September 29 is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years). There are 93 days remaining until the end of the year. (Photo: Washington National Cathedral, by I. Clifford, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Today in History

• The Greeks defeat the Persians at the Battle of Salamis (480 BCE)
• The cornerstone of Washington National Cathedral is laid (1907 CE) and construction is completed (1990 CE)
• The British Mandate for Palestine takes effect (1923 CE)
• The Munich Agreement gives Germany permission to annex the Sudentenland (1938 CE)
• The Babi Yar massacre begins (1941 CE)
• The first live sporting event televised coast to coast in the US (college football game between Duke and the University of Pittsburgh) takes place (1951 CE)
• Canada launches its first satellite, Alouette 1 (1962 CE)
• The Chicago Tylenol murders take place (1982 CE)
• The Dow posts its largest single-day point loss (777.68 points, 2008)

Birthdays

• Gnaeus Pompeus Magnus (Pompey the Great), Roman general (106 BCE)
• Miguel de Cervantes, quixotic author (1547 CE)
• Caravaggio, painter (1571 CE)
• Robert Clive, East India conqueror (1725 CE)
• Horatio Nelson, Hardy kisser (1758 CE)
• Ludwig von Mises, praxeologist (1881 CE)
• J.B. Rhine, parapsychologist (1895 CE)
• Roscoe Turner, pilot and showman (1895 CE)
• László Bíró, inventor of the ballpoint pen (1899 CE)
• Enrico Fermi, “father of the atomic bomb” (1901 CE)
• Greer Garson, actress (1904 CE)
• Gene Autry, singing cowboy (1907 CE)
• Michelangelo Antonioni, director (1912 CE)
• Stanley Kramer, director (1913 CE)
• Stan Berenstain, bear (1923 CE)
• Anita Ekberg, sex symbol (1931 CE)
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, student of happiness (1934 CE)
• Jerry Lee Lewis, killer (1935 CE)
• Silvio Berlusconi, bunga bunga partier (1936 CE)
• Tommy Boyce, Monkee songwriter (1939 CE)
• Larry Linville, M*A*S*H player (1939 CE)
• Madeline Kahn, taffeta wearer (1942 CE)
• Jean-Luc Ponty, violinist (1942 CE)
• Lech Wałęsa, Solidarność leader (1943 CE)
• Mike Post, composer (1944 CE)
• Bryant Gumbel, television host (1948 CE)
• Gábor Csupó, Rugrat creator (1952 CE)
• Suzzy Roche, singer (1956 CE)
• Andrew Dice Clay, insult comic (1957 CE)
• Erikka Eleniak, baywatched (1969 CE)
• Zachary Levi, TV spy (1980 CE)
• Kevin Durant, basketball player (1988 CE)

Deaths

• Émile Zola, writer (1902 CE)
• Rudolf Diesel, engine namesake (1913 CE)
• Carson McCullers, member of the wedding (1917 CE)
• Edward Everett Horton, fractured fairy tale narrator (1970 CE)
• W.H. Auden, poet (1973 CE)
• Casey Stengel, old perfessor (1975 CE)
• Monty Stratton, one-legged baseball player (1982 CE)
• Henry Ford II, car executive (1987 CE)
• Charles Addams, family man (1988 CE)
• Gussie Busch, brewer (1989 CE)
• Roy Lichtenstein, pop artist (1997 CE)
• Tom Bradley, LA major (1998 CE)
• Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, last president of South Vietnam (2001 CE)
• Lois Maxwell, Miss Moneypenny (2007 CE)
• Па́вел Попо́вич (Pavel Popovich), cosmonaut (2009 CE)
• Tony Curtis, liked it hot (2010 CE)
• Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, newspaperman (2012 CE)

Holidays

• Michaelmas (Christianity)
• International Coffee Day (originally the All Japan Coffee Association, 全日本コーヒー協会, and later fair trade advocates)
• Inventors’ Day (Argentina)
• Victory of Boquerón Day (Paraguay)