Sept 29 in History
1547 — Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, widely regarded as the greatest Spanish writer, is born in Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid. As a soldier in the Spanish Navy Marines, Cervantes is captured on the galley Sol by Ottoman pirates on September 26 1575 and taken to Algiers. He is ransomed by his parents and the Trinitarians in 1580. His major literary success, “The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha” (published in two parts in 1605 and 1615), has been translated into more than 140 languages and dialects … the second-most after the Bible.
1758 — Vice-Admiral Horatio (Lord) Nelson, British naval commander who defeats France and her allies on numerous occasions in an intriguing rivalry with Napoleon, is born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk.
1829 — The first 1,000 “Peelers” — dressed in blue tail coats and top hats; and armed with truncheons, handcuffs and rattles — start patrolling the streets of London. Named for Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel, who established the Metropolitan Police Force, they soon become known as “Bobbies” (for Robert).
1881 — Jochem van Bruggen, author (“Ampie”), is born in Groede, Zeeland, Netherlands.
1899 — Billy Butlin, South African-English businessman, is born in Cape Town. His parents divorce when he is seven. He returns to England with his mother where he opens the first Butlin’s holiday camp in Skegness on April 11 1936 to make seaside holidays accessible (affordable) to all at a “place of colour and happiness”. Butlin’s is still going strong. 1901 — Enrico Fermi, US physicist who initiates the first man-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction during an experiment at Chicago Pile-1 on December 2 1942, is born in Rome, Italy.
1903 — John Koenakeefe Mohl, artist and founding member of the Artists under the Sun exhibitions (in Joubert Park), is born in Dinokana, Zeerust.
1914 — DJ (Diederik Johannes) Opperman, poet, dramatist, (“Periandros van Korinthe”), academic, compiler of “Groot Verseboek” and outspoken critic of the Censorship Act, is born in Dundee, Natal.
1925 — Tjol (Marthinus Theunis) Lategan, Springbok centre (11 Tests: 1945-53), is born in Stellenbosch. 1933 — Samora Moisés Machel, first president of Mozambique (1975-86), is born in the village Madragoa, Gaza Province.
1982 — Mary Kellerman, 12, becomes the first of seven victims in the Chicago Tylenol Murders. The other six die within days. It emerges they had all taken Tylenol capsules. Tests reveal potassium cyanide in the bottles and residents are warned to stop using Tylenol products. The crime remains unsolved.