June 29
Subject to Britannica's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
1958: Brazil’s first World Cup title
On this day in 1958, Brazil defeated Sweden, 5–2, to win the country’s first World Cup. The star was 17-year-old Pelé, who scored twice during the match, becoming the youngest player to score in a World Cup final. Brazil defended its title in 1962 and went on to win three more World Cups (1970, 1994, and 2002), making it the most successful country in the history of the tournament.
READ MORE
@ TT News Agency/Alamy; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Featured Event
Photos.com/Thinkstock
During a performance of William Shakespeare’s Henry VIII on this day in 1613, the Globe Theatre was destroyed within an hour after its thatch was accidentally set aflame by a cannon marking the king’s entrance onstage. [Take our history of theatre quiz.]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
John McConnico/AP Images
Born this day in 1945 was Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, a member of a prominent Sri Lankan political family who became prime minister and then president in 1994—the first woman to serve as the country’s president.
Famous Birthdays
More on June 29
© Orhan Çam/stock.adobe.com
2023
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College effectively ended race-based affirmative action in college admissions in the United States. [Learn about the Supreme Court’s other notable decisions.]
Picture Perfect/Shutterstock.com
2020
American actor, writer, and director Carl Reiner, who created the landmark TV series The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–66) and later directed such popular comedies as The Jerk (1979), died at age 98. [Watch an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.]
Hiroko Masuike/Getty Images
2009
American hedge-fund investment manager Bernie Madoff received a sentence of up to 150 years in prison for operating the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
Courtesy of Apple
2007
Apple Inc.’s first mobile “smartphone,” the iPhone, went on sale, and it revolutionized the industry. [Take our computers and technology quiz.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2003
American actress Katharine Hepburn—a spirited performer with a touch of eccentricity who introduced into her roles a strength of character previously considered to be undesirable in Hollywood leading ladies—died at age 96. [Test your knowledge of A-list actors.]
Martha Swope
1974
While on tour with the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Ballet in Toronto, Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet Union, citing artistic reasons, and he later settled in the United States. [Sort fact from fiction in our ballet quiz.]
CSU Archive/age fotostock
1941
Stokely Carmichael, a civil rights activist and a leader of Black nationalism in the United States in the 1960s, was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad. [Read about 10 milestones in U.S. civil rights history.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1913
Following a year of war with the Ottoman Empire, members of the victorious Balkan League quarreled over the division of the conquered territories, resulting in the Second Balkan War when Bulgaria attacked Greek and Serbian forces in Macedonia this night. [Take our history of war quiz.]
George Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ggbain-03571)
1861
English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, famous for her Sonnets from the Portuguese, died at age 55 from a severe chill. [Take our quiz about famous poets and poetic form.]
© Hulton Archive—Hulton Royals Collection/Getty Images
1767
Parliament passed the Townshend Revenue Act, sponsored by British Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend, which imposed on colonists in British America an import tax on tea and other goods and thus brought some colonists one step closer to revolution. [Test your knowledge of early American history.]
Library and Archives Canada (Acc. No. 1997-218-1)
1534
French mariner Jacques Cartier “discovered” Prince Edward Island off the coast of what is now Canada. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about European exploration.]