TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Sunday, Sept. 27, the 271st day of 2020. 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 1917, French sculptor and painter Edgar Degas died in Paris at age 83.
■ In 1939, Warsaw, Poland, surrendered after weeks of resistance to invading forces from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II.
■ 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 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.
■ In 2004, NBC announced that “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno would be succeeded by “Late Night” host Conan O’Brien in 2009 (however, O’Brien’s stint on “The Tonight Show” lasted just over seven months).
■ In 2016, scientists announced the first baby born from a controversial new technique that combined DNA from three people — the mother, the father and an egg donor. (The goal was to prevent the child from inheriting a fatal genetic disease from his mother.)
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Kathleen Nolan is 87. World Golf Hall of Famer Kathy Whitworth is 81. Rock singer Meat Loaf is 73. Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt is 71. Singer Shaun Cassidy is 62. Comedian Marc Maron is 57. Rock singer Stephan (STEE’-fan) Jenkins (Third Eye Blind) is 56. Former Democratic National Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is 54. Actor Patrick Muldoonis 52. Singer Mark Calderon is 50. Actor Gwyneth Paltrow is 48. Christian rock musician Grant Brandell (Underoath) is 39. Actor Anna Camp is 38. Rapper Lil’ Wayne is 38. Bluegrass singer/musician Sierra Hull is 29. Actor Sam Lerner is 28.