On this day, Sept. 28

1870 Pennsylvania College for Women, now Chatham University, opened under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church.

1928 Scottish medical researcher Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first effective antibiotic.

1948 Bernard Nieman, president of Frank and Seder department store, died at the age of 68 at his home, 5405 Northumberland St., Squirrel Hill.

1986 Twelve thousand runners ran in the 10th annual Great Race.

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.

2021 Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the 20-year war in Afghanistan a “strategic failure,” and said he had favored keeping several thousand troops in the country to prevent a collapse of the U.S.-backed government and a rapid takeover by the Taliban.

Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Rick Nowlin

Today’s birthdays: Actor Brigitte Bardot, 88. Actor Janeane Garofalo, 58. Actor Mira Sorvino, 55. TV personality/singer Moon Zappa, 55. Actor Naomi Watts, 54. Singer/songwriter A.J. Croce, 51. Rapper Young Jeezy, 45. World Golf Hall of Famer Se Ri Pak, 45. Actor Jerrika Hinton, 41. Pop-rock singer St. Vincent, 40. Comedian/actor Phoebe Robinson, 38. Rock musician Daniel Platzman (Imagine Dragons), 36. Actor Hilary Duff, 35. Actor Keir Gilchrist, 30.

Thought for today: “To fight oppression, and to work as best we can for a sane organization of society, we do not have to abandon the state of mind of freedom. If we do that we are letting the same thuggery in by the back door that we are fighting off in front of the house.”

— John Dos Passos, American author (born 1896, died this date in 1970)