What Happened on December 29?

December 29 is Pepper Pot Day — a spicy-soup celebration with Philadelphia and Caribbean roots — on the same date Texas joined the Union in 1845, Thomas Becket was killed in 1170, and the first U.S. YMCA opened in Boston in 1851.

• 1170 — Thomas Becket is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral

  On December 29, 1170, four knights killed Archbishop Thomas Becket inside Canterbury Cathedral after his clash with King Henry II. Read the full story →

• 1845 — Texas becomes the 28th U.S. state

  On December 29, 1845, the Republic of Texas was admitted to the Union as the twenty-eighth state. Read the full story →

• 1851 — The first YMCA in the United States is founded in Boston

  On December 29, 1851, Thomas Valentine Sullivan helped organize the first Young Men's Christian Association chapter in the United States, in Boston. Read the full story →

• 1890 — The Wounded Knee Massacre occurs in South Dakota

  On December 29, 1890, U.S. troops killed hundreds of Lakota people at Wounded Knee Creek — a tragic end to the era of major Plains Indian Wars. Read the full story →

• 1911 — Sun Yat-sen is elected provisional president of the Republic of China

  On December 29, 1911, revolutionaries elected Sun Yat-sen provisional president as China's last imperial dynasty collapsed. Read the full story →

Famous birthdays

Mary Tyler Moore (1936–2017) · Ted Danson (1947) · Jude Law (1972) · Pablo Casals (1876–1973)

Days & observances

Pepper Pot Day · Tick Tock Day · Feast of Saint Thomas Becket · Wounded Knee Remembrance Day