{"id":17531,"date":"2022-08-29T07:04:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=214285"},"modified":"2022-08-29T07:23:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T05:23:18","slug":"29-august-on-this-day-in-history","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/29-august-on-this-day-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"29 August: On this day in history"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Elinor Evans\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 29 August 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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29 August 1521<\/h3>\n

The Hungarian fortress of Belgrade surrendered to an Ottoman army under Sultan Suleiman I. Exactly 20 years later the Ottomans occupied Buda.<\/p>\n

29 August 1526:\u00a0<\/strong>Hungary suffers devastating defeat to Ottoman forces <\/strong><\/p>\n

Louis II is routed by Suleiman I at the battle of Moha\u0301cs<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

For the people of Hungary, few dates have more tragic resonance than\u00a029 August 1526, the day their nation\u2019s army was defeated by the Ottomans.<\/p>\n

For more than a century, the Ottomans had steadily been pushing north through the Balkans. But at the end of 1525 their sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, had received an additional incentive from the French. They needed military support against the Holy Roman Empire, and Suleiman was only too pleased to oblige.<\/p>\n

The Ottoman army left Constantinople\u00a0in April, and advanced along the banks of the Danube towards the town of Moha\u0301cs, in southern Hungary, completely unopposed.\u00a0In response, the 20-year-old Hungarian king, Louis II, mobilised some 30,000 men, but after years of civil strife and economic decline,\u00a0he simply did not have the resources to sustain a bigger army.<\/p>\n

By the time the Ottomans came into view\u00a0at Moha\u0301cs, it was obvious that the battle would be suicide for the defenders. Not only did the Ottomans have the advantage of numbers, but they had artillery and musketeers, whereas the Hungarians depended upon their old-fashioned heavily armoured knights. And although the fighting lasted all afternoon, the outcome was never really in doubt.<\/p>\n

At sunset, the Hungarians had been completely smashed. King Louis fled the battlefield alive, but he was thrown by his horse into a river and drowned, weighed down by his armour. With him died much of the Hungarian nobility. The road to their capital, Buda, lay open. It was the most shattering defeat in their country\u2019s history. | Written by Dominic Sandbrook<\/strong><\/p>\n

29 August 1619<\/h3>\n

Birth in Reims of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV<\/a>\u2019s minister of finance from 1665 to 1683. His cold, unemotional character earned him the nickname of \u2018Le Nord\u2019 \u2013 the north.<\/p>\n

29 August 1842<\/h3>\n

In China, the Treaty of Nanking marks the end of the First Opium War<\/a>, opening five treaty ports to British trade and handing over Hong Kong as a British colony.<\/p>\n

29 August 1930\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

William Spooner, the popular Oxford don who gave his name to the spoonerism \u2013 the switching of consonants in a sentence \u2013 died, aged 86.<\/p>\n

Browse more On this day in history<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n