12 History Lessons + 8 Births & 7 Deaths for September 29, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1829 – London’s Metropolitan Police (“Bobbies”) begin patrols.
- 1907 – Washington National Cathedral’s foundation stone is laid in a ceremony attended by President Theodore Roosevelt.
- 1913 – Inventor Rudolf Diesel mysteriously disappears from the steamship Dresden.
- 1918 – Bulgaria signs the Armistice of Salonica, exiting World War I.
- 1941 – The Babi Yar massacre begins near Kyiv; nearly 34,000 Jews are murdered over two days.
- 1954 – CERN is formally created as the Convention enters into force.
- 1966 – The Chevrolet Camaro officially goes on sale in the United States.
- 1979 – Pope John Paul II begins the first-ever papal visit to Ireland.
- 1982 – Chicago Tylenol poisonings kill seven, prompting nationwide tamper-evident packaging laws.
- 1988 – NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery launches STS-26, the “Return to Flight” mission post-Challenger.
- 1990 – Washington National Cathedral is completed with the placement of the “final finial.”
- 2008 – U.S. stocks plunge; the Dow falls a record 777 points after the House rejects the bailout bill.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1942 – Ian McShane, English actor (Deadwood, John Wick) (83).
- 1948 – Bryant Gumbel, American TV journalist (Today, Real Sports) (77).
- 1951 – Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile & ex-UN human rights chief (74).
- 1961 – Julia Gillard, former prime minister of Australia (64).
- 1974 – J Cleveland Payne, founder of More Better Media, LLC (51).
- 1980 – Zachary Levi, actor (Chuck, Shazam!) (45).
- 1988 – Kevin Durant, NBA superstar & two-time Finals MVP (37).
- 1994 – Halsey, singer-songwriter (“Without Me,” Manic) (31).
Today’s Deaths:
- 1560 – Gustav I Vasa, king who established modern Swedish sovereignty (64).
- 1902 – Émile Zola, French novelist of the Dreyfus era (62).
- 1913 – Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine (55).
- 1930 – Ilya Repin, influential realist painter (86).
- 1973 – W. H. Auden, poet and essayist (66).
- 1987 – Henry Ford II, industrialist and longtime Ford Motor Company chief (70).
- 2010 – Tony Curtis, Hollywood film star (Some Like It Hot) (85).
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