August 29
1533
Atahualpa, the last ruler of the Incas, was murdered as Francisco Pizarro completed his conquest of Peru.
1786
Shays’s rebellion, an insurrection of Massachusetts farmers against the state government, began.
1842
The Treaty of Nanking was signed, ending the Opium Wars and ceding the island of Hong Kong to Britain.
1877
Brigham Young died in Salt Lake City, Utah.
1949
The U.S.S.R. tested their first atomic bomb.
1957
Strom Thurmond ended the longest filibuster in U.S. Senate history. He spoke for more than 24 hours against a civil rights bill; the bill passed.
1966
The Beatles played their last major live concert at Candlestick Park, California.
1991
The Supreme Soviet, the parliament of the U.S.S.R., suspended all activities of the Communist Party, bringing an end to the institution.
2005
Hurricane Katrina slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast, destroying beachfront towns in Mississippi and Louisiana, displacing a million people, and killing more than 1,000.
Birthdays
John Locke
Pronunciation: [lok] 1632–1704, English philosopher, founder of British empiricism.
Jean Auguste Ingres
painter (1780)
Ingrid Bergman
actress (1915)
Charlie Parker
musician (1920)
Dinah Washington
singer (1924)
Slobodan Milosevic
political leader (1941)
Michael Jackson
pop musician (1958)