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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 very first debate between presidential candidates took place when Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon faced off before a national TV 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 during a typhoon in the Strait of Tsugaru, 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 the 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 in a locked building 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, Army Pfc. Lynndie England was convicted by a military jury at Fort Hood, Texas, on six of seven counts stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.
In 2020, President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a former law clerk to 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 rammed into an asteroid at blistering speed in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a deadly rock threatens Earth.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Country singer David Frizzell is 83.
- Television presenter Anne Robinson is 80.
- Singer Bryan Ferry is 79.
- Author Jane Smiley is 75.
- Singer-guitarist Cesar Rosas (Los Lobos) is 70.
- Actor Linda Hamilton is 68.
- Actor Melissa Sue Anderson is 62.
- Actor Jim Caviezel (kuh-VEE’-zuhl) is 56.
- Singer Shawn Stockman (Boyz II Men) is 52.
- Hockey Hall of Famers Daniel and Henrik Sedin are 44.
- Tennis star Serena Williams is 43.
- Singer-actress Christina Milian (MIHL’-ee-ahn) is 43.
- Actor Zoe Perry is 41.