| 29 August 886 | Byzantine Empire [births and deaths] | Basil the Macedonian, Byzantine emperor (867–86), who founded the Macedonian dynasty and formulated the Basilica, the Byzantine legal code, dies (c. 56). |
| 29 August 1261 | Sicily [administration] | Jacques Pantaléon of Troyes a professor of canon law in Paris before becoming a bishop, then patriarch or Jerusalem, is elected Pope Urban IV. He offers the crown of Sicily to Charles of Anjou, in an attempt to dislodge the German Hohenstaufen family from Italy. |
| 29 August 1450 | Denmark-Norway [political events] | The formal union of Denmark and Norway, under King Christian I, is enacted in Bergen, Norway. |
| 29 August 1526 | Hungary, Ottoman Empire [Habsburg–Ottoman Wars (1525–1718)] | King Louis II of Hungary leads many of the Magyar nobility in a headlong rush to destruction by the vastly superior strength of the invading Ottoman army, led by Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent, at Mohács, Hungary; after Louis's death by drowning in the rout, Hungary loses its independence until 1918. |
| 29 August 1619 | France [births and deaths] | Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay, French statesman and controller of finance for France 1665–83, whose programme of economic reconstruction led to France becoming a dominant European power, born in Reims, France (–1683). |
| 29 August 1632 | England [births and deaths] | John Locke, highly influential English political and educational philosopher, whose major work is Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), born in Wrington, Somerset, England (–1704). |
| 29 August 1756 | Prussia, Saxony, Holy Roman Empire, Germany, United Netherlands, Sweden [Seven Years War (1754–62)] | King Frederick II the Great of Prussia invades the German electorate of Saxony, marking the outbreak of the Seven Years' War. Frederick uses the pretext of having learned of the Franco-Austrian alliance and subsequently takes Dresden, the capital of Saxony. The United Netherlands and Sweden decide to remain neutral. |
| 29 August 1831 | England [physics] | English physicist Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction – the production of an electric current by change in magnetic intensity (and also the principle of the electric generator). US scientist Joseph Henry makes the same discovery independently of Faraday, and shortly before him, but does not publish his work. |
| 29 August 1833 | UK [legislation] | A British Factory Act is passed, by which no children under the age of 9 are to work in textile factories, those between 9 and 12 are not to work more than a 9-hour day and those between 9 and 11 are to receive 2 hours of education per day. Most night work is abolished. |
| 29 August 1842 | UK, China [treaties] | By the Treaty of Nanjing ending the First Opium War between Britain and China, Canton, Shanghai, and other Chinese ports are opened to Britain, which is permitted to establish consular facilities and obtains a large indemnity. |
| 29 August 1848 | UK, Orange Free State [colonization] | The Boers (Dutch settlers) in southern Africa are defeated at Boomplaats in the Orange Free State by British forces, and retire across the Vaal River, ensuring British sovereignty over the Orange River. |
| 29 August 1862 | Papal States, Italy [political events] | The Italian soldier and patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi attempts to conquer Rome and make it part of Italy, but is captured at Aspromonte by Italian troops sent to protect the papacy and forestall foreign intervention. |
| 29–30 August 1862 | USA, Confederate States of America [American Civil War (1861–65)] | In the Second Battle of Bull Run (known to Confederates as Second Manassas), Confederate forces effectively block a Union advance on the Confederate capitol, Richmond, Virginia. |
| 29 August 1877 | USA [births and deaths] | Brigham Young, US religious leader of the Mormon Church who led converts to colonize the US West and established a base at Salt Lake City, dies in Salt Lake City, Utah (76). |
| 29 August 1895 | UK [rugby] | Rugby league is born when 22 clubs in the north of England break away from the Rugby Union to form the Northern Rugby Football Union after being refused compensation for loss of wages while playing. |
| 29 August 1916 | Germany [World War I (1914–18)] | Following victories on the Eastern Front, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg is appointed German chief of the general staff (with Eric Ludendorff as quartermaster general) in sucession to Eric von Falkenhayn, whose strategy at Verdun, France, is not working. |
| 29 August 1920 | [births and deaths] | Charlie ‘Yardbird’ or ‘Bird’ Parker, US saxophonist, composer and bandleader, born in Kansas City, Kansas, (–1955). |
| 29 August 1958 | China [law and government] | The Chinese politburo approves the creation of a rural economy based on agricultural communes, the backbone of Maoist economic policy. |
| 29 August 1966 | USA [popular music] | The British rock group the Beatles give their last concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. |
| 29 August 1973 | Egypt, Libya [political events] | Presidents Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Moamer al-Khaddhafi of Libya proclaim the unification of their two countries, with a plan for a joint constituent assembly. |
| 29 August 1996 | Chechnya, Russia [political events] | A peace deal ending the war in the Russian breakaway republic of Chechnya postpones a decision on the question of sovereignty until the year 2001. |
| 29–31 August 2005 | USA [natural disasters] | The southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on the Gulf coast of the USA are lashed by Hurricane Katrina. The low-lying city of New Orleans is devastated by flooding as levees are breached, trapping thousands of residents, cutting off access to essential supplies, and prompting looting and violence. Damage to energy installations along the Gulf and the threat of shortages meanwhile contribute to the continuing record rise in oil prices. At the end of the month, with the death toll from one of the worst natural disasters in US history still unknown, the government declares a public health emergency. |
