September 29

2024 Calendar

September 29 is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 93 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

61 BC – Pompey the Great celebrates his third triumph, for victories over the pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars on his 45th birthday.
48 BC – Ptolemy XIII of Egypt had Pompey murdered and his head cut off on his 58th birthday. Pompey's head and ring are kept for Julius Caesar (some sources give September 28).
AD 855 – Pope Benedict III becomes Pope.
1015 – St. Michael's Church in Hildesheim, present-day Lower Saxony, Germany, is consecrated; It is now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
1227 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for not taking part in the Crusades.
1364 – Battle of Auray – English forces defeat French at Brittany; end of the Breton War of Succession
1567 – At a dinner, the Duke of Alva arrests the Count of Egmont and the Count of Horne for treason.
1717 – An earthquake strikes Antigua, Guatemala, destroying much of the city.
1760 – The French surrender at Fort Detroit to the British.
1774 – Publication of the Sorrows of Young Werther makes Johann Wolfgang von Goethe famous.
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, and later becomes known as Scotland Yard. The Metropolitan Police force is founded.
1850 – A Roman Catholic hierarchy is re-established in England, Wales by Pope Pius IX.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Chaffin's Farm is fought.
1885 – The first practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England, United Kingdom.

1901 – 2000

1902 – Impresario David Belasco's first Broadway theater opens.
1907 – The cornerstone is laid at Washington National Cathedral.
1911 – Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
1913 – Mexican Revolution: The Battle of Torreon is fought.
1918 – Hindenburg Line is broken by Allied forces during World War I.
1923 – The British mandate for Palestine takes effect.
1932 – Chaco War: Last Day of the Battle of Boquerón.
1934 – The Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City is opened.
1938 – Britain and France, Nazi Germany and Italy sign the Munich Agreement allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.
1939 – World War II: Poland is divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
1941 – Holocaust: The Babi Yar massacre begins.
1943 – World War II: 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 – World War II: Soviet forces invade Yugoslavia.
1949 – The Communist Party of China writes the Common Programme for the future People's Republic of China, which is declared by Mao Zedong two days later, on October 1.
1954 – Convention establishing CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed.
1960 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev disrupts the UN General Assembly meeting with a series of angry outbursts.
1961 – The New York Times publishes music critic Robert Sheldon's review of a performance from little known singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which will lead to Dylan's discovery by Columbia Records representative John Hammond
1962 – Alouette 1, the first Canadian satellite is launched.
1963 – The University of East Anglia is founded in Norwich, England, United Kingdom.
1964 – Mafalda, a comic strip by the Argentine cartoonist Quino, first appears in newspapers.
1966 – The Chevrolet Camaro, originally named "Panther", is introduced.
1971 – Oman joins the Arab League.
1972 – Sino-Japanese relations: Japan establishes diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China.
1977 – Muhammad Ali defends his heavyweight boxing world title against Earnie Shavers.
1988 – NASA resumes space shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster.
1990 – Washington National Cathedral is completed.
1991 – A military coup occurs in Haiti.
1992 – Fernando Collor de Mello, President of Brazil, resigns.
1995 – PlayStation goes on sale in Europe.
1996 – Super Mario 64, a well-known Nintendo 64 video game, is released in the US.

From 2001

2002 – The 14th Asian Games begin in Busan, South Korea.
2004 – The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of Earth.
2006 – A plane collision in Brazil kills 154 people on board a Boeing 737. The cargo plane manages an emergency landing.
2007 – Calder Hall power station at Sellafield, Cumbria, England, is demolished.
2008 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average index falls by 777.68 points in a single day.
2009 – A magnitude 8.1 earthquake causes a tsunami near Samoa and American Samoa, killing at least 189 people, including 9 in Tonga.
2013 – At least 42 people are killed by members of Boko Haram in Gujba, Nigeria.
2014 – Ashraf Ghani is sworn in as President of Afghanistan.
2019 - Big fights following the Afghani elections

Births

Up to 1800

106 BC – Pompey the Great, Roman politician and general (died 48 BC)
1240 – Margaret of England, Queen Consort of Scotland (died 1275)
1276 – King Christopher II of Denmark (died 1332)
1328 – Joan of Kent, mother of King Richard II of England (died 1385)
1388 – Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, son of Henry IV of England (died 1421)
1511 – Michael Servetus, Spanish humanist, theologian, and scientist (died 1553)
1518 – Tintoretto, Italian painter (died 1594)
1547 – Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish writer (died 1616)
1548 – William V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1621)
1561 – Adriaan van Roomen, Flemish mathematician (died 1615)
1571 – Caravaggio, Italian painter (died 1610)
1636 – Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1715)
1678 – Adrien-Maurice, 3rd Duke of Noailles, French soldier (died 1766)
1691 – Richard Challoner, English bishop (died 1781)
1718 – Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Russian statesman (died 1783)
1725 – Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, British politician (died 1774)
1735 – James Keir, Scottish physician and chemist (died 1820)
1758 – Horatio Nelson, British admiral (died 1805)
1766 – Charlotte, Princess Royal (died 1828)
1786 – Guadalupe Victoria, 1st President of Mexico (died 1843)

1801 – 1900

1803 – Jacques Charles Francois Sturm, French mathematician (died 1855)
1810 – Elizabeth Gaskell, English writer (died 1865)
1810 – Hugh Allan, Scottish-Canadian businessman (died 1882)
1818 – Nathaniel B. Baker, 24th Governor of New Hampshire (died 1876)
1820 – Henri, Count of Chambord, claimant to the French throne (died 1883)
1843 – Mikhail Skobelev, Russian general (died 1882)
1844 – Miguel Angel Juarez Colman, President of Argentina (died 1909)
1853 – Princess Thyra of Denmark (died 1933)
1863 – Hugo Haase, German politician (died 1919)
1864 – Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer and philosopher (died 1936)
1866 – Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Ukrainian politician (died 1934)
1866 – J. E. Casely Hayford, Ghanaian politician, lawyer and writer (died 1930)
1867 – Walther Rathenau, German politician (died 1922)
1880 – Liberato Pinto, Portuguese general and politician (died 1949)
1881 – Ludwig von Mises, Austrian-American economist, sociologist and philosopher (died 1973)
1895 – Roscoe Turner, American pilot (died 1970)
1899 – László Biró, Hungarian inventor (died 1985)
1899 – Billy Butlin, South African-British holiday entrepreneur (d. 1980)
1900 – Auguste van Pels, Dutch Holocaust victim (died 1945)
1900 – Michel Koliqi, Albanian cardinal (died 1997)

1901 – 1950

1901 – Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1954)
1901 – Lanza del Vasto, Italian philosopher, poet and activist (died 1981)
1902 – Miguel Aleman Valdes, President of Mexico (died 1983)
1903 – Diana Vreeland, American fashion designer (died 1989)
1904 – Greer Garson, British actress (died 1996)
1904 – Egon Eiermann, German architect and designer (died 1970)
1907 – Gene Autry, American country music singer and actor (died 1998)
1908 – Eddie Tolan, American athlete (died 1967)
1910 – Virginia Bruce, American actress and singer (died 1982)
1911 – Charles Court, English-Australian politician, 21st Premier of Western Australia (died 2007)
1912 – Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian movie director (died 2007)
1913 – Silvio Piola, Italian footballer (died 1996)
1913 – Stanley Kramer, American movie director (died 2001)
1913 – Trevor Howard, English actor (died 1988)
1915 – Brenda Marshall, American actress (died 1992)
1916 – Antonio Buero Vallejos, Spanish playwright (died 2000)
1919 – Margot Hielscher, German singer and actress (died 2017)
1919 – Kira Zvorykina, Belarussian chess player (died 2014)
1920 – Peter D. Mitchell, English chemist (died 1992)
1920 – Vaclav Neumann, Czech conductor, violinist and violist (died 1995)
1921 – Franny Beecher, American guitarist (died 2014)
1922 – Esther Brand, South African athlete (died 2015)
1922 – Lizabeth Scott, American actress (died 2015)
1923 – Stan Berenstain, American writer and illustrator (died 2005)
1924 – Marina Berti, Italian actress (died 2002)
1925 – Steve Forrest, American actor (died 2013)
1928 – Gerhard Stoltenberg, German politician (died 2001)
1928 – Eric Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury, English politician (died 2016)
1930 – Colin Dexter, English writer (died 2017)
1931 – Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress (died 2015)
1931 – James Watson Cronin, American nuclear physicist (died 2016)
1931 – Paul Oestreicher, German-English priest and theologian
1932 – Rainer Weiss, German-American physicist, 2017 Nobel laureate
1932 – Mehmood, Indian actor (died 2004)
1932 – Robert Benton, American director
1933 – Samora Machel, President of Mozambique (died 1986)
1935 – Jerry Lee Lewis, American early rock and roll musician
1935 – Mylene Demongeot, French actress
1935 – Ingrid Noll, German writer
1936 – Silvio Berlusconi, former Prime Minister of Italy
1937 – Nina Wang, Chinese businesswoman (died 2007)
1938 – Wim Kok, Dutch politician, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands (died 2018)
1939 – Rhodri Morgan, Welsh politician, former First Minister of Wales (died 2017)
1939 – Jim Baxter, Scottish footballer (died 2001)
1939 – Larry Linville, American actor (died 2000)
1940 – Nicola di Bari, Italian singer
1940 – Carlos Morales Troncoso, Vice President of the Dominican Republic (died 2014)
1941 – Fred West, British serial killer (died 1995)
1942 – Ian McShane, British actor
1942 – Jean-Luc Ponty, French jazz violinist
1942 – Bill Nelson, American politician
1942 – Madeline Kahn, American actress (died 1999)
1942 – Felice Gimondi, Italian cyclist (died 2019)
1943 – Mohammad Khatami, former President of Iran
1943 – Wolfgang Overath, German footballer
1943 – Lech Walesa, former President of Poland
1945 – Nadezhda Chizhova, Russian athlete
1946 – Steve Dalachinsky, American poet (died 2019)
1946 – Patricia Hodge, English actress
1947 – S. H. Kapadia, Chief Justice of India (died 2016)
1948 – Theo Jörgensmann, German jazz clarinet player
1948 – Mike Pinera, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer

1951 – 1975

1951 – Maureen Caird, Australian athlete
1951 – Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile
1951 – Pier Luigi Bersani, Italian politician
1951 – Jutta Ditfurth, German author and activist
1952 – Gábor Csupo, Hungarian-born animator
1952 – Patrícia Gabancho, Argentine-Spanish writer (d. 2017)
1952 – Monika Zehrt, German athlete
1954 – Debbie Shapiro, American actress and singer
1955 – Ann Bancroft, American adventurer, polar explorer and writer
1955 – Gareth Davies, Welsh rugby player
1955 – Ken Weatherwax, American actor (died 2014)
1956 – Sebastian Coe, English athlete and politician
1957 – Chris Broad, English cricketer
1957 – Andrew Dice Clay, American comedian and actor
1959 – Raffaele Riefoli, Italian singer
1961 – Julia Gillard, Welsh-Australian politician, 27th Prime Minister of Australia
1961 – Stephanie Miller, American comedienne and radio host
1961 – Tom Sizemore, American actor
1962 – Janne Andersson, Swedish footballer and manager
1966 – Helsey Hawkins, American basketball player
1966 – Bujar Nishani, former President of Albania
1968 – Luke Goss, English actor and singer
1968 – Matt Goss, English singer
1969 – Erika Eleniak, American actress and model
1969 – Ivica Vastic, Austrian footballer
1970 – Emily Lloyd, English actress
1971 – Mackenzie Crook, English actor and comedian
1972 – Robert Webb, English comedian, actor and screenwriter (Peep Show)
1974 – Alexis Cruz, American actor
1975 – Albert Celades, Spanish footballer

From 1976

1976 – Andriy Shevchenko, Ukrainian footballer
1977 – Heath Bell, American baseball player
1978 – Aleš Fućak, Croatian comedian
1979 – Gaitana, Ukrainian singer
1980 – Patrick Agyemang, English footballer
1980 – Zachary Levi, American actor
1980 – Dallas Green, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1981 – Shane Smeltz, New Zealand footballer
1982 – Amy Williams, British skeleton bobsledder
1984 – Per Mertesacker, German footballer
1984 – Rune Almenning Jarstein, Norwegian footballer
1985 – Dani Pedrosa, Spanish motorcycle racer
1986 – Matty McLean, New Zealand television broadcaster
1987 – Josh Farro, American bassist (Paramore)
1988 – Kevin Durant, American basketball player
1989 – Yevhen Konoplyanka, Ukrainian footballer
1990 – Doug Brochu, American actor
1990 – Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir, Icelandic footballer
1990 – Lena Wermelt, German footballer
1993 – Carlos Salcedo, Mexican footballer
1994 – Halsey, American singer-songwriter
1994 – Andy Polo, Peruvian footballer
1999 – Juan Valentín Urdangarín, Spanish royal
2008 – Emma Tallulah Behn, member of the extended Norwegian Royal Family

Deaths

Up to 1950

48 BC – Pompey the Great, Roman general (assassinated) (b. 106 BC)
722 – Leudwinus, Frankish bishop (b. 660)
855 – Lothair I, Emperor of the Romans (b. 795)
1364 – Charles de Blois, Duke of Brittany (b. 1319)
1560 – King Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1496)
1637 – Lorenzo Ruiz, Filipino saint (b. 1600)
1800 – Michael Denis, Austrian poet (b. 1729)
1804 – Michael Hillegas, first Treasurer of the United States (b. 1728)
1833 – King Ferdinand VII of Spain (b. 1784)
1862 – William "Bull" Nelson, American military officer (b. 1824)
1887 – Bernhard von Langenbeck, German surgeon (b. 1810)
1900 – Michael Denis, Austrian priest (b. 1729)
1902 – Émile Zola, French writer (b. 1840)
1902 – William Topaz McGonagall, Scottish poet (b. 1825)
1908 – Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian writer (b. 1839)
1910 – Winslow Homer, American painter (b. 1836)
1913 – Rudolf Diesel, German inventor and engineer (b. 1858)
1925 – Léon Bourgeois, French politician (b. 1851)
1927 – Willem Einthoven, Dutch doctor, won the 1924 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1860)
1930 – Ilya Repin, Ukrainian painter (b. 1844)
1937 – Ray Ewry, American athlete (b. 1873)

1951 – 2000

1952 – John Cobb, British racing driver (b. 1899)
1953 – Ernst Reuter, German politician (b. 1889)
1958 – Aarre Merikanto, Finnish composer (b. 1893)
1964 – Fred Tootell, American athlete (b. 1902)
1967 – Carson McCullers, American writer (b. 1917)
1970 – Edward Everett Horton, actor (b. 1886)
1973 – W. H. Auden, English poet (b. 1907)
1975 – Casey Stengel, American baseball player and coach (b. 1890)
1981 – Bill Shankly, Scottish football manager (b. 1913)
1982 – Monty Stratton, American Major League Baseball pitcher (b. 1912)
1987 – Henry Ford II, American businessman (b. 1917)
1988 – Charles Addams, American cartoonist (b. 1912)
1989 – August Anheuser Busch, Jr., American brewer (b. 1899)
1993 – Gordon Douglas, American movie director (b. 1907)
1994 – Cheb Hasni, Algerian singer (b. 1968)
1996 – Leslie Crowther, English comedian, actor and game show host (b. 1933)
1997 – Roy Lichtenstein, American artist (b. 1923)
1998 – Tom Bradley, Mayor of Los Angeles, California (b. 1917)

From 2001

2001 – Nguyen Van Thieu, President of South Vietnam (b. 1923)
2004 – Christer Pettersson, Swedish murder suspect (b. 1947)
2006 – Louis-Albert Vachon, French-Canadian cardinal and Archbishop of Quebec (b. 1912)
2006 – Walter Hadlee, 91, New Zealand cricketer, (b. 1915)
2007 – Lois Maxwell, Canadian actress (b. 1927)
2009 – Pavel Popovich, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1930)
2010 – Georges Charpak, Polish-born physicist (b. 1924)
2010 – Tony Curtis, American actor (b. 1925)
2010 – Greg Giraldo, American comedian (b. 1965)
2011 – Hella Haasse, Dutch writer (b. 1918)
2012 – Hebe Camargo, Brazilian actress, singer and television presenter (b. 1929)
2012 – Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, American publisher (b. 1926)
2013 – Carl Joachim Classen, German scholar (b. 1928)
2014 – Miguel Boyer, French-Spanish economist and politician (b. 1939)
2014 – Luis Nishizawa, Mexican painter (b. 1918)
2014 – George Shuba, American baseball player (b. 1924)
2015 – Phil Woods, American jazz musician, bandleader and composer (b. 1931)
2015 – Hellmuth Karasek, German literary critic and journalist (b. 1934)
2016 – Miriam Defensor Santiago, Filipina politician (b. 1945)
2017 – Tom Alter, Indian actor (b. 1950)
2017 – Ludmila Belousova, Russian skater (b. 1935)
2017 – Magdalena Ribbing, Swedish etiquette expert, writer and journalist (b. 1940)
2017 – Dmitry Smolsky, Belarussian composer and teacher (b. 1937)
2018 – Alves Barbosa, Portuguese cyclist (b. 1931)
2018 – Otis Rush, American blues guitarist and singer (b. 1935)
2019 – Beatriz Aguirre, Mexican actress (b. 1925)
2019 – Busbee, American songwriter (b. 1976)
2019 – Ilkka Laitinen, Finnish military officer and politician (b. 1962)
2019 – Yuriy Meshkov, Russian politician (b. 1945)
2020 – Mac Davis, American country singer (b. 1942)
2020 – Helen Reddy, Australian-American singer (b. 1941)

Observances

Christian Feast Day of Michaelmas and Feast day of the three Archangels, honouring St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael
Inventors' Day in Argentina
International Coffee Day
Victory of Boquerón Day (Paraguay)

Other websites

BBC: On This Day