Today's Highlight in History:
On Sept. 29, 1789, the U.S. War Department established a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.
On this date:
In 1829, London's reorganized police force, which became known as Scotland Yard, went on duty.
In 1862, Prussia's newly appointed minister-president, Otto von Bismarck, delivered a speech to the country's parliament in which he declared the issue of German unification would be decided "not through speeches and majority decisions" but by "iron and blood (Eisen und Blut)." (Some references give the date of this speech as Sept. 30, 1862.)
In 1907, the foundation stone was laid for the Washington National Cathedral, which wasn't fully completed until this date in 1990.
In 1912, movie director Michelangelo Antonioni was born in Ferrara, Italy.
Local
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 1957, the New York Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-1. (The Giants moved to San Francisco.)
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 1982, Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide claimed the first of seven victims in the Chicago area. (To date, the case remains unsolved.)
In 1986, the Soviet Union released Nicholas Daniloff, an American journalist confined on spying charges.
In 1987, Henry Ford II, longtime chairman of Ford Motor Co., died in Detroit at age 70.
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: The White House denied that President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, had leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity to retaliate against her husband, an opponent of the administration's Iraq policy. President Bush signed legislation to ratify the Federal Trade Commission's authority to set up a national do-not-call list for telemarketers.
Five 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.
One year ago: Omar Khadr, the last Western detainee held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, returned to Canada after a decade in custody. Former New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger died at the age of 86.
Today's Birthdays: Actress Lizabeth Scott is 92. Conductor Richard Bonynge is 83. Actress Anita Ekberg is 82. Writer-director Robert Benton is 81. Singer Jerry Lee Lewis is 78. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is 77. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is 71. Actor Ian McShane is 71. Jazz musician Jean-Luc Ponty is 71. Lech Walesa (lehk vah-WEN'-sah), the former president of Poland, is 70. Television-film composer Mike Post is 69. Actress Patricia Hodge is 67. TV personality Bryant Gumbel is 65. Rock singer-musician Mark Farner is 65. Rock singer-musician Mike Pinera is 65. Country singer Alvin Crow is 63. Actor Drake Hogestyn is 60. Broadcast journalist Gwen Ifill is 58. Former child actor Ken Weatherwax (TV: "The Addams Family") is 58. Olympic gold medal runner Sebastian Coe is 57. Singer Suzzy Roche (The Roches) is 57. Comedian-actor Andrew "Dice" Clay is 56. Rock singer John Payne (Asia) is 55. Actor Roger Bart is 51. Singer-musician Les Claypool is 50. Actress Jill Whelan is 47. Actor Luke Goss is 45. Rock musician Brad Smith (Blind Melon) is 45. Actress Erika Eleniak is 44. Rhythm-and-blues singer Devante Swing (Jodeci) is 44. Country singer Brad Cotter ("Nashville Star") is 43. Actress Emily Lloyd is 43. Actress Natasha Gregson Wagner is 43. Actress Rachel Cronin is 42. Country musician Danick Dupelle (Emerson Drive) is 40. Actor Alexis Cruz is 39. Actor Zachary Levi is 33. Country singer Katie McNeill (3 of Hearts) is 31. Rock musician Josh Farro is 26. Actor Doug Brochu is 23. Singer Phillip Phillips is 23. Actress Clara Mamet is 19.
Thought for Today: "Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both." — Eleanor Roosevelt, American first lady (1884-1962)
