TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, SEPT. 26, the 270th day of 2016. There are 96 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1789, Thomas Jefferson was confirmed by the Senate to be the first U.S. secretary of state; John Jay, the first chief justice; and Edmund Randolph, the first attorney general. In 1777, British troops occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution.
In 1892, John Philip Sousa and his newly formed band performed publicly for the first time at the Stillman Music Hall in Plainfield, N.J. In 1914, the Federal Trade Commission was established. In 1957, the musical play “West Side Story” opened on Broadway.
In 1960, the first-ever debate between presidential nominees took place as Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon faced off in Chicago before a national TV audience. In 1981, the twin-engine Boeing 767 made its official debut in Everett, Wash.
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 1991, four men and four women began a twoyear stay inside a sealed-off structure in Oracle, Ariz., called Biosphere 2. They emerged from Biosphere on this date in 1993.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed a bill ensuring two-day hospital stays for new mothers and their babies. Richard Allen Davis, the killer of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, was formally sentenced to death in San Jose, Calif. In 2014, 43 students from a rural teachers college in Guerrero state in Mexico, who had commandeered buses to attend a rally in Mexico City, were detained by police in the city of Iguala and turned over to a criminal gang. Their fate remains unknown.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Retired baseball All Star Bobby Shantz is 91. Actor Philip Bosco is 86. Actor Richard Herd is 84. South African nationalist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is 80. Country singer David Frizzell is 75. Actor Kent McCord is 74. Television host Anne Robinson is 72. Singer Bryan Ferry is 71. Actress Mary Beth Hurt is 70. Singer Olivia Newton-John is 68. Actor James Keane is 64. Rock singer-musician Cesar Rosas (Los Lobos) is 62. Country singer Carlene Carter is 61. Actress Linda Hamilton is 60. Actress Melissa Sue Anderson, actor Patrick Bristow, rock musician Al Pitrelli and singer Tracey Thorn (Everything But The Girl) are 54. TV personality Jillian Barberie is 50. Contemporary Christian guitarist Jody Davis (Newsboys) is 49. Actors Jim Caviezel and Ben Shenkman and actress Tricia O’Kelley are 48. Singer-actress Christina Milian and tennis player Serena Williams are 35.