December 29th in History

December 29: Noblemen in Russia kill Gregory Rasputin; Wounded Knee massacre takes place; Texas joins as the 28th state.

Highlights of December 29 in history:

Noblemen in Russia kill Gregory Rasputin; Wounded Knee massacre takes place; Texas joins as the 28th state; Dissident playwright Vaclav Havel elected president of Czechoslovakia; First YMCA opens in Boston. (Dec. 29)

The Wounded Knee Massacre, also known as the Battle of Wounded Knee, was a domestic massacre of nearly three hundred Lakota people by soldiers of the United States Army. It occurred on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek (Lakota: Čhaŋkpé Ópi Wakpála) on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of South Dakota, following a botched attempt to disarm the Lakota camp. The previous day, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M. Whitside intercepted Spotted Elk's band of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them 5 miles (8.0 km) westward to Wounded Knee Creek, where they made camp. The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, led by Colonel James W. Forsyth, arrived and surrounded the encampment. The regiment was supported by a battery of four Hotchkiss mountain guns. -- Wikipedia