January 29

History events
1421 — (26th of Shevat, 5181) The Jews of Sargossa, Spain were spared from slaughter at the hands of King Alfonso V, thanks to the fact that a handful of synagogues beadles had acted on the advice given to them by the Prophet Elijah in a dream shared by each of them. The resulting salvation on the 17th of Shevat was celebrated by Saragossan Jews and dubbed «Purim Saragossa.» A Hebrew Megillah (scroll) was penned, describing the details of the miraculous story. To this day, this scroll is read in certain communities on Purim Saragossa
1478 — (25th of Shevat, 5238) “The Ashkenazi Haggadah” the creation of Joel Ben Simeon was completed today. In 1991, the Library of Congress published a facsimile edition of the Washington Haggadah, accompanied by a companion volume with a detailed scholarly description, analysis, and assessment of the manuscript.”
1808 — (18th of Tevet, 5568) Ezekiel Hart was elected to the Canadian parliament but was prevented from taking his seat because as a Jew he could not take the oath «on the true faith of a Christian.» Though reelected in May 1808, and in April 1809, he was again prevented from being seated. Only in 1832 was legislation passed allowing Jews to hold public office and giving them full civil rights. Born in 1767, Hart passed away in 1843
1920 — (9th of Shevat, 5680) “First Zion Ship Launched” published today described the launching, at Jaffa, of the first Jewish vessel in the Mediterranean, “owned by Jews, manned by Jews and flying the Jewish flag” during which the wife of Major John English, the commandant at Jaffa” raised the flag and expressed “the hope that next year the Jewish people might possess a large merchant marine on the Mediterranean.”
1928 — (7th of Shevat, 5688) The New York Times reported on improving economic conditions in Palestine. For example, at Petakh Tikvah, an additional fifty Jewish workers have been hired and “the Arab lessees of local orange groves have promised to take on 200 more Jews within the next few days.”
1933 — (2th of Shevat, 5693) Paul von Hindenburg, President of Germany appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. The Nazis did not come to power through a coup or putsch. They came to power legally, using the German political and electoral processes
1935 — (25th of Shevat, 5695) “For the first time since the Nazis came to power the Central Committee of Jewish Associations in Germany today protested formally in its organ, the Judische Rundschau, against Julius Streicher’s anti-Semitic propaganda.”
1953 — (13th of Shevat, 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported that President Juan Peron said that the gates of Argentina stood wide open to any Soviet Jew who wished to find shelter there. The offer was also valid for Jews from other Soviet-dominated countries; that The Ministry of Interior closed the Communist daily Kol Ha’am for 10 days for publishing articles threatening the public peace; that arson damaged the Russian bookshop in Jerusalem
2004 — (6th of Shevat, 5764) “Eleven people were killed and more than 50 wounded, 13 of them seriously, in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus #19 at the corner of Gaza and Arlozorov streets in Jerusalem.
2006 — (29th of Tevet, 5766) “An estimated 300,000 people took part in Yitzchak Kaduri’s funeral procession today which started from the Nachalat Yitzchak Yeshivah and wound its way through the streets of Jerusalem to the Givat Shaul cemetery near the entrance to the city of Jerusalem.”
2007 — (10th of Shevat 5767) A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip blew himself up today inside a bakery in the Israeli resort city of Eilat, killing all three people inside
2012 — (5th of Shevat, 5772) Anger and despair gripped many residents of the town of Harish today, the day after a local synagogue was found completely gutted by a fire that broke out early yesterday morning on Shabbat

People
1817 — (12th of Shevat, 5577) Abraham Furtado, president of the Sanhedrin summoned by Napoleon, died