| 29 July 1014 | Byzantine Empire, Bulgar Khanate [political events] | Byzantine emperor Basil II surrounds and captures a Bulgarian army in the pass of Kleidon, Bulgaria. 15,000 Bulgar prisoners are blinded before being sent home. |
| 29 July 1030 | Norway [births and deaths] | Olaf II Haraldsson, Viking king 1015–30, and patron saint of Norway, who was the first to rule the entire country and who also introduced a religious code which became the country's first national legislation, dies in Stiklestad, Norway (c. 35). |
| 29 July 1588 | England, Spain [Anglo–Spanish War (1586–97)] | After being forced to slip anchor when attacked by fire ships at night, the Spanish Armada is defeated by the combined English fleet under Lord Admiral Thomas Howard of Effingham off Gravelines, France. The surviving galleons take to the North Sea; many are subsequently wrecked off the Scottish and Irish coasts. |
| 29 July 1890 | Netherlands, France [births and deaths] | Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter whose work inspired the expressionists, dies in Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris, France (37). |
| 29 July 1927 | USA [medicine] | Bellevue Hospital in New York City installs an electric respirator, a device designed to offset respiratory failure designed by Harvard University physicians Philip Drinker and Louis Shaw. |
| 29 July 1941 | Romania, USSR [World War II (1939–45)] | Romania reoccupies the territories of Bessarabia and Bukovina, which it had ceded to the USSR in June 1940. |
| 29 July 1948 | England [Olympic Games] | To coincide with the opening day of the Olympic Games in London, England, the inaugural national Stoke Mandeville Games, the forerunner of the Paralympics for disabled athletes, are held at Stoke Mandeville hospital, Buckinghamshire, England. |
| 29 July–14 August 1948 | UK [television] | The Olympic Games, hosted in London, England, is televised by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for the first time. |
| 29 July 1949 | UK [television] | The first weather forecast is broadcast on British television: it consists of a voice-over only. |
| 29 July 1964 | UK [public health] | The first family planning clinic in Britain to give advice to unmarried mothers opens. |
| 29 July–7 October 1974 | USA [Christianity] | Eleven women are ordained Episcopal ministers in the US. The ordinations are invalidated by the Episcopal House of Bishops on August 15, though the body endorses the principle of ordaining women on October 17. |
| 29 July 1978 | USA, UK, France [swimming and diving] | Penny Dean, a 23-year-old Californian, swims the English Channel in a new world record time of 7 hours 42 minutes. |
| 29 July 1981 | UK [media and communication] | Charles, Prince of Wales, marries Lady Diana Spencer in St Paul's Cathedral in London, England. Television coverage attracts 39 million people, the largest British audience to date. |
| 29 July 1998 | Serbia [wars] | After four days of fighting, Serb forces overrun the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, routing the Kosovo Liberation Army, who are fighting for Kosovo autonomy. Over 100,000 Albanians are displaced. |
| 29 July 2006 | Sri Lanka [cricket] | During a Test match against South Africa in Colombo, Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara score the highest partnership ever recorded – 624 runs – in first-class cricket. |
