June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 185 days remaining until the end of the year.
Today in history
1149 – Raymond of Antioch is defeated and killed at the Battle of Inab by Nur ad-Din.
1194 – Sverre is crowned King of Norway.
1444 – An Ottoman invasion force is defeated by Skanderbeg at Torvioll.
1534 – Jacques Cartier makes the European discovery of Prince Edward Island.
1613 – The Globe Theatre in London, England burns to the ground.
1644 – Charles I of England defeats a Parliamentarian detachment at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, the last battle won by an English King on English soil.
1659 – The Russians, led by Prince Trubetskoy are defeated by the Ukrainian armies of Ivan Vyhovsky in the Battle of Konotop.
1749 – New Governor Charles de la Ralière Des Herbiers arrives at Isle Royale (Cape Breton Island).
1786 – Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario.
1850 – Coal is discovered on Vancouver Island.
1850 – Autocephaly officially granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Church of Greece.
1864 – Ninety-nine people are killed in Canada's worst railway disaster near St-Hilaire, Quebec.
1874 – Greek politician Charilaos Trikoupis publishes a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled "Who's to Blame?" in which he lays out his complaints against King George. He is elected Prime Minister of Greece the next year.
1880 – France annexes Tahiti.
1888 – First (known) recording of classical music, Handel's "Israel in Egypt," made on a wax cylinder.
1891 – Street railway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, commences operation.
1895 – Doukhobors burn their weapons as a protest against conscription by the Tsarist Russian government.
1914 – Jina Guseva attempts to assassinate Grigori Rasputin at his home town in Siberia.
1916 – Sir Roger Casement, Irish Nationalist and British diplomat is sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising.
1922 – France grants 1 km² at Vimy Ridge "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes."
1925 – Canada House opens in London, England.
1926 – Arthur Meighen returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
1927 – First test of Wallace Turnbull's Controllable pitch propeller.
1928 – The Outerbridge Crossing and Goethals Bridge in Staten Island, New York both opened.
1937 – Joseph-Armand Bombardier of Canada receives patent for sprocket and track traction system used in snow vehicles.
1945 – Carpathian Ruthenia is annexed by Soviet Union.
1956 – The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System.
1972 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules the death penalty could constitute "cruel and unusual punishment".
1974 – Isabel Perón is sworn in as the first female President of Argentina. Her husband President Juan Peron had delegated responsibility due to weak health and died two days later.
1976 – The Seychelles become independent from the United Kingdom.
1995 – Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.)
1995 – The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.
2002 – Naval clashes between South Korea and North Korea lead to the death of six South Korean sailors and sinking of a North Korean vessel.
2006 – Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush's plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.
2007 – Two car bombs are found in the heart of London at Picadilly Circus.
Births
1397 – John II of Aragon (d. 1479)
1482 – Maria of Aragon, queen of Portugal (d. 1517)
1517 – Rembert Dodoens, Flemish physician (d. 1585)
1596 – Emperor Go-Mizunoo of Japan (d. 1680)
1798 – Giacomo Leopardi, Italian poet (d. 1837)
1803 – John Newton Brown, American publisher (d. 1868)
1849 – John Hunn, American businessman (d. 1926)
1858 – George Washington Goethals, American army engineer (d. 1928)
1861 – William James Mayo, American physician (d. 1939)
1863 – Wilbert Robinson, American baseball player and hall-of-famer (d. 1934)
1865 – Shigechiyo Izumi, Japanese supercentenarian (d. 1986)
1866 – Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Ukrainian statesman (d. 1934)
1868 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer (d. 1938)
1880 – Ludwig Beck, German general (d. 1944)
1881 – Harry Frazee, American baseball team owner (d. 1929)
1881 – Curt Sachs, German musicologist (d. 1959)
1886 – Robert Schuman, French politician (d. 1963)
1889 – Willie MacFarlane, Scottish golfer (d. 1961)
1893 – Aarre Merikanto, Finnish composer (d. 1958)
1893 – Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Indian scientist and statistician (d. 1972)
1895 – Olivia Patricia Thomas, American supercentenarian
1897 – Fulgence Charpentier, French-Canadian journalist (d. 2001)
1900 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French writer (d. 1944)
1901 – Nelson Eddy, American singer and actor (d. 1967)
1903 – Alan Blumlein, English electronics engineer (d. 1942)
1906 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (d. 1945)
1908 – Leroy Anderson, American composer (d. 1975)
1910 – Frank Loesser, American composer (d. 1969)
1910 – Burgess Whitehead, American baseball player (d. 1993)
1911 – Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (d. 2004)
1911 – Bernard Herrmann, American film composer (d. 1975)
1912 – John Toland, American historian (d. 2004)
1912 – Émile Peynaud, French oenologist (d. 2004)
1914 – Rafael Kubelík, Czech conductor (d. 1996)
1914 – Christos Papakyriakopoulos, Greek mathematician (d. 1976)
1915 – Ruth Warrick, American actress (d. 2005)
1919 – Slim Pickens, American actor (d. 1983)
1919 – Lloyd Richards, American director (d. 2006)
1920 – Ray Harryhausen, American filmmaker
1921 – Frédéric Dard, French writer (d. 2000)
1922 – Vasko Popa, Yugoslavian poet (d. 1991)
1923 – Chou Wen-chung, Chinese-American composer
1924 – Flo Sandon's, Italian singer (d. 2006)
1924 – Ezra Laderman, American composer
1925 – Giorgio Napolitano, Italian politician
1925 – Hale Smith, American composer and editor
1925 – Cara Williams, American actress
1925 – Chan Parker, American author; wife of Charlie Parker and Phil Woods (d. 1999)
1926 – Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (d. 2006)
1928 – Ian Bannen, Scottish actor (d. 1999)
1928 – Radius Prawiro, Indonesia Finance Minister (d. 2005)
1929 – Pat Crawford Brown, American actress
1929 – Oriana Fallaci, Italian journalist and author (d. 2006)
1930 – Viola Léger, Acadian-Canadian actress
1931 – Ed Gilbert, American actor (d. 1999)
1930 – Robert Evans, American film producer
1932 – Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton, British politician
1933 – Bob Shaw, baseball player
1933 – John Bradshaw, American theologian
1934 – Corey Allen, American filmmaker and actor
1935 – Katsuya Nomura, Japanese baseball player and manager
1936 – Harmon Killebrew, American baseball player
1939 – Alan Connolly, Australian cricketer
1939 – Lo Lieh, Hong Kong martial arts actor (d. 2002)
1940 – Vyacheslav Artyomov, Russian composer
1941 – John Boccabella, American baseball player
1941 – Stokely Carmichael, Trinidadian-American activist (d. 1998)
1942 – Mike Willesee, Australian television presenter
1943 – Little Eva, American singer (d. 2003)
1944 – Gary Busey, American actor
1944 – Sean O'Malley, American Roman Catholic bishop
1945 – Chandrika Kumaratunga, President of Sri Lanka
1946 – Egon von Furstenberg, Swiss fashion designer (d. 2004)
1946 – Ernesto Pérez Balladares, Panamanian politician
1947 – Michael Carter, British actor
1947 – Richard Lewis, American comedian
1948 – Ian Paice, English drummer
1949 – Joan Clos i Matheu, Spanish politician
1949 – Ann Veneman, American politician
1951 – Don Rosa, American illustrator
1952 – Joe Johnson, English snooker player
1953 – Colin Hay, Scottish-Australian guitarist and singer
1954 – Rick Honeycutt, American baseball player
1955 – Terence M. O'Sullivan, American activist
1955 – Charles J. Precourt, American astronaut
1956 – Pedro Guerrero, baseball player
1956 – Pedro Santana Lopes, former Prime Minister of Portugal
1957 – María Conchita Alonso, Cuban-Venezuelan singer and actress
1957 – Michael Nutter, American politician
1957 – Robert Forster, Australian musician
1958 – Rosa Mota, Portuguese athlete
1958 – Jeff Coopwood, American actor, broadcaster and singer
1961 – Kimberlin Brown, American actress
1961 – Greg Hetson, American punk-rock guitarist
1961 – Sharon Lawrence, American actress
1962 – Amanda Donohoe, British actress
1962 – George Zamka, American astronaut
1963 – Khalid El-Masri, German-born suspected terrorist
1963 – Anne-Sophie Mutter, German violinist
1964 – Stedman Pearson, British singer
1965 – Tripp Eisen, American musician
1966 – John Part, Canadian darts player
1966 – Yoko Kamio, Japanese manga artist
1967 – Jeff Burton, American racing driver
1967 – Murray Foster, Canadian musician
1967 – Melora Hardin, American actress, singer
1968 – Theoren Fleury, Canadian hockey player
1969 – Claude Béchard, Canadian politician
1969 – Ilan Mitchell-Smith, American actor
1969 – Toru Hashimoto, Japanese politician
1970 – Mike Vallely, American skateboarder
1970 – Emily Skinner, American actress and singer
1971 – Kaitlyn Ashley, American pornographic actress
1971 – Matthew Good, Canadian musician
1971 – Anthony Hamilton, English snooker player
1972 – Samantha Smith, American activist (d. 1985)
1972 – Nawal Al Zoghbi, Lebanese singer
1973 – George Hincapie, American cyclist
1976 – Bret McKenzie, New Zealand musician
1977 – Zuleikha Robinson, English actress
1977 – DealZ, American singer
1978 – Sam Farrar, American bassist
1978 – Nicole Scherzinger, American singer and actress
1979 – Abs Breen, English singer
1979 – Marleen Veldhuis, Dutch swimmer
1979 – Matthew Bode, Australian Rules football player
1979 – Barış Akarsu, Turkish singer and actor (d. 2007)
1980 – Katherine Jenkins, Welsh soprano
1980 – Mel Peachey, British television personality
1980 – Martin Truex Jr, American race car driver
1981 – Joe Johnson, American basketball player
1981 – Nicolás Vuyovich, Argentine racing driver (d. 2005)
1983 – Aundrea Fimbres, American singer
1984 – Han Ji-hye, South Korean actress and model
1984 – Christopher Egan, Australian actor
1984 – Derek Lee Rock, American drummer
1985 – Quintin Demps, American football player
1986 – Austin Drage, English singer
1986 – Iya Villania, Filipina actress
1987 – Yasuka Saitou, Japanese actor
1987 – Ana Free, Portuguese singer/songwriter
1988 – Éver Banega, Argentine footballer
1992 – Adam G. Sevani, American actor
1993 – George Sampson, English dancer
Deaths
1059 – Bernard II, Duke of Saxony
1252 – King Abel of Denmark (b. 1218)
1315 – Ramon Llull, Spanish philosopher (b. 1235)
1509 – Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII of England (b. 1443)
1725 – Arai Hakuseki, Japanese writer and politician (b. 1657)
1744 – André Campra, French composer (b. 1660)
1764 – Ralph Allen, English businessman and politician (b. 1693)
1852 – Henry Clay, U.S. Senator (b. 1777)
1855 – John Gorrie, American scientist (b. 1802)
1861 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (b. 1806)
1873 – Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Bengali poet (b. 1824)
1875 – Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria (b. 1793)
1895 – Thomas Henry Huxley, English scientist (b. 1825)
1900 – Ivan Mikheevich Pervushin, Russian mathematician (b. 1827)
1919 – José Gregorio Hernández Venezuelan physician (b. 1864)
1921 – Otto Seeck German classical historian (b. 1850)
1931 – Nérée Beauchemin, Quebec poet (b. 1850)
1933 – Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, American actor (b. 1887)
1935 – Jack O'Neill, American baseball player (b. 1873)
1940 – Paul Klee, Swiss artist (b. 1879)
1941 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish pianist and composer (b. 1860)
1958 – Charles Spencelayh, English painter (b. 1865)
1960 – Frank Patrick, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1885)
1964 – Eric Dolphy, American jazz musician (b. 1928)
1967 – Jayne Mansfield, American actress (b. 1933)
1967 – Primo Carnera, Italian boxer (b. 1906)
1969 – Shorty Long, American singer (b. 1940)
1969 – Moise Tshombe, Congolese politician (b. 1919)
1973 – Germán Valdés, Mexican actor (b. 1915)
1975 – Tim Buckley, American singer-songwriter (b. 1947)
1977 – Magda Lupescu, consort of King Carol II of Romania (b. 1895)
1978 – Bob Crane, American actor (b. 1928)
1979 – Lowell George, American country-rock singer (b. 1945)
1982 – Pierre Balmain, French fashion designer (b. 1914)
1982 – Henry King, American film director (b. 1886)
1990 – Irving Wallace, American author and screenwriter (b. 1916)
1992 – Mohammed Boudiaf, President of Algeria (b. 1919)
1993 – Héctor Lavoe, Puerto Rican singer (b. 1946)
1994 – Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (b. 1908)
1995 – Lana Turner, American actress (b. 1921)
1997 – William Hickey, American actor (b. 1927)
1998 – Horst Jankowski, German pianist (b. 1936)
1999 – Allan Carr, American film producer (b. 1937)
2000 – Vittorio Gassman, Italian actor (b. 1922)
2002 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (b. 1928)
2002 – Ole-Johan Dahl, Norwegian computer scientist (b. 1931)
2002 – François Périer, French actor (b. 1919)
2003 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress (b. 1907)
2004 – Bernard Babior, American biochemist (b. 1935)
2006 – Randy Walker, American football coach (b. 1954)
2006 – Fabián Bielinsky, Argentine film director (b. 1959)
2006 – Lloyd Richards, American actor and director (b. 1919)
2007 – Joel Siegel, American film critic (b. 1943)
2007 – Edward Yang, Taiwanese film director (b. 1947)
2008 – Don S. Davis, American actor and artist (b. 1942)
Holidays and observances
Seychelles – Independence Day.
The Netherlands – Veterans Day.
Malta – l-Imnarja
Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, i.e., the Apostles Peter and Paul of Tarsus; also a local holiday in Rome, of which they are patron saints, as well as of the Antiochian Orthodox Church and diamond workers.
