Historical Events on Thursday, 29th January

29/01/2025

American Eagle Flight 5342 collided mid-air with a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk operated by the United States Army and crashed into the Potomac River, killing all 67 people onboard both aircraft.

American Eagle is the brand for regional airline flights operated for American Airlines, encompassing flights by wholly owned affiliates Envoy Air, PSA Airlines, and Piedmont Airlines, as well as third-party carriers Republic Airways and SkyWest Airlines. These regional carriers serve smaller markets, facilitating connections to American Airlines hubs, and supporting operations in mainline markets. All American Eagle carriers share similar logos, uniforms, and aircraft paint schemes as American Airlines’ mainline operations. In 2023, 46 million passengers flew on American Eagle regional flights, with about 45% connecting to or from mainline flights. These flights operate under capacity purchase agreements with both third-party and wholly owned regional carriers, controlling all aspects of marketing, scheduling, ticketing, pricing, and seat inventories. American Airlines pays fixed fees for operating specified aircraft and covering certain variable costs, such as fuel, landing fees, and insurance.

---

A chartered Beechcraft 1900 crashes near the Unity oilfield in South Sudan, killing 20 people.

The Beechcraft 1900 is an American twin-engine turboprop regional airliner manufactured by Beechcraft. It is also used as a freight aircraft and corporate transport, and by several governmental and military organizations. With customers favoring larger regional jets, then-owner Raytheon ended production in October 2002.

---

29/01/2022

Canadian truck drivers and pedestrians gathered to rally and protest on Parliament Hill against Canadian COVID-19 restrictions, which caused traffic and closures around the city.

A truck driver is a person who earns a living as the driver of a truck, which is commonly defined as a large goods vehicle (LGV) or heavy goods vehicle (HGV).

---

29/01/2017

A gunman opens fire at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City, killing six people and wounding 19 others in a spree shooting.

The Quebec City mosque shooting was an attack by a single gunman on the evening of January 29, 2017, at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City, a mosque in the Sainte-Foy neighbourhood of Quebec City, Canada. Six worshippers were killed and five others seriously injured after evening prayers when the gunman entered the prayer hall shortly before 8:00 pm and opened fire for about two minutes with a 9mm Glock 17 Gen 4 semi-automatic pistol. Approximately 40 people were reported present at the time of the shooting.

---

29/01/2014

Rojava conflict: The Afrin Canton declares its autonomy from the Syrian Arab Republic.

The Rojava Revolution, also known as the Rojava conflict is a political upheaval and military conflict taking place in northern Syria, known among Kurds as Western Kurdistan or Rojava.

---

29/01/2013

SCAT Airlines Flight 760 crashes near the Kazakh city of Almaty, killing 21 people.

SCAT Airlines Flight 760 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kokshetau to Almaty, Kazakhstan, operated by a Bombardier CRJ200 twinjet that on 29 January 2013 crashed in thick fog near the village of Kyzyltu, while on approach to Almaty. All 16 passengers and 5 crew on board were killed.

---

29/01/2009

Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.

The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state. The governor is responsible for endorsing or vetoing laws passed by the Illinois General Assembly. The office also carries the power of pardon and commutation under state law. The governor is commander-in-chief of the state's land, air and sea forces when they are in state service. Illinois is one of 13 states that does not place a term limit for governor.

---

29/01/2008

An Egyptian court rules that people who do not adhere to one of the three government-recognised religions, while not allowed to list any belief outside of those three, are still eligible to receive government identity documents.

Religion in Egypt plays a significant role in the country's social structure and is institutionally supported by law. Islam is designated as the state religion of Egypt, although precise figures on religious affiliation are unavailable due to the exclusion of religious data from the 1996 census onwards. As a result, existing statistics are based on estimates provided by religious organizations and independent agencies. The majority of the population is believed to be Sunni Muslim, comprising approximately 90%, while the second largest religious group is the Coptic Christian community, whose share is estimated to range between 5 and 15%. These figures remain controversial, with Copts asserting that census data have historically underrepresented their actual numbers.

---

29/01/2005

The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing.

"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addition to the geographical mainland, the geopolitical sense of the term includes islands such as Hainan, Chongming, and Zhoushan.

---

29/01/2002

In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

The 2002 State of the Union Address was given by the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush, on January 29, 2002, at 9:00 p.m. EST, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives to the 107th United States Congress. It was Bush's first State of the Union Address and his second speech to a joint session of the United States Congress. Presiding over this joint session was the House speaker, Dennis Hastert, accompanied by Dick Cheney, the vice president, in his capacity as the president of the Senate.

---

29/01/2001

Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.

Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. Comprising over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the 14th-largest country by area, at 1,904,569 square kilometres. Indonesia has significant areas of wilderness that support one of the world's highest levels of biodiversity. It shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Malaysia, as well as maritime borders with seven other countries, including Australia, Singapore, and the Philippines.

---

29/01/1996

President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear weapons testing.

Jacques René Chirac was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.

---

29/01/1991

Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, begins between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

The Gulf War was an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States. The coalition's efforts were in two phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, from the bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January until the American-led liberation of Kuwait on 28 February.

---

29/01/1989

Cold War: Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so.

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.

---

29/01/1983

Singapore cable car crash: Panamanian-registered oil rig, Eniwetok, strikes the cables of the Singapore Cable Car system linking the mainland and Sentosa Island, causing two cabins to fall into the water and killing seven people and leaving thirteen others trapped for hours.

At about 6 p.m. on 29 January 1983, the derrick of the Eniwetok, a Panamanian-registered oil rig, passed under the aerial ropeway of the Singapore Cable Car system and struck the cable that stretched over the waterway between the Jardine Steps Station and the Sentosa Station. As a result, two cabins plunged 55 metres (180 ft) into the sea, killing seven people. The oil rig was being towed away from Keppel Wharf when it became entangled in the cable and caused it to snap. It also left thirteen people trapped in four other cabins between Mount Faber and Sentosa. The disaster was the first involving death or injury since the cable car system opened in February 1975.

---

29/01/1973

EgyptAir Flight 741 crashes into the Kyrenia Mountains in Cyprus, killing 37 people.

EgyptAir Flight 741 was a flight between Cairo International Airport and the now-defunct Nicosia International Airport that crashed on 29 January 1973. All 37 people on board died.

---

29/01/1971

The last of its many UFO sightings is made at Pudasjärvi, Finland.

The UFOs of Pudasjärvi were light phenomena and flying objects that many people reported seeing in and around the Pudasjärvi's area in North Ostrobothnia, Finland in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The highest number of sightings was reported in January 1971, and the largest regional concentration of sightings was in Särkivaara, located about 145 kilometres (90 mi) northeast of Oulu and about 165 kilometres (103 mi) southeast of Rovaniemi in the vicinity of Iso-Syöte near the Taivalkoski's municipal border. In terms of timing, it was also related to the Saapunki's "light ball" seen in Kuusamo in January 1971.

---

29/01/1959

The first Melodifestivalen is held at Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden.

Melodifestivalen is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959. The selection of the country's Eurovision entry is its primary focus, in contrast to some others such as Italy's Sanremo Music Festival. In the early 2000s, the competition was the most popular television program in Sweden; it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. In 2012, the heats averaged 3.3 million viewers, and over an estimated four million people in Sweden watched the final, almost half of the Swedish population.

---

29/01/1944

World War II: Approximately 38 people are killed and about a dozen injured when the Polish village of Koniuchy (present-day Kaniūkai, Lithuania) is attacked by Soviet partisan units.

Kaniūkai is a village in the Šalčininkai district municipality of Lithuania. According to the 2011 census, its population was 125.

---

World War II: In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical theatre of the Archiginnasio is completely destroyed in an air-raid.

Bologna is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, with 390,734 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its metropolitan province is home to more than 1 million people as of 2025. Bologna is most famous for being the home to the oldest university in continuous operation, the University of Bologna, established in AD 1088.

---

29/01/1943

World War II: The first day of the Battle of Rennell Island, USS Chicago (CA-29) is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

---

29/01/1940

Three trains on the Nishinari Line; present Sakurajima Line, in Osaka, Japan, collide and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station. One hundred and eighty-one people are killed.

The Sakurajima Line is a railway line in Osaka, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company connecting Nishikujō Station to Sakurajima Station. It is also referred to as the JR Yumesaki Line (JRゆめ咲線). The entire line is within Konohana-ku, Osaka, and connects the Osaka Loop Line to Universal Studios Japan (USJ).

---

29/01/1936

The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, honors individuals who have excelled in playing, managing, and serving the sport, and is the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, displaying baseball-related artifacts and exhibits. Elections of worthy individuals to be honored by induction into the Hall of Fame commenced in 1936, although the first induction ceremonies were not held until the hall opened in 1939. Through the elections for 2025, a total of 351 people will have been inducted, including 278 former professional players, 40 executives/pioneers, 23 managers, and 10 umpires. Each is listed showing his primary position; that is, the position or role in which the player made his greatest contribution to baseball according to the Hall of Fame.

---

29/01/1918

Ukrainian–Soviet War: The Bolshevik Red Army, on its way to besiege Kyiv, is met by a small group of military students at the Battle of Kruty.

The Ukrainian–Soviet War is the term commonly used in post-Soviet Ukraine for the events taking place between 1917 and 1921, nowadays regarded essentially as a war between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Bolsheviks. The war ensued soon after the October Revolution when Lenin dispatched Antonov's expeditionary group to Ukraine and Southern Russia.

---

Ukrainian–Soviet War: An armed uprising organized by the Bolsheviks in anticipation of the encroaching Red Army begins at the Kiev Arsenal, which will be put down six days later.

The Kiev Arsenal January Uprising, sometimes simply called the January Uprising or the January Rebellion, was a Bolshevik-organized armed workers' revolt that started on 29 January [O.S. 16 January] 1918, at the Arsenal Factory in Kiev during the Ukrainian–Soviet War. The goal of the uprising was to sabotage the ongoing elections to the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly and to support the advancing Red Army. The forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) managed to quell the uprising by 4 February [O.S. 22 January] 1918.

---

29/01/1911

Mexican Revolution: Mexicali is captured by the Mexican Liberal Party, igniting the Magonista rebellion of 1911.

The Mexican Revolution was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its replacement by a revolutionary army, and the transformation of Mexican culture and government. The northern Constitutionalist faction prevailed on the battlefield and drafted the present-day Constitution of Mexico, which aimed to create a strong central government. Revolutionary generals held power from 1920 to 1940. The revolutionary conflict was primarily a civil war, but foreign powers, having important economic and strategic interests in Mexico, figured in the outcome of Mexico's power struggles; the U.S. involvement was particularly high. The conflict led to the deaths of around one million people, mostly non-combatants.

---

29/01/1907

Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.

Charles Curtis was the 31st vice president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 under President Herbert Hoover. He was the Senate Majority Leader from 1924 to 1929. An enrolled citizen of the Kaw Nation born in the Kansas Territory, Curtis was the first Native American to serve in the United States Congress, where he served in the United States House of Representatives and Senate before becoming Senate Majority Leader. Curtis also was the first and only Native American and first multiracial person to serve as vice president.

---

29/01/1891

Liliʻuokalani is proclaimed the last monarch and only queen regnant of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Liliʻuokalani was the only queen regnant and the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, ruling from January 29, 1891, until the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 17, 1893, in a coup that was led by the Committee of Safety, composed of seven foreign residents and six Hawaiian Kingdom subjects of American descent in Honolulu. The composer of "Aloha ʻOe" and numerous other works, she wrote her autobiography Hawaiʻi's Story by Hawaiʻi's Queen (1898) during her imprisonment following the overthrow.

---

29/01/1886

Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.

Carl Friedrich Benz was a German engine designer and automotive engineer. His Benz Patent-Motorwagen from 1885 is considered the first practical, modern automobile and the first car to be put into series production. He received a patent for the motorcar in 1886, the same year he first publicly drove the Benz Patent-Motorwagen.

---

29/01/1863

The Bear River Massacre: A detachment of California Volunteers led by Colonel Patrick Edward Connor engage the Shoshone at Bear River, Washington Territory, killing hundreds of men, women and children.

The Bear River Massacre was a United States military attack that killed an estimated 250 to 493 children, women, and men at a Shoshone winter encampment on January 29, 1863. Some sources describe it as the largest mass murder of Native Americans by the US military, and largest single episode of genocide in US history. It took place in present-day Franklin County, Idaho near the present-day city of Preston on January 29, 1863. After years of skirmishes and food raids on farms and ranches, and colonial settlers displacing Shoshone from their ancestral lands, the United States Army attacked a large Shoshone community at the confluence of the Bear River and Battle Creek in what was then southeastern Washington Territory.

---

29/01/1861

Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.

Kansas is a landlocked state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Colorado to the west; Oklahoma to the south; and Missouri to the east. Kansas is named after the Kansas River, in turn named after the Kansa people. Its capital is Topeka, and its most populous city is Wichita; however, the largest urban area is the bi-state Kansas City metropolitan area surrounding Kansas City, Missouri, which straddles the border of Kansas and Missouri.

---

29/01/1856

Queen Victoria issues a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual that establishes the Victoria Cross to recognise acts of valour by British military personnel during the Crimean War.

Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days, which was longer than those of any of her predecessors, constituted the Victorian era, a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India.

---

29/01/1850

Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.

Henry Clay was an American lawyer, statesman, and diplomat who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state. Clay unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 elections. He helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the "Great Compromiser" and was part of the "Great Triumvirate" of Congressmen, alongside fellow Whig Daniel Webster and Democrat John C. Calhoun.

---

29/01/1845

"The Raven" is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe.

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a visit by a mysterious raven that repeatedly speaks a single word. The lover, often identified as a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to antagonize the protagonist further with its repetition of the word "nevermore". The poem makes use of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references.

---

29/01/1819

Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.

Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles was a British colonial official who served as the governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816 and lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. Raffles was involved in the capture of the Indonesian island of Java from the Dutch during the Napoleonic Wars. It was returned under the Anglo–Dutch Treaty of 1824. He also wrote The History of Java in 1817, describing the history of the island from ancient times. The Rafflesia flowers were named after him.

---

29/01/1814

War of the Sixth Coalition: France engages Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.

In the War of the Sixth Coalition, sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation, a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Sardinia, and a number of German States defeated France and drove Napoleon into exile on Elba. After the disastrous French invasion of Russia of 1812 in which they had been forced to support France, Prussia and Austria joined Russia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Portugal, and the rebels in Spain who were already at war with France. The invasion of Russia cost the French many seasoned soldiers, so Napoleon took action to engage "Marie-Louises", young conscripts who were barely familiar with military affairs; they were called up from October 1813 to 1815. However, the constant warfare weakened the Coalition nations as well. The Russian military was particularly depleted after 1812, and Prussia also suffered a significant downgrade as a result of its losses in 1806–1807; nevertheless, it carried out large-scale reforms to improve the situation in the Prussian Army. Later, having encountered the Prussians in the Battle of Lützen, Napoleon would say: "These animals have learned something."

---

29/01/0946

Caliph al-Mustakfi is blinded and deposed by Mu'izz al-Dawla, ruler of the Buyid Empire. He is succeeded by al-Muti as caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Abu al-Qasim Abd Allah ibn Ali, commonly known by his regnal name al-Mustakfi, was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 944 to 946.

---

29/01/0904

Sergius III is elected pope, after coming out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.

Pope Sergius III was the bishop of Rome and nominal ruler of the Papal States from 29 January 904 to his death. He was pope during a period of violence and disorder in central Italy, when warring aristocratic factions sought to use the material and military resources of the papacy. At the behest of Theophylact I of Tusculum, Sergius seized the papal throne from Antipope Christopher, who in turn had deposed Pope Leo V.

---