On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th and final original colony to ratify the United States Constitution.

In 1914, the Canadian ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sank in the St. Lawrence River in eastern Quebec after colliding with the Norwegian cargo ship SS Storstad. Of the 1,477 people on board the Empress of Ireland, 1,012 died.

In 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev began their fourth summit meeting in Moscow.

In 2009, a judge in Los Angeles sentenced music producer Phil Spector to 19 years to life in prison for the murder of actor Lana Clarkson. (Spector remained in prison until his death in January 2021.)