March 29’s entries turn on moments of change—some forced by conflict, others by the transfer of authority. In 1461, the Battle of Towton was fought in Yorkshire during the Wars of the Roses, a clash remembered as one of the largest and bloodiest battles on English soil. Centuries later, on this date in 1790, John Tyler was born. He would become the tenth U.S. president, taking office after William Henry Harrison’s sudden death and establishing a precedent as the first vice president to succeed to the presidency without being elected to it. Together, these stories show how power can be contested on a battlefield or reshaped by the rules of succession.
The two 20th-century milestones shift the focus from political power to the limits of American involvement and the reach of exploration. In 1973, the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam, effectively ending direct American military involvement in the Vietnam War. A year later, NASA’s Mariner 10 became the first spacecraft to fly by Mercury, returning the first close-up images of the planet’s surface. The calendar places withdrawal and discovery side by side: one marks a departure from a long conflict, the other an arrival at a distant world. Near the start of spring, this mix of endings and new perspectives feels especially apt; the list’s sweep across centuries also reminds us that a single date can hold very different kinds of turning point.