This Day in History – September 29, 2011

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1789 The United States Department of War first establishes a regular army with a strength of several hundred men. 1789 The 1st United States Congress adjourns.Roman Catholic hierarchy is re-established in England and Wales by Pope Pius IX. 1864 American Civil War: The Battle of Chaffin’s Farm is fought. 1885 The first practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England. 1907 The cornerstone is laid at Washington National Cathedral in the U.S. capital. 1916 John D. Rockefeller becomes the second billionaire. 1941 World War II: Holocaust in Kiev, Ukraine: German Einsatzgruppe C begins the Babi Yar massacre, according to the Einsatzgruppen operational situation report. 1943 World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign an armistice aboard the Royal Navy battleship HMS Nelson off Malta. 1951 The first live sporting event seen coast-to-coast in the United States, a college football game between Duke and the University of Pittsburgh, is televised on NBC. 1954 The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed. 1957 20 MCi (740 petabecquerels) of radioactive material is released in an explosion at the Soviet Mayak nuclear plant at Chelyabinsk. 1966 The Chevrolet Camaro, originally named Panther, is introduced. 1975 WGPR in Detroit, Michigan, becomes the world’s first black-owned-and-operated television station. 1979 Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to set foot on Irish soil with his pastoral visit to the Republic of Ireland. 1982 The 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders begin when the first of seven individuals dies in metropolitan Chicago. 1983 1st time Congress invokes War Powers Act1983 Oakland A’s Mike Warren no-hits Chicago White Sox, 3-01985 First of 5 cyanide-laced Tylenol victims dies 1988 Space Shuttle: NASA launches STS-26, the return to flight mission, after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The mission logo of STS-26, flown by OV-103. 1990 Construction of the Washington National Cathedral is completed. 1990 The YF-22, which would later become the F-22 Raptor, flies for the first time. 1995 The United States Navy disbands Fighter Squadron 84 (VF-84), nicknamed the “Jolly Rogers”. 2001 The Syracuse Herald-Journal, a U.S. newspaper dating back to 1839, ceases publication. 2004 The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of Earth. 2004 The Burt Rutan Ansari X Prize entry SpaceShipOne performs a successful spaceflight, the first of two required to win the prize. 2005 United States Senate confirms John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States. 2006 US Representative Mark Foley resigns after allegations of inappropriate emails. 2006 Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 collides in mid-air with an Embraer Legacy business jet near Peixoto de Azevedo, Mato Grosso, Brazil, killing 154 total people, and triggering a Brazilian aviation crisis. 2007 Calder Hall, the world’s first commercial nuclear power station, is demolished in a controlled explosion. 2008 Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history.2009 An 8.0 magnitude earthquake near the Samoan Islands causes a tsunami.]]]]> ]]>