1929 CE

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 devastates global markets, sparking the Great Depression and years of economic hardship; the Lateran Treaty establishes Vatican City as an independent state, resolving the “Roman Question”; the 1929 Palestine riots erupt across Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed, killing hundreds and deepening Jewish-Arab tensions; the Sino-Soviet conflict (1929) erupts over the Chinese Eastern Railway, leading to a brief military clash; the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre shocks Chicago with the murder of seven North Side Gang members during Prohibition; and the 1st Academy Awards are held in Hollywood, inaugurating the Oscars.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

February 9 – "Litvinov's Pact" is signed in Moscow by the Soviet Union, Poland, Estonia, Romania and Latvia, who agree not to use force to settle disputes between themselves.source
February 11 – The Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See of the Catholic Church sign the Lateran Treaty, to establish the Vatican City as an independent sovereign enclave within Rome, resolving the "Roman Question".source
February 26 – Grand Teton National Park is established by the United States Congress.source
March 4 – The National Revolutionary Party (Partido Nacional Revolucionario) is established in Mexico, by ex-President Plutarco Elías Calles. Under a succession of names, it will hold power in the country continuously for the next 71 years.source
March 4 – Charles Curtis takes office as the first multiracial Vice President of the United States.source
April 3 – Persia signs the Litvinov Protocol.source
May 31 – The United Kingdom general election again returns a hung parliament; the Liberals in Parliament determine which party will govern.source
June 3 – The Treaty of Lima settles a border dispute between Peru and Chile.source
June 7 – The Lateran Treaty, making Vatican City a sovereign state, is ratified.source
June 8 – Ramsay MacDonald forms the United Kingdom's second Labour government.source
June 21 – An agreement brokered by U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow helps end the Cristero War in Mexico.source
July 24 – The Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it was first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928, by most leading world powers).source
July 29 – the French prime minister Raymond Poincaré resigns, and is succeeded by Aristide Briand.source
August 31 – The Young Plan, which sets the total World War I reparations owed by Germany at US$26,350,000,000 to be paid over a period of 58½ years, is finalized.source
September 5 – Aristide Briand presents his plan for the United States of Europe.source
October 3 – The country officially known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes changes its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.source
October 12 – 1929 Australian federal election: The Labor Party, led by James Scullin, defeats the Nationalist/Country Coalition Government, led by Prime Minister Stanley Bruce. Scullin will be sworn in on October 22. Notably, this is the first occasion in Australian political history where a sitting prime minister loses his own seat (the second being John Howard in 2007).source
November 1 – Conscription in Australia ends.source
December 29 – The All India Congress in Lahore demands Indian independence.source
Slavery in Jordan is abolished.source

Conflict & Security

January 6 – 6 January Dictatorship: King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution.source
January 17 – Kabul falls to Habibullāh Kalakāni's forces, beginning a 9-month period of Saqqawist rule in Afghanistan while the Afghan Civil War continues.source
February 14 – "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre": Five gangsters (rivals of Al Capone), plus a civilian, are shot dead in Chicago.source
February 21 – In the first battle of the Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong against the Nationalist government of China, a 24,000-strong rebel force led by Zhang Zongchang is defeated at Zhifu by 7,000 NRA troops.source
March 3 – A revolt by Generals José Gonzalo Escobar and Jesús María Aguirre fails in Mexico.source
March 28 – Japanese forces withdraw from Shandong province to their garrison in Qingdao, bringing an end to the Jinan Incident.source
June 1 – The 1st Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires.source
July 27 – The Geneva Convention addresses the treatment of prisoners of war.source
August 16 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out between Palestinians and Jews in Mandatory Palestine, and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Palestinians are killed.source
August 29 – The 1929 Palestine riots: 18–20 Jews are killed in Safed by Palestinian Arabs.source
September 17 – A coup ousts Augustinas Voldemaras from his prime minister position in Lithuania; he is replaced by the brother-in-law of President Antanas Smetona, Juozas Tūbelis.source
October 13 – Afghan Civil War ends.source
October 22 – The government of Aristide Briand falls in France.source
December 28 – "Black Saturday" in Samoa: New Zealand colonial police kill 11 unarmed demonstrators, an event which leads the Mau movement to demand independence for Samoa.source

Exploration & Expansion

March 30 – Imperial Airways begins operating the first commercial flights between London and Karachi.source
August 8–29 – German rigid airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin makes a circumnavigation of the Northern Hemisphere eastabout out of Lakehurst, New Jersey, including the first nonstop flight of any kind across the Pacific Ocean (Tokyo–Los Angeles).source

Religion & Belief

January 6 – Albanian missionary sister Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, later known as Mother Teresa, arrives in Calcutta from Ireland to begin her work in India.source
July 25 – Pope Pius XI emerges from the Apostolic Palace, and enters St. Peter's Square in a huge procession witnessed by about 250,000 persons, thus ending nearly 60 years of self-imposed status by the papacy as Prisoner in the Vatican.source
December 27 – Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class".source

Economy & Finance

July 24 – Union Airways Pty. Ltd. is founded, to be nationalised as South African Airways, on 1 February 1934.source
September 3 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks at 381.17, a height it would not reach again until November 1954.source
October 24–29 – Wall Street Crash of 1929: Three multi-digit percentage drops wipe out more than $30 billion from the New York Stock Exchange (10 times greater than the annual budget of the federal government).source

Technology & Infrastructure

January 10 – The first appearance of Hergé's Belgian comic book hero Tintin, as Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter..., au pays des Soviets), begins serialization in the children's newspaper supplement, Le Petit Vingtième.source
March 2 – The longest bridge in the world at this time, the San Francisco Bay Toll-Bridge, opens.source
April 14 – The first edition of the Monaco Grand Prix is held.source
June 27 – The first public demonstration of color TV is held, by H. E. Ives and his colleagues at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York. The first images are a bouquet of roses and an American flag. A mechanical system is used to transmit 50-line color television images between New York and Washington.source
August 20 – John Logie Baird's experimental 30-line television system is first transmitted, by the British Broadcasting Corporation in London.source
September 30 – Fritz von Opel pilots the first rocket-powered aircraft, the Opel RAK.1, in front of a large crowd in Frankfurt am Main.source
October 8 – Cubana de Aviación is founded.source
November – Vladimir Zworykin takes out the first patent for color television.source

Science & Discovery

July 27 – The Red Crescent is adopted as an additional emblem of the League of Red Cross Societies.source
October 18 – On appeal from the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of "The Famous Five" Canadian women in the landmark case of Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General), the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the United Kingdom announces that women are "persons" under the British North America Acts, and thus eligible for appointment to the Senate of Canada.source
November 1 – An annular solar eclipse is seen over the Atlantic Ocean and Africa.source
November 29 – Bernt Balchen, U.S. Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Captain Ashley McKinley and Harold June become the first to fly over the South Pole.source

Crime & Justice

August 23–24 – The 1929 Hebron massacre: 65–68 Jews are killed by Palestinians and the remaining Jews are forced to leave Hebron.source
October 25 – Former U.S. Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall is convicted of bribery for his role in the Teapot Dome scandal, becoming the first Presidential cabinet member to go to prison for actions in office.source
December – New York toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe popularizes Bingo after coming across the game of "Beano" in Atlanta, Georgia. After someone accidentally yells "bingo" instead of "beano" with a group of friends in Brooklyn, New York, he begins production of the game, going on to develop more than 6,000 card combinations under the E. S. Lowe company, as the popularity of the game grows to become a national pastime.source

Disasters & Accidents

August 29 – The collides with the oil tanker S.C.T. Dodd off the California coast, causing the San Juan to sink in 3 minutes, killing 77 people.source
September 7 – The steamship SS Kuru sank in Lake Näsijärvi near Tampere, Finland, leading to 138 people drowning.source
November 15 – Atlantic, a film drama about the sinking of the RMS Titanic, is released in the U.K. The simultaneously shot German-language version is the first sound film feature to be released in Germany.source

Climate & Environment

May 1 – The 7.2 Kopet Dag earthquake shakes the Iran-Turkmenistan border region, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing up to 3,800 and injuring 1,121.source
November 18 – The 1929 Grand Banks earthquake occurs.source

Culture & Society

January 17 – The comic strip hero Popeye first appears in Thimble Theatre.source
January 29 – All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues), by Erich Maria Remarque, is published in book form.source
March 17 – The second of the Davos University Conferences opens in Switzerland; this includes the Cassirer–Heidegger debate in philosophy.source
October 6 – Serie A, the top-class professional football league of Italy, replaces the Divisione Nazionale.source
November 7 – In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opens to the public. The first exhibition Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh and Seurat (November 7 – December 7) is seen by 47.000 visitors; the curator is Alfred H. Barr.source

Births

January 11 – Nureddin al-Atassi, Syrian philatelist, 54th Prime Minister of Syria and 17th President of Syria (d. 1992)source
April 14 – Gerry Anderson, English television, film producer, director and writer, (Thunderbirds) (d. 2012)source
May 4 – Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-born British actress and activist (d. 1993)source
May 29 – Peter Higgs, British theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2024)source
June 7 – John Turner, 17th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2020)source
June 18 – Jürgen Habermas, German sociologist and philosopher (d. 2026)source
July 2 – Imelda Marcos, former First Lady of the Philippinessource
July 5 – Chikao Ōtsuka, Japanese actor, voice actor and father of Akio Ōtsuka (d. 2015)source
July 28 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States (d. 1994)source
September 3 – Armand Vaillancourt, Québécois Canadian sculptor, painter and performance artistsource
September 17 – Stirling Moss, British Formula One racing driver (d. 2020)source
October 21 – Ursula K. Le Guin, American science-fiction, fantasy author (d. 2018)source
November 12 – Grace Kelly, American actress, later Princess of Monaco (d. 1982)source
November 13 – Fred Phelps, American pastor, activist (Westboro Baptist Church) (d. 2014)source

Deaths

January 13 – Wyatt Earp, American gunfighter and sheriff (b. 1848)source
May 21 – Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)source
September 23 – Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)source
September 24 – Mahidol Adulyadej, Thai doctor, father of King Rama IX (b. 1892)source
September 25 – Miller Huggins, American baseball manager, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1879)source
October 3 – Gustav Stresemann, German statesman, 16th Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1878)source
October 5 – Varghese Payyappilly Palakkappilly, Indian Syro-Malabar Catholic priest and venerable (b. 1876)source
October 20 – José Batlle y Ordóñez, 3-time President of Uruguay (b. 1856)source
October 28 – Bernhard von Bülow, German count and statesman, 8th Chancellor of Germany (b. 1849)source
November 1 – Habibullāh Kalakāni, deposed Emir of Afghanistan (b. 1891)source
November 6 – Prince Maximilian of Baden, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1867)source
November 14 – Joe McGinnity, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1871)source
November 24 – Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France, leader during World War I (b. 1841)source
December 10 – Frederick Abberline, Chief Inspector of the London Metropolitan Police, investigator in the Jack the Ripper murders (b. 1843)source