September 26

September 26 is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 96 days remaining.

Events

1580 - Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe
1687 - The Parthenon in Athens is partially destroyed after an explosion caused by the bombing from Venetian forces led by Morozini who were besieging the Ottoman Turks stationed in Athens.
1777 - British troops occupy Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the American Revolution.
1789 - Thomas Jefferson appointed first United States Secretary of State; John Jay appointed first Chief Justice of the United States; Samuel Osgood appointed first United States Postmaster General; Edmund Randolph appointed first United States Attorney General.
1810 - A new Act of Succession is adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte becomes heir to the Swedish throne.
1907 - New Zealand becomes a dominion
1914 - The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is established by the Federal Trade Commission Act.
1918 - Battle of Meuse
1934 - Steamship RMS Queen Mary is launched
1944 - Operation Market Garden fails
1950 - United Nations troops recapture Seoul from the North Koreans.
1957 - Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story opens on Broadway
1960 - In Chicago, Illinois the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
1961 - Bob Dylan makes his public debut
1962 - Yemen Arab Republic is proclaimed
1962 - Premiere of "The Beverly Hillbillies" on CBS
1969 - Chicago Seven trial begins
1969 - The Beatles album Abbey Road is released in the UK
1981 - Nolan Ryan sets a Major League Baseball record by throwing his fifth no-hitter.
1983 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war
1983 - Australia II, first non-American winner, wins the Americas Cup
1988 - Ben Johnson is stripped of his Olympic gold medal in the 100 meter dash for failing a drug test
1991 - Biosphere 2 opens
1997 - A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A-300 crashes near Medan, Indonesia, airport, killing 234
2002 - The Joola, an overloaded Senegalese ferry capsizes in the ocean off the coast of The Gambia killing more than 950; 30 killed in gun attack at a temple in Gandhinagar, India

Births

1729 - Moses Mendelssohn, German philosopher (d. 1786)
1774 - John Chapman ("Johnny Appleseed"), environmentalist (d. 1847)
1870 - King Christian X of Denmark (d. 1947)
1871 - Winsor McCay, American cartoonist (d. 1934)
1874 - Lewis Hine, photographer, social activist (d. 1940)
1875 - Edmund Gwenn, actor (d. 1959)
1888 - T. S. Eliot, American poet (d. 1965)
1888 - J. Frank Dobie, Texas folklorist and newspaper columnist.
1889 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (d. 1976)
1895 - George Raft, actor (d. 1980)
1897 - Pope Paul VI (d. 1978)
1898 - George Gershwin, American composer (d. 1937)
1914 - Jack LaLanne, fitness advocate
1925 - Marty Robbins, country music singer (d. 1982)
1926 - John Coltrane, American musician (d. 1967)
1926 - Julie London, singer, actress
1933 - Donna Douglas, actress
1936 - Winnie Mandela, South African anti-apartheid activist
1945 - Bryan Ferry, singer
1948 - Olivia Newton-John, Australian singer
1951 - Dave Casper, Football Hall of Famer
1955 - Carlene Carter, country music singer
1956 - Clip Payne, musician (P Funk)
1956 - Linda Hamilton, American actress
1962 - Melissa Sue Anderson, American actress
1963 - Lysette Anthony, actress
1964 - Les Claypool, American musician
1967 - Shannon Hoon, singer ("Blind Melon") (d. 1995)
1968 - James Caviezel, actor (The Passion of the Christ)
1973 - Chris Small, Scottish snooker player
1981 - Serena Williams, American tennis player

Deaths

1802 - Baron Jurij Vega, Slovene mathematician, physicist and artillery officer (b. 1754)
1820 - Daniel Boone, American frontiersman (b. 1734)
1868 - August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1790)
1904 - John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman, statesman (b. 1848)
1937 - Bessie Smith, American blues singer (b. 1894)
1945 - Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (b. 1881)
1947 - Hugh Lofting, British writer (b. 1886)
1952 - George Santayana, philosopher (b. 1863)
1991 - Miles Davis, American jazz musician (b. 1926)
1998 - Betty Carter, jazz singer
2003 - Robert Palmer, British singer (b. 1949)
2003 - Nawabzada Narullah Khan, Pakistani politician and democrat