Paris, France. May 29 has marked a series of significant events across politics, exploration, sport and space history, including the first ascent of Mount Everest and major political appointments.
1931
Michele Schirru was executed for plotting to assassinate Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
1953
New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest, becoming the first men to scale the world’s highest mountain. The achievement was not reported to a waiting world until June 1.
1979
Mary Pickford, the silent movie star, died.
1979
Bishop Abel Muzorewa was sworn in as the first black prime minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, the country’s brief name before independence from Britain.
1985
Thirty-nine soccer fans, mostly Italian, were crushed to death in rioting involving Liverpool and Juventus supporters at the European Cup final in Brussels’ Heysel stadium.
1994
Erich Honecker, who ruled communist East Germany for 18 years and oversaw the building of the Berlin Wall, died in exile in Chile at the age of 81.
1999
The U.S. space shuttle Discovery became the first spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station.
2001
A U.S. court convicted four followers of Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden over a plot to murder Americans abroad, including the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
2002
Britain appointed its first black cabinet minister, Paul Boateng, to the number two position in the Treasury.