Today is Thursday, September 26, the 270th day of 2024. There are 96 days left in the year.
Today in History:
On September 26, 1960, the first-ever debate between presidential candidates took place, when Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon faced off before a national television audience from Chicago.
Also on this date:
In 1777, British troops occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution.
In 1954, the Japanese commercial ferry Toya Maru sank in a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, killing more than 1,150 people.
In 1986, William H. Rehnquist was sworn in as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States, while Antonin Scalia joined the Supreme Court as its 103rd member.
In 1990, the Motion Picture Association of America announced that it had created a new rating, NC-17, to replace the X rating.
In 1991, four men and four women began a two-year stay inside a closed facility in Oracle, Arizona, called Biosphere 2; they emerged from Biosphere 2 on this date in 1993.
In 2000, thousands of anti-globalization protesters clashed with police during demonstrations against an International Monetary Fund-World Bank summit in Prague.
In 2005, Private Lynndie England was convicted by a military jury at Fort Hood, Texas, on six of seven charges stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.
In 2020, President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a former clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, to the Supreme Court, to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Barrett would be confirmed the following month.)
In 2022, NASA’s Dart spacecraft slammed into an asteroid at breakneck speed, in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a deadly rock will threaten Earth.
Today’s birthdays:
- Country singer David Frizzell is 83 years old.
- TV presenter Anne Robinson is 80 years old.
- Singer Bryan Ferry is 79 years old.
- Author Jane Smiley is 75 years old.
- Singer-guitarist Cesar Rosas (Los Lobos) is 70 years old.
- Actress Linda Hamilton is 68 years old.
- Actress Melissa Sue Anderson is 62 years old.
- Actor Jim Caviezel (kuh-VEE’-zuhl) is 56 years old.
- Singer Shawn Stockman (Boyz II Men) is 52 years old.
- Hockey Hall of Famers Daniel and Henrik Sedin are 44 years old.
- Tennis player Serena Williams is 43 years old.
- Singer and actress Christina Milian (MIHL’-ee-ahn) is 43 years old.
- Actress Zoe Perry is 41 years old.