June 29
1613 The original Globe Theatre on London's bankside burns down during the first performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII after a cannon is fired to signal the arrival of King James and sets fire to the straw roof.
1620 After earlier denouncing smoking as a health hazard, King James I bans the growing of tobacco in Britain.
1767 The British Parliament approves the Townsend Revenue Acts, which impose import duties on such things as glass, lead, paint, paper and tea shipped to America. Colonists will bitterly protest the Acts, which will be repealed in 1770.
1776 American Revolution: The Virginia state constitution is adopted and Patrick Henry is made governor.
1801 The results of the first census, carried out in Britain in early 1801, put the population of England and Wales at 9,168,000 - population of Britain nearly 11 million (75% rural).
1805 Birth: Hiram Powers, US sculptor. Powers began his artistic career in Cincinnati, excelling in portrait busts. A wealthy benefactor financed several trips to Washington, where he made portraits of President Andrew Jackson, Chief Justice John Marshall, and other statesmen that were highly praised. When he moved to Italy with his family, he continued with portraiture as well as full length figures taken from history and myth. His "Greek Slave" (1841) was undoubtedly his most famous work. A standing figure of a nude woman in shackles, done in the Neo-classical tradition of the day, it inspired both praise and condemnation and established his international reputation. Powers had a long and bitter relationship with members of Congressional committees who selected work for the new US Capitol.
1854 Gadsden Purchase: Parts of Arizona and New Mexico are purchased from Mexico for $10 million.
1858 Birth: George Washington Goethals. "...a United States Army officer and civil engineer, best known for his supervision of construction and the opening of the Panama Canal. The Goethals Bridge between New York City and Elizabeth, New Jersey is named in his honor. Goethals was born in Brooklyn, New York. He studied at the College of the City of New York before attending the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in 1880. That same year he was appointed second lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. He taught civil and military engineering at the academy until 1888. By 1891 had risen to captain. In 1907 US President Theodore Roosevelt appointed George Washington Goethals chief engineer of the Panamal Canal. The building of the Canal had met with many difficulties and delays under previous chiefs. Goethals did much to make operations more efficient throughout the Canal project, with great attention to details large and small. A major part of his success was his particular attention to sanitation and control of disease carrying mosquitos, which greatly reduced incidence of disease and death among Canal workers. In 1914 Goethals saw the completion of the Canal almost a full year ahead of schedule. President Woodrow Wilson then appointed him the first civil governor of the Panama Canal Zone. In 1915 Goethals was awarded the rank of major general. He retired on 15 November, 1916. A famous palindrome is dedicated to him: A man, a plan, a canal — Panama! Following the USA entry into World War I in 1917 Goethals worked as manager of the Emergency Fleet and then quartermaster general of the U.S. Army. After the war he headed his own private consulting civil and electrical engineering firm in New York City until his death in 1928."
1858 Birth: Julia Lathrop, child labor law advocate.
1858 The Treaty of Algun is signed, China cedes the north bank of Amur River to Russia.
1860 The first iron-pile lighthouse is completed at Minot's Ledge, Massachusetts.
1861 Birth: William James Mayo, physician, surgeon, cofounder Mayo clinic in Minnesota.
1862 US Civil War: Day 5 of the 7 Day Battles: Battle of Savage's Station. "...The Seven Days Battles was a series of six major battles over the seven days from June 25 to July 1, 1862, near Richmond, Virginia, in the American Civil War. It is sometimes known erroneously as the Seven Days Campaign, but it was actually the culmination of the Peninsula Campaign, not a separate campaign in its own right. The Peninsula Campaign was the unsuccessful attempt by Union Major General George B. McClellan to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond and end the war. It started in March, 1862, when McClellan landed his Army of the Potomac at Fort Monroe on the tip of the Virginia Peninsula. Moving slowly and cautiously up the peninsula, McClellan fought a series of minor battles and sieges against General Joseph E. Johnston, who was equally cautious in the defense of his capital, retreating step by step to within six miles of Richmond. There, the Battle of Seven Pines (also known as the Battle of Fair Oaks) took place on June 1, 1862. It was a tactical draw, but it had wide-ranging consequences for the war—Johnston was wounded and replaced by the much more aggressive General Robert E. Lee. Lee spent almost a month extending his defensive lines and organizing his Army of Northern Virginia; McClellan accommodated this by sitting passively to his front until the start of the Seven Days....Battle of Savage's Station (June 29, 1862) — During the Union withdrawal, Confederate general John B. Magruder struck the corps of Edwin V. Sumner in an attempt to divide the Union army. The attack was repulsed and the withdrawal continued."
1863 US Civil War: General Lee orders his forces to concentrate near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
1863 Birth: James Harvey Robinson, in Illinois, historian; Ordeal of Civilization.
1868 The Press Association, the United Kingdom's national news agency, is founded in London.
1871 Trades Unions are legalized in Britain, but picketing is made illegal.
1880 The Pacific island of Otaheite, now known as Tahiti, is formally annexed by France, having been a French protectorate since 1842.
1880 Birth: Ludwig Beck. "Chief of Staff of the German Armed forces during the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany before World War II. Born in Biebrich in the Rhineland, he was educated in the conservative Prussian military tradition. After serving on the Western Front in World War I, he rose through the ranks, eventually being appointed to the General Staff in 1933. Two years later, he was made Chief of Staff. Beck resented Hitler for his efforts to curb the army's position of influence. Though he was hardly a pacifist, he opposed wars of conquest and only supported ideological war, when he believed that the military was fully prepared for it. Beck tried very early as Chief of the General Staff to deter Hitler from annexing the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Hitler was convinced that, since England and France had allowed him to annex Austria during the Anschluss earlier in the year, they would not stand in his way when he would try again to enlarge the Reich. Beck, however, believed that they would defend the country that they had created at the end of World War I and, if necessary, declare war on Germany to protect it. Since he knew that the Wehrmacht would not be strong enough to win a war against England and since he was extremely respected by his fellow officers, he tried to convince all to resign en masse to prevent Hitler from carrying out his plans. When he found out that none of them would go along, he resigned alone in August to be replaced at the head of the General Staff by General Franz Halder. Alternatively it is reported that in August 1938, Hitler relieved him of command. Beck ceased to have any meaningful influence in German military affairs. His opposition to Hitler brought him in contact with a number of individuals who shared his views. Many of them, including Carl Goerdeler and Ulrich von Hassell as well as himself, would later take part in the July 20 Plot in 1944. Beck and the conspirators believed that Hitler's power was not as strong as he believed it to be. They thought that a clear threat of war from England to Germany if it chose to invade Czechoslovakia would allow them to brand Hitler as a warmongerer and depose him from office. To that end, they sent some emissaries to the British Foreign Office to convince British diplomats to oppose Hitler as clearly and as strongly as they could. Unfortunately, the prevailing attitude in the Foreign Office at that time was to avoid war by appeasing Hitler instead of calling his bluff as the conspirators would have liked to do. To their dismay, in September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French President Edouard Daladier signed the Munich Pact which allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland.In 1943, Beck planned two abortive attempts to kill Hitler by means of a bomb. In 1944 he was one of the driving forces of the July 20 Plot with Carl Goerdeler and Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg. When the plot failed, Beck committed suicide rather than suffer torture and execution. He tried twice to kill himself before being executed in the early hours of July 21. According to one version of the story, he was so shaken up, that two bullets that he attempted to shoot into his brain missed, so that he finally had to ask a sergeant to help him finish the job."
1900 Birth: Antoine Saint-Exup'ry, in France, aviator, writer; Wind, Sand & Stars.
1908 Birth: Cyrus H. Gordon, American archaeological scholar; Ugaritic Handbook (1947).
1912 Birth: John Toland, Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
1913 The second Balkan War begins.
1916 WW1: Irish nationalist Sir Roger Casement is found guilty of treason and sentenced to death for conspiracy with Germany.
1919 Birth: Louis Lindley.
1923 Death: General J. C. Gomez, Venezuela's first Vice President, assassinated.
1925 A patent for the frosted electric light bulb is filed by Marvin Pipkin.
1929 The first high-speed jet wind tunnel is completed at Langley Field, California.
1933 Church and Reich: Franz von Papen leaves Berlin for Rome.
1933 Bruening tells the British Ambassador in Berlin, Sir Horace Rumbold, that the Catholic Center Party will probably dissolve itself the following day. (Lewy)
1934 Blood Purge: In response to the rumors of an SA coup, Hitler tells those close to him: "I've had enough. I shall make an example of them." See June 30.
1938 Holocaust: Nearly 40,000 Austrian Jews are dismissed from their jobs.
1939 Roma Holocaust: The first group of Gypsy women from Austria are sent to Ravensbrueck concentration camp. They number some 440.
1940 The US passes the Alien Registration Act.
1941 Death: Ignace Paderewski, pianist, Polish statesman, in New York at 80.
1941 Holocaust: A report from Einsatzgruppe A states that by this date 2,300 Jews have been "rendered harmless" in Kaunas, Lithuania.
1942 Church and Reich: The Vatican points out to the head of the Slovak government, Dr. Josef Tiso, a Catholic priest, that the 52,000 Jews deported from Slovakia in the spring had been sent away not for labor service but for annihilation. The deportations now grind to a halt because Eichmann's emissary has instructions to avoid "political complications." Thereafter, the Slovakian Jews will live in relative security until September 1944. (Poliakov; Hilberg)
1943 Kirovograd Conference: Hitler arranges a secret conference with the Russians at Kirovograd, 200 miles behind the German lines. RIbbentrop, representing Hitler, offers to end the war on condition that Germany would retain the Ukraine and all territory west of the Dneiper River. Molotov, representing Stalin, replies that they will never settle for anything short of their old, prewar frontier. See June 30. (Payne)
1943 WW2: Germany begins to withdraw its U-Boats from the North Atlantic in anticipation of an Allied invasion of Europe; US forces land at Nassau Bay, near Salamaua, New Guinea.
1944 Holocaust: 1,600 of the 1,800 Jews of Corfu are gassed shortly after their arrival at Auschwitz. The rest are forced into slave labor. (Atlas)
1944 Holocaust: 20,000 Jewish women are evacuated from the slave labor camps at Auschwitz to Stutthof. That spring, the Germans had started building 60 new slave labor camps in the area, to replace those already overrun by the Soviets. (Atlas)
1944 Diary of Leon Gladun: (Italy) "A new position near the town of Recanati. We fired quite a bit until we ran out of sappers as the targets were already beyond 13,000 yards."
1945 WW2: Invasion plans for Japan are presented to President Truman and approved. The island of Kyushu is to be attacked on November 1 and Honshu near Tokyo on March 1, 1946.
1945 Ruthenia, formerly in Czechoslovakia, becomes part of the Ukrainian SSR.
1946 Nuremberg War Crimes Trials: On day 167 of deliberations, former Reich propaganda expert Hans Fritzsche gives evidence against his former boss. "...THE PRESIDENT: (quoting from an affidavit) "On such occasions Dr. Goebbels stated that there was no longer any objection to handing over crew members of crashed planes to the wrath of the people." (addressing Fritzsche) As you know, there has been a great deal of evidence about that before this Tribunal. Did you in your propaganda speeches make any references to this subject? FRITZSCHE: No, I never advocated in my propaganda speeches that the crews of aircraft which had been shot down should be killed. On the other hand, I know that Dr. Goebbels, for reasons of intimidation, ordered reports to be sent abroad already in the fall of 1944, reports to the effect that, to quote an example, an Anglo Saxon airplane which had machine-gunned churchgoers in the street on a Sunday had been shot down and the members of the crew had been lynched by the people. Actually this report had no factual basis...in the days after the air attack on Dresden...the following incident occurred. Dr. Goebbels announced in the "11 o'clock morning conference," which has been mentioned quite frequently in this courtroom, that in the Dresden attack 40,000 people had been killed....Dr. Goebbels added that in one way or another an end would now have to be put to this terror; and Hitler was firmly determined to have English, American, and Russian flyers shot in Dresden in numbers equal to the figure of Dresden inhabitants who had lost their lives in this air attack. Then he turned to me and asked me to prepare and announce this action..."
1946 British authorities arrest more than 2,700 Jews in Palestine in an attempt to stamp out terrorism.
1949 The government of South Africa enacts a ban against racially mixed marriages and begins implementing apartheid.
1949 US troops withdraw from Korea, which had been occupied since WW2.
1952 The Oriskany becomes the first aircraft carrier to sail around Cape Horn.
1953 The Federal Highway Act authorizes the construction of 42,500 miles of freeway from coast to coast, known as the Interstate Highway System.
1954 The Atomic Energy Commission votes against reinstating Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer's access to classified information.
1961 The launch of Transit 4a takes place, with the first nuclear power supply on board (SNAP-3).
1962 The first Vickers VC-10 British Aerospace long-range airliner takes to the air.
1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed by the US Senate after an 83-day filibuster in the Senate.
1966 The Nam: The US bombs fuel storage facilities near the North Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Haiphong.
1966 Barclays introduces Barclaycard, the first British credit card.
1967 Jerusalem is reunified as Israel removes barricades separating the Old City from the Israeli sector.
1969 The first Jewish worship service is held at the White House.
1972 Furman v. Georgia: The US Supreme Court rules by the usual vote of 5-4 that capital punishment, as it is currently employed on the state and federal level, is unconstitutional. The majority holds that, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, the death penalty qualifies as "cruel and unusual punishment," primarily because states employ execution in "arbitrary and capricious ways," especially in regard to race. It is the first time that the nation's highest court has ruled against capital punishment. However, because the Supreme Court suggests that new legislation can make death sentences constitutional again, such as the development of standardized guidelines for juries that decide sentences, it is not an outright victory for opponents of the death penalty. In 1976, with 66 percent of Americans still supporting capital punishment, the Supreme Court will acknowledge progress made in jury guidelines and will reinstate the death penalty under a 'model of guided discretion.'
1977 The US Supreme Court bans the death penalty for rapists of adults.
1978 US Vice President Walter F. Mondale begins a trip to the Middle East.
1978 Vietnam becomes the 10th member of COMECON.
1980 Vigdis Finnbogadotir is elected Iceland's president, becoming Europe's first democratically elected woman Head of State.
1981 Hu Yaobang succeeds Hua Guofeng as Chinese Communist Party chairman.
1982 The US Voting Rights Act of 1965 is extended.
1984 The USSR offers to begin talks leading to the banning of the US SDI program.
1987 Vincent Van Gogh's Le Pont de Trinquetaille is purchased by an anonymous European collector for $20.4 million at an auction in London, England.
1988 The US Supreme Court upholds the independent counsel law.
1990 Lithuania suspends its declaration of independence for 100 days, pending sovereignty talks with Moscow.
1990 Death: Irving Wallace, author; Book of Lists, Peoples Almanac.
1992 Algerian head of state Mohamed Boudiaf is assassinated as he opens a cultural center in the eastern Algerian town of Annaba.
1994 Japan's parliament picks Socialist Tomiichi Murayama as prime minister at the head of a three-party alliance dominated by conservatives.
1996 The Bosnian Serb ruling Democratic Party reelects Radovan Karadzic as leader.
1996 Pioneering British recording producer George Martin receives a Knighthood, becoming Sir George Martin.
1999 Urging the biggest expansion in Medicare's history, President Bill Clinton proposes that the government help older Americans pay for prescription drugs.
2001
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2003
2003 Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad announce that they have suspended attacks against Israel.
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