29 August

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 29 August:

1. Singer Michael Jackson, known as the "King of Pop" and sometimes, “Wacko Jacko”, was born on this date in 1958. Four of his albums are among the world's best-selling records: Off the Wall, Bad, Dangerous and HIStory, while Thriller is the world's best-selling record of all time.
2. Gil Sarentis, 52, of Tampa, Florida, accidentally flushed $40 down his Toilet on this date in 1998. Being a bit of a miser, he was determined to get his money back, so he opened his 1,600 gallon septic tank, was overcome by methane fumes, fell in and drowned.
3. The city of Melbourne, Australia, was founded on this date in 1835 when John Batman bought 600,000 acres of land from the Aborigines.
4. In 1896, Chop Suey was invented in New York by the chef to the visiting Chinese Ambassador Li Hung-chang.
5. In 1945, a food fight broke out at a parade in Bunol, Valencia, Spain. The people involved turned it into an annual event—La Tomatina, where there is a huge Tomato fight, lasting an hour, where around 145,000kg of tomatoes are thrown.
6. Gottlieb Daimler patented the first motorcycle on this date in 1885.
7. In 1882, Australia beat England at Cricket for the first time. The Sporting Times published an 'obituary' for English cricket.
8. In 1977, three people were arrested by police in Memphis, Tennessee for trying to steal the body of Elvis Presley, who'd been buried at the Forest Hill cemetery a week and a half earlier. As a result of the incident, Elvis's father, Vernon Presley, arranged to have the bodies of his son and his wife Gladys moved and buried side by side in the grounds of the Graceland mansion.
9. In 1839, 53 Africans being transported from Sierra Leone to Cuba on the ship Amistad to be sold as slaves, hijacked the ship and demanded to be taken back to Africa. The crew secretly changed course and took them to the US anyway. The Africans were taken prisoner and a legal battle began, which John Quincy Adams took to the supreme court. Eventually it was decided they were free to go home.
10. In 1997 in Florence, 10 out of 11 people who'd applied for a job as a gravedigger fainted during an exhumation. The only one still standing was the only female applicant. She got the job.

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