Today in History

Today is Saturday, Sept. 29, the 272nd day of 2018. There are 93 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Sept. 29, 1978, Pope John Paul I was found dead in his Vatican apartment just over a month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.

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 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 1977, the Billy Joel album "The Stranger" was released by Columbia Records.

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 1987, Henry Ford II, longtime chairman of Ford Motor Co., died in Detroit at age 70.

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 2001, President George W. Bush condemned Afghanistan's Taliban rulers for harboring Osama bin Laden and his followers as the United States pressed its military and diplomatic campaign against terror.

In 2005, John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in as the nation's 17th chief justice after winning Senate confirmation.

Ten years ago: On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 777 points after the House defeated, 228-205, a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, leaving both parties and the Bush administration scrambling to pick up the pieces.

Five years ago: NASA's newest delivery service, Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned cargo spacecraft Cygnus, made its first-ever shipment to the International Space Station. Some four dozen people were shot to death at an agricultural college in Gujba, Nigeria, in an attack blamed on Boko Haram. A car bomb tore through a market in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing at least 41 people. On the last day of the season, Miami's Henderson Alvarez pitched one of baseball's most bizarre no-hitters. Alvarez celebrated in the on-deck circle when the Marlins scored on a two-out wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Detroit Tigers 1-0.

One year 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.

Today's Birthdays: Conductor Richard Bonynge is 88. Writer-director Robert Benton is 86. Singer Jerry Lee Lewis is 83. Soul-blues-gospel singer Sherman Holmes is 79. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is 76. Actor Ian McShane is 76. Jazz musician Jean-Luc Ponty is 76. Nobel Peace laureate Lech Walesa is 75. Television-film composer Mike Post is 74. Actress Patricia Hodge is 72. TV personality Bryant Gumbel is 70. Rock singer-musician Mark Farner is 70. Rock singer-musician Mike Pinera is 70. Country singer Alvin Crow is 68. Actor Drake Hogestyn is 65. Olympic gold medal runner Sebastian Coe is 62. Singer Suzzy Roche (The Roches) is 62. Comedian-actor Andrew "Dice" Clay is 61. Rock singer John Payne (Asia) is 60. Actor Roger Bart is 56. Singer-musician Les Claypool is 55. Actress Jill Whelan is 52. Actor Ben Miles is 52. Actor Luke Goss is 50. Rock musician Brad Smith (Blind Melon) is 50. Actress Erika Eleniak is 49. Rhythm-and-blues singer Devante Swing (Jodeci) is 49. Country singer Brad Cotter (TV: "Nashville Star") is 48. Actress Emily Lloyd is 48. Actress Natasha Gregson Wagner is 48. Actress Rachel Cronin is 47. Country musician Danick Dupelle (Emerson Drive) is 45. Actor Alexis Cruz is 44. Actor Zachary Levi is 38. Actress Chrissy Metz (TV: "This Is Us") is 38. Actress Kelly McCreary (TV: "Grey's Anatomy") is 37. Country singer Katie McNeill (3 of Hearts) is 36. Rock musician Josh Farro is 31. Actor Doug Brochu is 28. Singer Phillip Phillips is 28. Actress Clara Mamet is 24.

Thought for Today: "Wars teach us not to love our enemies, but to hate our allies." -- W.L. George, English writer (1882-1926).