Updated April 28, 2012, 2:29 pm
On April 29, 1992, deadly rioting that claimed 54 lives and caused $1 billion in damage erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.
Go to article »On April 29, 1901, Hirohito, ruler of Japan during World War II and Japan’s longest-reigning monarch, was born. Following his death on Jan. 7, 1989, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1429 Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English. 1861 Maryland’s House of Delegates voted against seceding from the Union. 1862 New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War. 1899 Jazz musician and bandleader Duke Ellington was born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington, D.C. 1916 The Easter uprising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities. 1945 Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler married his longtime mistress Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker. (The couple killed themselves the next day.) 1945 American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. 1981 Truck driver Peter Sutcliffe admitted in a London court to being the “Yorkshire Ripper,” the killer of 13 women in northern England over five years. 1992 Rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Fifty-four people were killed. 1996 The musical “Rent” opened on Broadway. 1997 A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actress Uma Thurman turns 42 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
Actor-comedian Jerry Seinfeld (“Seinfeld”) turns 58 years old today.
AP Photo/Charles Sykes
1917 Celeste Holm, Actress, turns 95 1933 Rod McKuen, Poet, turns 79 1934 Luis Aparicio, Baseball Hall of Famer, turns 78 1934 Otis Rush, Blues musician, turns 78 1936 Zubin Mehta, Conductor, turns 76 1943 Duane Allen, Country singer (The Oak Ridge Boys), turns 69 1947 Tommy James, Singer (The Shondells), turns 65 1950 Debbie Stabenow, U.S. senator, D-Mich., turns 62 1955 Kate Mulgrew, Actress (“Star Trek: Voyager”), turns 57 1957 Daniel Day-Lewis, Actor, turns 55 1958 Michelle Pfeiffer, Actress, turns 54 1958 Eve Plumb, Actress (“The Brady Bunch”), turns 54 1968 Carnie Wilson, Singer (Wilson Phillips), turns 44 1970 Andre Agassi, Tennis player, turns 42 1983 Tommie Harris, Football player, turns 29
Historic Birthdays
Hirohito 4/29/1901 – 1/7/1989 Japanese emperor (1926-89).Go to obituary »
62 Oliver Ellsworth 4/29/1745 – 11/26/1807
American senator, jurist and chief author of the Judiciary Act of 178963 Alexander II 4/29/1818 – 3/13/1881
Russian emperor (1855-81); emancipated the serfs in 186158 Henri Poincare 4/29/1854 – 7/17/1912
French mathematician, theoretical astronomer and scientific philosopher88 William Randolph Hearst 4/29/1863 – 8/14/1951
American newspaper publisher82 Sir Thomas Beecham 4/29/1879 – 3/8/1961
English conductor and impresario88 Harold Urey 4/29/1893 – 1/5/1981
American Nobel-Prize winning chemist (1934); helped develop the atom bomb72 Sir Malcolm Sargent 4/29/1895 – 10/3/1967
English orchestra conductor75 Duke Ellington 4/29/1899 – 5/24/1974
American composer, bandleader and pianist; a founder of big-band jazz90 Fred Zinnemann 4/29/1907 – 3/14/1997
Austrian-born American motion-picture director72 George Allen 4/29/1918 – 12/31/1990
American professional football coach
