MAY 29
1854 Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim (29 May 1594 â 17 November 1632) was a field marshal of the Holy Roman Empire in the Thirty Years’ War. He soon became a lieutenant-colonel, and displayed great courage and ability at the battle of the White Mountain near Prague (8 November 1620), where he was left for dead on the field. In the following year he fought against Ernst, Graf von Mansfield in western Germany, and, in 1622, became colonel of a regiment of cuirassiers. In 1623, as an ardent friend of Spain, the ally of his sovereign and the champion of his faith, he raised troops for the Italian war and served with the Spaniards in Lombardy and the Grisons. It was his long and heroic defence of the post of Riva on the Lake of Garda which first brought him conspicuously to the front. In 1626, Maximilian I of Bavaria, the head of the League, recalled him to Germany and entrusted him with the suppression of a peasant rebellion which had broken out in Upper Austria. Pappenheim swiftly carried out his task, encountering a most desperate resistance, but always successful; and in a few weeks he had crushed the rebellion with ruthless severity (i.e. Gmunden, Vöcklabruck and Wolfsegg, 15â30 November 1626).
1810 Erasmus Darwin Keyes (May 29, 1810 â October 14, 1895) was a businessman, banker, and military general, noted for leading the IV Corps of the Union Army of the Potomac during the first half of the American Civil War.
1810 Solomon Meredith (May 29, 1810 â October 2, 1875) was a prominent Indiana farmer, politician, and lawman who became a controversial Union Army general in the American Civil War.[1] One of the commanders of the Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac, Meredith led the brigade in the Battle of Gettysburg. Although he never fully recovered from the wounds he received that day, he became a prize winning farmer and cattleman at home and hosted veterans of his unit.
1824 Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox (May 29, 1824 â December 2, 1890) was a career United States Army officer who served in the MexicanâAmerican War and also was a Confederate general during the American Civil War.
1825 David Bell Birney (May 29, 1825 â October 18, 1864) was a businessman, lawyer, and a Union General in the American Civil War. He was named Lt. Colonel of the 23rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, which he raised. Promoted to full Colonel and then to Brigadier General on Feb. 17 1862. He commanded a brigade during the Peninsular Campaign and at the Second Battle of Bull Run took over command of Brig. General Phil Kearney’s division when Kearney was killed. Birneys division then fought at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville where his division suffered more casualties than any other in the Army. Promoted to Major General on May 20 1863 he arrived at Gettysburg with 2 brigades and went into position along Cemetery Ridge, but was ordered to hold the front from the Peach Orchard to Little Round Top with too few men. This front was decimated and with General Sickles being wounded, Birney was put in command as the Peach Orchard was being overrun, soon to be replaced by Maj. General Winfield Hancock. Birney’s health began to deteriorate in the summer of 1864 and he died on October 18th of that year.
1903 Leslie Townes “Bob” Hope KBE (May 29, 1903 â July 27, 2003) was a British-American stand-up comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer, athlete and author. Already an established comedian and actor by the onset of World War II, Bob Hope performed and broadcast his first USO show on the radio for service members on May 6, 1941, at an Army Air Corps (now known as the U.S. Air Force) Base at March Field in Riverside, California. From that first show, Hope would go on to entertain the troops for nearly 50 years, through World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Lebanon Civil War, the Iran-Iraq War and the Persian Gulf War.
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