Historical Events on Saturday, 29th November

29/11/2025

The Government of Jordan officially announces the launch of the Amra City development project during a site visit by the Prime Minister.

The politics of Jordan take place in an authoritarian context where power is centralized in the hands of King Abdullah II. Aside from the King, the most powerful institutions in Jordan politics are the coercive apparatus ; the cabinet government which the king appoints; and the public bureaucracy. The popularly elected lower house of parliament has little meaningful influence on major policy decisions in Jordan.

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29/11/2013

LAM Mozambique Airlines 470 crashes in the Bwabata National Park in a pilot mass murder-suicide, killing all 33 people on board.

LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Maputo, Mozambique, to Luanda, Angola. Halfway through its flight on 29 November 2013, the Embraer E190 twinjet operating the service crashed into the Bwabwata National Park in Namibia, killing all 27 passengers and 6 crew on board.

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29/11/2009

Maurice Clemmons shoots and kills four police officers inside a coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington.

On November 29, 2009, four American police officers of Lakewood, Washington, were fatally shot at the Forza coffee shop, located at 11401 Steele Street #108 South in the Parkland unincorporated area of Pierce County, Washington, near Tacoma. A gunman, later identified as Maurice Clemmons, entered the shop, shot the officers while they worked on laptops, and fled the scene with a single gunshot wound in his torso. After a massive two-day manhunt that spanned several nearby cities, an officer recognized Clemmons near a stalled car in south Seattle. When he refused orders to stop, he was shot and killed by a Seattle Police Department officer.

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29/11/2007

The Armed Forces of the Philippines lay siege to the Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes stage a mutiny.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is the military force of the Philippines. It consists of three main service branches; the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy. The President of the Philippines is the Commander-in-Chief of the AFP and forms military policy with the Department of National Defense, an executive department acting as the principal organ by which military policy is carried out, while the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines serves as the overall commander and the highest-ranking officer in the AFP.

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29/11/1987

North Korean agents plant a bomb on Korean Air Flight 858, which kills all 115 passengers and crew.

Korean Air Flight 858 was a scheduled international passenger flight between Baghdad, Iraq, and Seoul, South Korea. On 29 November 1987, the Boeing 707-3B5C flying its route exploded in mid-air upon the detonation of a bomb planted inside an overhead storage bin in the airplane's passenger cabin by two North Korean agents.

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29/11/1986

The Surinamese military attacks the village of Moiwana during the Suriname Guerrilla War, killing at least 39 civilians, mostly women and children.

After the creation of the Statute of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Royal Netherlands Army was entrusted with the defence of Suriname, while the defence of the Netherlands Antilles was the responsibility of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The army set up a separate Netherlands Armed Forces in Suriname. Upon independence in 1975, this force was turned into the Surinamese Armed Forces. On February 25, 1980, a group of 15 non-commissioned officers and one junior officer, under the leadership of sergeant major Dési Bouterse, staged a coup d'état and overthrew the Government. Subsequently, the SKM was rebranded as the National Army.

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29/11/1982

Michael Jackson releases Thriller, the best-selling music album of all time.

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. Over a four-decade career, his musical achievements broke American racial barriers and made him a dominant figure worldwide. Through his songs, concerts, and fashion, he proliferated visual performance for artists in popular music, popularizing street dance moves such as the moonwalk, the robot, and the anti-gravity lean. Jackson is often deemed the greatest entertainer of all time.

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29/11/1972

Atari releases Pong, the first commercially successful video game.

Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry.

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29/11/1967

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation.

The United States secretary of defense (SecDef), secondarily titled the secretary of war (SecWar), is the head of the United States Department of Defense (DoD), the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high-ranking member of the cabinet of the United States. The secretary of defense's position of command and authority over the military is second only to that of the president of the United States, who is the commander-in-chief. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a defense minister in many other countries. The president appoints the secretary of defense with the advice and consent of the Senate, and is by custom a member of the Cabinet and by law a member of the National Security Council.

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29/11/1963

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 until 1969. He was Kennedy's vice president from 1961 to 1963, and a member of Congress for 26 years before. Johnson was a U.S. representative from Texas's 10th congressional district and the elder U.S. senator for Texas as a member of the Democratic Party. Born and raised in the segregationist South, Johnson had to compromise during the height of the civil rights movement.

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Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831 crashes shortly after takeoff from Montreal-Dorval International Airport, killing all 118 people on board.

Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) Flight 831 was a scheduled Canadian flight from Montréal–Dorval International Airport to Toronto International Airport on November 29, 1963. About five minutes after takeoff in poor weather, the Douglas DC-8-54CF Jet Trader operating the flight crashed about 32 km (20 mi) north of Montreal, near Ste-Thérèse-de-Blainville, Quebec, Canada, killing all 111 passengers and seven crew members. The crash was the deadliest in Canadian history at the time. It was also the deadliest crash of a DC-8 at the time, and, as of 2025, the sixth-deadliest.

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"I Want to Hold Your Hand", recorded on October 17, 1963, is released by the Beatles in the United Kingdom.

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Recorded on 17 October 1963 and released on 29 November 1963 in the United Kingdom, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track recording equipment.

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29/11/1961

Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbits the Earth twice and splashes down off the coast of Puerto Rico.

Enos was a chimpanzee launched into space by NASA, following his predecessor Ham. He was the only chimpanzee to orbit the Earth, and the third hominid to do so after cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov. Enos's flight occurred on November 29, 1961.

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29/11/1952

U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. A General of the Army, Eisenhower was the supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. His successful leadership in Operation Torch (1942–1943) and Operation Overlord was pivotal to the Allied victory in World War II.

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29/11/1947

The United Nations General Assembly approve the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.

The United Nations General Assembly is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its 80th session, its powers, composition, functions, and procedures are set out in Chapter IV of the United Nations Charter.

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French forces carry out a massacre at Mỹ Trạch, Vietnam during the First Indochina War.

The Mỹ Trạch Massacre was a mass murder and wartime rape committed by the French Army against Vietnamese civilians in the First Indochina War. French soldiers committed the massacre in Mỹ Trạch village, Mỹ Thủy commune, Lệ Thủy District, Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam from 5 am to 8 am on 29 November 1948. The French Army burned 326 houses and murdered more than half of the village's residents. French soldiers raped many women and girls before murdering them. The French Army murdered over 300 civilian residents in Mỹ Trạch, including 170 women and 157 children.

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29/11/1945

The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia is declared.

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, and commonly referred to as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It was established in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, dissolving amid the onset of the Yugoslav Wars. Spanning an area of 255,804 square kilometres (98,766 sq mi) in the Balkans, Yugoslavia was bordered by the Adriatic Sea and Italy to the west, Austria and Hungary to the north, Bulgaria and Romania to the east, and Albania and Greece to the south. It was a one-party socialist state and federation governed by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, and had six constituent republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Within Serbia was the Yugoslav capital city of Belgrade as well as two autonomous Yugoslav provinces: Kosovo and Vojvodina.

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29/11/1944

Albania is liberated by the Partisans.

Albania, officially the Republic of Albania, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, North Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south. With an area of 28,748 km2 (11,100 sq mi), it has a varied range of climatic, geological, hydrological and morphological conditions. Albania's landscapes range from rugged snow-capped mountains in the Albanian Alps and the Korab, Skanderbeg, Pindus and Ceraunian Mountains, to fertile lowland plains extending from the Adriatic and Ionian seacoasts. Tirana is the capital and largest city in the country, followed by Durrës, Vlorë, and Shkodër.

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29/11/1943

The second session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ), held to determine the post-war ordering of the country, concludes in Jajce (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia, commonly abbreviated as the AVNOJ, was a deliberative and legislative body that was established in Bihać in November 1942. It was established by Josip Broz Tito, the leader of the Yugoslav Partisans, an armed resistance movement led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia to resist the Axis occupation of the country during World War II.

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29/11/1929

U.S. Admiral Richard E. Byrd leads the first expedition to fly over the South Pole.

Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. was an American naval officer, and pioneering aviator, polar explorer, and organizer of polar logistics. Aircraft flights in which he served as a navigator and expedition leader crossed the Atlantic Ocean, a segment of the Arctic Ocean, and a segment of the Antarctic Plateau. He is also known for discovering Mount Sidley, the largest dormant volcano in Antarctica.

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29/11/1920

The Armenian Revolutionary Committee declares Armenia to be a Soviet Socialist Republic, starting 71 years of Soviet rule in Armenia

A revolutionary committee or revkom were Bolshevik-led organizations in Soviet Russia and other Soviet republics established to serve as provisional governments and temporary Soviet administrations in territories under the control of the Red Army in 1918–1920, during the Russian Civil War and foreign military intervention. The forms of their work were inherited from Military Revolutionary Committees of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The name was borrowed from the history of the French Revolution, where comités révolutionnaires were created, the superior ones being the Committee of Public Safety and Committee of General Security.

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29/11/1899

FC Barcelona is founded by Catalan, Spanish and Englishmen. It later develops into one of Spanish and world football's most iconic and strongest teams.

Futbol Club Barcelona, commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça, is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football.

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29/11/1890

The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan, and the first Diet convenes.

The Constitution of the Empire of Japan, known informally as the Meiji Constitution, was the constitution of the Empire of Japan which was proclaimed on February 11, 1889, and remained in force between November 29, 1890, until May 2, 1947. Enacted after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, it provided for a form of mixed constitutional and absolute monarchy, primarily based on the German and partly based on the British models. In theory, the Emperor of Japan governed the empire with the advice of his ministers; in practice, the Emperor was head of state but the Prime Minister was the actual head of government. Under the Meiji Constitution, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet were not necessarily chosen from the elected members of parliament.

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29/11/1877

Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.

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29/11/1872

The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.

The Modoc War, or the Modoc Campaign, was an armed conflict between the Native American Modoc people and the United States Army in northeastern California and southeastern Oregon between 1872 and 1873. The fighting was in response to the California genocide, when agents of the United States government assisted by private citizens began the systematic killing of thousands of indigenous peoples of California in the mid-19th century. Many brutal acts against the Modoc were carried out against native populations and were encouraged, tolerated, and perpetuated by state authorities and militias.

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29/11/1864

Colorado War: Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants at Sand Creek inside Colorado Territory.

The Colorado War was an Indian War fought in 1864 and 1865 between the Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho, and allied Brulé and Oglala Lakota peoples versus the U.S. Army, Colorado militia, and white settlers in Colorado Territory and adjacent regions. The Kiowa and the Comanche played a minor role in actions that occurred in the southern part of the Territory along the Arkansas River. The Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota Sioux played the major role in actions that occurred north of the Arkansas River and along the South Platte River, the Great Platte River Road, and the eastern portion of the Overland Trail. The United States government and Colorado Territory authorities participated through the 1st Colorado Cavalry Regiment, often called the Colorado volunteers. The war was centered on the Colorado Eastern Plains, extending eastward into Kansas and Nebraska.

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American Civil War: The Confederate Army of Tennessee misses an opportunity to crush the Union Army of the Ohio in the Battle of Spring Hill during the Franklin–Nashville campaign.

The Army of Tennessee was a field army of the Confederate States Army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Named for the Confederate state of Tennessee, It was formed late in 1862 in Tennessee and fought until the end of the civil war, participating in most of the significant battles in the Western Theater.

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29/11/1863

American Civil War: Union forces under General Ambrose Burnside successfully defend Knoxville, Tennessee from an attack by Confederate forces under General James Longstreet in the Battle of Fort Sanders during the Siege of Knoxville.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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29/11/1850

The treaty, Punctation of Olmütz, is signed in Olomouc. Prussia capitulates to Austria, which will take over the leadership of the German Confederation.

The Punctation of Olmütz, also called the Agreement of Olmütz, was a treaty between Prussia and Austria, dated 29 November 1850, by which Prussia abandoned the Erfurt Union and accepted the revival of the German Confederation under Austrian leadership. The treaty concluded the Autumn Crisis of 1850 in Germany.

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29/11/1847

The Sonderbund is defeated by the joint forces of other Swiss cantons under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour.

The Sonderbund War of November 1847 was a civil war in Switzerland, then still a relatively loose confederacy of cantons. It ensued after seven Catholic cantons formed the Sonderbund in 1845 to protect their interests against a centralization of power. The war concluded with the defeat of the Sonderbund. It resulted in the emergence of Switzerland as a federal state, concluding the period of political "restoration and regeneration" in Switzerland.

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Missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and 15 others are killed by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, causing the Cayuse War.

Marcus Whitman was an American physician and missionary. He is most well known for leading American settlers across the Oregon Trail, unsuccessfully attempting to Christianize the Cayuse Indians, and was subsequently killed by the Cayuse Indians in an event known as the 1847 Whitman massacre, over a misunderstanding, resulting in the beginning of the Cayuse War (1847–1855).

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29/11/1830

An armed rebellion against Russia's rule in Poland begins.

The November Uprising, also known as the Polish–Russian War of 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when young Polish officers from the military academy of the Army of Congress Poland revolted.

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29/11/1807

John VI of Portugal flees Lisbon from advancing Napoleonic forces during the Peninsular War, transferring the Portuguese court to Brazil.

Dom John VI, known as "the Clement", was King of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves from 1816 to 1825, and after the recognition of Brazil's independence, titular Emperor of Brazil and King of Portugal until his death in 1826.

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29/11/1783

A 5.3 magnitude earthquake strikes New Jersey.

On November 29, 1783, at 10:50 p.m. (UTC−5), a Mfa 5.3 earthquake occurred in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was the state's first recorded seismic event. It is estimated that the quake was the largest and strongest that the state has ever recorded. The earthquake caused intensity VII damage on the Mercalli intensity scale.

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29/11/1781

The crew of the British slave ship Zong murders 54 Africans by dumping them into the sea to claim insurance, beginning the Zong massacre.

Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss.

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29/11/1777

San Jose, California, is founded as Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe by José Joaquín Moraga. It is the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California.

San Jose, officially the City of San José, is the most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, and the 12th-most populous in the United States, with 997,368 residents. The city's metropolitan area is home to nearly two million people, while the broader combined statistical area has a population of over nine million. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of 179.97 sq mi (466.1 km2) and is the seat of Santa Clara County.

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29/11/1776

During the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia, comes to an end with the arrival of British reinforcements.

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

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29/11/1732

The magnitude 6.6 Irpinia earthquake causes 1,940 deaths in the former Kingdom of Naples, southern Italy.

The 1732 Irpinia earthquake was a seismic event with a magnitude of 6.6 that affected Irpinia and part of Sannio. It occurred on 29 November 1732 at 8:40 AM local time (UTC+1). The epicenter was located in the Campanian Apennines, in the area of the Ufita Valley, which is part of the modern-day Province of Avellino. Around twenty populated areas were destroyed entirely or in part and tens of others were significantly damaged. The number of deaths was estimated to be 1,940. Damage from the earthquake was classified as "severe", and the number of homes destroyed as classified as "many". The earthquake had a rating on the modified Mercalli intensity scale of X (extreme).

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29/11/1729

Natchez Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez, Mississippi.

The Natchez were a Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area in the Lower Mississippi Valley, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi, in the United States. The DeSoto chronicle failed to record their presence when they came down the river in 1543. They spoke a language with no known relatives, although it may be distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek Confederacy.

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29/11/1612

The Battle of Swally takes place, which loosens the Portuguese Empire's hold on India.

The naval Battle of Swally, also known as Battle of Suvali, took place on 29–30 November 1612 off the coast of Suvali a village near the Surat city and was a victory for four English East India Company galleons over four Portuguese galleons and 26 barks.

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29/11/1549

The papal conclave of 1549–50 begins.

The 1549–50 papal conclave convened after the death of Pope Paul III and eventually elected Cardinal Giovanni Ciocchi as Pope Julius III. It was the second-longest papal conclave of the 16th century, and, at the time, the largest papal conclave in history in terms of the number of cardinal electors. The cardinal electors were roughly divided between the factions of Henry II of France, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Alessandro Farnese, the cardinal-nephew of Paul III.

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29/11/1114

A large earthquake damages the areas of the Crusaders in the Middle East. Antioch, Mamistra, Marash and Edessa are hit by the shocks.

The Marash earthquake occurred in the area of Marash during the early morning hours of November 29, 1114. It had an estimated surface-wave magnitude between 7.4 and 7.7 and an epicenter location in modern-day Turkey. The mainshock was preceded by two destructive foreshocks in August and November that same year. At least 40,000 people were killed in the earthquake; a number contested by historians due to the small population in the area at the time. These earthquakes were associated with seismic activity on the East Anatolian Fault.

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29/11/0903

The Abbasid army under Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Katib defeats the Qarmatians at the Battle of Hama.

The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire was the third Islamic caliphate, ruled by the Abbasid dynasty. The dynasty was descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, after whom it is named. The Abbasids rose to power in 750, when the Abbasid Revolution overthrew the preceding Umayyad Caliphate, and they ruled as caliphs from their metropole in Iraq until 1258, with Baghdad as their capital for most of their history.

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29/11/0618

The Tang dynasty scores a decisive victory over their rival Xue Rengao at the Battle of Qianshuiyuan.

The Tang dynasty, or the Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Historians generally regard the Tang dynasty as a high point of the Chinese civilisation, and a golden age of cosmopolitan culture. The Tang territory, acquired through the early military campaigns, surpassed that of the Han dynasty.

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29/11/0561

Following the death of King Chlothar I at Compiègne, his four sons, Charibert I, Guntram, Sigebert I and Chilperic I, divide the Frankish Kingdom.

Chlothar I, sometime called "the Old", also anglicised as Clotaire from the original French version, was a king of the Franks of the Merovingian dynasty and one of the four sons of Clovis I.

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29/11/0528

Antioch suffers its second major earthquake in two years, killing thousands and destroying its remaining edifice.

The 528 Antioch earthquake was the second major earthquake to affect the city in a span of two years. The shock occurring on 29 November, estimated at Ms 7.1, was viewed by its residents as the end of a series of disasters that had plagued Antioch. It killed at least 4,870 people and razed the remaining buildings that did not collapse in the earthquake of 526, and newly constructed ones.

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