10/29: The 2-month pope

Today is October 29, 2007, Monday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time. On this date in 1591, Pope Innocent IX was elected pope. Born Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti, Innocent was a canon lawyer and diplomat before serving as Pope Gregory XIV's chief administrator while the latter battled malaria. Innocent succeeded his former boss, yet, his own reign as pope would be brief. He died on December 30 -- a papacy of just over two months. | via Wikipedia

Also on this date:

• Famous Catholics born on this day:
  
  In 1017, Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor. Henry was crowned sole ruler of the empire by Pope Clement II on Christmas Day, 1046, the day of his own election to the papacy. Henry nominated him for the job just days earlier.
  
  In 1940, Florida politician Connie Mack III. Mack, the grandson of Baseball Hall of Famer Connie Mack, was U.S. Senator from 1989-2001.
  
  In 1972, American actress Gabrielle Union, who starred as a cheerleader in Bring It On and opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys II. Pithy quote: After filming a risqué scene: "I'm a Catholic girl from Omaha, and then all of a sudden they spring this scene on me. Afterwards I had to go to confession. I said, 'Forgive me Father, for I have just bared my a-- in front of the world. How many Hail Marys will it take to absolve me of that!'"