Holidays
Michaelmas Day
Feast day of Saint Michael, the patron saint of policeman, grocers, paratroopers, and radiologists.
What Happened On
Most Hated Woman in America Murdered
September 29, 1995
Madalyn Murray O'Hair is murdered along with her son and granddaughter. O'Hair was an atheist known for getting Bible reading banned in U.S. public schools (1963), earning her the moniker, "The Most Hated Woman in America." She, her son Jon, and her granddaughter were murdered after having been kidnapped by former disgruntled employee David Roland Waters. After discovering that Waters had stolen $54,000 from O'Hair's organization American Atheists, she exposed Waters and his other crimes to American Atheists members. His crimes included a 1977 incident in which Waters allegedly beat and urinated on his mother and the murder of another teenager at age 17. Enraged, Waters and some accomplices kidnapped O'Hair and the others and forced her to withdraw $600,000 which they used to purchase gold coins. The kidnappers then killed their three victims and mutilated their bodies. Most of the gold coins were placed in a rented storage locker, where they were stolen by a gang of thieves targeting storage lockers and never recovered.
The Netflix movie The Most Hated Woman in America is based on her murder.
Tylenol Murders
September 29, 1982
The first two of seven deaths from cyanide-laced Tylenol acetaminophen capsules. A 12-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man die after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules. The man's brother and sister-in-law later also died from after taking Tylenol from the same bottle. Three other people would die in the following days. Tests showed that the Tylenol had been laced with cyanide. Several others also died in copycat murders.
The tampered bottles came from different pharmaceutical companies and all were in the Chicago area, leading authorities to conclude that someone was lacing the medicine and putting it back on the shelves.
The killer has never been caught. James William Lewis was convicted of extortion for sending a letter to Johnson & Johnson that took credit for the deaths and demanded $1 million to stop them; however, he was in New York at the time and never charged for the actual murders. He served 13 years of a 20-year sentence, and was paroled in 1995.
This incident prompted the pharmaceutical, food, and consumer product industries to develop tamper-resistant packaging.
Danny Thomas with Sherry Jackson, who played his daughter
Danny Thomas with Sherry Jackson, who played his daughter
Make Room for Daddy
September 29, 1953
The TV sitcom Make Room for Daddy, starring Danny Thomas, debuts on ABC. It was renamed The Danny Thomas Show in 1956 and ran until 1964.
While Danny Thomas was a "starving actor", he swore if he found success, he would open a shrine to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes. With help from Dr. Lemuel Diggs and Anthony Abraham, in 1962 Thomas founded the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Tokyo Rose
September 29, 1949
Iva Toguri D'Aquino, the most famous of the women known as Tokyo Rose, is sentenced to 7-10 years for treason for broadcasting Japanese propaganda to the U.S. troops during World War II. She would serve 6 years before being paroled.
Born in the U.S. to Japanese immigrants, she was visiting Japan when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor. Unable to return the U.S., she began hosting the radio show Zero Hour broadcasting propaganda and entertainment to U.S. troops. During this time, she used part of her earnings to buy and smuggle food to Allied POWs, as she had also done before she began broadcasting.
She was pardoned by U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1977 after is was discovered that witnesses against her had been coerced into lying under oath.
Manhattan Project
September 29, 1942
Corps of Engineers is authorized to acquire 56,000 acres (23,000 ha) of land in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to create a secret nuclear research site. The land was acquired by eminent domain, paying land owners an average of $47 an acre. More than 1,000 families were relocated to make room for the facility. Some families were given two weeks' notice to vacate farms that had been in their family for generations.
This was part of the Manhattan project, which built the first nuclear bombs, including the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
Early Bobbies in uniform, which included top hats
Early Bobbies in uniform, which included top hats
Scotland Yard
September 29, 1829
The Greater London's Metropolitan Police - now known as Scotland Yard - is formed with the passing of Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act. The force was directly under Peel's control as Home Secretary and policemen were called "Peelers" or "Bobbies" after Peel.
The name Scotland Yard was due to the public entrance to the police station being on the street Great Scotland Yard, although the official address was 4 Whitehall Place. In 1890, the headquarters were moved and the name was changed to New Scotland Yard.
Patriot Missile Success Rate Disputed
September 29, 1992
The General Accounting Office reports a 9% success rate during the Gulf War as opposed to the Army's initial report of 80%
Photo Credit: Steve Lipofsky
Photo Credit: Steve Lipofsky
Magic Johnson Comes Out of Retirement
September 29, 1992
Magic Johnson comes out of retirement to play for the Los Angeles Lakers after retiring less than a year earlier. He retired again for good before the season started.
Don't Drink Milk
September 29, 1992
The baby doctor Benjamin Spock recommends that people should not drink cow's milk.
Back In Space
September 29, 1988
The space shuttle Discovery is launched, ending the 32-month U.S. absence from space since the Challenger disaster.
thirtysomething
September 29, 1987
The TV show thirtysomething debuts on ABC, showing us the everyday lives of baby-boomers.
Jimmy's World
September 29, 1980
The Washington Post publishes a story by Janet Cooke about an eight-year-old heroin addict, for which she would win a Pulitzer prize. It was later revealed that she made the story up.
First Woman to Judge a Heavyweight Boxing Championship
September 29, 1977
Eva Shain referees the Muhammad Ali vs. Earnie Shavers fight at Madison Square Garden.
Cold War
September 29, 1960
At a United Nations conference, Premier of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev twice interrupts a speech by British prime minister Harold Macmillan by shouting out and pounding his desk. Macmillan famously commented, "I should like that to be translated if he wants to say anything."
Italy Declares War on the Ottoman Empire
September 29, 1911
Italy declares war on the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire, alleging that its citizens had been mistreated in Libya.
Ute War
September 29, 1879
The week-long Battle of Mill Creek in northwestern Colorado between the Ute Indians and the U.S. soldiers begins. The Utes were fighting to preserve their reservation.
Birthdays
World's Heaviest Human
Jon Brower Minnoch
Born September 29, 1941 d. 1983
American heavyweight. World's heaviest human. At his heaviest, he weighed approximately 1,400 pounds (635 kg).
At the age of 12, he weighed 294 lb (133 kilograms), and by age 22 he was 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) in height and weighed 500 lb (230 kilograms). He had a medical condition that caused his body to store excess extracellular fluid. It was estimated that he was retaining over 900 lbs (408 kg) of fluid. During a 16-month hospital stay, he was placed on a 1200 calorie a day diet and lost approximately 924 lb (419 kg), lowering his bodyweight to 476 lb (216 kg). This is the largest known human weight loss. However, after leaving the hospital, his weight increased to 952 lb (432 kg) over the following year. He was 798 lb (362 kg) at the time of his death.
Jerry Lee Lewis
Born September 29, 1935 d. 2022
American rock 'n' roll singer. Music: Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (1957, #1) and Great Balls of Fire (1957, #1). He created a scandal in 1957 by marrying his 13-year-old cousin. Source: Great Balls of Fire: The Uncensored Story of Jerry Lee Lewis
Gene Autry
Born September 29, 1907 d. 1998
American actor, the singing cowboy. He wrote and recorded more than 200 songs. His recording of the Johnny Marks song Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer made #1 in 1949.
László Biró (László József Schweiger)
Born September 29, 1899 d. 1985
Hungarian-Argentine inventor. He patented the first successful ballpoint pen (1943). He noticed that printer's ink dried quickly, but was too thick to use in a fountain pen. He developed a ball tip that was free to turn in a socket, and would pick up ink from a cartridge as it turned and then deposit it on the paper. He originally patented his pen in Paris in 1938, but had to flee to Argentina due to the Nazis. See U.S. Patent 2390636A
Father of Modern Parapsychology
Joseph Banks Rhine
Born September 29, 1895 d. 1980
American parapsychologist. Known as the "Father of Modern Parapsychology", he coined the term "extrasensory perception" (ESP) to describe the ability to acquire information without the use of the known senses. He conducted a series of experiments using the familiar ESP cards, known as Zener cards, picturing wavy lines, square, circle, star, and cross. He also co-edited Parapsychology Today. Some of his subjects in his Zener card experiments showed results greater than expected from random chance and looked very promising. However, after correcting experimental flaws in his test design, the scientific community has not been able to replicate Rhine's results.
Captain of the Hindenburg
Max Pruss
Born September 29, 1891 d. 1960
German aviator. Captain of the Hindenburg when it crashed in 1937. He maintained throughout his life that the Hindenburg was destroyed by a bomb.
Inventor of the Safety Pin
Walter Hunt
Born September 29, 1796 d. 1859
American mechanical engineer. Walter Hunt invented the modern safety pin (1849). Various versions of safety pins date back to the ancient Romans, however, Hunt's version included a spring to hold the pin in place. Hunt sold the rights to his safety pin for $400 (equivalent to $12,440), which went on to earn millions for others.
Hunt's other inventions include a sewing machine, repeating rifle, and fountain pen.
Ken Weatherwax as Pugsley Addams with Morticia
Ken Weatherwax as Pugsley Addams with Morticia
Ken Weatherwax
Born September 29, 1955 d. 2014
American actor. TV: The Addams Family (1964-66, Pugsley). His uncle was Rudd Weatherwax, Lassie's trainer and owner of the first dog to play the role. He died of a heart attack at age 59.
Bryant Gumbel
Born September 29, 1948
American TV sportscaster and Today show host.
Lech Walesa
Born September 29, 1943
Polish union leader. He formed the labor union Solidarity (1980).
Madeline Kahn
Born September 29, 1942 d. 1999
American actress. Film: Paper Moon (1973), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), and History of the World - Part I (1981).
Larry Linville
Born September 29, 1939 d. 2000
American actor. TV: M*A*S*H (1972-77, Maj. Frank Burns).
Anita Ekberg
Born September 29, 1931 d. 2015
Swedish-Italian voluptuous actress, Mrs. Sweden (1951). Film: La Dolce Vita (1959).
Charles "Chuck" Cooper
Born September 29, 1926 d. 1984
American basketball player. He was the first black drafted by the NBA (1950, Boston Celtics).
Trevor Howard
Born September 29, 1913 d. 1988
English Emmy-winning actor. Film: Brief Encounter (1945) and Sons and Lovers (1960). TV: The Invincible Mr. Disraeli (1963, Emmy).
Stanley Kramer
Born September 29, 1913 d. 2001
American Oscar-winning film producer, director. His was the first permanent star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Film: High Noon (1952), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).
Michelangelo Antonioni
Born September 29, 1912 d. 2007
Italian award-winning film director, Best known for his trilogy L'Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961), and Eclipse (1962), and for Blow-Up (1966, featuring its ball-less tennis match). His films, using minimal plots and dialogues, are known for using their sets and long lingering shots to reveal their character's innermost feelings.
Virginia Bruce
Born September 29, 1910 d. 1982
American actress. Film: The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Invisible Woman (1941).
Greer Garson
Born September 29, 1904 d. 1996
British Oscar-winning actress. Film: Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939) and Mrs. Miniver (1942, Oscar).
Ted De Corsia
Born September 29, 1903 d. 1973
American actor. His death was attributed to radiation exposure received from an A-bomb test near the filming of the movie The Conqueror in 1953. By 1980, of the 220 members of the cast and crew, 91 of them had developed some form of cancer and 46 had died of the disease.
Film: The Enforcer (1951) and The Conqueror (1956).
Enrico Fermi
Born September 29, 1901 d. 1954
Italian-born American physicist, one of the pioneers of the nuclear age. He led the team which performed the first controlled nuclear chain reaction (1942).
Elizabeth Gaskell
Born September 29, 1810 d. 1865
English novelist, one of the most popular of the Victorian novelists. Writings: Mary Barton (1848) and Cranford (1853).
Horatio Nelson
Born September 29, 1758 d. 1805
British naval commander. He died while leading the British fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar in which he defeated the Spanish and French fleets ending Napoleon Bonaparte's threat of invading England.
Baron Clive of Plassey (Robert Clive)
Born September 29, 1725 d. 1774
British soldier. Founder of the British Indian empire.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Born September 29, 1547 d. 1616
Spanish author. Writings: Don Quixote (1605).
Pompey the Great
Born September 29, 106 B.C. d. 48 B.C.
Roman general. With Caesar and Crassus, he formed the first triumvirate (60 B.C.). In 49 B.C. he began the civil war against Caesar, in which he was defeated and killed by one of his old centurions while fleeing to Egypt.
Deaths
Tony Curtis (Bernard Schwartz)
Died September 29, 2010 b. 1925
American actor. Film: Some Like It Hot (1959). TV: The Persuaders (Danny Wilde).
Most Hated Woman in America - Banned Bible Reading
Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Died September 29, 1995 b. 1919
American atheist. Known for getting Bible reading banned in U.S. public schools (1963). She filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore public school system, claiming her son's refusal to participate in Bible readings at public school resulted in bullying that was condoned by school administrators. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court resulting in the banning of Bible reading in public schools (1963). School prayer had been banned the previous year. As a result, Life magazine called her "the most hated woman in America." She then went on to found the organization American Atheists (1963) and created the first issues of American Atheist Magazine (1963). Her son, the subject of the court case, later converted to Christianity and became a Baptist minister. O'Hair, her other son Jon, and her granddaughter were kidnapped and murdered by former disgruntled employee David Roland Waters. After discovering that Waters had stolen $54,000 from American Atheists, O'Hair exposed him and his other crimes to American Atheists members. His crimes included a 1977 incident in which Waters allegedly beat and urinated on his mother and the murder of another teenager at the age of 17. Enraged, Waters and some accomplices kidnapped O'Hair and the others and forced her to withdraw $600,000 which they used to purchase gold coins. The kidnappers then killed their three victims and mutilated their bodies. Most of the gold coins were placed in a rented storage locker, where they were stolen by a gang of thieves targeting storage lockers and never recovered.
The Netflix movie The Most Hated Woman in America is based on her murder.
August Anheuser Busch, Jr. - c1910
August Anheuser Busch, Jr. - c1910
August Anheuser Busch, Jr.
Died September 29, 1989 b. 1899
American beer-company executive. After learning the family business, Busch became superintendent of Anheuser-Busch brewing operations in 1924 and head of the brewing division after his father's death in 1934. By 1957, it had become the largest brewery in the world.
He was owner of the St. Louis Cardinals franchise in Major League Baseball from 1953 until his death.
One of The Beatles - Well, almost
Thomas Henry "Tommy" Moore
Died September 29, 1981 b. 1931
English drummer. Was a member of the Silver Beetles (1960), which later became The Beatles. He quit because he "had enough of Lennon," and because their bookings interfered with his job as a fork-lift driver.
Moore quit after they returned from a tour where Moore lost his front teeth when the group's van was involved in a minor accident. When the other members tried to talk him into staying in the band, his wife shouted at them, "you can all piss off!"
Drums were taken over by Pete Best who was later replaced by Ringo Starr.
Ron Ely (Ronald Pierce Ely)
Died September 29, 2024 b. 1938
American actor. TV: Tarzan (1966-68, title role), The Aquanauts (1960-61), Face the Music (1980-81, host), and Miss America Pageant (1980-81, host). Ely did virtually all of his stunts for the Tarzan series, and as a consequence suffered two dozen major injuries in the process, including two broken shoulders and various lion bites.
Film: Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975, title role).
Helen Reddy
Died September 29, 2020 b. 1941
Australian-American singer. In 1966, she won a talent contest on the television program, Bandstand, winning a record audition in New York City, which was unsuccessful.
I Am Woman made Reddy the first Australian singer to top the U.S. charts.
Music: I Am Woman (1972, #1), Delta Dawn (1973, #1), and Angie Baby (1974, #1). Film: Airport 1975 (1974, singing Best Friend) and Pete's Dragon (1977, singing Candle on the Water).
Clifford Byron Hicks
Died September 29, 2010 b. 1920
American children's author. Writings: The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald (1960), Alvin Fernald, Mayor for a Day (1970), and Peter Potts (1971).
Lois Maxwell (Lois Ruth Hooker)
Died September 29, 2007 b. 1927
Canadian actress. Film: Miss Moneypenny in the first 14 of the James Bond movies (1962-85).
Wystan Hugh Auden
Died September 29, 1973 b. 1907
English-born American poet. Quote: "We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know."
Willem Einthoven
Died September 29, 1927 b. 1860
Dutch physiologist. His work on the string galvanometer led to the invention of the electrocardiograph, for which he received the 1924 Nobel prize.
Rudolf Diesel
Died September 29, 1913 b. 1858
German engineer and inventor of the diesel engine (1892).
Ferdinand VII
Died September 29, 1833 b. 1784
King of Spain (1808-33). It was during his rule that most of the Spanish possessions in Latin America rebelled and won their independence.