Today is Friday, Sept. 29, the 272nd day of 2023. There are 93 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 29, 1938, British, French, German and Italian leaders concluded the Munich Agreement, which was aimed at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland.
On this date:
In 1789, the U.S. War Department established a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.
In 1829, London’s reorganized police force, which became known as Scotland Yard, went on duty.
In 1943, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice aboard the British ship HMS Nelson off Malta.
In 1962, Canada joined the space age as it launched the Alouette 1 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, creating the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 1978, Pope John Paul I was found dead in his Vatican apartment just over a month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1982, Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with deadly cyanide claimed the first of seven victims in the Chicago area. (To date, the case remains unsolved.)
In 1986, the Soviet Union released Nicholas Daniloff, an American journalist confined on spying charges.
In 1989, actor Zsa Zsa Gabor was convicted of battery for slapping Beverly Hills police officer Paul Kramer after he’d pulled over her Rolls-Royce for expired license plates.
In 2000, Israeli riot police stormed a major Jerusalem shrine and opened fire on stone-throwing Muslim worshippers, killing four Palestinians and wounding 175.
In 2005, John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in as the nation’s 17th chief justice after winning Senate confirmation.
In 2012, Omar Khadr, the last Western detainee held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, returned to Canada after a decade in custody.
In 2017, Tom Price resigned as President Donald Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services amid investigations into his use of costly charter flights for official travel at taxpayer expense.
In 2018, Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, agreed to pay a total of $40 million to settle a government lawsuit alleging that Musk had duped investors with misleading statements about a proposed buyout of the company.
In 2020, the first debate between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden deteriorated into bitter taunts and near chaos, as Trump repeatedly interrupted his opponent with angry and personal jabs and the two men talked over each other.
In 2021, a judge in Los Angeles suspended Britney Spears’ father from the conservatorship that had controlled her life and money for 13 years, saying the arrangement reflected a “toxic environment.”
In 2022, rescue crews piloted boats and waded through flooded streets Thursday to save thousands of Floridians trapped after Hurricane Ian destroyed homes and businesses and left millions in the dark.
Today’s Birthdays: Conductor Richard Bonynge is 93. Writer-director Robert Benton is 91. Soul-blues-gospel singer Sherman Holmes is 84. NASA administrator and former Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is 81. Actor Ian McShane is 81. Jazz musician Jean-Luc Ponty is 81. Nobel Peace laureate Lech Walesa (lehk vah-WEN’-sah) is 80. Television-film composer Mike Post is 79. Actor Patricia Hodge is 77. TV personality Bryant Gumbel is 75. Rock singer-musician Mark Farner is 75. Rock singer-musician Mike Pinera is 75. Country singer Alvin Crow is 73. Actor Drake Hogestyn is 70. Olympic gold medal runner Sebastian Coe is 67. Singer Suzzy Roche (The Roches) is 67. Comedian-actor Andrew “Dice” Clay is 66. Rock singer John Payne (Asia) is 65. Actor Roger Bart is 61. Rock musician Les Claypool is 60. Actor Jill Whelan is 57. Actor Ben Miles is 57. Actor Luke Goss is 55. Actor Erika Eleniak is 54. R&B singer Devante Swing (Jodeci) is 54. Country singer Brad Cotter (TV: “Nashville Star”) is 53. Actor Emily Lloyd is 53. Actor Natasha Gregson Wagner is 53. Actor Rachel Cronin is 52. Country musician Danick Dupelle (Emerson Drive) is 50. Actor Alexis Cruz is 49. Actor Zachary Levi is 43. Actor Chrissy Metz (TV: “This Is Us”) is 43. Actor Kelly McCreary (TV: “Grey’s Anatomy”) is 42. Rock musician Josh Farro is 36. NBA All-Star Kevin Durant is 35. Actor Doug Brochu is 33. Singer Phillip Phillips is 33. Pop singer Halsey is 29. Actor Clara Mamet is 29.
