On This Day · The 29th day of the year

January 29

January 29 carries 10 recorded events spanning between 904 and 2017. Sergius III is elected pope, after coming out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.

Compiled & reviewed by · Last reviewed July 13, 2026

What happened on January 29?

January 29 is the 29th day of the year. It marks 10 notable events in history, dated between 904 and 2017. Famous people born on January 29 include Anton Chekhov, Abdus Salam and William McKinley.

The shape of the day

25 years on from Indonesia, January 29 is a date with an anniversary worth pausing on. Most of the weight falls in the 21st century, where conflict is a recurring thread.

Aquarius is the sign for January 29 — read more on the Aquarius page, or see January's birthstone & birth flower.

Released on January 29

Movies, games, albums & shows

2026

  • Game Cairn
  • Game City Tales: Medieval Era
  • Game Code Vein II
  • Game Don't Stop, Girlypop!
  • Game I Hate this Place
  • Game Dark Auction

2025

  • Game The End of the Sun
  • Movie Ne Zha 2

2023

  • TV Become a Farmer

2022

  • TV Immortality

Release data from TMDB & IGDB.

Events

10 notable moments
  1. 904

    Pope Sergius III

    Sergius III is elected pope, after coming out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.

  2. 1814

    War of the Sixth Coalition

    War of the Sixth Coalition: France engages Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.

  3. 1856

    Queen Victoria

    Queen Victoria issues a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual that establishes the Victoria Cross to recognise acts of valour by British military personnel during the Crimean War.

  4. 1891

    Liliʻuokalani

    Liliʻuokalani is proclaimed the last monarch and only queen regnant of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

  5. 1907

    Charles Curtis

    Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.

  6. 1911

    Mexican Revolution

    Mexican Revolution: Mexicali is captured by the Mexican Liberal Party, igniting the Magonista rebellion of 1911.

  7. 1943

    World War II

    World War II: The first day of the Battle of Rennell Island, USS Chicago (CA-29) is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers.

  8. 2001

    Indonesia

    Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.

  9. 2013

    SCAT Airlines Flight 760

    SCAT Airlines Flight 760 crashes near the Kazakh city of Almaty, killing 21 people.

  10. 2017

    Quebec City mosque shooting

    A gunman opens fire at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City, killing six people and wounding 19 others in a spree shooting.

Famous birthday twins

Born on January 29

Anton Chekhov

b. 1860

Russian playwright and short story writer

Abdus Salam

b. 1926

Pakistani-British physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

William McKinley

b. 1843

American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 25th President of the United States

Sam Trammell

b. 1969

American actor

Romain Rolland

b. 1866

French historian, author, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate

Ernst Lubitsch

b. 1892

German American film director, producer, writer, and actor

Elio Petri

b. 1929

Italian director and screenwriter

Oprah Winfrey

b. 1954

American talk show host, actress, and producer, founded Harpo Productions

Deaths

  • 2012Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
  • 1988James Rhyne Killian
  • 1960Mack Harrell
  • 1934Fritz Haber
  • 1597Elias Ammerbach

Holidays & observances

  • Christian feast day: Aphrahat
  • Christian feast day: Gildas
  • Christian feast day: Sabinian of Troyes
  • Christian feast day: Sulpitius I of Bourges
  • Christian feast day: Blessed Villana de' Botti
  • Christian feast day: January 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Earliest day on which Fat Thursday can fall, while March 4 is the latest; celebrated on Thursday before Ash Wednesday. (Christianity)
  • Kansas Day (Kansas, United States)

Historical facts, event summaries, and biographical lines above are adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. DateLore adds curation, structure, and original editorial commentary. DateLore is not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.

About the author

Roman Tailor compiles and reviews every date on DateLore. He's the writer and editor behind the site's editorial essays and the day-by-day almanac. Corrections and questions are welcome — read more about DateLore or get in touch.

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