January 29

January 29 in history:

• 1595, William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet is probably first performed

• 1814, France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne

• 1820, Britain's King George III died at Windsor Castle, ending a reign that had seen both the American and French revolutions

• 1845, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe is published in the New York Evening Mirror

• 1886, Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven car

• 1936, the first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, are announced

• 1944, USS Missouri the last battleship commissioned by the US Navy is launched

• 1963, first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced

• 1978, Sweden outlaws aerosol sprays due to their harmful effect on the ozone layer, becoming the first nation to enact such a ban

• 1989, Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making them the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so

• 1995, Super Bowl XXIX: The San Francisco 49ers defeat the San Diego Chargers 49-26 and become the first NFL team to win five Super Bowl titles

• 2002, in his State of the Union Address, United States President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an "Axis of Evil", in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

• 2005, the first direct commercial flights from the mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines carrier landed in Beijing.