July 29 in History
1836 — The Arc de Triomphe in Paris is inaugurated. 1848 — The Young Irelander Rebellion, a national revolt against British rule, is put down in the village of Ballingarry, South Tipperary. An Irish Constabulary unit, chased by the Young Irelanders, takes refuge in a house and a gunfight of several hours follows. The rebels flee when a large group of police reinforcements arrive. This is at the height of the Great Famine (1845-49) — aka the Irish Potato Famine because about 40% of the population is solely reliant on the cheap crop — during which about one million people die and another million emigrate. 1866 — Barbe-Nicole Clicquot (née Ponsardin), 88, the “Grande Dame of Champagne”, dies in Boursault. Widowed at age 27, six years after marrying Philippe Clicquot-Muiron, she transformed her husband’s struggling business into one of the great champagne houses of France. The brand and company still bear her name — Veuve (widow) Clicquot Ponsardin.
1921 — Adolf Hitler, 32, becomes führer of the relatively small and largely ineffective Munich-based Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party. He beats Anton Drexler, the founder, 533-1 — a result that fundamentally changes the course of history. 1937 — Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese planes bomb Tientsin (Tianjin), targeting Nankai University because its students are the leaders of the Chinese patriotic movement against the Japanese. 1948 — King George VI opens the first Olympic Games since 1936 in London. Germany and Japan are not invited and the Soviet Union chooses not to attend, but 59 nations do. South Africa wins four medals in boxing: Gerald Dreyer and George Hunter gold, Dennis Shepherd silver and John Arthur bronze. 1956 — Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso anchors at a record 7 500m under water.
1958 — US President Dwight Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act, ie Nasa.
1981 — Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
1981 — Fernando Alonso, two-time Formula One champion (2005, 2006), is born in Oviedo, Spain. 1987 — British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President François Mitterrand ratify the Treaty of Canterbury for the 50.45km Channel Tunnel. The idea was first proposed by French mining engineer Albert Mathieu-Favier in 1802 with his design of a two-level tunnel: the top one, paved and lit by oil lamps, for horse-drawn stagecoaches; the bottom one for groundwater flows.
2005 — Cabaret singer Hildegarde (Loretta Sell), 99, whose career spanned almost seven decades, dies in NYC. She was known for her elegant gowns and for playing the piano wearing long white gloves.