Saturday 29th of July 1099

159th Pope Urbanus II known for initiating the First Crusade dies of unknown causes at the age of 57 in Vatican City, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Friday 29th of July 1644

235th Pope Urbanus VIII dies of unknown causes at the age of 76 in Vatican City, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Tuesday 29th of July 1856

Romantic composer Robert Schumann dies of a result of syphilis at the age of 46 in Dr. Franz Richarz Sanatorium, Bonn, Endenich, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

According to studies by the musicologist and literary scholar Eric Sams, Schumann's symptoms during his terminal illness and death appear consistent with those of mercury poisoning, mercury at this time being a common treatment for syphilis and other conditions.

Tuesday 29th of July 1879

Murderess Kate Webster aka The Barnes Mystery Murderess is executed by hanging by William Marwood at the age of 30 in Wandsworth Prison, London, Wandsworth, Greater London, United Kingdom.

For Webster's execution hangman William Marwood used his newly developed 'long drop' technique to cause instantaneous death.

Sunday 29th of July 1883

Leader of the Italian National Fascist Party Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini aka Il Duce is born in Via Varano Costa Nuova, Dovia di Predappio, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Wednesday 29th of July 1885

Actress and sex symbol Theda Bara aka The Vamp is born as Theodosia Burr Goodman in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.

Tuesday 29th of July 1890

Impressionist painter Vincent Willem van Gogh dies of injuries suffered from a self-inflicted gunshot in the stomach two days earlier at the age of 37 in Auberge Ravoux, Auvers-sur-Oise, Île-de-France, France.

Saturday 29th of July 1899

Murderess Mary Frances Creighton aka The Long Island Borgia is born in Rahway, New Jersey, United States.

Sunday 29th of July 1900

King of Italy Umberto I is shot four times by the Italian-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci at the age of 56 in Monza, Lombardia, Italy.

Tuesday 29th of July 1902

Murderer George D. Middleton is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 55 in Dannemora Prison, Dannemora, New York, United States.

State Electrician Davis switched on a 7½ ampere current of 1800 volts for 7 seconds. There was a quick convulsive movement of the whole body, the current evidently making the body rigid, just as the current was turned on, but no sign of pain on the victim’s face and no twitching of any muscle. The current was lowered to 200 volts for two seconds, then raised to 1800 volts for four seconds, and then lowered to 200 volts for 47 seconds, and then just before being finally switched off the current was jumped up again to 1800 volts for a second or so. In just one minute and twenty-four seconds from the moment Middleton seated himself alive and well in the fatal chair, Dr. Ransom pronounced him dead.

Saturday 29th of July 1905

Second Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld is born in Östra Storgatan 91, Jönköping, Småland, Sweden.

Saturday 29th of July 1905

Actress Thelma Alice Todd aka The Bohemian Girl is born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, United States.

Saturday 29th of July 1905

Actress and sex symbol Clara Gordon Bow aka The It Girl is born in 697 Bergen Street, New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States.

In the Census of 1930 Bow claims she was born in 1906 and on her gravestone of 1965 the inscription says 1907.

Tuesday 29th of July 1913

SS-Hauptsturmführer Erich Priebke is born in Hennigsdorf, Brandenburg, Germany.

Wednesday 29th of July 1914

Manufacturer of the 'Bic' Marcel Bich is born in Torino, Piedmontese, Italy.

Sunday 29th of July 1923

Guitar amplification pioneer Jim James Charles Marshall aka The Father of Loud is born in London, Acton, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 29th of July 1924

Murder victim Elizabeth Short aka The Black Dahlia is born in Boston, Hyde Park, Massachusetts, United States.

Friday 29th of July 1938

Mary Carpenter dies of Spontaneous Human Combustion in The Broads, Norfolk, United Kingdom.

Mrs Carpenter's ignition took place in full view of her husband and children. She was engulfed in in flames and reduced to a charred corpse in minutes. No one else was burned and the boat was undamaged.

Tuesday 29th of July 1947

Double murderer Cecil Tate is executed by hanging at the age of 23 in Lansing Correctional Facility, 301 E Kansas Avenue, Lansing, Kansas, United States.

Tuesday 29th of July 1947

Double murderer George Gumtow is executed by hanging at the age of 22 in Lansing Correctional Facility, 301 E Kansas Avenue, Lansing, Kansas, United States.

Saturday 29th of July 1950

Murderer Angel P. Serna is executed by the gas chamber at the age of 27 in Arizona State Prison Complex, 1305 E Butte Avenue, Florence, Arizona, United States.

Saturday 29th of July 1967

134 die in USS Forrestal aircraft carrier fire in Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam.

An electrical anomaly caused a Zuni rocket on a F-4B Phantom to fire, striking an external fuel tank of an A-4 Skyhawk. The flammable jet fuel spilled across the flight deck, ignited and triggered a chain-reaction of explosions that killed 134 sailors and injured 161.

Monday 29th of July 1974

Singer-songwriter Cass Elliot aka Mama Cass known from The Mamas & the Papas dies of heart failure due to fatty myocardial degeneration due to obesity at the age of 33 in Flat 12, 9 Curzon Square, London, Mayfair, Greater London, United Kingdom.

There is an urban legend that Elliot choked to death in a ham sandwich. The Who drummer Keith Moon died of a drug overdose also at 32 years old in the same flat four years later.

Thursday 29th of July 1976

Donna Ann Lauria is shot dead by serial killer David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam in Pelham Bay, New York, Bronx, New York, United States.

In the same event Berkowitz also shot Lauria's 19-year-old friend Jody Valenti in her thigh, but she survived

Saturday 29th of July 1978

46-year-old Salney Darwood is garrotted and stabbed to death by serial killer Robert Maudsley aka The Brain Eater in Wakefield Prison, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Saturday 29th of July 1978

56-year-old William Roberts is stabbed to death by serial killer Robert Maudsley aka The Brain Eater in Wakefield Prison, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Maudsley hacked at Roberts' skull with a makeshift dagger and then struck his head against the wall multiple times. Maudsley calmly walked into the prison officer's room, placed the dagger on the table and told him that the next roll call would be two short. Before Maudsley had already killed murderer Salney Darwood in his cell.

Sunday 29th of July 1979

Philosopher, sociologist and political theorist Herbert Marcuse aka The Father of the New Left dies of a stroke at the age of 81 in Starnberg, Bayern, Germany.

Wednesday 29th of July 1981

20-year-old Princess of Wales Diana Frances Spencer aka Lady Di marries 33-year-old Charles in St Paul's Cathedral, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Thursday 29th of July 1982

11-year-old Michelle Steele is abducted, raped and asphyxiated by serial killer Charles Ray Hatcher aka Evil Incarnate in St. Joseph, Missouri, United States.

Friday 29th of July 1983

Actor David James Graham Niven dies of Lou Gehrig's disease at the age of 73 in Chemin David Niven, Château-d'Œx, Vaud, Switzerland.

Friday 29th of July 1983

Surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel aka Le Chien Andalou dies of natural causes at the age of 83 in Mexico City, Mexico.

Sunday 29th of July 1984

18-year-old Pia Gilda Rontini and her 21-year-old lover Claudio Stefanacci is stabbed and shot dead by unidentified serial killer Il Mostro di Firenze in Vicchio, Toscana, Italy.

The killer removed the Rontini's pubic area and left breast. 

Sunday 29th of July 1984

21-year-old Claudio Stefanacci with his 18-year-old lover Pia Rontini in his Fiat Panda is stabbed and shot dead by unidentified serial killer Il Mostro di Firenze in Vicchio, Toscana, Italy.

Wednesday 29th of July 1987

12-year-old Ivan Wanja Bilovetsky is beaten and strangled by serial killer Andrei Chikatilo aka The Rostov Ripper in Zaporozhye, Zaporozhye Oblast, Russia.

Thursday 29th of July 1993

A five-judge panel of the Israeli Supreme Court overturns the guilty verdict of 73-year-old Guard at Sobibór KZ John Demjanjuk on appeal in Jerusalem District Court, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.

Tuesday 29th of July 1997

Murderer Robert 'Bobby' Wallace West is executed by lethal injection at the age of 36 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Thursday 29th of July 1999

Mass murderer Mark Orrin Barton commits suicide by a shot through the head at the age of 44 in Acworth, Georgia, United States.

On 27 July Barton woke up early in the morning and bludgeoned his 27-year-old wife Leigh Ann and his children 11-year-old Matthew David and 8-year-old Mychelle Elizabeth to death as they slept. On 29 July he went to the offices of his former employer Momentum Securities with a Colt 1911A1, a Glock 17, a H&R Revolver and a Raven MP-25 and shot and killed 58-year-old Edward Quinn, 38-year-old Kevin Dial, 42-year-old Russell J. Brown and 30-year-old Scott A. Webb. Barton then walked to the nearby All-Tech Investment Group building and killed 48-year-old Allen Charles Tenenbaum, 52-year-old Dean Delawalla, 60-year-old Joseph J. Dessert, 45-year-old Jamshid Havash and 44-year-old Vadewattee Muralidhara. Immediately prior to entering the manager's office at All-Tech Barton was heard to say "I hope this doesn't ruin your trading day."

Saturday 29th of July 2000

Serial killer Nestor Pirotte aka Le Tueur Fou dies of a heart attack at the age of 67 in Prison de Jamioulx, Rue Vandamme 120, Ham-sur-Heure-Nalinnes, Hainaut, Belgium.

Only one person attended Pirotte's funeral.

Sunday 29th of July 2007

Television personality Tom Thomas James Snyder dies of complications from leukemia at the age of 71 in San Francisco, California, United States.

Tuesday 29th of July 2014

The chance meeting of a coat hanger and a telephone pole in Penne-d'Agenais, Lot-et-Garonne, France.