1995 — Astronauts and cosmonauts shake hands and hug after the US shuttle Atlantis docked at the Russian space station Mir, uniting the two former Cold War adversaries in a new era of cooperation. The two spacecraft had been docked for two hours before US commander Robert ‘Hoot’ Gibson opened the hatch of the shuttle and floated into Mir to shake hands with Russian commander Vladimir Dezhurov. Over the next few minutes, all 10 smiling astronauts — six Americans and four Russians — floated through narrow tunnels into the station’s core module for celebratory photos and a formal welcoming ceremony. The six-member Atlantis crew gave chocolate, fresh citrus fruit and flowers to the three men — two Russians and an American on Mir. In return, they received the Russian welcoming gift of bread and salt. It is the first meeting of international spacecraft since July 17, 1975, when US Apollo and Soviet Soyuz crews joined hands in orbit.
June 29
1847 - Convention of Gramido ends civil war in Portugal.
1864 - A train falls through an open swing bridge into the Richelieu River, Quebec, after failing to stop at a signal, killing 99 people.
1913 - Bulgarian forces attack Serbian and Greek troops in Macedonia, sparking the Second Balkan War.
1943 - US forces land in New Guinea in Pacific in the Second World War.
1949 - South Africa begins implementing apartheid.
1956 - With a leap of 7 feet 5/8 inch Charles Dumas becomes the first high jumper to clear the 7-foot barrier.
1974 - Isabel Peron is sworn in as the first woman President of Argentina.
1992 - Mohammad Boudfiaf, head of the Algerian ruling council, is assassinated.
1993 - Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif imposes emergency rule in Punjab province.
1999 - A pre-dawn fire sweeps through a three-storey summer camp in Hwasung, South Korea, killing 23 schoolchildren.
2000 - An overloaded ship carrying almost 500 people goes missing in remote eastern Indonesia.
2002 - A North Korean navy vessel sinks a South Korean naval patrol boat in an exchange of fire in the Yellow Sea.
2006 - Female voters in Kuwait cast ballots in parliamentary elections for the first time.
2007 - India’s Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first batsman to score 15,000 One-Day International runs at Stormont in Belfast.
2008 - Spain’s football team wins the Euro trophy, its first in 44 years.
2011 - Nato raid ends brazen hotel assault in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing 19 people.
2014 - An 11-storey building under construction collapses at Moulivakkam in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, killing 61 people.
