On This Day: 29 May

Constantinople falls to Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih – conventionally ending the Byzantine (Roman) Empire		1453
Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Diaz drowns during a storm at sea, near the Cape of Good Hope		1500
Charles II enters London, marking the restoration of the monarchy		1660
Rhode Island becomes the last of the original Thirteen Colonies to ratify the Constitution and become one of the United States		1790
Virginia Assembly opposes Britain's Stamp Act		1795
Between 300 and 500 United Irishmen are executed as rebels by the British Army in County Kildare		1798
Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico – younger brother of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I, invited by Napoleon III of France to rule Mexico – arrives in Mexico for the first time		1864
The Austro–Hungarian Empire is established by the so–called 'Compromise', recognising the Kingdom of Hungary as separate from the Austrian Empire, and no longer subject to it		1867
Britain's first Bank Holiday		1871
Europe's first steam cable tram begins operating in Highgate, London		1884
Pharmacist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca–Cola, in The Atlanta Journal		1886
N'Djamena (now the capital city of Chad) is founded as Fort–Lamy by the French commander Émile Gentil		1900
W. S. Gilbert dies after saving a young woman from drowning		1911
Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, choreographed by Diaghilev, outrages the audience on its first performance, in Paris		1913
The Canadian Pacific Steamship Company's liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, following a collision in thick fog with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad, with the loss of 1,012 lives		1914
British astronomers Frank Watson Dyson and Arthur Stanley Eddington measure the gravitational deflection of starlight passing near the Sun during a total solar eclipse, confirming a prediction made by Albert Einstein in 1911 as a test of his 1915 theory of General Relativity		1919
Charles Strite, of Minnesota, files the first patent for a pop–up toaster		1919
The French liner Normandie leaves Le Havre on her maiden voyage to New York via Southampton		1935
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aeroplane makes its first flight		1935
The evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk begins		1940
The RCMP schooner St. Roch arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, becoming the second ship to make the Northwest Passage and the first to circumnavigate North America		1950
Hillary and Tensing reach the summit of Everest		1953
Charles de Gaulle recalled from retirement to settle the Algerian crisis		1958
Charles de Gaulle forms a Government of National Safety in France		1959
The Arab League meets in East Jerusalem to discuss the Palestinian question, leading to the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization		1964
Manchester United beat Benfica at Wembley, 4–1 after extra time, becoming the first English club to win the European Cup		1968
Nixon and Brezhnev sign the first arms reduction pact		1972
Three gunmen of the Japanese Red Army, having arrived on a flight from Paris, open fire on crowds at Lod International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel (later renamed Ben Gurion International), killing 26 people and injuring dozens more		1972
Northern Ireland brought under the direct rule of Westminster after the collapse of the Northern Ireland Executive		1974
Bishop Abel Muzorewa, former ANC President, becomes the first black prime minister of Rhodesia		1979
The Argentinian garrison at Goose Green, East Falkland, surrenders following an assault by the Parachute Regiment's 2^nd Battalion, led by Lt–Col Herbert 'H' Jones – who is killed in a solo charge on an enemy machine–gun post and was later awarded a posthumous VC		1982
Pope John Paul II, making the first Papal visit to Britain since 1531, prays alongside Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie in Canterbury Cathedral		1982
Police use riot gear for the first time since the miners' strike began, as they face the biggest picket to date, outside Orgreave coking plant near Sheffield		1984
39 Juventus fans lose their lives, and hundreds more are injured, when charged by Liverpool fans at Heysel Stadium, Brussels		1985
US President Ronald Reagan arrives in Moscow for a summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev		1988
Boris Yeltsin elected to the Supreme Soviet after popular protests at his exclusion		1989
The Russian parliament elects Boris Yeltsin as president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic		1990
Former military leader Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the country's first elected and civilian head of state after 16 years of military rule		1999
The Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station		1999
The USA's National World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington		2004
French voters reject the proposed European Constitution by a majority of 56% to 44%		2005
The Observatory at the One World Trade Center in New York opens to the public		2015

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On This Day: 29 May