April 29

Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the besieged city of Orléans, a turning point in the Hundred Years' War.

French peasant girl Joan of Arc, claiming divine guidance, arrived with a relief force to break the prolonged English siege of Orléans during the Hundred Years' War, a decisive turning point that revitalized French military morale and began a string of victories that helped secure the eventual coronation of Charles VII.

Captain James Cook and his crew arrive at Botany Bay on the eastern coast of Australia.

Captain James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour made their first landing on the eastern coast of Australia at Botany Bay, encountering and cataloging the region's distinctive flora and fauna alongside initial, often fraught, contact with the local Aboriginal Gweagal people, laying groundwork for Britain's later colonization of the continent.

Union naval forces under David Farragut capture New Orleans, a major Confederate port city.

Union naval forces under Admiral David Farragut successfully forced their way past Confederate coastal defenses and captured New Orleans, the Confederacy's largest city and a vital port, dealing a significant strategic and economic blow to the Southern war effort early in the American Civil War.

The Easter Rising in Dublin ends after six days as Irish rebel leaders surrender to British forces.

After six days of intense urban fighting against British forces, the leaders of the Easter Rising in Dublin, recognizing the hopelessness of their military position and wishing to spare further civilian casualties, formally surrendered, ending the armed uprising, though the subsequent execution of its leaders significantly boosted support for Irish independence.

U.S. troops liberate the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.

United States Army troops liberated the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, discovering thousands of surviving prisoners in horrific conditions alongside overwhelming evidence of the systematic brutality inflicted at one of the Nazi regime's earliest and longest-operating camps, established originally to hold political prisoners in 1933.

Adolf Hitler marries Eva Braun in his Berlin bunker and names Karl Dönitz as his successor, the day before their joint suicide.

With Soviet forces closing in on his besieged Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler married his longtime companion Eva Braun in a brief ceremony and dictated his final political testament, naming Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor, hours before the couple's joint suicide the following day.

The United States launches Operation Frequent Wind, evacuating remaining American personnel and at-risk Vietnamese civilians from Saigon as the city falls.

As North Vietnamese forces closed in on Saigon, the United States launched Operation Frequent Wind, a massive helicopter evacuation of American personnel and thousands of at-risk South Vietnamese civilians from the U.S. embassy and other sites, marking the chaotic final chapter of American involvement in the Vietnam War.

A powerful cyclone strikes Bangladesh with winds of roughly 155 miles per hour, killing well over one hundred thousand people.

An extremely powerful tropical cyclone made landfall in Bangladesh with sustained winds of roughly 155 miles per hour, generating a massive storm surge that killed well over one hundred thousand people, mostly in low-lying coastal areas, in one of the deadliest natural disasters of the 20th century.

Riots erupt in Los Angeles after a jury acquits police officers filmed beating motorist Rodney King.

Riots and widespread civil unrest erupted across Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers who had been videotaped repeatedly striking motorist Rodney King, resulting in days of violence, arson, and looting that killed over 60 people and caused roughly a billion dollars in property damage.

Prince William and Catherine Middleton marry at Westminster Abbey in London before a global television audience.

Prince William, second in line to the British throne, married Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey in a lavish ceremony watched by a global television audience estimated in the hundreds of millions, a moment of significant celebration and renewed public interest in the British royal family.