TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
Today is Thursday, Sept. 28, the 271st day of 2017. There are 94 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History On September 28, 1892, the first nighttime football game took place in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, as teams from Mansfield State Normal and Wyoming Seminary played under electric lights to a scoreless tie. (The game was called after the first half due to hazardous conditions caused by inadequate illumination; it also didn’t help that a lighting pole was located in the middle of the field.)
On this date • In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England to claim the English throne.
• In 1542, Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrived at present-day San Diego.
• In 1787, the Congress of the Confederation voted to send the just-completed Constitution of the United States to state legislatures for their approval.
• In 1850, flogging was abolished as a form of punishment in the U.S. Navy.
• In 1914, the First Battle of the Aisne during World War I ended inconclusively.
• In 1928, Scottish medical researcher Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first effective antibiotic.
• In 1939, during World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a treaty calling for the partitioning of Poland, which the two countries had invaded.
• In 1958, voters in the African country of Guinea overwhelmingly favored independence from France.
• In 1967, Walter E. Washington was sworn in as the first mayor-commissioner of the District of Columbia following his appointment by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
• In 1976, Muhammad Ali kept his world heavyweight boxing championship with a close 15round decision over Ken Norton at New York’s Yankee Stadium.
• In 1989, deposed Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos died in exile in Hawaii at age 72.
• In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed an accord at the White House ending Israel’s military occupation of West Bank cities and laying the foundation for a Palestinian state.
Ten years ago The International Monetary Fund chose France’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn as its new leader. (Strauss-Kahn resigned the post in 2011 following allegations he’d sexually assaulted a New York hotel employee; prosecutors ended up dropping all the charges.) Traveler Carol Gotbaum of New York died in a holding cell at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix; authorities say Gotbaum, 45, accidentally asphyxiated herself after being chained to a bench.
Five years ago Citing national security risks, President Barack Obama blocked a Chinese company from owning four wind farm projects in northern Oregon near a Navy base where the U.S. military flew unmanned drones and electronic-warfare planes on training missions. Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds threw the season’s seventh no-hitter, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0.