Today is Wednesday, Sept. 29, the 272nd day of 2010. There are 93 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On Sept. 29, 1910, the National Urban League had its beginnings as The Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes was established in New York.

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 1907, the foundation stone was laid for the Washington National Cathedral, which wasn’t fully completed until this date in 1990.

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

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

In 1960, the situation comedy “My Three Sons,” starring Fred MacMurray, premiered on ABC. The musical “Irma La Douce” opened on Broadway.

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

In 1980, The Washington Post published “Jimmy’s World,” a feature article about an 8-year-old heroin addict that went on to win a Pulitzer Prize; however, the story turned out to have been totally fabricated by the reporter, Janet Cooke.

In 1982, Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide claimed the first of seven victims in the Chicago area. (To date, the case remains unsolved.)

In 1990, the Washington National Cathedral, begun in 1907, was formally completed with President George H.W. Bush overseeing the laying of the final stone atop the southwest pinnacle of the cathedral’s St. Paul Tower.

Ten years ago

Israeli riot police stormed a major Jerusalem shrine and opened fire on stone-throwing Muslim worshippers, killing four Palestinians and wounding 175.

Five years 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.

One year ago

New York City terrorism suspect Najibullah Zazi pleaded not guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction in what authorities said was a planned attack on commuter trains. (Zazi later pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and supporting al-Qaida.) Former Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu was sentenced in New York to more than 24 years in prison for his guilty plea to fraud charges and another four years and four months in prison for his conviction at trial for breaking campaign finance laws. A tsunami killed nearly 200 people in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.

Today’s Birthdays

Singer Jerry Lee Lewis is 75. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is 74. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is 68. Actor Ian McShane is 68. Actress Patricia Hodge is 64. TV personality Bryant Gumbel is 62. Broadcast journalist Gwen Ifill is 55. Singer-musician Les Claypool is 47.

Thought for Today

“Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.”

— Eleanor Roosevelt, American first lady (1884-1962)