On This Day

What Happened on December 29 in History

9 events that happened on December 29, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.

Colonial America and the Revolution

1778
British forces capture Savannah, Georgia, in a surprise attack.
Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell found a path through the swamps and outflanked the outnumbered American defenders. The fall of Savannah opened the British campaign in the southern colonies.
Source: history.com; battlefields.org

1835
A small group of Cherokee sign the Treaty of New Echota, giving up their lands in the East.
None of the signers were elected leaders, and Principal Chief John Ross and most Cherokee rejected the deal. The United States used it to force the Cherokee west on the Trail of Tears.
Source: nps.gov
1845
Texas joins the United States as the 28th state.
President James K. Polk signed the act admitting the former Republic of Texas, which had won independence from Mexico in 1836. Annexation added a large slave state and helped bring on the Mexican-American War.
Source: history.com
1876
A railroad bridge collapses under a passenger train at Ashtabula, Ohio.
During a blizzard, an iron truss bridge over the Ashtabula River gave way and the cars plunged into the gorge, where stoves set the wreckage on fire. It was among the worst U.S. rail disasters of the century and prompted calls for safer bridges.
Source: pbs.org; lehigh.edu
1890
U.S. soldiers kill Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota.
Troops of the 7th Cavalry were disarming Big Foot's band of Miniconjou Lakota when a shot was fired and the soldiers opened fire with rifles and artillery. Estimates of the Lakota dead range from about 150 to 300.
Source: history.com; inas.uga.edu

1940
A massive German incendiary raid sets the City of London ablaze in the Second Great Fire.
Firebombs dropped during the Blitz started fires that destroyed a large part of London's historic financial district. St. Paul's Cathedral survived, and a photograph of its dome rising through the smoke became a symbol of British defiance.
Source: history.com

1972
Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashes into the Florida Everglades.
While the crew focused on a landing gear indicator light, the jumbo jet slowly lost altitude without anyone noticing. About 100 of the 163 people aboard died, and the accident became a key lesson in cockpit teamwork.
Source: faa.gov; libraryonline.erau.edu
1989
Dissident playwright Václav Havel is elected president of Czechoslovakia.
Weeks after the Velvet Revolution toppled Communist rule, the Federal Assembly chose Havel without opposition. The former political prisoner became the country's first non-Communist president in four decades.
Source: nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu; miamioh.edu

1996
Guatemala's government and rebels sign a final peace accord, ending a 36-year civil war.
The Agreement on a Firm and Lasting Peace, signed at the National Palace in Guatemala City, brought earlier accords into force. A truth commission it set up later documented atrocities against Maya communities.
Source: peaceaccords.nd.edu; peacekeeping.un.org