Washington, United States. Several major events in history occurred on May 29, including the first ascent of Mount Everest, a deadly stadium disaster in Brussels, and landmark political and space developments.
Mount Everest
In 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 the waiting world until June 1.
Political events
In 1931, Michele Schirru was executed for plotting to assassinate Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. In 1979, Bishop Abel Muzorewa was sworn in as the first black prime minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, as the country was briefly known before independence from Britain. In 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. In 2002, Britain appointed its first black cabinet minister, Paul Boateng, to the number two position in the Treasury.
Disasters and deaths
In 1979, silent movie star Mary Pickford died. In 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.
Space and legal developments
In 1999, the U.S. space shuttle Discovery became the first spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. In 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.
