http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Aug 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina slams into Gulf Coast
Hurricane Katrina makes landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane on this day in 2005. Despite being only the third most powerful storm of the 2005 hurricane season, Katrina was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States. After briefly coming ashore in southern Florida on August 25 as a Category 1 hurricane, Katrina gained strength before slamming into the Gulf Coast on August 29. In addition to bringing devastation to the New Orleans area, the hurricane caused damage along the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, as well as other parts of Louisiana.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city on August 28, when Katrina briefly achieved Category 5 status and the National Weather Service predicted "devastating" damage to the area. But an estimated 150,000 people, who either did not want to or did not have the resources to leave, ignored the order and stayed behind. The storm brought sustained winds of 145 miles per hour, which cut power lines and destroyed homes, even turning cars into projectile missiles. Katrina caused record storm surges all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The surges overwhelmed the levees that protected New Orleans, located at six feet below sea level, from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. Soon, 80 percent of the city was flooded up to the rooftops of many homes and small buildings.
Tens of thousands of people sought shelter in the New Orleans Convention Center and the Louisiana Superdome. The situation in both places quickly deteriorated, as food and water ran low and conditions became unsanitary. Frustration mounted as it took up to two days for a full-scale relief effort to begin. In the meantime, the stranded residents suffered from heat, hunger, and a lack of medical care. Reports of looting, rape, and even murder began to surface. As news networks broadcast scenes from the devastated city to the world, it became obvious that a vast majority of the victims were African-American and poor, leading to difficult questions among the public about the state of racial equality in the United States. The federal government and President George W. Bush were roundly criticized for what was perceived as their slow response to the disaster. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Michael Brown, resigned amid the ensuing controversy.
Finally, on September 1, the tens of thousands of people staying in the damaged Superdome and Convention Center begin to be moved to the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, and another mandatory evacuation order was issued for the city. The next day, military convoys arrived with supplies and the National Guard was brought in to bring a halt to lawlessness. Efforts began to collect and identify corpses. On September 6, eight days after the hurricane, the Army Corps of Engineers finally completed temporary repairs to the three major holes in New Orleans' levee system and were able to begin pumping water out of the city.
In all, it is believed that the hurricane caused more than 1,300 deaths and up to $150 billion in damages to both private property and public infrastructure. It is estimated that only about $40 billion of that number will be covered by insurance. One million people were displaced by the disaster, a phenomenon unseen in the United States since the Great Depression. Four hundred thousand people lost their jobs as a result of the disaster. Offers of international aid poured in from around the world, even from poor countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Private donations from U.S. citizens alone approached $600 million.
The storm also set off 36 tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, resulting in one death.
President Bush declared September 16 a national day of remembrance for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Aug 29, 1533: Pizarro Executes Last Inca Emperor
Atahuallpa, the 13th and last emperor of the Incas, dies by strangulation at the hands of Francisco Pizarro's Spanish conquistadors. The execution of Atahuallpa, the last free reigning emperor, marked the end of 300 years of Inca civilization.
High in the Andes Mountains of Peru, the Inca built a dazzling empire that governed a population of 12 million people. Although they had no writing system, they had an elaborate government, great public works, and a brilliant agricultural system. In the five years before the Spanish arrival, a devastating war of succession gripped the empire. In 1532, Atahuallpa's army defeated the forces of his half-brother Huascar in a battle near Cuzco. Atahuallpa was consolidating his rule when Pizarro and his 180 soldiers appeared.
Francisco Pizarro was the son of a Spanish gentleman and worked as a swineherder in his youth. He became a soldier and in 1502 went to Hispaniola with the new Spanish governor of the New World colony. Pizarro served under Spanish conquistador Alonso de Ojeda during his expedition to Colombia in 1510 and was with Vasco Nunez de Balboa when he discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513. Hearing legends of the great wealth of an Indian civilization in South America, Pizarro formed an alliance with fellow conquistador Diego de Almagro in 1524 and sailed down the west coast of South America from Panama. The first expedition only penetrated as far as present-day Ecuador, but a second reached farther, to present-day Peru. There they heard firsthand accounts of the Inca empire and obtained Inca artifacts. The Spanish christened the new land Peru, probably after the Vire River.
Returning to Panama, Pizarro planned an expedition of conquest, but the Spanish governor refused to back the scheme. In 1528, Pizarro sailed back to Spain to ask the support of Emperor Charles V. Hernan Cortes had recently brought the emperor great wealth through his conquest of the Aztec Empire, and Charles approved Pizarro's plan. He also promised that Pizarro, not Almagro, would receive the majority of the expedition's profits. In 1530, Pizarro returned to Panama.
In 1531, he sailed down to Peru, landing at Tumbes. He led his army up the Andes Mountains and on November 15, 1532, reached the Inca town of Cajamarca, where Atahuallpa was enjoying the hot springs in preparation for his march on Cuzco, the capital of his brother's kingdom. Pizarro invited Atahuallpa to attend a feast in his honor, and the emperor accepted. Having just won one of the largest battles in Inca history, and with an army of 30,000 men at his disposal, Atahuallpa thought he had nothing to fear from the bearded white stranger and his 180 men. Pizarro, however, planned an ambush, setting up his artillery at the square of Cajamarca.
On November 16, Atahuallpa arrived at the meeting place with an escort of several thousand men, all apparently unarmed. Pizarro sent out a priest to exhort the emperor to accept the sovereignty of Christianity and Emperor Charles V., and Atahuallpa refused, flinging a Bible handed to him to the ground in disgust. Pizarro immediately ordered an attack. Buckling under an assault by the terrifying Spanish artillery, guns, and cavalry (all of which were alien to the Incas), thousands of Incas were slaughtered, and the emperor was captured.
Atahuallpa offered to fill a room with treasure as ransom for his release, and Pizarro accepted. Eventually, some 24 tons of gold and silver were brought to the Spanish from throughout the Inca empire. Although Atahuallpa had provided the richest ransom in the history of the world, Pizarro treacherously put him on trial for plotting to overthrow the Spanish, for having his half-brother Huascar murdered, and for several other lesser charges. A Spanish tribunal convicted Atahuallpa and sentenced him to die. On August 29, 1533, the emperor was tied to a stake and offered the choice of being burned alive or strangled by garrote if he converted to Christianity. In the hope of preserving his body for mummification, Atahuallpa chose the latter, and an iron collar was tightened around his neck until he died.
With Spanish reinforcements that had arrived at Cajamarca earlier that year, Pizarro then marched on Cuzco, and the Inca capital fell without a struggle in November 1533. Huascar's brother Manco Capac was installed as a puppet emperor, and the city of Quito was subdued. Pizarro established himself as Spanish governor of Inca territory and offered Diego Almagro the conquest of Chile as appeasement for claiming the riches of the Inca civilization for himself. In 1535, Pizarro established the city of Lima on the coast to facilitate communication with Panama. The next year, Manco Capac escaped from Spanish supervision and led an unsuccessful uprising that was quickly crushed. That marked the end of Inca resistance to Spanish rule.
Diego Almagro returned from Chile embittered by the poverty of that country and demanded his share of the spoils of the former Inca empire. Civil war soon broke out over the dispute, and Almagro seized Cuzco in 1538. Pizarro sent his half brother, Hernando, to reclaim the city, and Almagro was defeated and put to death. On June 26, 1541, allies of Diego el Monzo—Almagro's son—penetrated Pizarro's palace in Lima and assassinated the conquistador while he was eating dinner. Diego el Monzo proclaimed himself governor of Peru, but an agent of the Spanish crown refused to recognize him, and in 1542 Diego was captured and executed. Conflict and intrigue among the conquistadors of Peru persisted until Spanish Viceroy Andres Hurtado de Mendoza established order in the late 1550s.
Aug 29, 1972: Nixon announces another troop reduction
President Nixon sets December 1 as the target date for reducing U.S. troops strength in Vietnam by 12,000, to 27,000, an all-time low since the American troop buildup began in 1965.
Aug 29, 1962: Robert Frost leaves for a goodwill tour of U.S.S.R.
Robert Frost leaves for the Soviet Union on this day in 1962. The goodwill tour is sponsored by the U.S. State Department in an effort to thaw Cold War relations. Frost's poetry has established his international reputation as American's unofficial poet laureate. While his best work appeared in earlier decades, he is nevertheless seen as an elder statesman of literature.
Despite his close association with New England, Robert Frost was born in 1874 in California, where he lived until his father, a journalist, died when Robert was 11. His mother brought him to Massachusetts, where he graduated as co-valedictorian of his high school class. He attended Dartmouth and Harvard, but didn't complete a degree at either school. Three years after high school, he married his high school co-valedictorian, Elinor White.
Frost tried unsuccessfully to run a New England farm, and the family, which soon included four children, struggled with poverty for two decades. Frost became more and more depressed. In 1912, he moved his family to England to make a fresh start. There he concentrated on his poetry and published a collection called A Boy's Will in 1913, which won praise from English critics and helped him win a U.S. publishing contract for his second book, North of Boston (1914). The American public took a liking to the 40-year-old Frost, who returned to the U.S. when World War I broke out. He bought another farm in New Hampshire and continued to publish books. He taught and lectured at Amherst, University of Michigan, Harvard, and Dartmouth, and read from his work at the inauguration of President Kennedy. He also endured personal tragedy when a son committed suicide and a daughter had a mental breakdown.
While Frost never graduated from a university, he collected 44 honorary degrees before he died in 1963. His last poetry collection, In the Clearing, was published in 1962.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
708 - Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).
1178 - Anti-Pope Callistus III gives pope title to Alexander III
1261 - Jacques Pantaleon elected as Pope Urban IV
1350 - Battle of Winchelsea (or Les Espagnols sur Mer): The English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships.
1475 - Treaty of Picquigny] king Louis XI buys English contacts
1484 - Giovanni B Cibo elected as Pope Innocent VIII
1521 - The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár, now known as Belgrade.
1526 - Hungary conquered by Turks in Battle of Mohács
1533 - Francisco Pizarro orders death of last Incan King of Peru, Atahualpa
1540 - Emperor Karel deprives city Gent definitive rights/privileges
1541 - The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.
1612 - Battle at Surat India: English fleet beats Portuguese
1640 - English King Charles I signed a peace treaty with Scotland
1655 - Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge.
1664 - Adriaen Pieck/Gerrit de Ferry patent wooden firespout in Amsterdam
1708 - English troops occupy Menorca & Sardinia
1708 - Haverhill, Mass destroyed by French & Indians
1742 - Edmond Hoyle published his "Short Treatise" on the card game whist
1756 - England & France meet in war
King of England King Charles IKing of England King Charles I 1756 - Prussian Libya occupies Saxson: beginning 7 years War
1758 - New Jersey Legislature forms 1st Indian reservation
1776 - Americans withdraw from Manhattan to Westchester
1786 - Shay's Rebellion in Springfield, Mass
1792 - English warship Royal George capsizes in Spithead; kills 900
1793 - Slaves in French colony of St Domingue (Haiti) freed
1825 - Portugal recognizes the Independence of Brazil.
1831 - Michael Faraday demonstrates 1st electric transformer
1833 - Britain's Slavery Abolition Act becomes law
1842 - Gr Britain & China sign Treaty of Nanking, ends Opium war
1844 - 1st white-indian lacrosse game in Montreal, Indians win
1854 - Self-governing windmill patented (Daniel Halladay)
1861 - American Civil War: US Navy squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
1862 - 2nd Battle of Bull Run Va (Manassas) during US Civil War
1862 - Battle of Aspromonte-Italian royal forces defeat rebels
1862 - US Bureau of Engraving & Printing begins operation
1864 - William Huggins discovers chemical composition of nebulae
1871 - Emperor Meiji orders the Abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures as local centers of administration. (Traditional Japanese date: July 14, 1871).
1882 - Australia beat England by 7 runs "Death of English cricket"
1882 - Fred Spofforth completes 14-90 for match v England (7-46 & 7-44)
1883 - Seismic sea waves created by Krakatoa eruption create a rise in English Channel 32 hrs after explosion
1885 - Gottlieb Daimler receives German patent for a motorcycle
1885 - Phillies Charlie Ferguson no-hits Providence 1-0
1885 - Boxing's 1st heavyweight title fight with 3-oz gloves & 3-minute rounds fought between John L Sullivan & Dominick McCaffrey
1889 - 1st American Intl pro lawn tennis contest (Newport RI)
1895 - The formation of the Northern Rugby Union at the George Hotel, Huddersfield, England.
1896 - Chop suey invented in NYC by chef of visiting Chinese Ambassador
1898 - The Goodyear tire company is founded.
1904 - 1st Olympics in US are held (St Louis)
1904 - 3rd modern Olympic Games opens in St Louis
1905 - Pierre de Brazza leaves Brazzaville
1906 - Bridge in St Lawrence Canada caves in; 70 die
1906 - William J Clothier wins the US Tennis Open
1907 - The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers.
1908 - NY gives a ticker tape parade to returning US Olympians from London
1909 - AH Latham of France sets world airplane altitude record of 155 m
1909 - World's 1st air race held in Rheims France. Glenn Curtiss (USA) wins
1910 - Japan changes Korea's name to Chōsen and appoints a governor-general to rule its new colony.
1911 - Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.
1913 - Pieter Cort Van de Linden forms Dutch government
1914 - 4th day of Tannenberg: Russian Narev-army panics, Gen Martos caught
1914 - Arizonian is 1st vessel to arrive in SF via Panama Canal
1914 - Battle at St Quentin: French counter attack under General Lanrezac
1916 - Congress creates US Naval reserve
1916 - Gen Von Hindenburg becomes German Chief of Staff
1916 - Transportship Hsin-Yu & cruiser Hai-Yung collide; 1000 die
1916 - US Congress accept Jones Act: Philippines independence
1916 - Von Hindenburg replaces Von Falkenhayn as German chief of staff
1918 - Bapaume taken by Australian Corps and Canadian Corps in the Hundred Days Offensive
1924 - German Republic day accepts Dawes plan
Baseball Great Babe RuthBaseball Great Babe Ruth 1925 - After a night on the town, Babe Ruth shows up late for batting practice Miller Huggins suspends Ruth & slaps a $5,000 fine on him
1929 - German airship Graf Zeppelin ends a round-the-world flight
1930 - The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.
1932 - International Anti-War Committee forms in Amsterdam
1932 - United Cigar Stores shuts 800 shops
1935 - 2nd NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Chi Bears 5, All-Stars 0 (77,450)
1937 - Phila A's Bob Johnson is 2nd to get 6 RBIs in an inning (1st)
1939 - Chaim Weizmann informs England that Palestine Jews will fight in WW II
1940 - 7th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Green Bay 45, All-Stars 28 (84,567)
1941 - German Einsatzkommando in Russia kills 1,469 Jewish children
1943 - Denmark scuttles their warships so as not to be taken by Germany
1944 - 15,000 American troops liberating Paris march down Champs Elysees
1944 - Anti German rebellion in Slovakia
1945 - British liberate Hong Kong from Japan
1945 - Gen MacArthur named Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan
1947 - Constantine Tsaldaris follows Maximos as Greece premier
1949 - USSR performs first nuclear test
1949 - USSR explodes its 1st atomic bomb
1950 - Intl Olympic Committee votes admission to West Germany & Japan in '52
1953 - KHSL TV channel 12 in Chico, CA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1953 - USSR explodes its 1st hydrogen bomb
1954 - SF International Airport (SFO) opens
1956 - French government routes troops to Cyprus near Suez crisis
1957 - Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1957
1957 - Strom Thurmond (Sen-D-SC) ends 24 hr filibuster against civil rights
1958 - Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colo
1958 - George Harrison joins Quarrymen (Lennon-McCartney-Best-Sutcliffe)
1960 - Jordan premier Hazza-el-Madjali deadly injured at bomb attack
1962 - Some provisions of Kuwaiti constitution are suspended
1962 - US U-2 flight sees SAM launch pads in Cuba
1963 - Harmon Killebrew (Twins) HRs off Pete Burnside (Senators) in DH
1964 - "Funny Thing Happened" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 965 perfs
Animator Walt DisneyAnimator Walt Disney 1964 - Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins" released
1964 - On Elston Howard Night, Mickey Mantle ties Babe Ruth's career strikeout record (1,330)
1965 - Astronauts Cooper & Conrad complete 120 Earth orbits in Gemini 5
1965 - Willie Mays sets NL record for HRs in a month with his 17th of August
1966 - Beatles last public concert (Candlestick Park, SF)
1966 - Dutch Internal minister Smallenbroek resigns after driving drunk
1967 - Final TV episode of "Fugitive"
1967 - Yanks longest day, Red Sox take 1st game 2-1 in 9, Yanks win 2nd game in 20, 4-3 a total of 8 hours & 19 minutes
1968 - 1st US Open tennis match (Billie Jean King beats Dr Vija Vuskains)
1968 - Democratics nominate Hubert H Humphrey for president (Chicago)
1969 - Joe Pepitone quits Yanks after being fined $500 for leaving the bench
1969 - KYUS TV channel 3 in Miles City, MT (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting
1970 - Black Panthers confront cops in Phila (1 cop killed)
1972 - SF Giant Jim Barr retires 1st 20 batters he faces added to last 21 he retired 6 days earlier for record 41 in a row
1974 - USSR performs underground nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1975 - Star in Cygnus goes nova becoming 4th brightest in sky
1976 - Sandra Palmer wins LPGA National Jewish Hospital Golf Open
1977 - St Louis Cardinal Lou Brock eclipses Ty Cobb's 49-year-old career stolen bases record at 893 as Padres win 4-3
1978 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1978 - USTA National Tennis Center opens in Flushing NY
1979 - Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1979 - Sheridan Broadcasting Corp purchases Mutual Black Network
1981 - 28th Walker Cup: US wins 15-9
1981 - Phillies minor leaguer Jeff Stone steals pro baseball record 121st base en route to 122 (Spartanburg (South Atlantic League))
1982 - 38°F lowest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in August
1982 - George Brett gets his 1,500th hit
1982 - Joanne Carner wins LPGA Henredon Golf Classic
1982 - Steve Miller's "Abracadabra" hits #1
1982 - The synthetic chemical element Meitnerium, atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.
1985 - Atlantis moves to launch pad for 51-J mission
1985 - Emmy News & Documentaries Award presentation
1985 - NY Yank Don Baylor is hit by a pitch for a record 190th time
1986 - Heike Drechsler of E Germany ties world women's 200 m mark (21.71s)
1986 - Morocco king Hassan II signs unity treaty with Libya
1987 - Nolan Ryan passes the 200-strikeout barrier for record 11th time
1987 - Rosa Mota becomes wins female Rome marathon (2:25:17)
1988 - Macy's Tap-o-Mania sets Guiness record
1988 - USSR launches 3 cosmonauts (Valery Polyakav, 1 Afghan) to station Mir
1990 - C-5 transport plane crashes at Ramstein AFB, Germany, killing 13
Iraqi President Saddam HusseinIraqi President Saddam Hussein 1990 - Saddam Hussein declares America can't beat Iraq
1991 - JFK Jr wins his 1st battle as an attorney
1991 - USSR suspends Communist Party activities
1992 - Largest wrestling crowd out side of US (75,000) at Wembley Stadium
1992 - Randy Myers blows his 6th save of the season & it marks the 5th time he's blown a potential win for Greg Harris
1992 - Brave's Charlie Leibrandt 1,000th strikeout & decides to keep the ball He rolls it to the dugout, allows Ricky Jordan to take 2nd on error
1993 - 21st du Maurier Golf Classic: Brandie Burton
1993 - 93rd US Golf Amateur Championship won by John Harris
1995 - NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
1996 - Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard.
1997 - At least 98 villagers are killed by the GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.
2003 - Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.
2005 - Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing more than 1,836 and causing over $115 billion in damage.
2007 - A United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident takes place at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base.
2012 - Georgian hostage crisis results in 3 police officers and 10 militants being killed
2012 - Operation Eagle, undertaken by the Egyptian Army, results in the deaths of 11 suspected terrorists and the arrest of another 23
2012 - Banana Spider venom is found to be effective in relieving erectile dysfunction
Professional Road Cyclist and Testicular Cancer Survivor Lance ArmstrongProfessional Road Cyclist and Testicular Cancer Survivor Lance Armstrong 2012 - The USADA claims to have stripped Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles
1533 Atahualpa, the last ruler of the Incas, was murdered as Francisco Pizarro completed his conquest of Peru. 1786 Shays's rebellion, an insurrection of Massachusetts farmers against the state government, began. 1842 The Treaty of Nanking was signed, ending the Opium Wars and ceding the island of Hong Kong to Britain. 1877 Brigham Young died in Salt Lake City, Utah. 1949 The U.S.S.R. tested their first atomic bomb. 1957 Strom Thurmond ended the longest filibuster in U.S. Senate history. He spoke for more than 24 hours against a civil rights bill; the bill passed. 1966 The Beatles played their last major live concert at Candlestick Park, California. 1991 The Supreme Soviet, the parliament of the U.S.S.R., suspended all activities of the Communist Party, bringing an end to the institution. 2005 Hurricane Katrina slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast, destroying beachfront towns in Mississippi and Louisiana, displacing a million people, and killing more than 1,000.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/aug29.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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