Today in History, August 29th
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and flooded most of New Orleans. Plus the Treaty of Nanjing and a Soviet A-bomb.
Published · Last updated
August 29 is best known for 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and failing levees left most of New Orleans underwater. The date also marks the Treaty of Nanjing, which handed Hong Kong to Britain in 1842, and the Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb test in 1949.
The big story: Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast (2005)
Katrina had already crossed South Florida as a weaker storm. Over the Gulf of Mexico it grew far stronger. On the morning of August 29, it came ashore in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, southeast of New Orleans, then made a second landfall near the mouth of the Pearl River. The wind was only part of the story. Storm surge and rain overwhelmed the levees and flood walls guarding New Orleans, with more than 50 breaches around the city and its suburbs. About a fifth of the city was underwater by that afternoon, and roughly 80 percent by the next day. Tens of thousands of people took refuge in the Superdome and the Convention Center, where food and water ran short. Help was slow to come, and the federal response drew sharp criticism. More than 1,800 people died in the storm and its aftermath. Katrina is often described as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
More events on August 29
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1786 | More than 500 armed farmers and veterans blocked a county court in Northampton, Massachusetts, the start of Shays’ Rebellion over debts and taxes. |
| 1842 | China and Britain signed the Treaty of Nanjing, ending the First Opium War. China gave up Hong Kong and opened five ports to British trade. |
| 1862 | Union General John Pope attacked Confederate forces at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Virginia. By the next day he was in retreat. |
| 1911 | Ishi, believed to be the last member of California’s Yahi people, was found near Oroville. He later lived at a University of California museum and taught anthropologists about his culture. |
| 1949 | The Soviet Union set off its first atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, ending the U.S. monopoly on nuclear weapons. |
| 1970 | More than 20,000 people, mostly Mexican Americans, joined the Chicano Moratorium march against the Vietnam War in East Los Angeles. Violence followed, and journalist Ruben Salazar was killed. |
| 2004 | A spectator shoved Brazilian runner Vanderlei de Lima off course while he led the Olympic marathon in Athens. He still finished third and received a special sportsmanship medal. |
| 2008 | Republican presidential nominee John McCain named Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, the first woman picked for a Republican presidential ticket. |
Born on August 29
- 1915: Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress, born in Stockholm.
- 1920: Charlie Parker, jazz alto saxophonist and a driving force behind bebop, born in Kansas City, Kansas.
- 1958: Michael Jackson, singer and dancer known as the “King of Pop,” born in Gary, Indiana.
Sources
- Hurricane Katrina, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Hurricane Katrina slams into Gulf Coast, History.com
- This Day in History: August 29, History.com
- Treaty of Nanjing, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Soviets explode atomic bomb, History.com
- Shays’ Rebellion begins, History.com
- Chicano Moratorium march, History.com
- Ingrid Bergman, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Charlie Parker, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Michael Jackson, Encyclopaedia Britannica
