On This Day
What Happened on November 29 in History
10 events that happened on November 29, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.
The Young Republic and the Civil War Era
1847
A group of Cayuse men attacks the Whitman Mission near present-day Walla Walla, Washington.
Missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and eleven other men were killed in the attack, which followed deadly measles outbreaks among the Cayuse. The killings led to the Cayuse War and helped bring the Oregon Country under U.S. territorial government.
Source: nps.gov
1863
Union defenders repulse a Confederate assault on Fort Sanders at Knoxville, Tennessee.
General James Longstreet's troops charged the fort after a brief artillery barrage, but telegraph wire strung as an obstacle and the fort's defenses broke up the attack. The failure ended Longstreet's hopes of taking Knoxville from General Ambrose Burnside's army.
Source: battlefields.org
1864
Colorado volunteer troops attack a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camp at Sand Creek.
Colonel John Chivington's soldiers struck the village of Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people in eastern Colorado Territory, killing many of its residents. The massacre became one of the most notorious atrocities of the wars on the Great Plains, and the site is now a national historic site.
Source: history.com; nps.gov
1864
Confederate troops miss a chance to trap a Union army at Spring Hill, Tennessee.
General John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee attacked at Spring Hill but failed to block the road north, and the Union force slipped past during the night toward Franklin. The missed opportunity led directly to the bloody Battle of Franklin the next day.
Source: battlefields.org
The Early 1900s and the World Wars
1929
Richard E. Byrd and three companions make the first flight over the South Pole.
Taking off from their base at Little America on the Ross Ice Shelf, the Navy aviator and his crew flew to the pole and back in about 18 hours and 41 minutes.
Source: history.com; library.osu.edu
The Cold War
1947
The UN General Assembly votes to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.
Despite strong Arab opposition, the General Assembly approved a plan to divide the British-controlled territory into an independent Jewish state and an independent Arab state. The vote set the stage for the founding of Israel and for a conflict that still shapes the region.
Source: history.com
1952
President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower secretly leaves New York for his promised trip to Korea.
During the campaign Eisenhower had pledged to go to Korea himself to look for a way to end the war. He spent about three days visiting troops, commanders and the front lines, and the trip was kept secret for security reasons.
Source: history.com; nps.gov
1961
Enos becomes the first chimpanzee to orbit Earth, aboard NASA's Mercury-Atlas 5.
The flight was planned for three orbits but was brought down after two because of spacecraft problems. The mission completed testing for the first American crewed orbital flight, made by John Glenn in February 1962.
Source: nasa.gov; history.nasa.gov
1963
President Lyndon B. Johnson creates a commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
One week after Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Johnson issued Executive Order 11130 establishing the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. Headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, it became known as the Warren Commission.
Source: history.com
1972
Atari releases Pong, the simple table tennis game that helped launch the video game industry.
Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney had founded Atari in California only months earlier, and engineer Allan Alcorn built the game. Its success helped turn electronic games into a major industry.
Source: history.com