May 29, Hillary and Norgay first to summit Mount Everest

Today is Thursday, May 29, the 149th day of 2025. There are 216 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Also on this date:

In 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 1977, Janet Guthrie became the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500, finishing in 29th place (A.J. Foyt won the race for his record fourth Indy 500 victory).

In 1985, 39 people were killed at the European Cup Final in Brussels, Belgium, when rioting broke out and a wall separating British and Italian soccer fans collapsed.

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

In 2004, the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated by President George W. Bush.

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.)

In 2020, fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. (Chauvin was convicted in April 2021 on those charges as well as unintentional second-degree murder.)