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Explore 29 March

Explore 29 March: the British North America Act creates Canada, the last American combat troops leave Vietnam, Madagascar rises against French rule and seven countries of the former Soviet bloc join NATO. Meet John Tyler, John Major and Lucy Lawless, born on this date, and remember Barthélemy Boganda.

This day through time →11 verified events across 4 eras

⌛11Full
Timeline ◈4Historic
Moments ♙8Born
Today ✦5Lives
Remembered ◉1Firsts &
Discoveries ♫1Culture
Stories ☉1Observances
The front page of a copy of the British North America Act printed in Ottawa, 1867.
The front page of a copy of the British North America Act printed in Ottawa, 1867.
Image creditParliament of the United Kingdom; printed by Hunter, Rose, Ottawa · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1867

The act that creates Canada

On 29 March 1867 Queen Victoria gave her assent to the British North America Act, passed at Westminster. It united the Province of Canada, which was split into Ontario and Quebec, with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in a new federation, the Dominion of Canada.

The act took effect on 1 July 1867, now celebrated as Canada Day. Renamed the Constitution Act, 1867, it is still the backbone of Canada’s constitution, and on the same date in 1982 the Queen gave assent to the Canada Act, which ended Britain’s power to make laws for Canada.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: UK Parliament: British North America Act 1867 ↗
A copy of the 1973 Paris agreement on ending the war in Vietnam, on display at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center.
A copy of the 1973 Paris agreement on ending the war in Vietnam, on display at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center.
Image creditSanjay Acharya · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
1973

The last US combat troops leave Vietnam

Two months after the Paris Peace Accords were signed, the US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, was disbanded on 29 March 1973, and the last American combat units left South Vietnam. The same week North Vietnam freed the last American prisoners of war it had admitted to holding.

More than 58,000 Americans had died in the war. Without US forces, South Vietnam fell to the North two years later, in April 1975. The United States now marks 29 March as National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: US Army: Vietnam War 50th anniversary commemoration ↗
A monument to the uprising, inscribed '29 Marsa 1947', in Madagascar.
A monument to the uprising, inscribed ‘29 Marsa 1947’, in Madagascar.
Image creditRobin Taylor from Bamako, Mali · CC BY 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
1947

Madagascar rises against French rule

On the night of 29 March 1947 Malagasy nationalists, many armed only with spears, attacked French military posts and plantations in the east of Madagascar, around Moramanga and Manakara. The revolt spread across a third of the island.

France crushed it by early 1949. Estimates of Malagasy deaths, many from hunger and disease, range from about 11,000 to 100,000. Madagascar, independent since 1960, remembers the uprising every 29 March.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Madagascar, power struggle ↗
Member countries' flags at the entrance of NATO headquarters in Brussels, 2016.
Member countries’ flags at the entrance of NATO headquarters in Brussels, 2016.
Image creditSenior Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
2004

Seven countries join NATO

On 29 March 2004 the prime ministers of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia handed their countries’ instruments of accession to the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in Washington, making them members of NATO.

It was the largest enlargement in the alliance’s history, and brought in three former Soviet republics. The flags of the new members were raised at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels a few days later.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: NATO: Seven new members join NATO ↗
♙
PEOPLE

Born Today

Cy Young
Image creditCharles M. Conlon · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1867

Cy Young

American baseball pitcher with a record 511 wins; baseball’s top pitching award is named after him.

Eric Idle
Image creditPythonProfessor · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1943

Eric Idle

English comedian and writer of Monty Python.

Lucy Lawless
Image creditGage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1968

Lucy Lawless

New Zealand actress, star of Xena: Warrior Princess.

Jennifer Capriati
Image creditdaramot · CC BY 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1976

Jennifer Capriati

American tennis player, Olympic champion and winner of three Grand Slam titles.

◉
IDEAS THAT CHANGED THINGS

Firsts, Science & Discoveries

The Atlas-Centaur rocket carrying Mariner 10 lifts off from Cape Canaveral, November 1973.
The Atlas-Centaur rocket carrying Mariner 10 lifts off from Cape Canaveral, November 1973.
Image creditNASA · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1974

Mariner 10 reaches Mercury

On 29 March 1974 NASA’s Mariner 10 flew past Mercury at a distance of about 700 kilometres, the first spacecraft to visit the innermost planet. On the way it had swung past Venus, the first use of one planet’s gravity to steer a spacecraft to another.

Over its three passes it sent back thousands of pictures of a cratered, Moon-like world and found that Mercury has a weak magnetic field.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: NASA: 45 years ago, Mariner 10 first to explore Mercury ↗
♫
MUSIC • FILM • BOOKS • CULTURE

Culture Stories

The Royal Albert Hall, with the Albert Memorial inset, on a postcard of about 1903.
The Royal Albert Hall, with the Albert Memorial inset, on a postcard of about 1903.
Image creditUnknown · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1871

Queen Victoria opens the Royal Albert Hall

On 29 March 1871 Queen Victoria opened the great domed hall in South Kensington, London, named after her husband, Prince Albert, who had died ten years earlier. Nearly 10,000 people were there.

The Queen was too moved to speak, so the Prince of Wales read the address. The hall has since hosted concerts, including the BBC Proms, as well as boxing, tennis and political rallies.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Royal Albert Hall: Queen Victoria ↗
✦
LIVES REMEMBERED

Remembered Today

Emanuel Swedenborg
Image creditCarl Frederik von Breda · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1772

Emanuel Swedenborg

Swedish scientist and mystic whose religious writings inspired a church; he died in London.

Charles Wesley
Image creditUnknown artist · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1788

Charles Wesley

English Methodist leader who wrote more than 6,000 hymns, including ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’.

Agnès Varda
Image creditMartin Kraft · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Died 2019

Agnès Varda

Belgian-born French film director, a leading figure of the New Wave.

☉
AROUND THE WORLD

Observances & Anniversaries

Barthélemy Boganda in 1958.
Barthélemy Boganda in 1958.
Image creditunknown, Présence Congolaise · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Annual

Boganda Day in the Central African Republic

The Central African Republic remembers Barthélemy Boganda, the father of the nation, on 29 March, the day he was killed in 1959. A former priest, he led the territory of Ubangi-Shari to self-government and became the first prime minister of the autonomous Central African Republic.

He died when his plane exploded in mid-air on a flight to Bangui, months before the country’s full independence in 1960. Sabotage was suspected but never proved.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Barthélemy Boganda ↗
HISTORY & TIMELINE

Finished the highlights?

Follow 29 March chronologically, from the Middle Ages to the modern day, with 11 verified events and the sources behind them.

This day through time →
Sources & further reading