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 and Newfoundland both become 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 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
- 1970 - The Laguna Fire starts in San Diego County burning 175,425 acres (710 km²).
- 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 (because of time-zone differences, the date was Sept. 26 in the Soviet Union, and Sept. 25 in the West)
- 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; an earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing part of the basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse.
- 2001 - Star Trek: Enterprise beings airing in the US.
- 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; 5 people shot dead in a botched bank robbery in Nebraska.
- 2003 - Nupedia, an earlier form of Wikipedia, was shut down.
- 2004 - The Seattle Seahawks shutout the San Francisco 49ers 34-0. This marks the first time in a league record 27 years and 456 games that the San Francisco 49ers suffered a shutout. The last shutout occurred in 1977 when Atlanta won 7-0. Several of the players in this game were either not even born yet or very young children when the last shutout occurred.
Births
- 1774 - Johnny Appleseed, environmentalist (d. 1847)
- 1791 - Théodore Géricault, French writer (d. 1824)
- 1869 - Komitas, Armenian composer (d. 1935)
- 1870 - King Christian X of Denmark (d. 1947)
- 1871 - Winsor McCay, American cartoonist (d. 1934)
- 1874 - Lewis Hine, photographer and social activist (d. 1940)
- 1875 - Edmund Gwenn, actor (d. 1959)
- 1876 - Edith Abbott, social worker, educator, and author (d. 1957)
- 1888 - J. Frank Dobie, American folklorist and newspaper columnist
- 1888 - T. S. Eliot, American poet and editor (d. 1965)
- 1889 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (d. 1976)
- 1891 - Charles Munch, French conductor and violinist (d. 1968)
- 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)
- 1930 - Fritz Wunderlich, tenor (d. 1966)
- 1932 - Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India
- 1933 - Donna Douglas, American actress
- 1936 - Winnie Mandela, South African anti-apartheid activist
- 1944 - Anne Robinson, British television host
- 1945 - Bryan Ferry, singer
- 1946 - Christine Todd Whitman, American politician
- 1947 - Lynn Anderson, country singer
- 1948 - Olivia Newton-John, Australian singer
- 1954 - Kevin Kennedy, baseball manager and television host
- 1955 - Carlene Carter country singer
- 1956 - Linda Hamilton, American actress
- 1956 - Clip Payne, musician (P Funk)
- 1962 - Melissa Sue Anderson, American actress
- 1967 - Shannon Hoon, singer (Blind Melon) (d. 1995)
- 1968 - James Caviezel, actor
- 1973 - Chris Small, Scottish snooker player
- 1975 - Emma Härdelin, Swedish singer (Garmarna, Triakel)
- 1976 - Michael Ballack, German football star
- 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)
- 1998 - Betty Carter, jazz singer
- 2003:
Holidays and observations
See also: September 26, 1580, 1687, 1734, 1754
