On This Day

August 1929 in History

Events in History

  • Aug 4 60,000 SA'ers/SS'ers march by Munich
  • Aug 4 Jones Beach in NY opens
  • Aug 6 Young Plan, which sought to settle German reparations debts after World War I, is agreed
  • Aug 7 Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck forms Dutch government

The Age of Zeppelins

Aug 8 German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight

The Hindenburg bursts into flames as it approaches its mooring mast. Thirty-six people died.
  • Aug 8 Salem Oregon airport dedicated
  • Aug 10 Grover Alexander beats Phils 7-1 for his 373rd & last NL win
  • Aug 11 Persia & Iraq sign friendship treaty
  • Aug 11 Russian-Chinese border fights
  • Aug 14 Jewish Agency for Palestine forms
  • Aug 20 1st airship flight around Earth flying eastward completed
  • Aug 21 Chicago Cardinals become 1st pro football team to train out of town
  • Aug 23 Arabs attack Jews in Israel
  • Aug 24 Palestinians attack orthodox Jews in Jerusalem
  • Aug 24 Turkey & Persia sign friendship treaty

Event of Interest

Aug 25 Graf Zeppelin passes over San Francisco for Los Angeles after trans-Pacific voyage

Hugo Eckener
Inventor and Zeppelin Commander Hugo Eckener

Event of Interest

Aug 29 Aviator Anne Morrow Lindbergh makes her first solo flight

Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Aviator and Author Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  • Aug 29 German airship Graf Zeppelin ends a round-the-world flight

Event of Interest

Aug 31 Committee chaired by Owen D. Young finalizes the "Young Plan" to reduce German reparations from World War I to 112 billion Gold Marks ($US8 billion) paid over 59 years

Owen D. Young
Diplomat and Industrialist Owen D. Young

Birthdays in History

  • Aug 1 Ann Calvello, American roller derby queen, born in Newport, Rhode Island (d. 2006)
  • Aug 2 John Gale, British theatrical producer (Chichester Festival), born in Chigwell, Essex, England
  • Aug 2 John Hannam, British Conservative politician (MP for Exeter 1970-97)
  • Aug 2 Lord David Waddington, British politician (Home Secretary 1989-90), born in Burnley (d. 2017)
  • Aug 3 Bethel Leslie, American entertainer (Capt Newman MD, Rabbit Trap), born in NYC, New York (d. 1999)
  • Aug 6 Roch La Salle, Canadian politician (d. 2007)
  • Aug 7 James Pilditch, British designer, born in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom (d. 1995)
  • Aug 7 Jo Baer [Josephine Kleinberg], American painter and minimalist artist, born in Seattle, Washington
  • Aug 7 Richard T. Schulze, American politician (Rep-R-PA, 1975-93), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Aug 7 Ruth Carter-Stapleton, American evangelist, born in Plains, Georgia (d. 1983)
  • Aug 8 Gudrun Burwitz [Himmler], German daughter of SS leader Heinrich Himmler, born in Munich, Weimar Republic (d. 2018)
  • Aug 8 Larisa Bogoraz, Soviet dissident (d. 2004)
  • Aug 8 Ronnie Biggs, English criminal (Great Train Robbery of 1963), born in Stockwell
  • Aug 8 William Nolde, US Army officer, last US soldier killed during Vietnam War, born in Menominee, Michigan (d. 1973)
  • Aug 13 Michael Beavis, British deputy Commanding-in-Chief (Allied Forces Central Europe) (d. 2020)
  • Aug 14 Hewlett Thompson, Bishop of Exeter
  • Aug 14 Louise Slaughter, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York), born in Lynch, Kentucky (d. 2018)
  • Aug 14 Oliver Neville, principal (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts)
  • Aug 14 Thomas Meehan, American writer (Annie, The Producers, Hairspray), born in Ossining, New York (d. 2017)
  • Aug 16 Wyatt Tee Walker, African-American pastor, civil rights leader, chief of staff for Martin Luther King, Jr. and cultural historian, born in Brockton, Massachusetts (d. 2018)

Francis Gary PowersFrancis Gary Powers (1929-1977)

Aug 17 American spy captured by the USSR after his U-2 spy was shot plane in 1959, born in Jenkins, Kentucky

Francis Gary Powers
  • Aug 21 Ahmed "Kathy" Kathrada, South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, born in Schweizer-Reneke (d. 2017)
  • Aug 21 X. J. Kennedy, American poet and author (Nude Descending a Staircase), born in New Jersey, Iowa
  • Aug 22 Baroness Ewart-Biggs, British (Labour) spokesperson on Home Affairs, born in British India
  • Aug 22 Harry McPherson, presidential counsel (Lyndon Johnson) and lobbyist, born in Tyler, Texas (d. 2012)

Yasser ArafatYasser Arafat (1929-2004)

Aug 24 Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, 1st President of the Palestinian National Authority (1994-2004) and 1994 Nobel peace prize winner, born in Cairo, Egypt

Yasser Arafat
  • Aug 27 Ira Levin, American author (Rosemary Baby, Boys From Brazil, This Perfect Day), born in NYC, New York (d. 2007)
  • Aug 29 Thom Gunn, British poet (The Wound), born in Kent, England (d. 2004)
  • Aug 31 Julio Ramon Ribeyro, Peruvian writer, born in Lima, Peru (d. 1994)

Weddings in History

Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera

Aug 21 Painter Diego Rivera (42) weds fellow artist Frida Kahlo (22)

Frida Kahlo
Diego Rivera

Deaths in History

  • Aug 3 Emil Berliner, German-born telephone and recording pioneer (flat phonograph record, founded Deutsche Grammophon), dies at 78
  • Aug 3 Thorstein Veblen, American economist (Theory of the Leisure Class-1899), dies at 72
  • Aug 5 Millicent Fawcett, English suffragist, dies at 82
  • Aug 9 Heinrich Zille, German cartoonist (Simplicissimus), dies at 71
  • Aug 10 Aletta Jacobs, 1st Dutch female doctor and women's suffrage activist, dies at 75
  • Aug 10 Pierre Fatou, French mathematician (b. 1878)
  • Aug 17 Horace Alderman, American smuggler who murdered two coast guards and a secret service agent, hanged at 38
  • Aug 22 Otto Liman von Sanders, German general in Turkey during WWI, dies at 74
  • Aug 23 Charles Van de Woestijne, Flemish writer/poet (God on Sea), dies
  • Aug 24 Karel van de Woestijne, Flemish writer and poet (God at Sea), dies at 51
  • Aug 26 Ernest Mason Satow, British diplomat and scholar, dies at 86
  • Aug 27 Herman Potočnik, Slovenian rocket scientist, dies at 36

Historical Figures

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