TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, SEPT. 29, the 272nd day of 2017. There are 93 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date 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 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 1902, William Topaz McGonagall, affectionately considered Britain’s possibly worst-ever poet, died in Edinburgh, Scotland.
In 1910, the National Urban League had its beginnings in New York as The Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes.
In 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.
In 1943, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice aboard the British ship HMS Nelson off Malta.
In 1957, the San Francisco-bound New York Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-1. The Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game before moving to Los Angeles, losing to the Phillies 2-1 in Philadelphia.
In 1967, author Carson McCullers died in Nyack, N.Y., at age 50.
In 1977, the Billy Joel album “The Stranger” was released by Columbia Records.
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 1987, Henry Ford II, longtime chairman of Ford Motor Co., died in Detroit at age 70.
In 2005, John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in as the nation’s 17th chief justice after winning Senate confirmation.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Conductor Richard Bonynge is 87. Writer-director Robert Benton is 85. Singer Jerry Lee Lewis is 82. Soul-blues-gospel singer Sherman Holmes is 78. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., actor Ian McShane and jazz musician Jean-Luc Ponty are 75. Nobel Peace laureate Lech Walesa is 74. Television-film composer Mike Post is 73. Actress Patricia Hodge is 71. TV personality Bryant Gumbel and rock singer-musicians Mark Farner and Mike Pinera are 69. Country singer Alvin Crow is 67. Actor Drake Hogestyn is 64. Olympic gold medal runner Sebastian Coe and singer Suzzy Roche (The Roches) are 61. Comedian-actor Andrew “Dice” Clay is 60. Rock singer John Payne (Asia) is 59. Actor Roger Bart is 55. Singer-musician Les Claypool is 54. Actress Jill Whelan and actor Ben Miles are 51. Actor Luke Goss and rock musician Brad Smith (Blind Melon) are 49. Actress Erika Eleniak and rhythmand-blues singer Devante Swing (Jodeci) are 48. Country singer Brad Cotter (TV: “Nashville Star”), and actresses Emily Lloyd and Gregson Wagner are 47. Actress Rachel Cronin is 46. Country musician Danick Dupelle (Emerson Drive) is 44. Actor Alexis Cruz is 43. Actor Zachary Levi and actress Chrissy Metz (TV: “This Is Us”) are 37. Actress Kelly McCreary (TV: “Grey’s Anatomy”) is 36. Country singer Katie McNeill (3 of Hearts) is 35. Rock musician Josh Farro is 30. Actor Doug Brochu and singer Phillip Phillips are 27. Actress Clara Mamet is 23.