1588: The Spanish Armada was sighted off the coast of Cornwall. The English fleet under the command of Charles Howard and Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth, to establish the birth of British naval supremacy.
1833: The death of William Wilberforce, English campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. He died a month before the Slavery Abolition Act was passed. The Wilberforce Monument is in Kingston upon Hull.
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1836: The Arc de Triomphe is inaugurated in Paris, France. The famous monument honors those who died while fighting for France during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. It was designed by Jean Chalgrin.
1909: General Motors buys Cadillac. On July 29, 1909, the newly formed General Motors Corporation (GM) acquires the country’s leading luxury automaker, the Cadillac Automobile Company, for $4.5 million.
1921: Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi Party. On July 29, 1921, Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party. Under Hitler, the Nazi Party grew into a mass movement and ruled Germany as a totalitarian state from 1933 to 1945.
Hitler’s early years did not seem to predict his rise as a political leader. Born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, Austria, he was a poor student and never graduated from high school. During World War I, he joined a Bavarian regiment of the German army and was considered a brave soldier; however, his commanders felt he lacked leadership potential and never promoted him beyond corporal.
1948: The XIV Olympics opened in London, United Kingdom after a 12-year hiatus due to the Second World War. The last Summer Olympics before this were held in Berlin in 1936.
1957: The International Atomic Energy Agency is established. The independent agency aims to ban the use of nuclear energy for military purposes. American W. Sterling Cole served as the agency’s first director general.
1958: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was established.
Criticized for allowing the Soviet Union to launch the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth (Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957), U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation this day in 1958 that created NASA, a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s activities in space. NASA has since sponsored space expeditions, both human and mechanical, that have yielded vital information about the solar system and universe. It has also launched numerous earth-orbiting satellites that have been instrumental in everything from weather forecasting to navigation to global communications.
1966: Nigeria’s second military coup ousted the military government. Head of State General Aguiyi Ironsi is assassinated by a group of Northern Nigerian officers and soldiers.
1981: Prince Charles marries Lady Diana. Nearly one billion television viewers in 74 countries tune in to witness the marriage of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, to Lady Diana Spencer, a young English kindergarten teacher’s assistant. Married in a grand ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in the presence of 2,650 guests, the couple was—for that moment at least—the envy of the world. Their first child, Prince William, was born in 1982, and their second, Prince Harry, in 1984.
Before long, however, the fairy-tale couple grew apart, an experience that was particularly painful under the ubiquitous eyes of the world’s tabloid media. Diana and Charles announced a separation in 1992, though they continued to carry out their royal duties. In August 1996, two months after Queen Elizabeth II urged the couple to divorce, the prince and princess reached a final agreement.
1996: Carl Lewis wins fourth consecutive long jump at 35. On July 29, 1996, track and field legend Carl Lewis wins his fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the long jump. It was the ninth and final Olympic gold of his storied career.
Frederick Carlton Lewis was born July 11, 1961, in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised in a middle-class community in New Jersey. As a teenager, Lewis met Olympic champion Jesse Owens, who became his hero. He participated in track and field but was undersized until high school, when he grew the long legs that help a sprinter cover ground and underwent a huge growth spurt that forced him to walk with crutches for three months while he fine-tuned his gait. Once fully developed at 6 feet 2 inches tall, Lewis set a national high school record in the long jump with a 26-foot-8-inch leap.
2008: United States Congress apologizes for slavery. The U.S. House of Representatives publicly apologized for the institution of slavery and Jim Crow laws that discriminated against African Americans.
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: July 29
Joey Essex, 34 Years.
Joey Donald Essex is an English television personality. From 2011 to 2013, he made appearances on the ITV reality series The Only Way Is Essex. In 2013 he participated in the first series of Splash! and the thirteenth series of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, where he finished in fourth place.
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, born on 29 July 1883. He was the leader of the Fascist Party, founded in 1919 at the end of World War I. Mussolini was a teacher and journalist who wrote for left-wing newspapers. He enlisted in the army, rising to the rank of sergeant. He was an Italian dictator who died on 28 April 1945 at the age of 61.
