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On This Day: Judge orders Nixon to turn over Watergate tapes

On Aug. 29, 1973, U.S. District Judge John Sirica ordered U.S. President Richard Nixon to turn over secret Watergate tapes.

By UPI Staff
On August 29, 1973, U.S. District Judge John Sirica ordered U.S. President Richard Nixon to turn over secret Watergate tapes. Nixon refused and appealed the order. File Photo by Ron Bennett/UPI
1 of 6 | On August 29, 1973, U.S. District Judge John Sirica ordered U.S. President Richard Nixon to turn over secret Watergate tapes. Nixon refused and appealed the order. File Photo by Ron Bennett/UPI

Aug. 29 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1533, Atahualpa, last of the Inca rulers, was strangled under orders of Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro. The Inca Empire died with him.

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In 1929, the German airship, the Graf Zeppelin, completed its around-the-world flight, beginning and ending at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey.

In 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb at a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan.

In 1958, the U.S. Air Force Academy opened at its permanent site in Colorado Springs, Colo., three years after its launch at a temporary location in Denver.

File Photo by Gary C. Caskey/UPI

In 1965, U.S. astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad landed safely to end the eight-day orbital flight of Gemini 5.

In 1973, U.S. District Judge John Sirica ordered U.S. President Richard Nixon to turn over secret Watergate tapes. Nixon refused and appealed the order.

In 1982, three-time Academy Award-winning actress Ingrid Bergman died on her birthday of cancer. She was 67.

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In 1994, Israel and the PLO signed an agreement to shift West Bank administrative functions to the Palestinian National Authority.

In 2004, the Summer Olympics came to a close in Athens, Greece. The United States won the most medals, 103, 35 of them gold, led by swimmer Michael Phelps who took home six gold and two bronze medals.

File Photo by Grace Chiu/UPI

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore on the Gulf Coast, inflicting severe damage in New Orleans and along the coastlines of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Katrina killed more than 1,800 people and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage.

In 2009, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who died Aug. 25 after a 15-month battle with brain cancer, was buried at Arlington National Cemetery near his brothers John and Robert.

In 2013, the National Football League denied any wrongdoing but said it would "do the right thing" and pay $765 million to settle lawsuits brought by thousands of former players who developed concussion-related brain injuries.

In 2021, Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, La., with winds of 150 mph, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in the state without power. The storm tore a path through much of the eastern United States, killing more than 100 people and causing some $75 billion in damage.

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In 2022, dozens killed and hundreds injured amid violence in Baghdad prompted by retirement announcement by Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

File Photo by Ahmed Jalil/EPA-EFE

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