World/nation trivia: The week of Sept. 29-Oct. 5

Sept. 29:

1789, Congress officially established a regular army under the U.S. Constitution.

1954, Willie Mays of the New York Giants made a running, over-the-shoulder catch of a ball hit by Vic Wirtz of the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the World Series; “The Catch” would become one of the most famous plays in baseball history.

1982, Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with deadly cyanide claimed the first of seven victims in the Chicago area; the case, which led to legislation and packaging improvements to deter product tampering, remains unsolved.

1990, the construction of Washington National Cathedral concluded, 83 years to the day after its foundation stone was laid in a ceremony attended by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Sept 30:

1777, the Continental Congress — forced to flee in the face of advancing British forces — moved to York, Pennsylvania.

1938, addressing the public after co-signing the Munich Agreement, which allowed Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proclaimed, “I believe it is peace for our time.”

1962, James Meredith, a Black student, was escorted by federal marshals to the campus of the University of Mississippi, where he enrolled for classes the next day; Meredith’s presence sparked rioting that left two people dead.

2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to illegally annex more occupied Ukrainian territory in a sharp escalation of his seven-month invasion.

Oct. 1:

1903, the first modern baseball World Series began, with the Pittsburgh Pirates defeating the Boston Americans in Game 1; Boston would ultimately win the series 5-3.

1964, the Free Speech Movement began at the University of California, Berkeley, as students surrounded a police car containing an arrested campus activist for more than 30 hours.

1975, Muhammad Ali defeated Joe Frazier in the “Thrilla in Manila,” the last of their three bouts.

2017, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, a gunman opened fire from a room at the Mandalay Bay casino hotel in Las Vegas on a crowd of 22,000 country music fans at a concert below, causing 60 deaths and more than 850 injuries.

Oct. 2:

1919, President Woodrow Wilson had a serious stroke at the White House that left him paralyzed on his left side.

1967, Thurgood Marshall joined the U.S. Supreme Court at its first African American justice; he would serve on the bench for 24 years.

2018, journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by Saudi Arabian officials at the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul, Turkey.

2020, stricken by COVID-19, President Donald Trump was injected with an experimental drug combination at the White House before being flown to a military hospital, where he was given Remdesivir, an antiviral drug.

Oct. 3:

1944, during World War II, U.S. Army troops cracked the Siegfried Line north of Aachen, Germany.

1974, Frank Robinson was named the American League’s first Black manager after he was hired by the Cleveland Indians.

1990, West Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division, declaring the creation of a reunified country.

2008, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room.

Oct. 4:

1777, Gen. George Washington’s troops launched an assault on the British at Germantown, Pennsylvania, resulting in heavy American casualties.

1927, sculptor Gutzon Borglum began construction on what is now Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

1957, the Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit.

2002, “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh received a 20-year sentence after a sobbing plea for forgiveness before a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia.

Oct. 5:

1892, the Dalton Gang, notorious for its train robberies, was practically wiped out while attempting to rob a pair of banks in Coffeyville, Kansas.

1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised White House address as he spoke on the world food crisis.

1986, Nicaraguan Sandinista government soldiers shot down a cargo plane carrying weapons and ammunition bound for Contra rebels; the event exposed a web of illegal arms shipments, leading to the Iran-Contra Scandal.

2020, President Donald Trump made a dramatic return to the White House after leaving the military hospital where he was being treated for COVID-19.

– Associated Press