March 29
1461 War of the Roses: England's bloodiest battle rages for 10 hours around the village of Towton in Yorkshire. More than 28,000 people die as Henry VI's Lancastrian forces are crushed and the throne is claimed by Edward IV.
1561 Birth: Santorio Sanctorius, in Trieste, Italy, physician; will be burned at the stake as a heretic.
1638 The first Swedish colonists in America establish a Lutheran settlement at Fort Christiana in the Colony of Delaware.
1650 Death: Cornelis Galle I, Flemish engraver, at about 73.
1673 English King Charles II accepts the Test Act: Roman Catholics are excluded from public functions.
1745 Death: Robert Walpole, first British premier, 1722-42, at 68.
1790 Birth: John Tyler, 10th president of the United States, 1841-1845. "John Tyler signaled the last gasp of the Old Virginia aristocracy in the White House. Born a few years after the American Revolution in 1790 to an old family from Virginia's ruling class, Tyler graduated from the College of William and Mary at the age of seventeen, studied law, and went to work for a prestigious law firm in Richmond. At twenty-one, Tyler had used his father's contacts to gain a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates where he began immediately fighting the Bank of the United States, which he opposed as a broadening of nationalist power. After serving an uneventful stint in the military during the War of 1812, Tyler won election to the House of Representatives and quickly became a Washington insider, seen frequently at Dolly Madison's posh parties. As a southern planter, Tyler bitterly opposed a strong standing army, tariffs, and extending the vote to men without property, resenting this challenge to traditional southern power. The popular Andrew Jackson of Tennessee represented everything in politics that Tyler was against, especially the new voting power of the West. When Jackson's government attempted to restrict slavery in new states west of Missouri, Tyler saw it as such an abuse of federal power that he resigned from Congress in disgust. When he returned to Washington in 1827, Tyler reluctantly supported Jackson's reelection in 1832 but became furious when Jackson threatened to use federal force against South Carolina when the state renounced federal tariffs. Twice he stridently condemned the President on the Senate floor for what he considered the President's abuse of executive power. Disgusted with Jackson, Tyler teamed up with Henry Clay and Daniel Webster to form the new Whig Party..."
1794 Death: Marie-Jan C Condorcet, mathematician; Theory of Comets.
1798 The Helvetic Republic, a government set up by the French directory in Switzerland from the ten Cantons, is proclaimed.
1809 In Sweden, Gustavus IV is forced to abdicate after a number of military defeats against Denmark. He is succeeded by Charles XIII.
1814 Battle at Horseshoe Bend: In Alabama, Andrew Jackson defeats the Creek Indians. "...On the peninsula stood 1,000 American Indian warriors, members of the tribe European Americans knew as the Creek. These men, along with 350 women and children, had arrived over the previous six months in search of refuge. Many had been part of a series of costly battles during the past year, all fought in an attempt to regain the autonomy the Indians had held before the arrival of European Americans. Surrounding the Creek were forces led by future President Andrew Jackson, then a major general of the Tennessee Militia. The core of his force was 2,600 European American soldiers, most of whom hoped that a victory would open native land to European American settlement. Yet this fight was not simply European American versus American Indian: on Jackson's side were 600 "friendly" Indians, including 100 Creek. The Battle of Horseshoe Bend, as the events of March 27 became known, illustrated three long-running conflicts in American history. It was yet another fight between European Americans and American Indians, in this case the decisive battle in the Creek War (1813-1814). That day and those leading up to it also provided an example of tensions among American Indians, even those in the same tribe. Finally, both Creek factions received support from white governments, thereby continuing the long tradition of European nations attempting to defeat their rivals by enlisting the native population."
1819 Birth: Edwin Drake; will drill the first productive US oil well.
1822 Birth: Joseph Quinaux, Belgian painter.
1835 Birth: Elihu Thomson, the English-born American inventor of electric welding and arc lighting.
1847 Mexican War: Victorious forces led by General Winfield Scott occupy the city of Vera Cruz after Mexican defenders capitulate.
1848 For the first time in recorded history, Niagara Falls stops flowing. An ice jam in the Niagara River above the rim of the falls causes the water to stop. The falls stop for about 30 hours.
1849 Britain formally annexes the Punjab after a defeat of Sikhs in India.
1852 Ohio makes it illegal for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a day.
1865 US Civil War: The final campaign of the civil war begins in Virginia when Union troops of General Ulysses S. Grant move against the Confederate trenches around Petersburg. General Robert E. Lee's outnumbered Rebels are soon forced to evacuate the city and begin a desperate race west. Eleven months before, Grant moved his army across the Rapidan River in northern Virginia and began the bloodiest campaign of the war. For six weeks, Lee and Grant fought along an arc that swung east of the Confederate capital at Richmond. They fought some of the conflict's bloodiest battles at Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor before they settled into trenches for a siege of Petersburg, 25 miles south of Richmond. The trenches eventually stretched all the way back to Richmond, and for ten months the armies glowered at each other across a no man's land. Periodically, Grant launched attacks against sections of the Rebel defenses, but Lee's men managed to fend them off. Time was running out for Lee, though. His army was dwindling in size to about 55,000, while Grant's continued to grow, the Army of the Potomac now had more than 125,000 men ready for service. On 25 March, Lee attempted to split the Union lines when he attacked Fort Stedman, a stronghold along the Yankee trenches. His army was beaten back, and he lost nearly 5,000 men. Grant seized the initiative, sending 12,000 men past the Confederates' left flank and threatening to cut Lee's escape route from Petersburg. Fighting broke out there, several miles southwest of the city. Lee's men could not arrest the Federal advance. Two days later, the Yankees struck at Five Forks, soundly defeating the Rebels and leaving Lee no alternative. He pulled his forces from their trenches and raced west, followed by Grant. It is a race that even the great Lee can not win. (Bradley)
1867 The British Parliament passes the British North America Act to create the Dominion of Canada, comprising Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
1875 Birth: Lou Hoover, US First Lady. "...While Mrs. Florence Weed Henry was awaiting the birth of her first child, Charles Henry was hoping over and over again that this child would be a boy. He couldn't wait to take his son out hunting, and fishing. Why, they could go camping up the Cedar...What fun they would have. As it turned out the baby was a girl. Lou Henry is what they decided to name her...While at Stanford, Lou met a senior assistant of Dr. Branner named Herbert Hoover. Hoover was one of the pioneer students at Stanford since he would be in its first graduating class. At a dinner hosted by Dr. and Mrs. Branner, Lou and Herbert found out that they had quite a bit in common. They had been born within 100 miles of each other in Iowa, they were both geology majors, and they both loved to fish. As Lou and Bert spent time together on field studies, they learned more and more about each other. In Lou Henry, Herbert Hoover saw a young woman who was self-reliant and able to live the life of a geologist. Lou completed her degree in 1898. During the time that Lou was studying at Stanford, Herbert Hoover was mining in Australia. He had been sent to the middle of Australia by the British mining company that he now worked for..."
1876 Birth: Joseph Schmidlin, German church historian, antifascist.
1879 British troops of the 90th Light Infantry Regiment repulse a major attack by Zulu tribesmen in northwest Zululand.
1881 Birth: Raymond Hood, architect.
1883 Birth: Donald Dexter Van Slyke, US chemist; Micromanometric analysis.
1886 A new carbonated beverage is launched by graduate chemist John S. Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. Described as an 'esteemed brain tonic and intellectual beverage,' its inventor claims it can cure anything from hysteria to the common cold. We now know it better as Coca-Cola. The US will ban the inclusion of cocaine in its secret recipe in 1904. (Bradley)
1891 Death: Georges-Pierre Seurat, French painter; Pointillism.
1895 Birth: Ernst Junger, brilliant German novelist, born in Heidelberg. His realistic novels will be influenced by his experiences in World Wars I and II. Junger will be a friend of Hielscher, and will who visit him in Paris in Oct. 1943. Junger will declare that "while the 19th century was the century of reason, the 20th was the century of cults." Junger will use the code-name "Kniebolo" for Hitler and declare that Hitler "lived on" cults which accounted for the "total incapacity of liberal-minded people to see even where he stands." Junger will live to well over a hundred years old and in the 1950's will experiment with LSD. He will live his final years in the small village of Wilflingen, near Lake Constance in southern Germany. Junger's novels include Storm of Steel, The Working Man and On the Marble Cliffs. (Pauwels)
1897 Japan adopts the Gold Standard.
1901 The first elections in Australia begin when Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia vote for members of the first Australian parliament.
1912 Death: Captain Robert Falcon Scott, in Antarctica returning from his expedition to the South Pole. Blizzard-bound in a tent 18 km from the South Pole, he makes a last entry in his diary 'the end cannot be far'.
1913 The German government announces a raise in taxes in order to finance the new military budget.
1916 Birth: Eugene J. McCarthy, in Watkins, Minnesota, former US Senator-Democrat-Minnesota, Presidential candidate 1968.
1916 WW1: The Italians call off the fifth attack on Isonzo.
1920 Weimar: Rudolf Hess is temporarily recruited by the local airfield at Schleissheim. (Missing Years)
1924 Volkishness: Konrad Weitbrecht, a Swabian forester who led an ONT group in his region, receives a million Austrian crowns, collected by the brothers of the priories of Werfenstein and Marienkamp, for a seat in South Germany. (Roots)
1927 Henry O.D. Segrave races his Sunbeam to a record 203.79 mph at Daytona; the first auto to exceed 200mph (322kph).
1928 The Suffragettes' long campaign ends as the British House of Commons passes the Equal Franchise Bill giving the vote to all women over 21. The campaign was started by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903. Women over 30 have been able to vote since 1918. (Bradley)
1933 Max Warburg's son, Erich, sends a cable to his cousin, Frederick M. Warburg, a director of the Harriman railroad system, asking him to "use all your influence" to stop all anti-Nazi activity in America, including "atrocity news and unfriendly propaganda in foreign press, mass meetings, etc."
1934 The pro-Nazi German American Bund launches a counter-boycott against Jewish goods and services.
1936 Hitler receives 99% of the votes in a referendum, receiving 44.5 million votes out of 45.5 million registered voters.
1936 SS guard formations are renamed SS-Totenkopfverbande and their number increases to 3,500. (Edelheit)
1935 The French liner Normandie begins its maiden voyage.
1936 Italy firebombs the Ethiopian city of Harar.
1937 Birth: Billy Carter, in Plains, Georgia, good old boy brother of US President Jimmy Carter.
1941 WW2: The British sink five Italian warships off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean.
1942 WW2: The British cruiser Trinidad torpedoes itself in the Barents Sea.
1942 WW2: The British destroyer Campbeltown explodes in St-Nazaire; 400 German POW's perish.
1943 WW2: Meat, butter and cheese rationing begins in the US.
1943 Birth: John Major, British Prime Minister, MP, Conservative 1990-97.
1943 Holocaust: A German decree orders that all Dutch Gypsies are to be deported to Auschwitz. (Atlas)
1943 Holocaust: After a visit by Himmler, Treblinka adopts cremation to dispose of the victims bodies. Some 700,000 bodies are unearthed by mechanical excavators and cremated, while simultaneously, bodies from the gas chambers are disposed of in the same manner. Teams of Jewish prisoners transfer the corpses on stretchers to huge steel grids, called "roasters" by the Germans, that can hold as many as 3,000 stacked-up bodies. These 100-foot-wide grids are constructed of a half-dozen railroad rails, resting on three rows of 28-inch-high concrete posts. Brushwood is placed underneath the grid to serve as kindling. (Apparatus)
1943 WW2: Life magazine devotes an issue to "Soviet-American cooperation" and describes the NKVD as "similar to the FBI" whose job it is to track down traitors.
1945 Death: Karl T. Sapper, German geographer, geologist; Vulkankunde.
1946 Nuremberg War Crimes Trials: Robert Jackson appoints Telford Taylor to succeed him as chief prosecutor in the subsequent Nuremberg trials. (Maser II)
1949 Turkey recognizes Israel.
1951 Korea: The Chinese reject General Douglas MacArthur's offer for a truce.
1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. "...Any consideration of the Rosenberg atom bomb spy case has to acknowledge several uncomfortable facts. First, almost all of the participants, including the accused, the accusers, the prosecution, and the defense often appear to be unattractive, unsympathetic, and sad people. Some, particularly those who used Ethel as a pawn in a futile attempt to force Julius to confess, behaved dishonorably, cruelly, and without pity. Still others display passions that are difficult to understand. With a few exceptions, the long cast of characters in this case do not inspire admiration. Second, as in the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, the Rosenberg trial took place in a Great Red Scare, but this time the paranoia was increased by the detonation of an atom bomb by Russia, the invasion of South Korea by the Communist North Koreans and Chinese, the numerous revelations and confessions of former communists and professed spies, and the intensity of the McCarthy mentality of the times. Layered on the political hysteria was the abhorrent circumstance of virulent anti-Semitism, intensified by the fact that virtually all of those concerned with this drama were Jewish. Third, the case is..."
1952 President Harry S. Truman removes himself from the presidential race.
1961 The US constitution is amended (23rd amendment) to give residents of the District of Columbia the right to vote in presidential elections.
1961 After a 4-1/2 year trial Nelson Mandela is acquitted on a treason charge.
1962 Cuba begins the trial of the Bay of Pigs invaders. "...But to hear Castro's echo chamber the Beltway media and leftist academics, Fidel was the plucky David and the invaders the bumbling Goliath! How appropriate that Fidel awarded his chum Yasser Arafat with something called the "Bay of Pigs medal" in 1974. It's perfect: "For meritorious service in the war of humbug. For turning facts on their heads. For conspicuous bravery in grinding the organ of propaganda and managing to keep a straight face while the media monkeys chatter and dance to the tune." The invaders themselves suffered 100 dead. Four were American 'advisers,' who gagged on, snarled at and finally defied direct orders to abandon the men they'd trained and befriended. "Nuts!" they barked; but at their own commander in chief. Then they flew in to try and provide some air cover. But they piloted lumbering B-26s and Castro had jets. They had to know it was hopeless. And every one gave his life..."
1963 Britain grants the right to any territory to secede from the Central African Federation.
1966 Leonid Brezhenev becomes First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. He denounces the American policy in Vietnam and calls it one of aggression.
1969 The Communist New People's Army is founded in Philippines.
1971 Chile President Allende nationalizes the banks and copper mines.
1971 A jury in Los Angeles recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders.
1971 The Nam: Lieutenant William L. Calley Jr. is found guilty for his actions in the My Lai massacre.
1973 The Nam: The last US troops leave Vietnam, 9 years after the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
1974 The first close-up pictures of the planet Mercury are taken by the US spacecraft Mariner 10.
1975 Egyptian president Anwar Sadat declares that he will reopen the Suez Canal on 5 June 1975.
1976 Eight Ohio National Guardsmen are indicted for shooting four Kent State students during an anti-war protest on 4 May 1970.
1987 UK Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher is mobbed by welcoming crowds during her walkabout in Moscow. During her four-day visit Mrs Thatcher is to have disarmament talks with President Mikhail Gorbachev.
1988 The US Congress discontinues aid to the Nicaraguan contras.
1990 President George H. Bush, addressing the National Leadership Coalition on AIDS, declares his administration at war against the disease.
1992 American president Bill Clinton admits to having smoked marijuana, but lamely attempts to mitigate the political damage his confession causes by claiming 'I didn't inhale.'
1994 Guatemala's government and leftist rebels sign a breakthrough human rights accord that boosts hopes of ending 33 years of civil war.
1996 Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan sign integration accords in Moscow.
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