Today in History: September 29, Pope John Paul I found dead

Sep 28, 2022, 9:00 AM | Updated: 9:10 pm

Today in History

Today is Thursday, Sept. 29, the 272nd day of 2022. 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. The musical “My Fair Lady” closed on Broadway after 2,717 performances.

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. (As part of her sentence, Gabor ended up serving three days in jail.)

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 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. Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who had supported him, telling one such group known as Proud Boys to “stand back, stand by.”

Ten years ago: 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. Former New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger died at the age of 86.

Five years ago: 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. The United States warned Americans to stay away from Cuba, and ordered home more than half of the American diplomatic corps there; the administration began referring to the mysterious health ailments affecting Americans there as “attacks” rather than “incidents” but acknowledged that neither Cuban nor US investigators could figure out who or what was responsible. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz accused the Trump administration of “killing us with the inefficiency” after Hurricane Maria.

One year ago: In a major victory for pop star Britney Spears, a judge in Los Angeles suspended the singer’s father from the conservatorship that had controlled her life and money for 13 years, saying the arrangement reflected a “toxic environment.” (The judge would end the conservatorship weeks later.) Five-time Olympic swimming medalist Klete Keller pleaded guilty to a felony charge for storming the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. Former Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida won Japan’s governing party’s leadership election, putting him in line to become the country’s next prime minister.

Today’s Birthdays: Conductor Richard Bonynge is 92. Writer-director Robert Benton is 90. Singer Jerry Lee Lewis is 87. Soul-blues-gospel singer Sherman Holmes is 83. NASA administrator and former Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is 80. Actor Ian McShane is 80. Jazz musician Jean-Luc Ponty is 80. Nobel Peace laureate Lech Walesa (lehk vah-WEN’-sah) is 79. Television-film composer Mike Post is 78. Actor Patricia Hodge is 76. TV personality Bryant Gumbel is 74. Rock singer-musician Mark Farner is 74. Rock singer-musician Mike Pinera is 74. Country singer Alvin Crow is 72. Actor Drake Hogestyn is 69. Olympic gold medal runner Sebastian Coe is 66. Singer Suzzy Roche (The Roches) is 66. Comedian-actor Andrew “Dice” Clay is 65. Rock singer John Payne (Asia) is 64. Actor Roger Bart is 60. Singer-musician Les Claypool is 59. Actor Jill Whelan is 56. Actor Ben Miles is 56. Actor Luke Goss is 54. Actor Erika Eleniak is 53. R&B singer Devante Swing (Jodeci) is 53. Country singer Brad Cotter (TV: “Nashville Star”) is 52. Actor Emily Lloyd is 52. Actor Natasha Gregson Wagner is 52. Actor Rachel Cronin is 51. Country musician Danick Dupelle (Emerson Drive) is 49. Actor Alexis Cruz is 48. Actor Zachary Levi is 42. Actor Chrissy Metz (TV: “This Is Us”) is 42. Actor Kelly McCreary (TV: “Grey’s Anatomy”) is 41. Rock musician Josh Farro is 35. NBA All-Star Kevin Durant is 34. Actor Doug Brochu is 32. Singer Phillip Phillips is 32. Pop singer Halsey is 28. Actor Clara Mamet is 28.