September 26......

September 26 is the 269th (270th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 96 days remaining.

EVENTS

● 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix in fulfilment of a vow he made at the battle of Pharsalus.

● 715 - Ragenfrid defeats Theudoald at the Battle of Compiègne

● 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 Morosini who were besieging the Ottoman Turks stationed in Athens.

● 1777 - British troops occupy Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the American Revolution.

● 1783 - Fayette County, Pennsylvania created

● 1789 - Thomas Jefferson is appointed the first United States Secretary of State, John Jay is appointed the first Chief Justice of the United States, Samuel Osgood is appointed the first United States Postmaster General, and Edmund Randolph is appointed the 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 each becomes a dominion of the British Empire.

● 1914 - The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is established by the Federal Trade Commission Act.

● 1918 - World War I: Battle of Meuse.

● 1934 - Steamship RMS Queen Mary is launched.

● 1944 - World War II: Operation Market Garden fails. Airborne troops retreat from Arnhem; British and Polish soldiers withdraw from Arnhem after days of fierce fighting with little food or water.

● 1950 - United Nations troops recapture the South Korean capital of Seoul from the North Koreans.

● 1952 - George Santayana dies.

● 1954 - Japanese rail ferry Toya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, Japan killing 1,172.

● 1957 - West Side Story, by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins opens on Broadway

● 1960 - The first televised debate watched by almost 70 million Americans between presidential candidates took place in Chicago as Republican Richard M. Nixon and Democrat John F. Kennedy squared off. Nixon loses badly on television from a perspiration problem, on radio the debate is rated a tie.

● 1961 - Bob Dylan makes his public debut.

● 1962 - Yemen Arab Republic is proclaimed

● 1968 - Portugal's Salazar still in coma - Caetano takes over as PM

● 1969 - The Chicago Seven trial begins.

● 1969 - The Beatles album “Abbey Road” is released in the UK.

● 1969 - The Brady Bunch debuts on ABC-TV and would run for five years.

● 1970 - The Laguna Fire starts in San Diego County, California, burning 175,425 acres (710 km²).

● 1973 - Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time. Only later to be permanently grounded since replacement parts are unavailable and maintenance becomes impossible.

● 1980 - The Cuban government closed Mariel Harbor, ending the freedom flotilla of Cuban refugees that began the previous April.

● 1981 - Baseball: Nolan Ryan sets a Major League record by throwing his fifth no-hitter.

● 1983 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war.

● 1983 - Australia II, the first non-American winner in the 132 year old competition, wins the Americas Cup.

● 1984 - United Kingdom agrees handover of Hong Kong. Britain and China finalize proposals to end 150 years of British rule in Hong Kong.

● 1986 - William H. Rehnquist was sworn in as the 16th chief justice of the United States, while Antonin Scalia joined the Supreme Court as an associate justice.

● 1988 - Ben Johnson is stripped of his gold medal in the 100 m sprint at the Seoul Olympics for failing a drug test.

● 1990 - The Motion Picture Association of America announced it had created a new rating, NC-17, designed to bar moviegoers under age 17 from certain films without the commercial stigma of the old X rating. This is NOT the full story, the MPAA found it could not copyright the X rating because of its widespread use by the porn industry (which never bothers to submit its films to the MPAA), and thus they were forced to invent the new NC-17.

● 1991 - Four men and four women began a two-year stay inside a sealed-off structure known as Biosphere 2 in Oracle, AZ. (And spawning another really bad Pauley Shore movie.)

● 1996 - Richard Allen Davis, the convicted killer of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, was sentenced to death in San Jose, CA.

● 1997 - A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A-300 crashes near Medan, Indonesia, airport, killing 234

● 1997 - Two earthquakes strike the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse and killing 10 people.

● 2000 - Anti-globalization protests in Prague (some 20,000 protesters) turned violent during the IMF and World Bank summits.

● 2000 - Express Samina, capsized after running aground near the isle of Paros. 82 people where killed.

● 2000 - Slobodan Milosevic conceded that his challenger, Vojislav Kostunica, had finished first in Yugoslavia's presidential election. Milosevic declared a runoff, a move that prompted mass protests leading to his ouster.

● 2002 - The overcrowded Senegalese ferry MV Joola capsizes off the coast of Gambia killing more than 1,000.

● 2002 - WorldCom former controller David Myers pleaded guilty to securities fraud, saying he was told by his managers to falsify records in what became the largest corporate accounting scandal in U.S. history.

● 2002 - Thirty people are killed in a gun attack at a temple in Gandhinagar, India

● 2004 - Pakistani forces killed a suspected top al-Qaida operative wanted for his alleged role in the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

● 2005 - Army Private First Class Lynndie England was convicted by a military jury in Fort Hood, Texas, on six of seven counts stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. (England was later sentenced to three years in prison.) (And to this day no officer has even been charged much less the upper civilian authorities really at fault.)

● 2005 - International weapons inspectors backed by Protestant and Catholic clergymen announced the Irish Republican Army's full disarmament.

BIRTHS

● 1406 - Thomas de Ros, 9th Baron de Ros, English soldier and politician (d. 1430)

● 1711 - Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple, English politician (d. 1779)

● 1750 - Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood, British admiral (d. 1810)

● 1758 - Cosme Argerich, Argentine physician, founder of the Medicine School of Buenos Aires.

● 1774 - Johnny Appleseed, American environmentalist (d. 1847)

● 1791 - Théodore Géricault, French painter (d. 1824)

● 1840 - Louis-Olivier Taillon, French Canadian politician (d. 1923)

● 1865 - Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, British pilot

● 1869 - Komitas, Armenian composer (d. 1935)

● 1870 - King Christian X of Denmark (d. 1947)

● 1871 - Winsor McCay, American cartoonist (d. 1934)

● 1873 - Aleksey Shchusev, Russian architect (d. 1949)

● 1873 - Wacław Berent, Polish novelist and translator (d. 1940)

● 1874 - Lewis Hine, American photographer and social activist (d. 1940)

● 1875 - Edmund Gwenn, Welsh actor (d. 1959)

● 1876 - Edith Abbott, American social worker, educator, and author (d. 1957)

● 1877 - Ugo Cerletti, Italian neurologist (d. 1963)

● 1877 - Alfred Cortot, Swiss pianist (d. 1962)

● 1886 - Archibald Vivian Hill, English physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1977)

● 1887 - Edwin Keppel Bennett, British writer (d. 1958)

● 1887 - Antonio Moreno, Spanish-born actor (d. 1967)

● 1887 - Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, British scientist, engineer and inventor (d. 1979)

● 1888 - J. Frank Dobie, American folklorist and newspaper columnist (d. 1964)

● 1888 - T. S. Eliot, writer and editor, born in St. Louis, MO, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)

● 1889 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (d. 1976)

● 1891 - Charles Munch, French conductor and violinist (d. 1968)

● 1895 - George Raft, American actor (d. 1980)

● 1897 - Arthur Rhys Davids, English pilot (d. 1917)

● 1897 - Pope Paul VI, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1963 to 1978 (d. 1978)

● 1898 - George Gershwin, American composer, born in Brooklyn, New York. (d. 1937)

● 1905 - Emilio Navarro, Puerto Rican Baseball Player

● 1907 - Anthony Blunt, English art historian and Soviet spy (d. 1983)

● 1907 - Bep van Klaveren, Dutch boxer (d. 1992)

● 1909 - Bill France, Sr., American founder of NASCAR (d. 1992)

● 1914 - Jack LaLanne, American fitness advocate

● 1917 - Réal Caouette, French Canadian politician, leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada (d. 1976)

● 1923 - Dev Anand, Indian actor and film producer

● 1925 - Marty Robbins, American singer (d. 1982)

● 1926 - Masatoshi Koshiba, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

● 1926 - Julie London, American singer and actress (d. 2000)

● 1927 - Patrick O'Neal, American actor (d. 1994)

● 1930 - Philip Bosco, Actor

● 1930 - Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor (d. 1966)

● 1932 - Richard Herd, American actor

● 1932 - Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India

● 1932 - Vladimir Voinovich, Russian writer and dissident

● 1933 - Donna Douglas, American actress

● 1936 - Winnie Mandela, South African anti-apartheid activist

● 1941 - Salvatore Accardo, Italian violinist and conductor

● 1941 - David Frizzell, Country singer

● 1942 - Kent McCord, American actor (''Adam 12'')

● 1943 - Ian Chappell, Australian test cricket player and broadcaster

● 1944 - Anne Robinson, British television host (''The Weakest Link'')

● 1945 - Bryan Ferry, British singer (Roxy Music)

● 1945 - Gal Costa, Brazilian singer

● 1945 - Louise Beaudoin, Quebec politician

● 1946 - Andrea Dworkin, American feminist (d. 2005)

● 1946 - Christine Todd Whitman, American politician, Former EPA administrator, former N.J. governor

● 1947 - Lynn Anderson, American singer

● 1948 - Olivia Newton-John, British-born Australian singer and actress

● 1948 - Mary Beth Hurt, Actress

● 1949 - Clodoaldo, Brazilian football player

● 1951 - Stuart Tosh, Scottish musician

● 1952 - James Keane, Actor

● 1953 - Aivars Lembergs, Latvian politician

● 1954 - Kevin Kennedy, baseball manager and television host

● 1954 - Cesar Rosas, Rock musician (Los Lobos)

● 1955 - Carlene Carter, Country singer

● 1956 - Linda Hamilton, American actress (“Terminator” movies) (“Beauty and the Beast” TV series)

● 1956 - Steve Butler, American racecar driver

● 1959 - Rich Gedman, American baseball player

● 1960 - Doug Supernaw, Country singer

● 1961 - Will Self, British author

● 1961 - Cindy Herron, American singer (En Vogue)

● 1962 - Melissa Sue Anderson, American actress (''Little House on the Prairie'')

● 1962 - Peter Foster, Australian con-man

● 1962 - Patrick Bristow, Actor

● 1962 - Al Pitrelli, Rock musician (Megadeth)

● 1962 - Tracey Thorn, Singer (Everything But The Girl)

● 1963 - Lysette Anthony, British actress

● 1964 - Nicki French, British singer

● 1966 - Jillian Barberie, Canadian actress and television hostess

● 1967 - Shannon Hoon, American singer (Blind Melon) (d. 1995)

● 1968 - James Caviezel, American actor

● 1969 - Paul Warhurst, English football player

● 1969 - Anthony Kavanagh, Québécois comedian, actor and singer

● 1972 - Ras Kass, American rapper

● 1972 - Shawn Stockman, American R&B singer (Boyz II Men)

● 1973 - Chris Small, Scottish snooker player

● 1973 - Nicholas Payton, Jazz trumpeter

● 1974 - Martin Müürsepp, Estonian basketball player

● 1975 - Emma Härdelin, Swedish singer (Garmarna and Triakel)

● 1976 - Michael Ballack, German footballer

● 1977 - Kaylynn, porn star

● 1979 - Mark Famiglietti, Actor

● 1980 - Patrick Friesacher, Austrian race car driver

● 1981 - Christina Milian, American actress and R&B singer

● 1981 - Serena Williams, American tennis player

● 1983 - Ricardo Quaresma, Portuguese footballer

● 1986 - Ashley Leggat, Canadian actress

● 1987 - Rosie Munter, Swedish singer and model (Play)

DEATHS

● 1417 - Francesco Zabarella, Italian jurist (b. 1360)

● 1468 - Juan de Torquemada, Spanish Catholic cardinal (b. 1388)

● 1620 - Taichang Emperor of China (b. 1582)

● 1626 - Wakisaka Yasuharu, Japanese warrior (b. 1554)

● 1716 - Antoine Parent, French mathematician (b. 1666)

● 1763 - John Byron, English poet (b. 1692)

● 1764 - Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro, Spanish scholar (b. 1767)

● 1802 - Baron Jurij Vega, Slovenian mathematician, physicist, and military officer (b. 1754)

● 1820 - Daniel Boone, American frontiersman (b. 1734)

● 1868 - August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1790)

● 1877 - Hermann Grassmann, German mathematician and physicist (b. 1809)

● 1902 - Levi Strauss, American clothing manufacturer (b. 1829)

● 1904 - John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (b. 1848)

● 1937 - Bessie Smith, American singer (b. 1894)

● 1945 - Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (b. 1881)

● 1947 - Hugh Lofting, British writer (b. 1886)

● 1951 - Hans Cloos, German geologist (b. 1885)

● 1952 - George Santayana, Spanish philosopher (b. 1863)

● 1965 - James Fitzmaurice, Irish aviation pioneer (b. 1898)

● 1968 - Daniel Johnson, Sr, politician, premier of Québec (b. 1915)

● 1972 - Charles Correll, American radio actor (b. 1890)

● 1973 - Ralph Earnhardt, Race car driver (b. 1923)

● 1973 - Anna Magnani, Italian actress (b. 1908)

● 1976 - Lavoslav Ružička, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)

● 1978 - Manne Siegbahn, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1886)

● 1983 - Tino Rossi, French singer and actor (b. 1907)

● 1984 - John Facenda, American broadcaster and sports announcer (b. 1913)

● 1990 - Alberto Moravia, Italian author.

● 1991 - Billy Vaughn, orchestra leader (b. 1919)

● 1998 - Betty Carter, American singer (b. 1930)

● 2000 - Richard Mulligan, American actor (b. 1932)

● 2000 - Baden Powell, Brazilian guitarist (b. 1937)

● 2003 - Robert Palmer, British singer (b. 1949)

● 2003 - Shawn Lane, American guitarist (b. 1963)

● 2004 - Marianna Komlos, professional wrestling valet (b. 1969)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints - Sts. Cosmas and Damian

● Also see September 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

● Discordianism - Bureflux

● European Day of Languages

● French Republican Calendar - Cheval (Horse) Day, fifth day in the Month of Vendémiaire


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

The BBC Take on the day

On this day in the New York Times