Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
The Mercury, Australia
Sunday Times, Australia
Advertiser, Australia
Aug 29 2004
1990 – Armenia’s parliament declares emergency rule, bans nationalist
paramilitary group and blocks roads around republic’s capital.
1533 – Spanish conquistadors give Atahuallpa, last emperor of the
Incas, the choice of being burned at the stake or converting to
Christianity. He converts and is garrotted the same day.
1756 – Frederick II of Prussia invades Saxony, marking start of Seven
Years’ War.
1792 – At least 900 die when the British warship Royal George sinks
at Spithead while repairs are being carried out just below the
waterline.
1793 – The French commissioner Leger-Felicite Sonthonax, facing a
slave army and a British invasion, declares all slaves free in Haiti.
1842 – Anglo-Chinese war ends with Treaty of Nanking, confirming the
ceding of Hong Kong to Britain.
1874 – French performer Blondin walks tightrope across Sydney
Harbour.
1882 – English cricketers lose to Australia on English soil for the
first time – a mock obituary in the Sporting Times then declares the
death of English cricket, saying its ashes will be taken to
Australia, the origin of the “Ashes” trophy.
1885 – First motorcycle, built by Gottlied Daimler in Germany, is
patented.
1935 – Queen Astrid of Belgium is killed in car accident in
Switzerland.
1943 – Danish warships are scuttled at Copenhagen in World War II
uprising against Nazis.
1944 – 15,000 American troops march down the Champs Elysees in Paris
as the French capital continues to celebrate its liberation from the
Nazis.
1960 – Jordanian prime minister Hazza El-Majali and 10 others are
assassinated by a time-bomb.
1964 – Roy Orbison releases the song Pretty Woman.
1965 – US astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad make safe
landing in Atlantic after a record eight days of orbiting around
Earth.
1966 – Beatles play their last live concert to a crowd of 25,000 at
Candlestick Park, San Francisco.
1972 – North and South Korean Red Cross officials meet in North Korea
openly for first time to discuss reuniting divided families.
1975 – Death of Eamon de Valera, three times Ireland’s prime minister
and president from 1959-1973.
1987 – Death of Academy Award-winning US actor Lee Marvin, aged 63.
1990 – Armenia’s parliament declares emergency rule, bans nationalist
paramilitary group and blocks roads around republic’s capital.
1991 – Soviet lawmakers suspend Communist Party activities nationwide
and freeze its bank accounts because of party’s role in failed coup
attempt.
1992 – The last Russian diplomats pull out of Kabul, ending a decade
of involvement in Afghanistan.
1995 – Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze survives an assassination
attempt when a car explodes near his motorcade.
1996 – A Russian plane carrying coal miners to work at a remote
arctic island smashes into a mountain top, killing all 41 people
aboard in the worst air disaster on Norwegian soil.
1997 – The Japanese Supreme Court rules the government acted
illegally when it deleted from a history textbook references to
Japan’s deadly experiments on Chinese during World War II.
1998 – A Cuban airplane bursts into flames and crashes during takeoff
from Quito, Ecuador, killing 79 people.
1999 – East Timorese overcome fears of violence to vote in a historic
referendum on independence from Indonesia.
2000 – Six former hostages released after months in captivity in the
Philippines arrive in Libya. The Libyan government took the lead in
negotiations to win their freedom from Muslim rebels.
2001 – A US federal grand jury indicts three executives of a Marin
County electronics firm, based in California, accusing them of
illegally selling equipment to India that could be used to make
nuclear weapons.
2002 – Michael Skakel, a member of America’s politically prominent
Kennedy family, is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the
1975 murder of neighbour Martha Moxley.
2002 – Marconi finally agrees to hand over the sputtering business to
its creditors, leaving shareholders of the former British industrial
champion with next to nothing.
2003 – A large car bomb explodes outside the Imam Ali Mosque in
Najaf, Iraq. The explosion killed at least 80 people, including
Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, a top Shiite Muslim cleric.