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Today in History, November 29th

On November 29, 1947, the UN voted to partition Palestine. Plus Byrd's South Pole flight, Pong, and the birthdays of Louisa May Alcott and C.S. Lewis.

By Today in History Updated November 9, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published November 29, 2025 · Last updated November 9, 2026

November 29 is best known for 1947, when the United Nations General Assembly voted for a plan to split Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states. It is also the day Richard Byrd’s crew first flew over the South Pole in 1929, and the birthday of both Louisa May Alcott and C.S. Lewis.

The big story: The UN votes to partition Palestine (1947)

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181. It called for British-ruled Palestine to be divided into two independent states, one Arab and one Jewish, tied together by an economic union. Jerusalem would belong to neither. The plan made the city and its surrounding towns an international zone run by the UN, demilitarized, with the arrangement set to last an initial ten years. Britain was preparing to give up its mandate over the territory. The proposed Jewish state covered more than half of Palestine even though Jews were less than half the population, and Arab leaders opposed the plan strongly. Fighting spread within Palestine soon after the vote. When the British mandate expired on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel, and the next day Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq invaded. The map in Resolution 181 was never carried out as drawn, but the vote set the terms of a dispute that continued for generations.

More events on November 29

Year	What happened
1314	King Philip IV of France, called Philip the Fair, died at Fontainebleau, the same town where he was born.
1830	Polish military cadets launched an uprising in Warsaw, the start of the November Insurrection against Russian rule.
1864	Colorado volunteers under Colonel John Chivington attacked a peaceful camp of Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people, an event remembered as the Sand Creek Massacre.
1929	Explorer Richard E. Byrd and three companions made the first flight over the South Pole and back.
1942	Coffee joined the list of rationed goods in the United States, as military and civilian demand outran supply.
1952	President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower traveled to Korea to look for a way to end the Korean War.
1963	President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
1967	Robert S. McNamara stepped down as Secretary of Defense to become president of the World Bank.
1972	Atari released Pong, a simple electronic tennis game that helped launch the video game industry.
1975	President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, guaranteeing children with disabilities a free, appropriate public education.
2001	George Harrison, lead guitarist and youngest member of the Beatles, died of cancer at 58.
2023	Henry Kissinger, one of the most influential and debated diplomats of the 20th century, died in Connecticut at 100.

Born on November 29

1825: Jean-Martin Charcot, French neurologist who shaped the early study of the nervous system.
1832: Louisa May Alcott, American author of Little Women.
1898: C.S. Lewis, Irish-born scholar and author of the Narnia books.
1915: Billy Strayhorn, jazz composer and Duke Ellington’s longtime collaborator, who wrote “Take the ‘A’ Train.”
1932: Jacques Chirac, mayor of Paris, two-time prime minister and later president of France.