Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 26, the 269th day of 2022. There are 96 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Sept. 26, 1960, the first-ever debate between presidential nominees took place as Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon faced off before a national TV audience from Chicago.

On this date:

In 1777, British troops occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution.

In 1888, poet T.S. Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

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 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 inside a sealed-off structure in Oracle, Arizona, called Biosphere 2. They emerged from Biosphere on this date in 1993.

In 1996, President Clinton signed a bill ensuring two-day hospital stays for new mothers and their babies.

In 2003, President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin opened a two-day summit at Camp David.

In 2005, Army Pfc. 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.

In 2008, Hollywood screen legend and philanthropist Paul Newman died in Westport, Connecticut, at age 83.

In 2016, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton participated in their first debate of the presidential campaign at Hofstra University in New York.

In 2019, as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh prepared for a public Senate hearing on an allegation from a California professor that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teens, a third accusation of sexual misconduct came from a woman who said she saw Kavanaugh "consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature."

In 2020, President Donald Trump nominated judge Amy Coney Barrett, a former 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 2021, the Rolling Stones launched their pandemic-delayed "No Filter" tour in St. Louis without their drummer of nearly six decades, Charlie Watts, who had died in August at age 80.

In 2022, NASA spacecraft Dart rammed an asteroid at blistering speed in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth.

Today's Birthdays: Former baseball All-Star Bobby Shantz is 98. Country singer David Frizzell is 82. Actor Kent McCord is 81. Television host Anne Robinson is 79. Singer Bryan Ferry is 78. Actor Mary Beth Hurt is 77. Actor James Keane is 71. Rock singer-musician Cesar Rosas (Los Lobos) is 69. Country singer Carlene Carter is 68. Actor Linda Hamilton is 67. R&B singer Cindy Herron (En Vogue) is 62. Actor Melissa Sue Anderson is 61. Actor Patrick Bristow is 61. Rock musician Al Pitrelli is 61. Singer Tracey Thorn (Everything But The Girl) is 61. TV personality Jillian Barberie is 57. Actor Jim Caviezel is 55. Actor Tricia O'Kelley is 55. Actor Ben Shenkman is 55. Actor Melanie Paxson is 51. Singer Shawn Stockman (Boyz II Men) is 51. Music producer Dr. Luke is 50. Jazz musician Nicholas Payton is 50. Actor Mark Famiglietti is 44. Singer-actor Christina Milian is 42. Tennis player Serena Williams is 42. Actor Zoe Perry is 40. Singer/songwriter Ant Clemons is 32.