29th of July

Today is the 211th day of the year with 155 days remaining until the new year.

238 - The Praetorian Guard stormed the palace and capture Pupienus and Balbinus.  They are dragged through the streets of Rome and executed.  On the same day Gordian III, age 13, is proclaimed emperor.

615 - Pakal ascends the throne of Palenque, the Maya city state in Southern Mexico, at age 12.  The site was later absorbed and taken over by the jungle.

1588 - Battle of Gravelines occurs, when English naval forces under the command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the French coast.

1848 - During the Irish Potato Famine, in Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police.

1864 - Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.

1883 - Italian fascist dictator, who later befriends Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini is born.

1890 - Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh dies at the age of 37, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

1909 - The newly formed General Motors Corporation acquires the Cadillac Automobile Company for $4.5 million.

1921 - Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party.

1953 - American producer and director Ken Burns is born on this day.

1958 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which essentially creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

1965 - The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.

1981 - A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watch the wedding of Charles Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

1987 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France Francois Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel.

2005 - Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris.