Today in History

July 29

1858 - United States and Japan sign their first commercial treaty.

1890 - Dutch Artist Vincent van Gogh dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France, at the age of 37.

1900 - Italy’s King Humbert I is assassinated.

1937 - Eighteen-year-old Crown Prince Farouk is crowned king of Egypt.

1938 - Jenny Kammersgaad of Denmark becomes the first person to swim across the Baltic Sea.

1948 - King George VI opens 14th modern Olympic Games in London.

1957 - The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.

1958 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) is founded in US.

1965 - The Beatles’ film Help! is released in the United Kingdom. 1967 - Fire sweeps the USS

Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin, killing 134 sailors.

1973 - Voters in Greece endorse the abolition of the Greek monarchy.

1979 - Singapore Airlines flight carrying Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew aborts its takeoff at Dubai airport when two tyres burst and the plane skids off the runway.

1980 - Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi is laid to rest at Al Rifaie mosque in Cairo.

1981 - Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer in London.

1987 - Sri Lankan President Junius Jayewardene and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi sign a controversial peace pact in Colombo.

1989 - Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani wins presidential elections in Iran.

1999 - The first express rail service between Amman and Damascus begins with six new trains.

2002 - Egypt’s rights activist Sa’ad Ebrahim is sentenced to seven years in jail.

2007 - Iraq wins the 2007 football Asian Cup in Jakarta.

2008 - Emirates’ Airbus A380 makes a historic landing in Dubai.

2009 - Microsoft and Yahoo unveil a 10-year deal which gives Microsoft access to Yahoo users.

2011 - 18 miners killed in two coal mine explosions in eastern Ukraine.

2014 - A massive blaze continues to rage at a fuel depot near Tripoli’s airport after it was hit by a rocket during clashes between rival militias.