On May 29, 1780, the treatment of Patriot prisoners by British Colonel Banastre Tarleton and his Loyalist troops leads to the coining of a phrase that comes to define British brutality for the rest of the War for Independence: “Tarleton’s Quarter.” After the surrender of Charleston on May 12, the 3rd Virginia, commanded by Colonel […]

At the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, on May 29, 1851, the formerly enslaved woman Sojourner Truth rises to speak and assert her right to equality as a woman, as well as a Black American. The exact wording of her speech, which becomes famous for the refrain, “Ain’t I a Woman?” has been lost to history. In […]

One of America’s best-loved presidents, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, is born into a politically and socially prominent family in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. He was the first American president to be born and then serve in the 20th century. In 1935, Kennedy enrolled at Harvard University and received a degree in international affairs with […]

On May 29, 1942, on the advice of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler orders all Jews in occupied Paris to wear an identifying yellow star on the left side of their coats. Joseph Goebbels had made the persecution, and ultimately the extermination, of Jews a personal priority from the earliest days of the […]

On May 29, 2005, 23-year-old Danica Patrick becomes the first female driver to take the lead in the storied Indianapolis 500. Having previously distinguished herself in the Toyota Atlantic series, Patrick had qualified fourth—another best for a woman—for the 89th Indianapolis 500, only her fifth Indy Racing League event. (Toyota Atlantic served as a feeder […]