September 29
2013
Gujba college massacre
On September 29, 2013, gunmen attacked the Federal Government College in Gujba, Yobe State, northeastern Nigeria. Reported to be Boko Haram, the attackers stormed the campus during assembly, separated and shot students and staff, and burned part of the compound. Contemporary reports placed the death toll at roughly 40–50 people; survivors, families, and local authorities struggled with confusion and loss as rescue teams arrived and communities faced a new wave of fear that would deepen the region’s school crisis. Read more
2009
2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami
On the morning of September 29, 2009, a very large earthquake (moment magnitude Mw 8.1) ruptured in the outer-rise seaward of the Tonga Trench. Tsunami waves reached nearby shores within minutes, sweeping away low-lying coastal villages in the independent nation of Samoa, the U.S. territory of American Samoa, and nearby islands. The disaster left 189 people dead, thousands displaced, and prompted changes in warning systems, community preparedness and tsunami science. Read more
2006
Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907
On September 29, 2006, a scheduled Gol Transportes Aéreos Boeing 737‑800 and an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet collided over the Amazon rainforest near Peixoto de Azevedo, Mato Grosso, Brazil. All 154 people aboard the 737 died; the seven occupants of the Legacy survived. Investigations found a chain of human and system failures — including a loss of transponder altitude reporting, ambiguous communications, and air traffic surveillance shortcomings — that together allowed two aircraft to share the same flight level at cruise altitude. Read more
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1959
Braniff Airways Flight 542 — In‑Flight Structural Breakup near Buffalo, Texas
On September 29, 1959, Braniff Airways Flight 542, a Lockheed L‑188 Electra turboprop, broke apart in flight over rural east Texas near Buffalo. All 29 people on board were killed. The catastrophe prompted a federal investigation that pieced together a sequence of sudden structural failures and, over time, helped the industry identify a complex aeroelastic problem — a propeller/engine “whirl” that could couple with the wing and tear airliners apart. The accident accelerated design fixes, inspections, and research that changed how new aircraft were monitored in service.
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1941
Babi Yar massacre (29–30 September 1941)
In the days after Kyiv fell to German forces, Nazi orders summoned Jews to assemble under the pretext of “resettlement.” On 29–30 September 1941, men, women and children were marched to the Babi Yar ravine on the outskirts of the city and shot in systematic groups. Soviet investigators later recorded 33,771 Jews killed in those two days; in the years that followed the ravine became the site of repeated executions and later attempts to destroy the evidence. The crime at Babi Yar remains one of the largest single massacres of Jews in Nazi‑occupied Europe.
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