On This Day - What happened 29 January

Idomeneo's first dress rehearsal was coinciding with the 25th birthday of Mozart. His father Leopold had arrived with Nannerl in Munich sometime between then and the premiere. The first night-the only fair night-went really well. Mozart had achieved the popularity he had wished for, but for another 5 years the opera would not be performed again.

In Paris on January 29, 1960, De Gaulle called on his ineffective army to remain loyal and rallied popular support for his Algerian policy in a televised address.

The Blizzard of 1966 swept across most of the United States and Canada east of the Rocky Mountains on January 29, 1966, and brought record low temperatures, high winds and heavy snowfall in its wake. Within days, at least 142 people had been killed — 31 had frozen to death, 46 died in fires that started while people were trying to heat their home.

Kuwait announces 60 percent government participation in BP-Gulf concession; Qatar follows on February 20.

On 29 January, Iraqi forces attacked and occupied the lightly defended Saudi city of Khafji with tanks and infantry. The Battle of Khafji ended two days later when the Iraqis were driven back by the Saudi Arabian National Guard, supported by Qatari forces and US Marines. The allied forces used extensive artillery fire.

On January 29, 2003, the SEC filed a complaint against Xerox's auditors, KPMG, alleging four partners in the "Big Five" accounting firm permitted Xerox to "cook the books" to fill a $3 billion "gap" in revenue and $1.4 billion "gap" in pre-tax earnings. In April 2005 KPMG settled with the SEC by paying a US$22.48 million fine. Meanwhile, Xerox paid a civil penalty of $10 million. As part of the settlement, KPMG neither admits nor denies wrongdoings.

In a visit to the Lebanese capital Beirut on 29 January 2015, Soleimani laid wreaths at the graves of the slain Hezbollah members, including Jihad Mughniyah, which strengthened suspicions about a collaboration between Hezbollah and the Quds Force.

On 29 January 2016, Musk owned about 28.9 million Tesla shares, which equates to about 22% of the company.

On 29 January 2018, Nokia introduced the ReefShark line of 5G chipsets, claiming that it triples bandwidth to 84 Gbit/s. It will be released by Q3 2018. It also incorporates artificial intelligence technologies from Bell Labs.

On 29 January 2018, in his first annual message to the national legislature, he reduced his salary and other benefits by 25% with immediate effect. "With the assessment that I gave you earlier of the poor condition of our economy, I believe that it is appropriate that we should all make sacrifices in the interest of our country. According to Article 60 of the Constitution, the salaries of the President and the Vice President are established by the Legislature, and cannot be increased or reduced during the period for which they are elected. However, in view of the very rapidly deteriorating situation of the economy, I am informing you today, with immediate effect, that I will reduce my salary and benefits by 25% and give the proceeds back to the Consolidated Fund for allocation and appropriation as they see fit."

On January 29, 2019, Apple reported its first decline in revenues and profits in a decade.

The European Parliament gave its consent to ratification on 29 January by the votes 621 to 49. Immediately after voting approval, members of the European Parliament joined hands and sang Auld Lang Syne. The Council of the European Union concluded EU ratification the following day.

On the 29th of Jan, the WHO confirmed that the number of infected cases has dramatically increased to reach 6065 cases globally over 98% of them are in China and the rest are spread over 15 countries, and 132 death case.

On 29 January 2020, Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and the Vodafone Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the sale of Vodafone's entire 55 percent stake in Vodafone Egypt to STC. With the sale, Vodafone will be exiting Egypt (as a telecom operator) as the rest of the 45 percent stake in Vodafone Egypt is owned by Telecom Egypt. Telecom Egypt has said that it has no plans to sell its stake.

Trump established the White House Coronavirus Task Force on January 29, 2020.

Feodor III succeeds his father as Russia's new ruler.

Alexander Mikhaylovich, the Tsar of Russia, passed away at the age of 46.

The German writer, Johann Gottfried Seume, was born in Poserna, Saxony-Anhalt, in the year 1763.