On Sept. 29, 1789, the U.S. War Department established a regular Army with a strength of several hundred men.
In 1918 Allied forces scored a decisive breakthrough of the Hindenburg Line during World War I.
In 1957 the New York Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds, losing to Pittsburgh 9-1, before moving to San Francisco.
In 1963 the sitcom “My Favorite Martian” and the variety program “The Judy Garland Show” premiered on CBS.
In 1982 seven people in the Chicago area died after unwittingly taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. (The crime remains unsolved.)
In 1988 the space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking America’s return to manned space flight following the Challenger disaster.
In 2004 the privately built SpaceShipOne rocket plane hurtled past the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, completing the first stage of a quest to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize. Also in 2004 Major League Baseball announced that the Montreal Expos would move to Washington, giving the nation’s capital its first major league team in 34 years.
