May 29 Birthday
On May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmed II's army breached the walls of Constantinople, ending the Roman Empire — which had lasted 1,058 years. The city had been the capital of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire since 330 CE. By 1453, the empire consisted of the city and its surroundings. The walls of Constantinople had repelled twenty-nine sieges over a thousand years. Mehmed brought sixty-eight cannons, including a basilica cannon that fired a 1,200-pound stone ball a mile. The siege lasted fifty-five days. The last emperor, Constantine XI, threw off his imperial regalia and charged into the fighting. His body was never identified. Constantinople became Istanbul. The fall cut off European trade routes to Asia, prompting the search for alternative routes that led to the Age of Exploration. On May 29, 1953, at 11:30 AM, Edmund Hillary, a beekeeper from New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa from Nepal, became the first humans to reach the summit of Mount Everest. They spent fifteen minutes on top. Hillary took a photograph of Tenzing but Tenzing did not know how to use a camera, so there is no photograph of Hillary on the summit. Hillary placed a crucifix on the top; Tenzing placed an offering of food. They returned to base camp and Hillary's first words to a fellow climber were, "Well, we knocked the bastard off." The summit is 29,032 feet. Climbers have died trying to reach it — over 300 bodies remain on the mountain, frozen in place. Bob Hope, born this day in 1903, was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, England. His family emigrated to Cleveland when he was four. He performed for American troops in every war from World War II to the Gulf War — fifty-seven years of USO tours. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and an honorary knighthood. His delivery — rapid-fire, self-deprecating, topical — defined the style of comedy that dominated mid-century America. He died in 2003, two months after his hundredth birthday. People born on May 29 fall under the zodiac sign of Gemini. The birthstone is Emerald and the birth flower is Lily of the Valley. Historical events on May 29 include 1453: Constantinople falls to Ottoman Turks, ending the Byzantine Empire, 1953: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reach summit of Mount Everest, 2005: French voters reject EU constitution in referendum. Famous people born on May 29 include John F. Kennedy (1917), Bob Hope (1903), Annette Bening (1958).