29 August in history
9 events that happened on 29 August, from 708 to 2005.
708 CE 1,318 years ago
Empress Genmei orders the Wadōkaichin, Japan's oldest official coinage
The Wadōkaichin, the oldest official Japanese coinage, was first recorded on the order of Empress Genmei. Long thought to be the first coins made in Japan, they were in fact preceded by the Fuhon-sen, manufactured from 683.
1219 CE 807 years ago
Ayyubid Egypt defeats the army of the Fifth Crusade at Fariskur
Outside the Ayyubid camp at Fariskur, the army of the Fifth Crusade fought a pitched battle with Ayyubid Egypt while its siege of Damietta was still under way. The Ayyubid victory had little effect on the course of the war.
1350 CE 676 years ago
Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet off Winchelsea
In the Hundred Years' War, an English fleet of 50 ships under King Edward III defeated a Castilian fleet of 47 larger vessels commanded by Charles de la Cerda. Between 14 and 26 Castilian ships were captured and several sunk.
✦ Anniversary of the day
1842 CE 184 years ago
The Treaty of Nanking ends the First Opium War
China ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain, opened five ports to foreign trade and paid a large indemnity. It was the first of the 'unequal treaties' China remembers as a century of humiliation.
1949 CE 77 years ago
The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb
The USSR exploded its first atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, years earlier than the West expected. The American nuclear monopoly was over and the arms race had begun.
1966 CE 60 years ago
The Beatles play their last concert for paying fans
The Beatles played a half-hour set at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. They then gave up touring to concentrate on studio albums such as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
2005 CE 21 years ago
Hurricane Katrina strikes the US Gulf Coast
Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane; storm surge broke the levees of New Orleans and flooded some 80 per cent of the city. More than 1,300 people died and the government response was widely condemned.
Born on 29 August 3
Died on 29 August 12
Dates as the sources give them: in the Julian calendar before 1582, and in some countries for longer (Britain until 1752, Russia until 1918). Only people whose day of birth or death the records agree on are listed.