July 29

587 BC – The Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar the Great, sacks Jerusalem and destroys the First Temple.

904 –After a short siege, moslem saracen raiders under Leo of Tripoli sack Thessaloniki, the Byzantine Empire’s second largest city, and plunder it for a week.

1148 – The Siege of Damascus ends in a decisive crusader defeat and leads to the disintegration of the Second Crusade.

1567 – The 4 year old James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.

1775 –  General George Washington appoints William Tudor as Judge Advocate of the Continental Army which is considered the founding of the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps

1858 – On board the USS Powhatan in Tokyo Bay, emissaries of the U.S. and Japan sign the Harris Treaty, regulating trade and legal rights of U.S. citizens in Japan.

1871 – The Connecticut Valley Railroad opens between Old Saybrook, Connecticut and Hartford, Connecticut in the United States.

1899 – The First Hague Convention, which a part of is the ban on the use of expanding and soft point bullets, is signed.

1907 – Sir Robert Baden-Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England which is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement.

1914 – Professor Irwin Corey is born in Brooklyn.

1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the NAtionalsoZIalistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party)

1957 – The Tonight Show – Tonight Starring Jack Paar premieres on NBC with the host beginning the modern day talk show.

1958 – President Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

1959 – The first congressional elections are held in Hawaii as a state of the Union.

1965 – The first 4,000 troops of the  101st Airborne Division arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay, beginning the increase of forces ordered the day before by President Johnson.

1967 – Off the coast of North Vietnam the USS Forrestal catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134 crewmembers

1967 – During the fourth day of celebrating its 400th anniversary, the city of Caracas, Venezuela is shaken by an earthquake, leaving 500 people dead.

1976 – In New York City, David Berkowitz (a.k.a. the “Son of Sam”) kills 1 person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of shootings.

2005 – Astronomers at the Palomar Observatory, California announce their discovery of 2 dwarf planets in the solar system officially named Eris and Makemake

2021 – The International Space Station temporarily spins out of control, moving  45 degrees out of attitude, following an engine malfunction of Russian module Nauka.