Advertiser Adelaide, Australia
The Mercury, Australia
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
Aug 29 2005

On this Day – Aug 29

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.
2004 – Greece stages an exuberant closing ceremony to bring the
curtain down on the Athens Games, which took the Olympics back to
their roots and provided drama right down to the last gold medal.