TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: AUGUST 29
0070 The Temple of Jerusalem burns after a nine-month Roman siege.
1533 In Peru, the Inca chief Atahualpa is executed by orders of Francisco Pizarro, although the chief had already paid his ransom.
1776 General George Washington retreats during the night from Long Island to New York City.
1786 Shays’s rebellion, an insurrection of Massachusetts farmers against the state government, began.
1833 The “Factory Act” was passed in England to settle child labor laws.
1882 Australia defeats England in cricket for the first time. The following day a obituary appears in the Sporting Times addressed to the British team.
1896 Chop suey invented in NYC by chef of visiting Chinese Ambassador
1945 U.S. airborne troops are landed in transport planes at Atsugi airfield, southwest of Tokyo, beginning the occupation of Japan.
1949 USSR explodes its first atomic bomb, “First Lightning.”
1957 US Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1957 after Strom Thurmond (Sen-D-SC) ends 24-hour filibuster, the longest in Senate history, against the bill.
1965 Astronauts L. Gordon Cooper Jr. and Charles “Pete” Conrad Jr complete 120 Earth orbits in Gemini 5, marking the first time the US set an international duration record for a manned space mission.
1988 Abdul Mohmand becomes the first person from Afghanistan to Visit Space
1991 The Supreme Soviet, the parliament of the U.S.S.R., suspended all activities of the Communist Party, bringing an end to the institution.
2003 A terrorist bomb kills Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, and nearly 100 worshipers as they leave a mosque in Najaf where the ayatollah had called for Iraqi unity.
2005 Hurricane Katrina makes 2nd and 3rd landfall as a category 3 hurricane, devastating much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida Panhandle. Kills more than 1,836, causes over $115 billion in damage.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
