Updated July 28, 2012, 2:28 pm
On July 29, 1981, Britain’s Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
On July 29, 1905, Dag Hammarskjold, the Nobel Prize-winning Swedish statesman and secretary-general of the United Nations from 1953 to 1961, was born. Following his death on September 18, 1961, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1890 Artist Vincent van Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France, at age 37. 1914 Transcontinental telephone service began with the first phone conversation between New York and San Francisco. 1957 Jack Paar debuted as host of NBC’s “Tonight” show. 1958 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 1967 Fire swept the USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin, killing 134 servicemen. 1981 Britain’s Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. 1993 The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard “Ivan the Terrible” and threw out his death sentence. 1999 A day trader opened fire in two Atlanta brokerage offices, killing nine people and wounding 13 before shooting himself to death; he had earlier killed his wife and two children. 2008 Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was indicted on seven felony counts of concealing more than a quarter of a million dollars in house renovations and gifts he had received from a powerful oil contractor. (A judge later dismissed the case, saying prosecutors had withheld evidence.) 2008 Army scientist Bruce Ivins commited suicide as prosecutors prepared to indict him in the 2001 anthrax attacks. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns turns 59 years old today.
AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau
Actor Stephen Dorff turns 39 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
1932 Nancy Kassebaum Baker, Former U.S. senator, R-Kansas, turns 80 1936 Elizabeth Dole, Former U.S. senator, R-N.C., turns 76 1949 Marilyn Quayle, Wife of former Vice President Dan Quayle, turns 63 1953 Tim Gunn, TV personality (“Project Runway”), turns 59 1953 Geddy Lee, Rock singer, musician (Rush), turns 59 1953 Patti Scialfa, Rock singer, musician (The E Street Band), turns 59 1966 Martina McBride, Country singer, turns 46 1972 Wil Wheaton, Actor, turns 40 1977 Danger Mouse, DJ (Gnarls Barkley), turns 35 1980 Rachel Miner, Actress, turns 32
Historic Birthdays
Dag Hammarskjold 7/29/1905 – 9/18/1961 Swedish Nobel Prize-winning 2nd secretary-general of the U. N.Go to obituary »
69 Theda Bara 7/29/1885 – 4/7/1955
American silent-film actress53 Alexis Tocqueville 7/29/1805 – 4/16/1859
French political scientist, historian, and politician64 George Pendleton 7/29/1825 – 11/24/1889
American legislator and sponsor of the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 188373 Max Nordau 7/29/1849 – 1/23/1923
Hungarian -French physician, writer, and Jewish nationalist76 Booth Tarkington 7/29/1869 – 5/19/1946
American novelist and dramatist59 Don Marquis 7/29/1878 – 12/29/1937
American newspaperman, poet, and playwright61 Benito Mussolini 7/29/1883 – 4/28/1945
Italian prime minister and Hitler’s ally during W.W. II64 Sigmund Romberg 7/29/1887 – 11/9/1951
Hungarian-born American composer, conductor, and violinist88 Owen Lattimore 7/29/1900 – 5/31/1989
American writer, lecturer, sinologist; and victim of McCarthyism60 Clara Bow 7/29/1905 – 9/27/1965
American film actress known as the “it girl”
