On this day

1640 - The Scottish (under Sir Alexander Leslie) defeated royalist English forces (under Lord Conway) at the battle of Newburn near Newcastle. Newcastle was then occupied by the Scottish in the English-Scottish wars.

1833 - The House of Commons approved the Abolition Act, introduced earlier by Thomas Buxton, abolishing slavery throughout the British Empire.

1963 - 200,000 people participated in a peaceful civil rights rally in Washington D.C, where Dr Martin Luther King Jr delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

1973 - Princess Anne visited Russia to ride for Britain in an equestrian event, becoming the first member of the Royal Family to visit the country.

1994 - Thousands of shops throughout England and Wales opened legally for the first time on a Sunday, following a change in the Sunday trading laws.

1996 - Prince Charles and Princess Diana were divorced after 15 years of marriage.

2009 - Pop star Michael Jackson's death (a homicide) was caused primarily by the powerful anesthetic propofol and another sedative.

1758 - New Jersey, U.S, Legislature forms the first Indian reservation.

1831 - Michael Faraday successfully demonstrated the first electrical transformer at the Royal Institute, London.

1833 - Legislation to settle child labour laws was passed in England. The legislation was called the 'Factory Act'.

1842 - The Treaty of Nanking was signed between the British and the Chinese, ending the Opium War and leasing the Hong Kong territories to Britain.

1896 - Chop suey is invented in NYC by the chef of visiting Chinese Ambassador.

1945 - Britian liberates Hong Kong from Japan.

1949 - USSR performs it's first nuclear test and explodes its first atomic bomb.

2005 - Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing more than 1836 people and causing over $115 billion in damage.

Here's another one for ya Skully:

In 1885 Gottlieb Daimler patented the first motorcycle (from my desk calendar).

Lots more here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_29

1146 - A conference of European leaders outlawed the crossbow. It was hoped that by banning the weapon, wars would eventually end. Despite the prohibition, crossbows continued to be used until the 16th century, when they were replaced by firearms.

1791 - The British Ordnance Survey (mapping agency) was founded.

1835 - Melbourne, Australia is founded.

1885 - 13,000 meteors seen in 1 hour near Andromeda.

1901 - Scottish inventor Hubert Cecil Booth patented the vacuum cleaner.

1936 - The record for crossing the Atlantic was gained by the liner Queen Mary, winning the Blue Riband award.

1939 - In anticipation of German bombing, the great evacuation of children from British cities began, four days before the outbreak of World War II.

1962 - Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since the war and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.

1993 - The 150 millionth person visited the Eiffel Tower.

1887 - Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, (produces moving pictures).

1888 - The body of Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols, the first victim of Jack the Ripper, was found mutilated in Buck's Row, London.

1900 - Coca Cola first went on sale in Britain, fourteen years after it was first sold in the U.S.A. Charles Chandler, the eldest son of the founder came to Britain with a jug of cola syrup. It proved so popular that five more gallons were ordered immediately from America.

1940 - The US National Guard assembles.

1962 - Mountaineers Chris Bonington and Ian Clough become first Britons to conquer the north face of the Eiger. The 13,040 ft. climb took them two days and was one of the fastest ever. Within three hours of reaching the summit they were back in their hotel room.

1994 - A Pentium computer beats the world chess champ Gari Kasparov.

1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver were killed in a car crash in the Place de l'Alma underpass in Paris, France. Tests conducted by French police indicated that the driver was intoxicated, may have been travelling at over 100 mph and likely caused the accident while trying to escape the paparazzi photographers.

2009 - Walt Disney Co. announced it was acquiring comic book giant Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.

1865 - Joseph Lister performed the first antiseptic surgery.

1886 - The Severn Tunnel (railway tunnel) between England and Wales, was opened for goods traffic.

1939 - At dawn, Germany made a massive invasion of Poland and bombed Warsaw at 6am, beginning World War II in Europe. The service to 2,000 televisions also ceased in Britain. There would be no more TV for seven years.

1951 - The Premier supermarket opened in Earl's Court, London - the first supermarket in Britain.

1971 - The British penny and the threepenny piece coins ceased to be legal tender as decimalization continued.

1979 – The American space probe Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.

1981 - Garages in Britain began selling petrol in litres.

1985 - After 73 years the wreck of the liner 'Titanic' was found, by Dr Robert Ballard.

2001 - England beat rivals Germany 5-1 in the World Cup qualifying tie, with Michael Owen scoring a hat-trick.

2004 – Beslan school hostage crisis commences when armed terrorists take children and adults hostage in Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia.

31 BC – Final War of the Roman Republic: Battle of Actium – off the western coast of Greece, the forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

1666 - The Great Fire of London began in a baker's shop in Pudding Lane, and rapidly spread throughout the city, destroying most of London's buildings and houses. Although 13,000 buildings were destroyed in the four-day blaze only six people died.

1752 - The Julian calendar was used in Britain and the Colonies 'officially' for the last time. As in the rest of Europe, the following day became 14th September in the Gregorian calendar.

1939 - Under the National Service Bill, men aged 19 - 41 were conscripted in Britain.

1945 - World War II officially ended when Japanese officials, aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, surrendered on behalf of their country.

1994 - Entertainer and television presenter Roy Castle died from lung cancer at his Buckinghamshire home, just two days after his sixty second birthday. He was a lifelong non-smoker and blamed his illness on years of playing the trumpet in smoky jazz clubs.

1189 - Following the death of his father Henry II, Richard the Lionheart was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey in London.

1783 - Britain finally recognised the United States of America by signing the Treaty of Paris which officially ended the American War of Independence.

1803 – English scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.

1935 - Malcolm Campbell reached a new world land speed record of 301.13 mph in Bluebird on Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.

1939 – World War II: France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, forming the Allies.

1939 - The formation of the Citizens' Advice Bureau - established to help people understand and comply with new rules and regulations that were introduced at the start of World War II.

1976 - The unmanned U.S spacecraft Viking 2 landed on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the planet's surface.

1995 - Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Hill Norton, backed claims that the British Government was covering up evidence of a UFO sighting in the south of England in 1990.

1609 - English navigator Henry Hudson, working for the Dutch East India Company, arrived at the island of Manhattan, before sailing up the river that now bears his name.

1781 - Los Angeles was founded by Spanish settlers.

1815 - Sir Humphrey Davy invented the miner's safety lamp.

1964 - Queen Elizabeth II opened the Forth Road Bridge across the Firth of Forth in Scotland.

1985 - The wreck of the Titanic was photographed for the first time, 73 years after it sank with the loss of 1500 lives.

2006 - Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, 44, died after a stingray's barb pierced his chest.