On April 29th...

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1429 Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans.

1707 The English and Scottish parliaments accepted the Act of Union, forming the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1745 Oliver Ellsworth, 2nd Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was born.

1827 Statesman Rufus King died.

1852 The first edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus was published.

1860 Sculptor Lorado Taft was born.

1861 Maryland's House of Delegates voted against seceding from the Union.

1862 Union forces captured New Orleans.

1863 Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst was born.

1864 The Theta Xi fraternity was founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

1879 Conductor Thomas Beecham was born.

1891 Businessman James Gamble died.
1891 Scientist Joseph Leidy died.

1892 Charlie Reilly became baseball's first pinch hitter.

1893 Chemist Harold C. Urey was born.

1899 Jazz musician Duke Ellington was born.

1901 Japanese Emperor Hirohito was born.

1933 Poet Rod McKuen was born.

1936 Conductor Zubin Mehta was born.

1938 Businessman Bernard Madoff was born.

1944 Actor Richard Kline was born.

1945 American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp.
1945 The terms of surrender of German armies in Italy were signed.

1946 The trial of 26 former Japanese officials for war crimes began.

1947 Singer Tommy James was born.
1947 Long-distance runner Jim Ryun was born.

1951 Auto racer Dale Earnhardt was born.

1953 The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an episode of "Space Patrol" on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.

1954 Comedian Jerry Seinfeld was born.

1955 Actress Kate Mulgrew was born.

1958 Actress Michelle Pfeiffer was born.
1958 Actress Eve Plumb was born.

1961 ABC's "Wide World of Sports" debuted.

1967 Aretha Franklin released "Respect."

1968 The musical "Hair" premiered on Broadway.

1970 Tennis player Andre Agassi was born.
1970 Actress Una Thurman was born.

1975 The U.S. began evacuating U.S. citizens from Saigon ahead of an expected North Vietnamese takeover.

1980 Film and television director Alfred Hitchcock died.

1981 Peter Sutcliffe admitted to being the Yorkshire Ripper.

1983 Harold Washington was sworn in as the first black mayor of Washington, D.C.

1986 Roger Clemens became the first Major League pitcher to strike-out 20 batters in a nine-inning game.

1990 Wrecking cranes began tearing down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.

1991 Actor Ken Curtis died.

1992 Four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of using excessive force against Rodney King.

1997 Columnist Mike Royko died.

2004 Oldsmobile built its final car, ending 107 years of production.

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This page was last updated on April 28, 2017.