Today in history: September 29

updated 12:03 a.m. ET Sept. 29, 2006

Today is Friday, Sept. 29, the 272nd day of 2006. There are 93 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Sept. 29, 1978, Pope John Paul I was found dead in his Vatican apartment just over a month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.

On this date:

In 1789, the U.S. War Department established a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.

In 1829, London’s reorganized police force, which became known as Scotland Yard, went on duty.

In 1918, Allied forces scored a decisive breakthrough of the Hindenburg Line during World War I.

In 1938, British, French, German and Italian leaders signed the Munich Agreement, which was aimed at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland.

In 1955, a one-act version of the Arthur Miller play “A View From the Bridge” opened in New York. (Miller later turned it into a two-act play.)

In 1963, the second session of Second Vatican Council opened in Rome.

In 1979, Pope John Paul II became the first pope to visit Ireland as he arrived for a three-day tour.

In 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died after unwittingly taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide.

In 1986, the Soviet Union released Nicholas Daniloff, an American journalist confined in Moscow on spying charges.

In 1988, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking America’s return to manned space flight following the Challenger disaster.

Ten years ago: The organization that supervised Bosnia’s first postwar elections officially certified the results — with victories by nationalist parties and the country’s Muslim president, Alija Izetbegovic.

Five years ago: President 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. Former South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu died in Boston at age 78.

One year ago: John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in as the nation’s 17th chief justice after winning Senate confirmation. New York Times reporter Judith Miller was released from 85 days of federal detention after agreeing to testify in a criminal probe into the leak of a covert CIA officer’s identity. Three suicide car bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in Balad, a mostly Shiite town north of Baghdad, killing some 60 people.

Today’s Birthdays: Movie director Michelangelo Antonioni is 94. Actress Lizabeth Scott is 84. Actor Steve Forrest is 82. Actress Anita Ekberg is 75. Actor Eddie Barth is 75. Writer-director Robert Benton is 74. Singer Jerry Lee Lewis is 71. Actor Ian McShane is

64. Jazz musician Jean-Luc Ponty is 64. Lech Walesa, the former president of Poland, is 63. Television-film composer Mike Post is

62. Actress Patricia Hodge is 60. TV personality Bryant Gumbel is

58. Rock singer-musician Mark Farner is 58. Rock musician Mike Pinera is 58. Country singer Alvin Crow is 56. Actor Drake Hogestyn is 53. Singer Suzzy Roche (The Roches) is 50. Rock singer John Payne (Asia) is 48. Actor Roger Bart is 44. Singer-musician Les Claypool is 43. Actress Jill Whelan is 40. Rhythm-and-blues singer Devante Swing (Jodeci) is 37. Actress Emily Lloyd is 36. Actress Natasha Gregson Wagner is 36. Actress Rachel Cronin is 35. Country musician Danick Dupelle (Emerson Drive) is 33. Country singer Katie McNeill (3 of Hearts) is 24.

Thought for Today: “Any man should be happy who is allowed the patience of his wife, the tolerance of his children and the affection of waiters.” — Michael Arlen, English novelist (1895-1956).

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