September 29th

Events:

• 61 BC - Pompey the Great celebrates his third triumph, for victories over the pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars.
• 855 - Pope Benedict III becomes Pope.
• 1364 - Battle of Auray - English forces defeat French at Brittany.
• 1789 - United States War Department first establishes regular army with strength of several hundred men.
• 1789 - First United States Congress adjourns.
• 1829 - London's reorganized police force goes on duty, later becomes known as Scotland Yard.
• 1864 - Battle of New Market Heights is fought.
• 1902 - Impresario David Belasco's first Broadway theater opens.
• 1918 - Hindenburg Line is broken by Allied forces during World War I.
• 1938 - Britain and France, Nazi Germany and Italy sign the Munich Agreement allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.
• 1939 - Poland is divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
• 1941 - Babi Yar massacre begins.
• 1943 - United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign an armistice aboard the British ship Nelson off the shore of Malta.
• 1944 - Soviet forces invade Yugoslavia.
• 1963 - Opening of second period of Second Vatican Council.
• 1988 - NASA resumes space shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster.
• 2004 - The asteroid 4179 Toutatis is projected to pass within 4 lunar distances of Earth.

Births:

• 106 BC - Pompey the Great, Roman statesman and general († 48 BC)
• 1328 - Joan of Kent
• 1547 - Miguel de Cervantes, author († 1616)
• 1725 - Robert Clive, general and statesman († 1774)
• 1758 - Lord Horatio Nelson, British admiral († 1805)
• 1901 - Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist († 1954)
• 1901 - Lanza del Vasto, philosopher, poet and non-violent activist († 1981)
• 1904 - Greer Garson, British actress († 1996)
• 1907 - Gene Autry, actor, singer, businessman († 1998)
• 1908 - Eddie Tolan, US athlete
• 1912 - Michelangelo Antonioni, film director
• 1913 - Trevor Howard, actor († 1988)
• 1913 - Stanley Kramer, film director
• 1931 - Anita Ekberg, actress
• 1935 - Jerry Lee Lewis, US musician
• 1938 - Wim Kok, Dutch politician and former prime minster
• 1939 - Larry Linville, actor († 2000)
• 1941 - Edmund Stoiber, German politician
• 1942 - Madeline Kahn, actress († 1999)
• 1943 - Lech Walesa, Polish trade union activist and politician
• 1948 - Bryant Gumbel, television personality
• 1956 - Sebastian Coe, track and field champion
• 1961 - Rebecca DeMornay, actress
• 1964 - Tom Sizemore, actor
• 1964 - Les Claypool, bassist of Primus
• 1966 - Jill Whelan, actress
• 1967 - Craig Bowie, musician/composer, computer scientist

Deaths:

• 48 BC - Pompey, the Great, Roman general (assassinated)
• 235 - Saint Pontianus, Pope
• 855 - Lothair, King of Lotharingia
• 1804 - Michael Hillegas, first Treasurer of the United States
• 1902 - Emile Zola, important writer
• 1902 - William Topaz McGonagall, Irish poet
• 1908 - Machado de Assis, Brazilian writer
• 1913 - Rudolf Diesel, automobile pioneer
• 1913 - Trevor Howard, actor
• 1937 - Ray Ewry, American athlete
• 1967 - Carson McCullers, author
• 1970 - Edward Everett Horton, actor
• 1975 - Casey Stengel, US baseball player and coach
• 1988 - Charles Addams, cartoonist
• 1997 - Roy Lichtenstein, artist
• 1998 - Tom Bradley, former mayor of Los Angeles, California
• 2001 - Nguyen Van Thieu, President of South Vietnam

Holidays:

• Michaelmas - Christian feast of St. Michael the Archangel

September 28 · September 30 · August 29 · October 29    · Historical anniversaries

† indicates the date that a person died.