December 29 ...

In 1170 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, was murdered in his own cathedral by four knights acting on Henry II's orders. In 1813 the British burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812. In 1837 Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a US steamboat docked at Buffalo, NY. In 1845 President James Polk and signed legislation making Texas the 28th state of the United States. In 1848 President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House. In 1890 the US Seventh Cavalry killed over 400 men, women, and children at Wounded Knee Creek, SD, in the last major conflict between American Indians and US troops. In 1934 Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930. In 1936 Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke was born in Elmwood Park, IL. In 1940 Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London. In 1952 the first transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation. In 1972 following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of LIFE magazine hit the newsstands; the magazine later became a monthly publication. In 1996 the Guatemalan government and leaders of the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union signed a peace accord in Guatemala City, ending a civil war that had lasted 36 years. In 1998 Khmer Rouge leaders 'apologized' for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed 1 million lives.