A massive earthquake known as the "Marash Earthquake" strikes modern day Turkey and Syria, in the early morning hours of November 29, 1114, killing thousands of people and destroying many towns and cities. The effects of the earthquake in the city of Marash was so devastating that one account described it as a "tomb for its own people". The city is now known as Kahramanmaraş.
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What Happened Today in History on November 29
Explore the historical events that shaped our world on November 29th. From major milestones to cultural achievements, see what happened on this day in history. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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The Sonderbund War, a civil war in Switzerland, begins over religious and political disputes.
Colonel John M. Chivington leads a surprise attack, on a camp of Cheyenne and Arapaho people in southeastern Colorado Territory. Known as the Sand Creek Massacre, the U.S troops murdered more than 230 Native people, who were at the site under a white flag of truce. The group was composed mostly of women, children, and the elderly who had been directed by the American Military to camp there.
The massacre had its roots earlier on June 27 1864, when Colorado Territory Governor, John Evans issued ia proclamation commanding all “Friendly” Native Americans of the Cheyenne and Arapaho to go to Fort Lyon to receive supplies and to find safety. Unfortunately, this was in direct conflict with the standing order at all Forts within the Territory of Colorado that all members of the Military should shoot and kill any Native American that approached a Fort. Frustrated with a lack of compliance, Evans issued a second proclamation in August 1864 that authorized all citizens to "kill and destroy, as enemies of the country" any "hostile Indians". More
Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr., USN along with pilot Bernt Balchen, co-pilot/radioman Harold June, and photographer Ashley McKinley, make their historic first-flight over the South Pole, in 18 hours, 41 minutes in a Ford Tri-Motor airplane named the Floyd Bennett. More
The Tehran Conference, a four day meeting between U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin begins in Tehran, Iran. The three leaders coordinated their military strategy against Germany and Japan and made a number of important decisions concerning the post World War II era. More
The United Nations General Assembly adopts Resolution 181 calling for the partition of Palestine into two separate states—an Arab and a Jewish one (Map) that would retain an economic union with an internationalized Jerusalem. In the 1910s, both groups, the Zionist Jews, recent emigrants from Russia and Europe who came to the ancient homeland of the Jews to establish a Jewish national state. and the native Palestinians had claimed the British-controlled territory. More
Pong, the first commercially successful video game is released on November 29, 1972 by Atari. It was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Nolan Bushnell, Atari co-founder.
Bushnell and Ted Dabney, the other Atari co-founder were so surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work that they decided to manufacture the game. Pong along with the Magnavox Odyssey were instrumental in the establishment of the video game industry.
New Zealand's flight TE901 crashes on Antarctica's Mt Erebus volcano during a sightseeing trip. All 257 people on board were killed. More