyerbeer presents the young Jacques Offenbach to Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, queen consort of Prussia.source
  • 1868January 27–31 – Battle of Toba–Fushimi: forces of the Tokugawa shogunate and the allied pro-Imperial forces of the Chōshū, Satsuma and Tosa Domains clash near Fushimi, Kyoto, ending in a decisive victory for the Imperial forces (although in the January 28 naval Battle of Awa, the Shogunate is victorious against Satsuma).source
  • 1877The Satsuma Rebellion, a revolt of disaffected samurai in Japan, breaks out against the new imperial government; it lasts until September, when it is crushed by a professionally led army of draftees.source
  • 1877September 24 - Satsuma Rebellionsource
  • 1886Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen (built in 1885).source
  • 1891Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii.source
  • 1891Funeral of Prince Baudouin of Belgium.source
  • 1899A gas explosion kills 14 people in the Spanish city of Cartagena.source
  • 1902The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, D.C., to promote scientific research with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.source
  • 1905Rioting breaks out in Warsaw, at this time under Russian Imperial rule with a Russian Governor-General.source
  • 1914Tsar Nicholas II of Russia dismisses his 4th Prime Minister, Vladimir Kokovtsov due to his "lack of control over the press", he is succeeded by Ivan Goremykin for his second termsource
  • 1915Ole Andres Olsen, Seventh-day Adventist minister and administrator (born 1845)source
  • 1915Heitor Villa-Lobos gives the first in a series of chamber concerts; one of the new works he introduces during this year is his Cello Concerto no 1.source
  • 1917Royal Navy steam-powered submarine HMS K13 sinks on trial in the Gare Loch with the loss of 32 men; 48 are rescued.source
  • 1922Portuguese legislative election, 1922.source
  • 1924January 20–30 – Kuomintang in China holds its first National Congress, initiating a policy of alliance with the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party.source
  • 1925January 27–February 1 – The 1925 serum run to Nome (the "Great Race of Mercy") relays diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled across the U.S. Territory of Alaska to combat an epidemic.source
  • 1929All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues), by Erich Maria Remarque, is published in book form.source
  • 1931for the fourth time in nine years, there is a fatal underground explosion at Haig Pit, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, killing 27 people.source
  • 1939(Sunday) Opening of St Peter's College, Auckland by Bishop J M Liston.source
  • 1940According to Japanese government official confirmed report, a three-passenger locomotive commuter train derail and caught fire nearby Ajikawaguchi Station, Osaka, resulting to 189 person (181 were instantly, 8 were hospital) were death and 69 persons injures.source
  • 1940Three gasoline-powered trains carrying factory workers crash and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station, Yumesaki Line (Nishinari Line), Osaka, Japan, killing at least 181 people and injuring at least 92.source
  • 1943January 29–30 – WWII: Battle of Rennell Island – The Imperial Japanese Navy resists the United States Navy's attempt to interrupt the withdrawal of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal, in the last major naval battle of the Guadalcanal campaign.source
  • 1943Transvaal: New Canada to Phomolong, 2 mi 75 ch.source
  • 1943The United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (MCWR) is created.source
  • 1943Nazi German police arrest alleged necrophiliac and serial killer Bruno Lüdke.source
  • 1943Dr Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds the late Reinhard Heydrich as head of the RSHA SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt controlling the Schutzstaffel Gestaposource
  • 1948The first conference of Benelux foreign ministers is held, in Luxembourg City.source
  • 1948A DC-3 aircraft crash at Los Gatos Creek, near Coalinga, California, kills 4 US citizens and 28 deportees, commemorated in a protest song ("Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)") by Woody Guthrie.source
  • 1948Plane crash at Los Gatos Creek, California kills 4 US citizens and 28 deportees, commemorated in a song by Woody Guthrie.source
  • 1963French President Charles de Gaulle vetoes the United Kingdom's entry into the European Common Market.source
  • 1963President Charles de Gaulle vetoes the United Kingdom's entry into the EEC.source
  • 1964Ranger 6 is launched by the US space agency NASA, on a mission to carry television cameras and crash-land on the Moon.source
  • 1964The Soviet Union launches two scientific satellites, Elektron I and II, from a single rocket.source
  • 1964January 29 – February 9 – The 1964 Winter Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria.source
  • 1966The Luxembourg Compromise is reached to resolve an impasse in the European Union.source
  • 1971The last of its many UFO sightings is made at Pudasjärvi, Finland.source
  • 1983A disaster occurred on the Singapore Cable Car. As a result, 2 cable cars plunged, causing 7 fatalities.source
  • 1986Yoweri Museveni is sworn in as President of Uganda.source
  • 1989The two longest-imprisoned German WWII war criminals in Western Europe, Ferdinand aus der Fünten and Franz Fischer (collectively known as The Breda Two), were released from Dutch prison.source
  • 1990The trial of Joseph Hazelwood, former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, begins in Anchorage, Alaska. He is accused of negligence that resulted in America's second worst oil spill to date.source
  • 1990January 1990 Mineriad: Over 5,000 miners from the Jiu Valley arrive in the capital following calls launched in the media by President Ion Iliescu.source
  • 1991In South Africa, Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress and Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Inkatha Freedom Party agree to end violence between the two organizations.source
  • 1991Siad Barre is succeeded by Ali Mahdi Muhammad as President of Somalia.source
  • 1992New South Wales Premier Nick Greiner calls for a controversial sex education book, funded by the Federal Government, to be destroyed.source
  • 19981998 Sri Lankan local elections: Local government elections are held in Sri Lanka for 17 local authorities in the Jaffna Peninsula, in the north of the country.source
  • 1999United Nations Security Council resolution 1226 was adopted unanimously and strongly urged the country to accept an agreement proposed by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to resolve the conflict between the country and Ethiopia.source
  • 2002American president George W. Bush defines an "axis of evil," consisting of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea in his State of the Union Address.source
  • 2005January 26–30: World Economic Forum in Davossource
  • 2006The roof of one of the buildings at the Katowice International Fair collapsed in Katowice, Poland, killing 65 and injuring 170.source
  • 2007Armenian grand master Levon Aronian won Corus-2007, the international chess tournament held in the Netherlands.source
  • 2013SCAT Airlines Flight 760, a scheduled flight from Kokshetau to Almaty, crashed in the village of Kyzyltu, killing all 21 people on board.source
  • 2014A new coalition government is sworn in, led by Bohuslav Sobotka and consisting of the Social Democrats, the liberalist ANO 2011 and the Christian Democrats.source
  • 2014At a service including religious figures gathered at the Metropolitan Cathedral in San José, the Bishop of Cartago, Francisco Ulloa, reminded voters in the forthcoming election to support candidates who were anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage. Juan Luis Calvo, president of the Evangelical Alliance called on the government to rethink guidelines on sexuality published by the Ministry of Public Education.source
  • 2017A gunman opens fire at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada, killing 6 and injuring 19 others.source
  • 2020U.S. President Donald Trump signs the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, a North American trade agreement set to replace NAFTA.source
  • 2021Panama reopens its land borders for the first time since March 2020, setting off a new wave of migration.source
  • 2021COVID-19 pandemic: The European Union invokes Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol following a row over COVID-19 vaccine supplies before reversing the decision.source
  • 2021A Vanuatu patrol boat detains two Chinese fishing vessels near the Torres Islands in the Coral Sea for suspected illegal fishing.source
  • 2025Ahmed al-Sharaa is appointed as the president of Syria, after a one-month vacancy following the fall of the Assad regime.source
  • 2025US rail technology firm Wabtec signs a $248M deal for locomotives on the Simandou railway.source
  • 2025Authorities seize 10 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from a shipping container that arrived from the United States and arrest three people in what is reported as the "largest known drug smuggling operation" in the country.source
  • 20252025 Potomac River mid-air collision: A United States Army Black Hawk helicopter with three occupants on board, collides with a Bombardier CRJ700 operated by PSA Airlines with 64 occupants on board in Washington, D.C., United States. There were no survivors.source

Births

  • 919Shi Zong, emperor of the Liao Dynasty (died 951)source
  • 1292Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Syrian polymath (died 1350)source
  • 1451John, Prince of Portugal (died 1451)source
  • 1455Johann Reuchlin, German-born humanist and scholar (died 1522)source
  • 1475Giuliano Bugiardini, Italian painter (died 1555)source
  • 1499Katharina von Bora, German nun, wife of Martin Luther (died 1552)source
  • 1525Lelio Sozzini, Italian Renaissance humanist and anti-Trinitarian reformer (died 1562)source
  • 1584Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (died 1647)source
  • 1602Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg, Regent of Hesse-Kassel (1637–1650) (died 1651)source
  • 1632Elsa Elisabeth Brahe, Swedish countess (died 1689)source
  • 1688Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish scientist, philosopher and theologian (died 1772)source
  • 1688Emanuel Swedenborg, scientist, philosopher, theologian, revelator, and mystic (died 1772)source
  • 1717Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, British soldier and conqueror of Quebec (died 1797)source
  • 1717Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, army officer (died 1797)source
  • 1737Thomas Paine, British-born American patriot and pamphleteer (died 1809)source
  • 1737Thomas Paine, pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical, and intellectual (died 1809, New York)source
  • 1749King Christian VII of Denmark (died 1808)source
  • 1810Ernst Kummer, German mathematician (died 1893)source
  • 1843William McKinley, 25th President of the United States (died 1901)source
  • 1860Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (died 1904)source
  • 1862Frederick Delius, English composer (died 1934)source
  • 1880W. C. Fields, American actor, comedian (died 1946)source
  • 1888Wellington Koo, Chinese statesman (died 1985)source
  • 1939Germaine Greer, Australian feminist writersource
  • 1954Oprah Winfrey, African-American actress, talk show hostess, producer and publishersource
  • 1975Karin Salanova, Venezuelan politiciansource
  • 1989Maria Kakiou, rhythmic gymnastsource

Deaths

  • 320Valerius of Trèves, Roman Catholic priest and saintsource
  • 757An Lushan, leader of a revolt and emperor of Yan, is murdered by his own son An Qingxu at Luoyang. He succeeds his father, and appoints Shi Siming as his deputy. The military leaders of the Tang Dynasty are able to retake both of the capitals at Chang'an and at Luoyang. The rebel army is forced to retreat east.source
  • 870Salih ibn Wasif, Muslim generalsource
  • 904Pope Sergius III succeeds Leo V and the deposed Antipope Christopher (both of whom are murdered or exiled) as the 119th pope of the Catholic Church. The ascension of Sergius marks the beginning of the Pornocracy ('rule of the whores'), which will last for 150 years. During this time, the clergy will be sidelined and rule over Rome is dominated by the Roman nobility.source
  • 1119Pope Gelasius II dies in exile after a 1-year pontificate at the Abbey of Cluny. He is succeeded by Callixtus II as the 162nd pope of the Catholic Church.source
  • 1119Gelasius II, pope of the Catholic Churchsource
  • 1123Frederick I, Archbishop of Bremen since 1104, dies after a reign of more than 18 years, and is succeeded by Adalbert II.source
  • 1129Minamoto no Shunrai, Japanese poet (born 1055)source
  • 1180Soběslav II, duke of Bohemia (born 1128)source
  • 1326Roger de Beler, English nobleman, justice and politiciansource
  • 1430January 29 or 1427 – Andrei Rublev, Russian iconographer (possible date; b. 1360)source
  • 1465Louis, Duke of Savoy (born 1413)source
  • 1522Wolfgang I of Oettingen, German count (born 1455)source
  • 1529Ōuchi Yoshioki, Japanese daimyo (born 1477)source
  • 1597Maharana Pratap, Indian statesman (born 1540)source
  • 1601Louise of Lorraine, French queen consort (born 1553)source
  • 1601Louise of Lorraine, queen consort (b.1553)source
  • 1617William Butler, alchemist (born c.1534)source
  • 1626Ture Axelsson, Lord of Traneberg (born 1604)source
  • 1675John Sassamon, an English-educated Native American Christian, dies at Assawampsett Pond, an event which will trigger a year-long war between the English American colonists of New England, and the Algonquian Native American tribes.source
  • 1676Tsar Alexis of Russia (born 1629)source
  • 1722Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld, Swedish military leader (born 1651)source
  • 1737George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, British soldier (born 1666)source
  • 1743Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury, Bishop of Fréjus, chief minister of France under Louis XV (born 1653)source
  • 1751Martin Knutzen, German philosopher (born 1713)source
  • 1820King George III of the United Kingdom (born 1738)source
  • 1829Timothy Pickering, American politician (born 1745)source
  • 1860Ernst Moritz Arndt, German poet and author (born 1769)source
  • 1905José do Patrocínio, writer, journalist, activist, orator and pharmacist (born 1854; suffered hemoptysis just after making a speech in honour of Alberto Santos-Dumont)source
  • 1906King Christian IX of Denmark (born 1818)source
  • 1928Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, British field marshal (born 1861)source
  • 1929Jens Christian Johansen, engineer (born 1868 in Denmark)source
  • 1934Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1868)source
  • 2016January 16 – 30 people are killed and 56 injured in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, targeting a hotel and a nearby restaurant. A siege occurs and 176 hostages are released afterwards, by government forces.source