Today in History

Today is Friday, Sept. 27, the 270th day of 2019. There are 95 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On September 27, 1964, the government publicly released the report of the Warren Commission, which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy.

On this date:

In 1779, John Adams was named by Congress to negotiate the Revolutionary War's peace terms with Britain.

In 1825, the first locomotive to haul a passenger train was operated by George Stephenson in England.

In 1854, the first great disaster involving an Atlantic Ocean passenger vessel occurred when the steamship SS Arctic sank off Newfoundland; of the more than 400 people on board, only 86 survived.

In 1917, French sculptor and painter Edgar Degas died in Paris at age 83.

In 1935, Judy Garland, at age 13, signed a seven-year contract with MGM.

In 1939, Warsaw, Poland, surrendered after weeks of resistance to invading forces from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II.

In 1942, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra performed together for the last time, at the Central Theater in Passaic, New Jersey, prior to Miller's entry into the Army.

In 1956, Olympic track and field gold medalist and Hall of Fame golfer Babe Didrikson Zaharias died in Galveston, Texas, at age 45.

In 1979, Congress gave its final approval to forming the U.S. Department of Education.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush announced in a nationally broadcast address that he was eliminating all U.S. battlefield nuclear weapons, and called on the Soviet Union to match the gesture. The Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked, 7-7, on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1994, more than 350 Republican congressional candidates gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to sign the "Contract with America," a 10-point platform they pledged to enact if voters sent a GOP majority to the House.

In 1996, in Afghanistan, the Taliban, a band of former seminary students, drove the government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani out of Kabul, captured the capital and executed former leader Najibullah.

Ten years ago: German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a second term, along with the center-right majority that had eluded her four years earlier, nudging Europe's biggest economic power to the right. Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative columnist and former Nixon speechwriter William Safire died at age 79.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama, in an address to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, said a widespread mistrust of law enforcement that was exposed by the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri, existed in too many other communities and was having a corrosive effect on the nation, particularly its children. The Mount Ontake volcano in central Japan erupted, killing 57 people. Hong Kong activists kicked off a massive civil disobedience protest to challenge Beijing over restrictions on voting reform. Actor George Clooney married human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in Venice, Italy.

One year ago: During a day-long hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Blasey Ford said she was "100 percent" certain that she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when they were teenagers, and Kavanaugh then told senators that he was "100 percent certain" he had done no such thing; Republicans quickly scheduled a recommendation vote for the following morning. The American Bar Association urged the Senate to slow down on the vote until the FBI had time to do a full background check on the claims by Ford and other women. The government reported that the U.S. economy grew at a robust annual rate of 4.2 percent in the second quarter, the best performance in nearly four years. Marty Balin, founder of the 1960s rock group the Jefferson Airplane, died in Florida at the age of 76.

Today's Birthdays: Actress Kathleen Nolan is 86. Actor Wilford Brimley is 85. Actor Claude Jarman Jr. is 85. Author Barbara Howar is 85. World Golf Hall of Famer Kathy Whitworth is 80. Singer-musician Randy Bachman (Bachman-Turner Overdrive) is 76. Rock singer Meat Loaf is 72. Actress Liz Torres is 72. Actor A Martinez is 71. Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt is 70. Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is 69. Actor/opera singer Anthony Laciura is 68. Singer Shaun Cassidy is 61. Comedian Marc Maron is 56. Rock singer Stephan Jenkins (Third Eye Blind) is 55. Former Democratic National Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is 53. Actor Patrick Muldoon is 51. Singer Mark Calderon is 49. Actress Amanda Detmer is 48. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is 47. Rock singer Brad Arnold (3 Doors Down) is 41. Christian rock musician Grant Brandell (Underoath) is 38. Actress Anna Camp is 37. Rapper Lil' Wayne is 37. Singer Avril Lavigne is 35. Bluegrass singer/musician Sierra Hull is 28. Actor Sam Lerner is 27. Actor Ames McNamara is 12.

Thought for Today: "I have lived in this world just long enough to look carefully the second time into things that I am most certain of the first time." -- "Josh Billings" (Henry Wheeler Shaw), American humorist (1818-1885).

Copyright 2019, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.