Holidays Calendar for May 29, 2024

World Digestive Health Day is a worldwide public health campaign held on May 29. The event is coordinated by the World Gastroenterology Organization (WGO). Each year, the awareness campaign focuses on a particular digestive health issue.

World Otter Day is celebrated annually on the last Wednesday of May. It was created to raise awareness of the conservation status of otters since more than half of all extant otter species are classified as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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International Everest Day, also known as Mount Everest Day or simply Everest Day, is celebrated on May 29 every year to commemorate the first ascent of the world’s highest mountain.

Armed Forces Day in Kyrgyzstan is celebrated annually on May 29, marking the anniversary of the creation of the Kyrgyz Armed Forces in 1992.

Day of Internal Affairs Officers is an official professional holiday in Turkmenistan observed on May 29 each year.

Argentine Army Day is celebrated on May 29. The holiday commemorates the official foundation of the Argentine Army in 1810, four days after the overthrow of the Spanish colonial administration in the city of Buenos Aires.

Veteran of Overseas Military Service Day (Dzień Weterana Działań poza Granicami Państwa) is an official observance in Poland celebrated on May 29. The date was chosen on purpose as it coincides with the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers that was established by the UN General Assembly in 2003.

National Alligator Day is celebrated annually on May 29. It was created by Wild Florida, an airboat, gator and drive-thru safari park in Kenansville, to educate the general public about alligators and recognize the importance of these widely misunderstood reptiles for ecosystems.

National Snail Day is a fun holiday observed annually on May 29. It was created to celebrate amazing creatures that might seem insignificant, but they are an important part of the ecosystem.

Conquest of Istanbul Day is a local celebration held in the largest city in Turkey on May 29. It commemorates the fall of Constantinople that occurred on May 29, 1453.

Veterans Day (Veterandagen) is a Swedish observance held annually on May 29. It honors the people who are or have been serving with the Swedish Armed Forces, including those who died during their service.

Although Rhode Island was the first of the Thirteen Colonies to declare independence from Great Britain, it was the last to ratify the United States Constitution. This happened on May 29, 1790; the anniversary of this event is known as Rhode Island Statehood Day. It should not be confused with Rhode Island Independence Day (May 4), which commemorates the day when Rhode Island declared its independence from Britain.

Wisconsin Statehood Day is observed annually on May 29. On this day in 1848, Wisconsin officially joined the Union as the 30th state.

May 29 is National Coq Au Vin Day. This is one of the first dishes people learn to cook, when they approach French cuisine repertoire.

Oak Apple Day, also known as Royal Oak Day, used to be a public holiday in England. It commemorated the restoration of the English monarchy. Although it is not an official holiday anymore, it is still informally celebrated in some areas.

National Biscuit Day is observed in the United Kingdom on May 29 every year. It celebrates flour-based baked food items that are called “cookies” or “crackers” in the United States and sometimes in Canada.

International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is an annual observance held on May 29. It was established by UN General Assembly in December 2002.

National Elderly Day (Hari Lanjut Usia Nasional) is an official observance in Indonesia celebrated on May 29. Its main goals are to express gratitude to elderly people for the contribution they have made to the country’s development during their lifetime, as well as to raise public awareness of the problems faced by elderly people and the need to solve them.

National 529 Day is observed annually on May 29 to encourage parents to save for their children’s future higher education by contributing to a 529 plan. It was created in 2021 by College Savings Foundation, a non-profit organization that strives to help American families save for education.

National Senior Health & Fitness Day is celebrated annually on the last Wednesday of May. Its main goals are to promote senior health and wellness nationwide, and to encourage older Americans to do everything they can to stay healthy, fit, and safe.

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This Day in History

  • 2021 A Cessna 501 Citation I/SP crashed into the Percy Priest Lake in Tennessee. Casualties included diet guru Gwen Shamblin Lara and her husband, actor Joe Lara, who was piloting the aircraft.
  • 2010 Died: Dennis Hopper, American actor, director, and screenwriter, best known for roles in Apocalypse Now, Rumble Fish, The Osterman Weekend.
  • 2005 France held a referendum on the Treaty Establishing a Constitution of the European Union. The majority of voters rejected the Constitution, thus making France the first country in the EU that rejected the treaty.
  • 1989 Born: Riley Keough, American actress known for her roles in Mad Max: Fury Road, The Girlfriend Experience, American Honey, Logan Lucky, and Daisy Jones & The Six.
  • 1987 Born: Noah Reid, Canadian-American actor and musician, best known for his work on the television series Franklin and Schitt's Creek.
  • 1985 31 football fans died and hundreds were injured when a dilapidated retaining wall of the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium collapsed.
  • 1982 Died: Romy Schneider, Austrian-French actress. She received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress nomination for The Cardinal and won five César Awards for Best Actress.
  • 1979 Died: Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress, producer, and screenwriter, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the 36 co-founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
  • 1975 Born: Melanie Janine Brown, better known as Mel B or Melanie B, English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress. She gained popularity as a member of Spice Girls.
  • 1972 Born: Laverne Cox, American actress and LGBT advocate who rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.
  • 1967 Born: Noel Gallagher, English musician, singer and songwriter who was the primary songwriter, lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis until their split in 2009.
  • 1964 The Arab League met in East Jerusalem to discuss the Palestinian question. This meeting led to the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
  • 1961 Born: Melissa Etheridge, American singer, songwriter, musician, and guitarist known for music with a mixture of "confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals".
  • 1959 Born: Rupert Everett, English actor. His most notable film credits include Another Country, My Best Friend's Wedding, An Ideal Husband, St. Trinian's, The Happy Prince, and more.
  • 1959 Born: Adrian Paul, English actor and producer, best known for role as Duncan MacLeod on the television serious Highlander: The Series.
  • 1958 Born: Annette Bening, American actress. With a career spanning over four decades, she is known for her versatile work across screen and stage.
  • 1958 Died: Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet and academic, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity.
  • 1953 Died: Morgan Russell, American painter, the founder of Synchromism, a provocative style of painting that analogized color to music.
  • 1953 Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first people who reached the summit of Mount Everest.
  • 1949 Born: Francis Rossi, English singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known as a co-founder of rock band Status Quo.
  • 1942 Died: John Barrymore, born John Sidney Blyth, American actor, best remembered for stage roles in Justice, Richard III and Hamlet, deserving the name of the greatest living American tragedian.
  • 1929 Born: Peter Higgs, English-Scottish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles.
  • 1920 Born: John Harsanyi, Hungarian-American economist, Nobel Prize in Economic Science laureate for important contributions to the use of game theory and economic reasoning in political and moral philosophy.
  • 1919 Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin tested and later confirmed Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.
  • 1917 Born: John F. Kennedy, American lieutenant and politician, the 35th President of the United States from 1961 till his assassination in November 1963.
  • 1914 The Canadian Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sank in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The tragedy was caused by a collision with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad. 1,012 of the 1,477 people on board of the ship died.
  • 1913 The ballet The Rite of Spring by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, France. Its avant-garde music was not accepted by the audience and provoked a riot.
  • 1911 Died: Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, English playwright and poet best known for his comic operas H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado.
  • 1906 Born: T. H. White, Indian-English author best known for his sequence of novels about the King Arthur The Once and Future King.
  • 1892 Died: Bahá'u'lláh, Persian religious leader, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. He claimed to the prophetic fulfilment of Bábism, a 19th-century outgrowth of Shí‘ism, a messenger from God.
  • 1886 The first advertisement of Coca-Cola appeared in The Atlanta Journal. The ads was placed by the pharmacist John Pemberton, the inventor of the beverage.
  • 1880 Born: Oswald Spengler, German historian and philosopher, best known for his book The Decline of the West that covers all of world history.
  • 1874 Born: Gilbert Keith Chesterton, English journalist, author, and playwright, best known for his fictional priest-detective Father Brown.
  • 1829 Died: Humphry Davy, English chemist best remembered for discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals (including sodium and potassium).
  • 1814 Died: Joséphine de Beauharnais, French wife of Napoleon I, the first Empress of the French from 1804 to 1810.
  • 1790 Rhode Island became the last of the original United States' colonies to ratify the Constitution. At that time the Constitution had already come into effect, and Rhode Island was admitted as the 13th state.
  • 1453 After a 53-day siege Constantinople was captured by Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih. The fall of Constantinople marked the end of the Byzantine Empire.