#TodayInHistory – January 29

January 29 – Some important events on this day

661 👉🏼 Rashidun Caliphate, then the largest empire in history, ends with the death of its leader, Ali. Succeeded by the Umayyad Caliphate.
1595 👉🏼 William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet” is thought to have been first performed. Officially published early 1597.

1840 👉🏼 First Governor of New Zealand and co-author of the Treaty of Waitangi Captain William Hobson arrives in the Bay of Islands, NZ.
Designed to share sovereignty between the British Crown and Māori chiefs the Treaty of Waitangi is the founding document of New Zealand.
Although intended to create unity, different translations, understandings of the treaty and breaches of it, have caused conflict.
From the 1970s the New Zealand public gradually came to know more about the treaty and efforts to honour the treaty and its principles expanded.

1850 👉🏼 Senator Henry Clay drafts the Compromise of 1850 to defuse tensions between slave states and free states over territories won during the Mexican–American War.
1856 👉🏼 Victoria Cross established to acknowledge valour in the face of the enemy (United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries)
1886 👉🏼 Karl Benz patents the “Benz Patent-Motorwagen” in Karlsruhe, Germany, the world’s 1st automobile with a burning motor
1892 👉🏼 The Coca-Cola Company is incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia
1896 👉🏼 Emile Grubbe is the first doctor to use radiation treatment for breast cancer
1905 👉🏼 Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, unsettled by the rising violence and protest, enacts reforms to improve the conditions of workers; these changes will do little to stop disorder throughout Russia in ensuing months
1959 👉🏼 Walt Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” released
1978 👉🏼 Sweden outlaws aerosol sprays due to their harmful effect on the ozone layer, becoming the first nation to enact such a ban.
2002 👉🏼 US President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address describes “regimes that sponsor terror” an “Axis of Evil”, which includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea
2014 👉🏼 Cristiano Ronaldo becomes the 1st non-Spanish player to captain Real Madrid, making his 500th appearance for the club
2015 👉🏼 Malaysia officially declares the disappearance of missing flight MH370 an accident
2020 👉🏼 Number of COVID-19 cases passes those of SARS with over 7,700 cases in China confirmed, with 170 deaths