On This Day in History - April 29th - Almanac

Today is Thursday, April 29, the 119th day of 2021 with 246 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune and Saturn. Evening stars are Mars, Mercury and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1863; bandleader/composer Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington in 1899; Japanese Emperor Hirohito in 1901; actor Celeste Holm in 1917; British skiffle group leader Lonnie Donegan in 1931; country singer Willie Nelson in 1933 (age 88); baseball Hall of Fame member Luis Aparicio in 1934 (age 87); conductor Zubin Mehta in 1936 (age 85); financier/Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff in 1938; musician Tommy James in 1947 (age 74); long-distance runner/former U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., in 1947 (age 74); golfer/TV analyst Johnny Miller in 1947 (age 74); auto racer Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 1951; comedian Nora Dunn in 1952 (age 69); comedian/actor/producer Jerry Seinfeld in 1954 (age 67); actor Leslie Jordan in 1955 (age 66); actor Kate Mulgrew in 1955 (age 66), actor Daniel Day-Lewis in 1957 (age 64); actor Michelle Pfeiffer in 1958 (age 63); actor Eve Plumb in 1958 (age 63); actor Uma Thurman in 1970 (age 51); rapper Master P, born Percy Robert Miller, in 1970 (age 51); tennis player Andre Agassi in 1970 (age 51); tennis doubles specialist Bob Bryan in 1978 (age 43); tennis doubles specialist Mike Bryan in 1978 (age 43); actor Katherine Langford in 1996 (age 25); U.S. women's national soccer team member Mallory Pugh in 1998 (age 23).

On this date in history:

In 1854, Ashmun Institute in Pennsylvania, the first college founded solely for African-American students, was officially chartered.

In 1885, women were admitted for the first time to examinations at England's Oxford University.

In 1913, Gideon Sundbach of Hoboken, N.J., was issued a patent for the zipper.

In 1945, troops of the U.S. Seventh Army liberated 32,000 prisoners at the Nazi regime's Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Germany.

In 1970, the South Vietnamese, with help from the United States, began a major ground operation into Cambodia to destroy Communist North Vietnamese sanctuaries.

In 1975, helicopters evacuated hundreds of American civilians and military support personnel, and thousands of South Vietnamese from Saigon -- the day before the North Vietnamese overran the city.

In 1985, four gunmen escaped with nearly $8 million in cash stolen from the Wells Fargo armored car company in New York.

In 1986, an arson fire destroyed more than 1 million books in the Los Angeles Central Library.

In 1991, a typhoon struck Bangladesh, killing some 135,000 people.

In 1992, rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, Calif., acquitted four white police officers of nearly all charges in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. Fifty-three people died in three days of protest and violence.

In 2004, the final Oldsmobile was manufactured. The brand had been in existence for 107 years.

In 2010, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced a policy change that allows women to serve on submarines.

In 2011, British Prince William, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, and college sweetheart Kate Middleton, the new duchess of Cambridge, exchanged wedding rings and vows in a regal ceremony at Westminster Abbey before an estimated worldwide audience of 2 billion people.

In 2013, Jason Collins of the NBA became the first active player in a North American major sports league to announce he is gay.

In 2020, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and fiancee Carrie Symonds welcomed their first child together.

A thought for the day: "When free discussion is denied, hardening of the arteries of democracy has set in, free institutions are but a lifeless form and the death of the republic is at hand." -- American publisher William Randolph Hearst