Born in 1929

Turns 97 in 2026

Gifts for someone born in 1929

Front Page: Australia edition. The year is filled in; add their name in the editor. “Your name” is a placeholder. Light news is selected. A new keepsake, not an original newspaper.

BACK TO 1929 · Australia

A little history to go with their gift.

A sharp fall in Wall Street share prices shook markets, the Lateran Treaty settled a long dispute between Italy and the Holy See, and Britain formed a Labour government. These records show political change alongside a growing financial crisis.

What happened in 1929?

Italy and the Vatican settle their dispute

Italy and the Holy See signed the Lateran Treaty on 11 February 1929, recognising Vatican City as a sovereign state and ending the Roman Question.

Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State

The Young Plan revises Germany’s debt

The Young Plan was agreed in 1929 to reduce and reschedule Germany’s reparations burden after the First World War.

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Graf Zeppelin sets out from Lakehurst

Graf Zeppelin departed Lakehurst, New Jersey, on August 8, 1929, for its celebrated round-the-world airship flight.

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum · Federal Aviation Administration

The Academy holds its first awards banquet

The first Academy Awards ceremony took place in Hollywood on May 16, 1929.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences · Los Angeles Times

Firsts and new ideas

Ray Allsop demonstrates a sound projector

Australian engineer Ray Allsop invented the Raycophone sound projector and exhibited four musical sound-on-disc films on 29 June 1929.

Australian Screen Online, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

Hubble publishes a galaxy-distance relation

Edwin Hubble’s 1929 paper described a relation between the distances and radial velocities of distant galaxies.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Number ones and music in 1929

Chart positions belong to the country and chart named in each record.

Singin' in the Rain reaches the screen

Singin' in the Rain was introduced in MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929 and published by the studio that year.

Smithsonian Institution · American Film Institute Catalog

Puttin' on the Ritz enters print

Irving Berlin's Puttin' on the Ritz was published as New York sheet music in 1929.

Library of Congress · YorkSpace, York University Libraries

Prices and everyday money in 1929

Australia figures in the money of the time. Units and sources matter: these are not today's prices.

Recorded prices and earnings, 1929
Item or measureThenUnit and source
Weighted average nominal weekly wage rate, all industrial groups (adult male workers)101s 2d per weekper full week; £ s. d.
International Labour Office, International Labour Review; table attributes underlying figures to Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, Labour Report 1929, p. 67
Bread, white (average in two towns covered)6.1dper kg
UK Parliament Hansard, citing International Labour Office figures
Postage: Domestic letter, first ounce1½dper 1 oz
Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria (RPSV), Philately from Australia, March 2019, Table 2
Flour, supply to Victualling Store Officer, Pyrmont (government accepted contract)£11 10s per tonper ton; 150-lb net-weight bags
Commonwealth of Australia, Commonwealth Gazette

Planning the birthday

Someone born in 1929 turns 97 in 2026. Before their birthday they are one year younger. Choose the birth year for the print; add the full date in the editor if you know it.

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