Thursday 29 August 2024 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days

International Day against Nuclear Tests

On 2 December 2009, the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 29 August the International Day against Nuclear Tests by unanimously adopting resolut..→

Holidays and observances

• Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine (Memorial Day of the defenders of Ukraine, who died in the struggle for independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine)
• Gillamoos Abensberg
• International Cabernet Day (Celebrated on the Thursday before the US Labour Day)
• Lawyer Day in Argentina (Día del abogado)
• Mainz Wine Market
• More Herbs, Less Salt Day
• Municipal Police's Day in Poland
• National Chop Suey Day and More Herbs, Less Salt Day in USA
• National Day to Combat Dengue in El Salvador (Día Nacional de Combate contra el Dengue)
• National Lemon Juice Day in USA
• National Sports Day in India
• Patron Day in Artana, Cervillego de la Cruz and Rabanera del Pinar (Festivities in honor of St. John the Baptist)
• Postman's Day in Guatemala
• Telugu Language Day in India
• World Video Game Day or Gamer's Day

Events

• 1982 – The synthetic chemical element Meitnerium, atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.
• 1958 – United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
• 1949 – Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
• 1916 – The United States passes the Philippine Autonomy Act.
• 1915 – US Navy salvage divers raise F-4, the first U.S. submarine sunk in an accident.
• 1911 – Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.
• 1898 – The Goodyear tire company is founded.
• 1885 – Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen.
• 1869 – The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens, making it the world's first mountain-climbing rack railway.
• 1861 – American Civil War: The Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries gives Federal forces control of Pamlico Sound.
• 1842 – Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.
• 1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
• 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and American forces battle indecisively at the Battle of Rhode Island.
• 1758 – The Treaty of Easton establishes the first American Indian reservation, at Indian Mills, New Jersey, for the Lenape.
• 1728 – The city of Nuuk in Greenland is founded as the fort of Godt-Haab by the royal governor Claus Paarss.
• 708 – Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).

Births

• 1992 – Noah Syndergaard, American baseball player. Noah Seth Syndergaard (born August 29, 1992), nicknamed Thor, is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB).
• 1991 – Deshaun Thomas, American basketball player. Thomas played college basketball for Ohio State University and was drafted 58th overall in the 2013 NBA draft by the San Antonio Spurs.
• 1986 – Lea Michele, American actress and singer. Michele came to major prominence playing Rachel Berry on the Fox series Glee (2009–2015), for which she received an Emmy Award nomination and two Golden Globe nominations.
• 1980 – Chris Simms, American football player. Christopher David Simms (born August 29, 1980) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL).
• 1979 – Ryan Shealy, American baseball player. Ryan Nelson Shealy (born August 29, 1979) is an American former professional baseball player who played six seasons in Major League Baseball as a first baseman.
• 1977 – Aaron Rowand, American baseball player and sportscaster. Aaron Ryan Rowand (born August 29, 1977) is an American former professional baseball center fielder in Major League Baseball.
• 1977 – Devean George, American basketball player. Devean George (born August 29, 1977) is a retired American professional basketball player who played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
• 1977 – John Patrick O'Brien, American soccer player, was an Irish-American politician who served as the 98th Mayor of New York City from January 1 to December 31, 1933.
• 1977 – Roy Oswalt, American baseball player. Roy Oswalt (/ˈoʊzwɑːlt/; born August 29, 1977) is an American former professional baseball pitcher, who played for the majority of his Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Houston Astros.
• 1976 – Kevin Kaesviharn, American football player. He played college football at Augustana.
• 1976 – Pablo Mastroeni, Argentine-American soccer player and manager, was head coach of the Colorado Rapids. He is currently assistant coach of the Houston Dynamo in MLS.
• 1975 – Kyle Cook, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. David Kyle Cook (born August 29, 1975 in Frankfort, Indiana) is an American musician, best known as a member of the band Matchbox Twenty.
• 1971 – Carla Gugino, American actress. Vera Gorski in Sucker Punch (2011), and as the lead characters in the television series Karen Sisco, Threshold, The Haunting of Hill House, and Jett.
• 1969 – Jennifer Crittenden, American screenwriter and producer. Her work has earned her several Emmy Award nominations.
• 1968 – Meshell Ndegeocello, German-American singer-songwriter. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, reggae and rock.
• 1967 – Anton Newcombe, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Anton Alfred Newcombe (born August 29, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and founder of the music group The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
• 1967 – Neil Gorsuch, American judge. Neil McGill Gorsuch (/ˈɡɔːrsʌtʃ/; born August 29, 1967) is an American lawyer who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
• 1965 – Will Perdue, American basketball player and sportscaster, was a member of four NBA championship teams, three with the Chicago Bulls (1991–1993) and one with the San Antonio Spurs (1999). Perdue is now a Studio analyst for NBC Sports Chicago during their pre-game and post-game Chicago Bulls broadcasts.
• 1964 – Perri "Pebbles" Reid, American dance-pop and urban contemporary singer-songwriter. Perri Arlette Reid (née McKissack; August 29, 1964), professionally known by her former stage name, Pebbles, is an American singer-songwriter, businesswoman, producer and music executive.
• 1962 – Carl Banks, American football player and sportscaster. Banks (born August 29, 1962) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League.
• 1960 – Todd English, American chef and author. William Todd English (born August 29, 1960) is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, author, and television personality, based in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1960 – Tony MacAlpine, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. In a career spanning three decades and thirteen studio albums, he is best known as an instrumental rock solo guitarist, although he has worked with many different bands and musicians in guest appearances and collaborations.
• 1959 – Rebecca De Mornay, American actress. She is also known for her portrayals of Sara in Runaway Train (1985), Thelma in The Trip to Bountiful (1985), Helen McCaffrey in Backdraft (1991), and Peyton Flanders in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992).
• 1959 – Stephen Wolfram, English-American physicist and mathematician. In 2012, he was named an inaugural fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
• 1959 – Timothy Shriver, American businessman and activist. Timothy Perry Shriver (born August 29, 1959) is an American disability rights activist, film producer, and former educator who has been Chairman of Special Olympics since 1996.
• 1958 – Michael Jackson, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actor (d. 2009), was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest entertainers in the history of music.
• 1957 – Jerry D. Bailey, American jockey and sportscaster. American Classics wins:Kentucky Derby (1993, 1996)Preakness Stakes (1991, 2000)Belmont Stakes (1991, 2003)
• 1955 – Diamanda Galás, American singer-songwriter and pianist. She has received international recognition for creating highly original and thought provoking political performance works.
• 1955 – Jack Lew, American lawyer and politician, 25th White House Chief of Staff, was the 76th United States Secretary of the Treasury, serving from 2013 to 2017. He also served as the 25th White House Chief of Staff from 2012 to 2013 and served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget in both the Clinton and Obama Administrations.
• 1954 – Michael P. Kube-McDowell, American journalist, author, and academic. Michael Paul Kube-McDowell (born August 29, 1954), also known as Michael McDowell or Michael P.
• 1953 – David Boaz, American businessman and author. David Boaz (/ˈboʊ.æz/; born August 29, 1953, Mayfield, Kentucky) is the executive vice president of the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank.
• 1953 – James Quesada, Nicaraguan-American anthropologist and academic. His work focuses on cultural and medical anthropology, the ethnography of structural and political violence, social Suffering, critical medical anthropology, urban anthropology, culture change, transnational migration and refugee migration, North America, Central America, and the inner city.
• 1952 – Dave Malone, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. The Radiators, also known as The New Orleans Radiators, are a rock band from New Orleans, Louisiana, who combined the traditional musical styles of their native city with more mainstream rock and R&B influences to form a bouncy, funky variety of swamp-rock they called fish-head music.
• 1952 – Don Schlitz, American Hall of Fame country music songwriter. In 1993, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
• 1952 – Karen Hesse, American author and poet. Hesse (born August 29, 1952) is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often with historical settings.
• 1950 – Dave Reichert, American soldier and politician. David George Reichert (/ˈraɪkərt/; born August 29, 1950) is an American politician, veteran, and former sheriff who served seven terms as the U.S.
• 1950 – Doug DeCinces, American baseball player. Louis Cardinals.
• 1950 – Frank Henenlotter, American director and screenwriter. Exploitation films have an attitude more than anything – an attitude that you don’t find with mainstream Hollywood productions.
• 1949 – Stan Hansen, American wrestler and actor. John Stanley Hansen II (born August 29, 1949) is a retired professional wrestler.
• 1948 – Robert S. Langer, American chemical engineer, entrepreneur, and academic. FREng (born August 29, 1948 in Albany, New York) is an American chemical engineer, scientist, entrepreneur, inventor and one of the twelve Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• 1947 – Temple Grandin, American ethologist, academic, and author. Mary Temple Grandin (born August 29, 1947) is an American professor of animal science at Colorado State University, consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior, and autism spokesperson.
• 1946 – Bob Beamon, American long jumper. Robert Beamon (born August 29, 1946) is an American former track and field athlete, best known for his world record in the long jump at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968.
• 1946 – Francine D. Blau, American economist and academic. Francine Dee Blau (born August 29, 1946 in New York City) is an American economist and professor of economics as well as Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.
• 1945 – Wyomia Tyus, American runner. Wyomia Tyus (pronunciation: why-o-mia; born August 29, 1945) is a retired American track and field sprinter, and the first person to retain the Olympic title in the 100 m (a feat since duplicated by Carl Lewis, Gail Devers, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Usain Bolt).
• 1943 – Dick Halligan, American pianist and composer. Richard Bernard "Dick" Halligan (born August 29, 1943) is an American musician and composer, best known as a founding member of the jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears.
• 1942 – James Glennon, American cinematographer (d. 2006). James started off working in the Warner Bros. mail room, and then moved to the camera department, including as director of photography of the American unit for Return of the Jedi.
• 1940 – Gary Gabelich, American race car driver (d. 1984), was an American motorsport driver who set the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Land Speed Record (LSR) with the rocket car Blue Flame on October 23, 1970, on a dry lake bed at Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, Utah.
• 1940 – James Brady, American politician and activist, 15th White House Press Secretary (d. 2014), was an assistant to the U.S. President and the fifteenth White House Press Secretary under President Ronald Reagan.
• 1939 – Joel Schumacher, American director, producer, and screenwriter. Schumacher (/ˈʃuːmɑːkər/; born August 29, 1939) is an American filmmaker.
• 1938 – Elliott Gould, American actor and producer. In addition to his performance in the comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Gould is perhaps best known for his significant leading roles in Robert Altman films, starring in M*A*S*H (1970), The Long Goodbye (1973) and California Split (1974).
• 1938 – Robert Rubin, American lawyer and politician, 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury. Robert Edward Rubin (born August 29, 1938) is an American lawyer, former cabinet member, and retired banking executive.
• 1937 – James Florio, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 49th Governor of New Jersey. James Joseph Florio (born August 29, 1937) is an American Democratic politician who served as the 49th Governor of New Jersey from 1990 to 1994, the first Italian American to hold the position (he is of half Italian ancestry).
• 1936 – John McCain, American captain and politician, was an American politician and military officer, who served as a United States senator for Arizona from January 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms in the United States House of Representatives and was the Republican nominee for president of the United States in the 2008 election, which he lost to Barack Obama.
• 1935 – William Friedkin, American director, producer, and screenwriter. The latter also earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director.
• 1929 – Thom Gunn, English-American poet and academic (d. 2004), was an English poet who was praised for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement and his later poetry in America, even after moving toward a looser, free-verse style. After relocating from England to San Francisco, Gunn wrote about gay-related topics—particularly in his most famous work, The Man With Night Sweats in 1992—as well as drug use, sex and his bohemian lifestyle.
• 1927 – Jimmy C. Newman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2014). Jimmy Yves Newman (August 29, 1927 – June 21, 2014), better known as Jimmy C.
• 1926 – Betty Lynn, American actress. During the 1940s and 1950s, she appeared in many films, including Sitting Pretty (1948), June Bride (1948), the original Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) and Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956).
• 1926 – Donn Fendler, American author and speaker (d. 2016), was an American author and public speaker from Rye, New York. In July of 1939 at the age of 12, he got separated from his family and became lost on Maine's Mount Katahdin.
• 1924 – Dinah Washington, American singer and pianist (d. 1963), was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues".
• 1922 – John Edward Williams, American author and educator (d. 1994), was an American author, editor and professor. He was best known for his novels Butcher's Crossing (1960), Stoner (1965), and Augustus (1972), which won a U.S.
• 1922 – Richard Blackwell, American actor, fashion designer, and critic (d. 2008), was an American fashion critic, journalist, television and radio personality, artist, former child actor and former fashion designer, sometimes known just as Mr. Blackwell.
• 1920 – Charlie Parker, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1955), was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Parker was a highly influential jazz soloist and the leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique and advanced harmonies.
• 1920 – Herb Simpson, American baseball player (d. 2015), was an American baseball player in the Negro Leagues. He played for the Seattle Steelheads in the West Coast Negro Baseball League.
• 1920 – Otis Boykin, American inventor and engineer (d. 1982), was an African-American inventor and engineer.
• 1917 – Isabel Sanford, American actress (d. 2004), was an American stage, film, and television actress and comedian best known for her role as Louise "Weezy" Mills Jefferson on the CBS sitcoms All in the Family (1971–1975) and The Jeffersons (1975–1985). In 1981, she became the second black American actress to win a Primetime Emmy Award, and the first to win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
• 1916 – Luther Davis, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 2008), was an American play- and screenwriter. He attended Culver Academies, received a BA from Yale and rose to the rank of major in the US Air Force.
• 1915 – Nathan Pritikin, American nutritionist and author (d. 1985), was an American inventor, engineer, nutritionist and longevity researcher.
• 1910 – Vivien Thomas, American surgeon and academic (d. 1985), was an African-American laboratory supervisor who developed a procedure used to treat blue baby syndrome (now known as cyanotic heart disease) in the 1940s. He was the assistant to surgeon Alfred Blalock in Blalock's experimental animal laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and later at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1898 – Preston Sturges, American director and producer (d. 1959), was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film The Great McGinty, his first of three nominations in the category.
• 1891 – Marquis James, American journalist and author (d. 1955), was an American journalist and author, twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his works The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston and The Life of Andrew Jackson.
• 1876 – Charles F. Kettering, American engineer and businessman, founded Delco Electronics (d. 1958), was an American inventor, engineer, businessman, and the holder of 186 patents. He was a founder of Delco, and was head of research at General Motors from 1920 to 1947.
• 1861 – Byron G. Harlan, American singer (d. 1936), was an American singer from Kansas, a comic minstrel singer and balladeer who often recorded with Arthur Collins. The two together were often billed as "Collins & Harlan".
• 1843 – David B. Hill, American lawyer and politician, 29th Governor of New York (d. 1910), was an American politician from New York who was the 29th Governor of New York from 1885 to 1891. He also represented New York in the United States Senate from 1892 to 1897.
• 1811 – Henry Bergh, American activist, founded the ASPCA (d. 1888), was passed into law by the New York State Legislature. Bergh also prompted the formation, in 1874, of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC).
• 1809 – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., American physician and author (d. 1894), was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. A member of the Fireside Poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day.
• 1792 – Charles Grandison Finney, American minister and author (d. 1875), was an American Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great Awakening in the United States. He has been called The Father of Modern Revivalism.

Deaths

• 2016 – Gene Wilder, American stage and screen comic actor, screenwriter, film director, and author (b. 1933)
• 2013 – Bruce C. Murray, American geologist and academic, co-founded The Planetary Society (b. 1931)
• 2013 – Joan L. Krajewski, American lawyer and politician (b. 1934)
• 2012 – Anne McKnight, American soprano (b. 1924)
• 2012 – Les Moss, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1925)
• 2012 – Ruth Goldbloom, Canadian academic and philanthropist, co-founded Pier 21 (b. 1923)
• 2012 – Shoshichi Kobayashi, Japanese-American mathematician and academic (b. 1932)
• 2011 – Honeyboy Edwards, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1915)
• 2008 – Michael Schoenberg, American geophysicist and theorist (b. 1939)
• 2007 – Alfred Peet, Dutch-American businessman, founded Peet's Coffee & Tea (b. 1920)
• 2007 – Richard Jewell, American police officer (b. 1962)
• 2000 – Conrad Marca-Relli, American-Italian painter and academic (b. 1913)
• 1995 – Frank Perry, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1930)
• 1990 – Manly Palmer Hall, Canadian-American mystic and author (b. 1901)
• 1987 – Archie Campbell, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1914)
• 1987 – Lee Marvin, American actor (b. 1924)
• 1985 – Evelyn Ankers, British-American actress (b. 1918)
• 1982 – Lehman Engel, American composer and conductor (b. 1910)
• 1981 – Lowell Thomas, American journalist and author (b. 1892)
• 1979 – Gertrude Chandler Warner, American author and educator (b. 1890)
• 1977 – Jean Hagen, American actress (b. 1923)
• 1971 – Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr., American murderer (b. 1904)
• 1968 – Ulysses S. Grant III, American general (b. 1881)
• 1958 – Marjorie Flack, American author and illustrator (b. 1897)
• 1946 – Adolphus Busch III, American businessman (b. 1891)
• 1946 – John Steuart Curry, American painter and academic (b. 1897)
• 1931 – David T. Abercrombie, American businessman, co-founded Abercrombie & Fitch (b. 1867)
• 1917 – George Huntington Hartford, American businessman (b. 1833)
• 1891 – Pierre Lallement, French businessman, invented the bicycle (b. 1843)
• 1877 – Brigham Young, American religious leader, 2nd President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1801)
• 1844 – Edmund Ignatius Rice, Irish missionary and educator, founded the Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers (b. 1762)
• 1780 – Jacques-Germain Soufflot, French architect, co-designed The Panthéon (b. 1713)