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 nominees took place when Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon faced off before a national television audience from Chicago.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: The Great Debate That Changed Politics
Also 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 Tsugaru Strait, claiming more than 1,150 lives.
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 they had created a new rating, NC-17, to replace the X rating.
In 1991, four men and four women began a two-year residency in a cordoned-off structure in Oracle, Arizona, called Biosphere 2; they came 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.
2005, Army Pfc. Lynndie England was convicted by a military jury at Fort Hood, Texas, of six of seven counts 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 was to be confirmed the following month.)
In 2022, NASA’s Dart spacecraft rammed an asteroid at breakneck speed in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock threatens Earth.
Today’s birthdays: Country singer David Frizzell is 83. TV host 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 is 56. Singer Shawn Stockman (Boyz II Men) is 52. Hockey Hall of Famers Daniel and Henrik Sedin are 44. Tennis player Serena Williams is 43. Singer-actress Christina Milian is 43. Actress Zoe Perry is 41.