An oil spill in Norilsk released 17,500 tons of diesel oil into nearby rivers.
29 May 724
A Thursday in history
Weekday
Thursday
Season
Spring (N. Hemisphere)
Century
8th century
Records
404
2020
2011Residents of Portland, Oregon, held a rally called Hands Across Hawthorne in response to an attack against a gay couple holding hands while crossing the Hawthorne Bridge.
1999Charlotte Perrelli, representing Sweden, won the Eurovision Song Contest, the first edition not to feature an orchestra or live accompaniment.
1999President Olusegun Obasanjo took office as Nigeria's first elected and civilian head of state after 16 years of military dictatorship.
1954Diane Leather became the first woman to run a mile in less than five minutes.
1953The mountaineers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
1942Bing Crosby recorded his version of the song "White Christmas", which went on to become the best-selling single worldwide, with more than 50 million copies sold.
- 1935
A strike by copper miners in Northern Rhodesia ended after six workers were shot and killed by police.
1918World War I: Armenian forces defeated Ottoman troops at the Battle of Sardarabad, halting the Turkish advance and preventing further destruction of the Armenian nation.
1913During the premiere of the ballet Le Sacre du printemps by Igor Stravinsky at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a near-riot in the audience (report pictured).
1911English dramatist W. S. Gilbert of the songwriting duo Gilbert and Sullivan died while saving a young woman from drowning in his lake.
1900N'Djamena, now the capital of Chad, was founded as Fort-Lamy by French commander Émile Gentil.
- 1852
Swedish operatic soprano Jenny Lind concluded a successful concert tour of the United States under the management of showman P. T. Barnum.
1851Sojourner Truth (pictured) delivered her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at the Woman's Rights Convention in Akron.
1792The Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was disbanded following the Russian invasion of Poland.
1453With the fall of Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans.
1416A squadron of the Venetian navy captured many Ottoman ships at the Battle of Gallipoli, confirming Venetian naval superiority in the Aegean Sea for the next few decades.
1233Mongol–Jin War: The Mongols entered and began looting Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin dynasty of China, after a 13-month siege.
1176Wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines: Troops of the Lombard League defeated forces of the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Legnano in present-day Italy.
Photo archive
24 historic images from this day — tap to open the gallery.
What was life like?
Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.
Sources & fact check
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