today.nukz.net: Almanac September 29

Enrico Fermi ( 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian physicist, naturalized American later in his life, particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics. He was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity.

Events

522 BC – Darius I of Persia kills the Magian usurper Gaumâta, securing his hold as king of the Persian Empire.
480 BC – Battle of Salamis: The Greek fleet under Themistocles defeats the Persian fleet under Xerxes I.
61 BC – Pompey the Great celebrates his third triumph for victories over the pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars on his 45th birthday.
1227 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades.
1364 – Battle of Auray: English forces defeat the French in Brittany; end of the Breton War of Succession.
1567 – At a dinner, the Duke of Alba arrests the Count of Egmont and the Count of Hoorn for treason.
1650 – Henry Robinson opens his Office of Addresses and Encounters in Threadneedle Street, London.
1717 – An earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city's architecture and making authorities consider moving the capital to a different city.
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.
1829 – The Metropolitan Police of London, later also known as the Met, is founded.
1848 – Battle of Pákozd: stalemate between Hungarian and Croatian forces at Pákozd; the first battle of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.
1850 – The 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.
1911 – Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
1918 – World War I, Battle of St. Quentin Canal: The Hindenburg Line is broken by Allied forces. Bulgaria signs an armistice.
1923 – The British Mandate for Palestine takes effect, creating Mandatory Palestine.
1932 – Chaco War: Last day of the Battle of Boquerón between Paraguay and Bolivia.
1938 – Munich Agreement: Germany was given permission from France, Italy, and Great Britain to seize the territory of Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. The meeting occurred in Munich, and leaders from neither the Soviet Union nor Czechoslovakia attended.
1941 – World War II: Holocaust in Kyiv, Soviet Union: German Einsatzgruppe C begins the Babyn Yar massacre, according to the Einsatzgruppen operational situation report.
1949 – The Communist Party of China writes the Common Programme for the future People's Republic of China.
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.
1960 – Nikita Khrushchev, leader of Soviet Union, disrupts a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly with a number of angry outbursts.
1962 – Alouette 1, the first Canadian satellite, is launched.
1963 – The second period of the Second Vatican Council opens.
1964 – The Argentine comic strip Mafalda is published for the first time.
1966 – The Chevrolet Camaro, originally named Panther, is introduced.
1971 – Oman joins the Arab League.
1972 – Sino-Japanese relations: Japan establishes diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China.
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.
1988 – Space Shuttle: NASA launches STS-26, the return to flight mission, after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
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.
1991 – Military coup in Haiti (1991 Haitian coup d'état).
1992 – Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello is impeached.
1995 – The United States Navy disbands Fighter Squadron 84 (VF-84), nicknamed the "Jolly Rogers".
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.
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.

Births

106 BC – Pompey the Great, consul of Rome (d. 48 BC)
1240 – Margaret of England, Queen consort of Scotland, (d. 1275)
1321 – John of Artois, Count of Eu, French soldier (d. 1387)
1328 – Joan of Kent, wife of Edward, the Black Prince (d. 1385)
1388 – Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, son of Henry IV of England (d. 1421)
1511 – Miguel Servet aka Michael Servetus, Spanish humanist (d. 1553)
1518 – Tintoretto, Italian painter (d. 1594)
1538 – Joan Terès i Borrull, viceroy of Catalonia (d. 1603)
1547 – Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author (d. 1616)
1548 – William V, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1626)
1561 – Adriaan van Roomen, Flemish mathematician (d. 1615)
1571 – Caravaggio, Italian artist (d. 1610)
1636 – Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1715)
1639 – William Russell, Lord Russell, English politician (d. 1683)
1640 – Antoine Coysevox, French sculptor (d. 1720)
1674 – Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, French composer and flautist (d. 1763)
1678 – Adrien-Maurice, 3rd duc de Noailles, French soldier (d. 1766)
1691 – Richard Challoner, English Catholic prelate (d. 1781)
1703 – François Boucher, French painter (d. 1770)
1718 – Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Russian statesman (d. 1783)
1725 – Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, British general and statesman (d. 1774)
1758 – Horatio Nelson, British admiral (d. 1805)
1766 – Charlotte, Princess Royal, German queen (d. 1828)
1786 – Guadalupe Victoria, 1st President of Mexico (d. 1843)
1803 – Mercator Cooper, American sea captain (d. 1872)
1803 – Jacques Charles François Sturm, French mathematician (d. 1850)
1808 – Henry Bennett, American politician (d. 1868)
1810 – Elizabeth Gaskell, British novelist (d. 1865)
1842 – Louis J. Weichmann, chief witness in the trial of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1902)
1843 – Mikhail Skobelev, Russian general (d. 1882)
1853 – Princess Thyra, daughter of Christian IX of Denmark (d. 1933)
1863 – Hugo Haase, German politician and jurist (d. 1919)
1864 – Alexandra Kitchin, British model for Lewis Carroll (d. 1925)
1864 – Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer and philosopher (d. 1936)
1876 – Charlie Llewellyn, South African cricketer, Wisden COY 1911 (d. 1964)
1881 – Ludwig von Mises, Austrian economist (d. 1973)
1895 – Clarence Ashley, American clawhammer banjo player and singer (d. 1967)
1895 – J.B. Rhine, American parapsychologist (d. 1980)
1895 – Roscoe Turner, American aviator and racer (d. 1970)
1897 – Herbert Agar, American journalist and historian (d. 1980)
1898 – Trofim Lysenko, Russian biologist (d. 1976)
1899 – László Bíró, Hungarian inventor of the modern ballpoint pen (d. 1985)
1901 – Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1954)
1901 – Lanza del Vasto, Italian philosopher and activist (d. 1981)
1902 – Miguel Alemán Valdés, President of Mexico (d. 1983)
1904 – Greer Garson, British actress (d. 1996)
1907 – Gene Autry, American actor, singer, and businessman (d. 1998)
1907 – George W. Jenkins, American businessman (d. 1996)
1908 – Eddie Tolan, American athlete (d. 1967)
1910 – Bill Boyd, American Western style singer and guitarist (d. 1977)
1910 – Virginia Bruce, American actress (d. 1982)
1912 – Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian film director (d. 2007)
1913 – Trevor Howard, English actor (d. 1988)
1913 – Stanley Kramer, American film director (d. 2001)
1915 – Vincent DeDomenico, American entrepreneur (d. 2007)
1915 – Brenda Marshall, American film actress (d. 1992)
1916 – Carl Giles, British cartoonist (d. 1995)
1920 – Vaclav Neumann, Czech conductor, violinist and viola player (d. 1995)
1922 – Lizabeth Scott, American actress
1923 – Stan Berenstain, American children's author (d. 2005)
1924 – Steve Forrest, American actor
1927 – Pete McCloskey, American politician
1930 – Colin Dexter, British author of Inspector Morse novels
1931 – James Watson Cronin, American nuclear physicist, Nobel laureate
1931 – Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress
1932 – Robert Benton, American screenwriter and director
1932 – Mehmood, Indian actor (d. 2004)
1934 – Skandor Akbar, American professional wrestler and manager (d. 2010)
1934 – Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, psychology professor
1934 – Lance Gibbs, Guyanese West Indies cricketer
1934 – Stuart M. Kaminsky, American mystery writer (d. 2009)
1935 – Mylène Demongeot, French actress
1935 – Jerry Lee Lewis, American musician
1936 – Silvio Berlusconi, former Prime Minister of Italy
1936 – James Fogle, American author (d. 2012)
1938 – Wim Kok, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1994 until 2002
1939 – Fikret Abdic, Bosnian politician and businessman
1939 – Jim Baxter, Scottish footballer (d. 2001)
1939 – Tommy Boyce, American songwriter (d. 1994)
1939 – Dan Crary, American bluegrass guitarist
1939 – Molly Haskell, American film critic
1939 – Larry Linville, American actor (d. 2000)
1939 – Rhodri Morgan, 2nd First Minister of Wales
1940 – Nicola Di Bari, Italian singer
1941 – Fred West, British serial killer (d. 1995)
1942 – Felice Gimondi, Italian cyclist
1942 – Madeline Kahn, American actress (d. 1999)
1942 – Ian McShane, British actor
1942 – Bill Nelson, American politician
1942 – Jean-Luc Ponty, French jazz violinist
1942 – Steve Tesich, Serbian screenwriter (d. 1996)
1943 – Mohammad Khatami, former President of Iran
1943 – Gary Boyd Roberts, American genealogist
1943 – Lech Walesa, President of Poland, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
1944 – Mike Post, American composer
1945 – Kyriakos Sfetsas, Greek composer
1946 – Patricia Hodge, English actress
1946 – Ian Wallace, English rock drummer (d. 2007)
1947 – Gary Wetzel, American Vietnam War Veteran & Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
1947 – Martin Ferrero, American actor
1948 – Bryant Gumbel, American television personality
1948 – Mark Farner, American guitarist (Grand Funk)
1948 – Theo Jörgensmann, German jazz clarinetist
1949 – George Dalaras, Greek singer
1950 – Ken Macha, American baseball player and manager
1951 – Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile
1951 – Andrés Caicedo, Colombian writer (d. 1977)
1951 – Maureen Caird, Australian hurdler
1951 – Mike Enriquez, Philippine broadcaster
1952 – Gabor Csupo, Hungarian-born animator
1952 – Max Sandlin, American politician
1952 – Takanosato Toshihide, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 59th Yokozuna
1953 – Warren Cromartie, American baseball player
1953 – Drake Hogestyn, American actor
1953 – Jean-Claude Lauzon, Canadian film director (d. 1997)
1954 – Uwe Jahn, German football coach
1955 – Benoît Ferreux, French actor
1955 – Ken Weatherwax, American actor from The Addams Family (TV series)
1956 – Sebastian Coe, British athlete
1956 – Suzzy Roche, American singer, youngest member of The Roches
1957 – Andrew Dice Clay, American comedian and actor
1957 – Chris Broad, English cricketer and match referee
1957 – Sokratis Malamas, Greek singer and composer
1957 – Mark Nicholas, English cricketer and sports presenter
1960 – Julian Armour, Canadian cellist and artistic director
1960 – Alan McGee, British music industry mogul and musician
1960 – John Paxson, American basketball player
1960 – David Sammartino, American professional wrestler
1960 – Carol Welsman, Canadian jazz vocalist and pianist
1961 – Julia Gillard, Australian politician, Prime Minister of Australia
1961 – Stephanie Miller, American comedian and talk radio host
1962 – Roger Bart, American actor
1963 – Dave Andreychuk, Canadian ice hockey player
1963 – Les Claypool, American bassist (Primus)
1964 – Brad Lohaus, American basketball player
1966 – Hersey Hawkins, American basketball player
1966 – Jill Whelan, American actress
1967 – Brett Anderson, British musician/singer (Suede, The Tears)
1968 – Patrick Burns, American television presenter
1968 – Luke Goss, English actor
1968 – Alex Skolnick, American thrash metal and jazz guitarist
1968 – Samir Soni, Indian film actor
1969 – Angelo Barretto, Filipino race car driver
1969 – Erika Eleniak, American actress and model
1969 – Aleks Syntek, Mexican singer
1969 – DeVante Swing, American singer, writer, and record producer
1970 – Joe Doucet, American designer, inventor, artist
1970 – Emily Lloyd, British actress
1970 – Nicolás Pereira, Venezuelan tennis player
1970 – Russell Peters, Canadian stand-up comedian
1970 – Yoshihiro Tajiri, Japanese professional wrestler
1970 – Natasha Gregson Wagner, American actress
1970 – AMG, American rap musician
1971 – Sibel Tüzün, Turkish singer
1971 – Mackenzie Crook, British actor and comedian
1972 – Oliver Gavin, British racing car driver
1972 – Togi Makabe, Japanese professional wrestler
1972 – Robert Webb, British actor, comedian and writer
1973 – Joe Hulbig, American ice hockey player
1973 – Athanasios Michalopoulos, Greek volleyball player
1973 – Scout Niblett, British singer-songwriter
1974 – Brian Ash, American filmmaker
1974 – Alexis Cruz, American actor
1975 – Albert Celades, Spanish footballer
1976 – Darren Byfield, Jamaican international footballer
1976 – Kelvin Davis, English footballer
1976 – Oscar Sevilla, Spanish cyclist
1976 – Andriy Shevchenko, Ukrainian footballer
1977 – Eric Barton, American football player
1977 – Wade Brookbank, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 – Debelah Morgan, American R&B singer
1977 – Jake Westbrook, American baseball player
1978 – Mohini Bhardwaj, American gymnast
1978 – Kurt Nilsen, Norwegian singer
1978 – Gunner McGrath, American guitarist (Much the Same)
1979 – Takumi Beppu, Japanese cyclist
1979 – Artika Sari Devi, Indonesian beauty queen, Puteri Indonesia 2004
1979 – Shelley Duncan, American baseball player
1980 – Patrick Agyemang, English footballer
1980 – Dallas Green, Canadian musician (Alexisonfire, City and Colour)
1980 – Zachary Levi, American actor
1981 – Aris Galanopoulos, Greek footballer
1981 – Siarhei Rutenka, Belarusian/Spanish handball player
1982 – Matt Giteau, Australian rugby union player
1982 – Ariana Jollee, American pornographic actress
1983 – Lisette Oropesa, American soprano
1984 – Per Mertesacker, German footballer
1984 – Isha Sharvani, Indian dancer and actress
1985 – Niklas Moisander, Finnish footballer
1986 – Mark Fraser, Canadian ice hockey player
1986 – Matt Lashoff, American ice hockey player
1986 – Isaac Makwala, Botswana sprinter
1986 – Benoît Pouliot, Canadian ice hockey player
1987 – David Del Rio, American actor
1988 – Kevin Durant, American basketball player
1988 – Justin Nozuka, American/Canadian singer-songwriter
1989 – Theo Adams, British performance artist
1989 – Andrea Poli, Italian footballer
1989 – Aaron Martin, English footballer
1990 – Doug Brochu, American actor
1990 – Lena Wermelt, German footballer
1991 – Adem Ljajic, Serbian footballer
1999 – Juan Valentín Urdangarín y de Borbón, Spanish royal
2008 – Emma Tallulah Behn, member of the extended Norwegian royal family

Deaths

855 – Lothair I, Emperor of the Romans (b. 795)
1304 – John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey, English soldier (b. 1231)
1364 – Charles, Duke of Brittany (b. 1319)
1560 – King Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1496)
1637 – Lorenzo Ruiz, Filipino saint (b. 1600)
1642 – René Goupil, French Catholic missionary, one of Canadian Martyrs (b. 1608)
1642 – William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby (b. 1561)
1703 – Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier (b. 1610)
1800 – Michael Denis, Austrian poet (b. 1729)
1804 – Michael Hillegas, first Treasurer of the United States (b. 1728)
1833 – King Ferdinand VII of Spain (b. 1784)
1862 – William "Bull" Nelson, American military officer (b. 1824)
1887 – Bernhard von Langenbeck, German surgeon (b. 1810)
1889 – Louis Faidherbe, French general (b. 1818)
1900 – Samuel Fenton Cary, congressman, prohibitionist (b. 1814)
1902 – William Topaz McGonagall, British poet (b. 1825)
1902 – Émile Zola, French writer (b. 1840)
1913 – Rudolf Diesel, Inventor of Diesel Engine (b. 1858)
1908 – Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian writer (b. 1839)
1925 – Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1851)
1927 – Willem Einthoven, Dutch inventor, Nobel laureate (b. 1860)
1927 – Arthur Achleitner, German writer (b. 1858)
1930 – Ilya Yefimovich Repin, Russian painter (b. 1844)
1937 – Ray Ewry, American athlete (b. 1873)
1937 – Ernst Hoppenberg, German swimmer (b. 1878)
1951 – Thomas Cahill, American soccer coach (b. 1864)
1952 – John Cobb, British racing driver (b. 1899)
1967 – Carson McCullers, American author (b. 1917)
1970 – Edward Everett Horton, American actor (b. 1886)
1973 – W. H. Auden, English poet (b. 1907)
1975 – Casey Stengel, baseball player and manager (b. 1890)
1976 – Wadi Ayoub, Greco-Roman professional wrestler, (b. 1927)
1981 – Bill Shankly, Scottish football manager (b. 1913)
1982 – Monty Stratton, baseball player (b. 1912)
1987 – Henry Ford II, president of Ford Motor Company (b. 1917)
1988 – Charles Addams, American cartoonist (b. 1912)
1989 – August "Gussie" Anheuser Busch, Jr., American brewing magnate (b. 1899)
1989 – Georges Ulmer, French composer, lyricist and singer (b. 1919)
1992 – Jean Aurenche, French film screenwriter (b. 1903)
1993 – Gordon Douglas, American film director (b. 1907)
1994 – Cheb Hasni, Algerian singer (b. 1968)
1996 – Leslie Crowther, British comedian (b. 1933)
1997 – Roy Lichtenstein, American artist (b. 1923)
1998 – Tom Bradley, Mayor of Los Angeles (b. 1917)
1999 – Jean-Louis Millette, Canadian actor and writer (b. 1935)
2001 – Nguy?n Van Thi?u, President of South Vietnam (b. 1923)
2002 – Edmund Trebus, English compulsive hoarder (b. 1918)
2004 – Richard Sainct, French motorcycle rally rider (b. 1970)
2005 – Austin Leslie, American chef, the "Godfather of Fried Chicken" (b. 1934)
2006 – Michael A. Monsoor, a United States Navy SEAL killed in Iraq and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor (b. 1981)
2006 – Jan Werner Danielsen, Norwegian singer (b. 1976)
2006 – Walter Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1915)
2006 – Khalique Ibrahim Khalique, Pakistani journalist and Urdu poet and critic (b. 1926)
2006 – Louis-Albert Vachon, French Canadian cardinal archbishop of Quebec (b. 1912)
2007 – Lois Maxwell, Canadian actress (b. 1927)
2009 – Pavel Popovich, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1930)
2009 – Sperantza Vrana, Greek actress (b. 1926 or 1932)
2010 – Tony Curtis, American actor (b. 1925)
2010 – Greg Giraldo, American comedian (b.1965)