U.S. World War II Memorial Opens To The Public

2004

World War II monument opens in Washington, D.C.

Born on This Day

Duke Ellington Playing Piano

Duke Ellington

1899 - 1974

Pianist and composer who helped define the big-band jazz era. Wrote the standards "Sophisticated Lady" and "Satin Doll."

Michael Kors Collection Fall/Winter 2025 Runway Show - Front Row

Uma Thurman

1970 -

American actress best known for comedic turns in Quentin Tarantino films like "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill."

Willie Nelson In Concert - Atlanta

Willie Nelson

1933 -

Singer, songwriter and activist who led the "outlaw country" movement in the late 1960s. Hits include "On the Road Again."

1945

APR

29

Concerned that the cyanide capsules he and his wife Eva Braun have been given to kill themselves might be duds, Adolf Hitler tests one on his beloved German shepherd, Blondi. Reassured by its death, Braun took her dose the next day. Hitler reportedly shot himself.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on April 29th

1429

Joan of Arc relieves Orleans

During the Hundred Years’ War, the 17-year-old French peasant Joan of Arc leads a French force in relieving the city of Orleans, besieged by the English since October. At the age of 16, “voices” of Christian saints told Joan to aid Charles, the French dauphin, in gaining the French throne and expelling the English from […]

1854

First HBCU, Lincoln University, chartered

On April 29, 1854, Lincoln University becomes the nation’s first historically Black degree-granting institution of higher education.  Located in Pennsylvania and originally founded as the Ashmun Institute, the university was renamed in 1866 in honor of President Abraham Lincoln, revered among African Americans for his 1863 decree to emancipate the nation’s millions of enslaved people. […]

1863

Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst is born

The newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst is born in San Francisco. He was the only son and principle heir to western mining magnate George Hearst. George Hearst had made a fortune with his shrewd investments in successful western mining operations. His son William, however, had little interest in the mining industry. While attending Harvard, he […]

1945

Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun marry

During the night of April 28-29, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun marry, only hours before they both died by suicide. Braun met Hitler while employed as an assistant to Hitler’s official photographer. Raised in a middle-class Catholic background, Braun spent her time with Hitler out of public view, entertaining herself by skiing and swimming. She had […]

1945

U.S. Army liberates Dachau concentration camp

On April 29, 1945, the U.S. Seventh Army’s 45th Infantry Division liberates Dachau, the first concentration camp established by Germany’s Nazi regime. A major Dachau subcamp was liberated the same day by the 42nd Rainbow Division. Established five weeks after Adolf Hitler took power as German chancellor in 1933, Dachau was situated on the outskirts […]

1968

“Hair” premieres on Broadway

On April 29, 1968, the pioneering—and controversial—musical Hair premieres on Broadway. The now-famous “tribal love-rock musical” gave New York theatergoers a full-frontal glimpse of the burgeoning ’60s-counterculture by spotlighting how youth were struggling with the generation gap, the Vietnam War and navigating both the burgeoning drug culture and the sexual revolution. It quickly became not […]

1974

President Nixon announces release of Watergate tapes

On April 29, 1974, President Richard Nixon announces to the public that he will release transcripts of 46 taped White House conversations in response to a Watergate trial subpoena issued in July 1973. The House Judiciary committee accepted 1,200 pages of transcripts the next day, but insisted that the tapes themselves be turned over as […]

1992

Riots erupt in Los Angeles after police officers are acquitted in Rodney King trial

In Los Angeles, California, four Los Angeles police officers that had been caught beating an unarmed African American motorist in an amateur video are acquitted of any wrongdoing in the arrest. Hours after the verdicts were announced, outrage and protest turned to violence as the LA riots began. Protestors in south-central Los Angeles blocked freeway […]

2004

The end of the road for Oldsmobile

On April 29, 2004, the last Oldsmobile comes off the assembly line at the Lansing Car Assembly plant in Michigan, signaling the end of the 106-year-old automotive brand, America’s oldest. Factory workers signed the last Oldsmobile, an Alero sedan, before the vehicle was moved to Lansing’s R.E. Olds Transportation Museum, where it went on display. […]

2011

Britain’s Prince William weds Kate Middleton

On April 29, 2011, Great Britain’s Prince William marries his longtime girlfriend Catherine Elizabeth “Kate” Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London. Some 1,900 guests attended the ceremony, while another 1 million spectators lined the streets of London and an estimated 2 billion people around the world watched on television. The 29-year-old bride and 28-year-old groom, […]

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