September 26 is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 96 days remaining.
Events
- 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix in fulfilment of a vow he made at the battle of Pharsalus.
- 1580 - Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe.
- 1687 - The Parthenon in Athens is partially destroyed after an explosion caused by the bombing from Venetian forces led by Morosini who were besieging the Ottoman Turks stationed in Athens.
- 1777 - British troops occupy Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the American Revolution.
- 1789 - Thomas Jefferson is appointed the first United States Secretary of State, John Jay is appointed the first Chief Justice of the United States, Samuel Osgood is appointed the first United States Postmaster General, and Edmund Randolph is appointed the first United States Attorney General.
- 1810 - A new Act of Succession is adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte becomes heir to the Swedish throne.
- 1907 - New Zealand and Newfoundland each becomes a dominion of the British Empire.
- 1914 - The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is established by the Federal Trade Commission Act.
- 1918 - World War I: Battle of Meuse.
- 1934 - Steamship RMS Queen Mary is launched.
- 1944 - World War II: Operation Market Garden fails.
- 1950 - United Nations troops recapture Seoul from the North Koreans.
- 1957 - Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story opens on Broadway
- 1960 - In Chicago, Illinois, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
- 1961 - Bob Dylan makes his public debut.
- 1962 - Yemen Arab Republic is proclaimed
- 1962 - Premiere of The Beverly Hillbillies on CBS.
- 1969 - The Chicago Seven trial begins.
- 1969 - The Beatles album Abbey Road is released in the UK.
- 1973 - Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time.
- 1970 - The Laguna Fire starts in San Diego County, California, burning 175,425 acres (710 km²).
- 1981 - Baseball: Nolan Ryan sets a Major League record by throwing his fifth no-hitter.
- 1983 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war.
- 1983 - Australia II, the first non-American winner, wins the Americas Cup.
- 1984 - United Kingdom agrees handover of Hong Kong.
- 1988 - Ben Johnson is stripped of his gold medal in the 100 m sprint at the Seoul Olympics for failing a drug test.
- 1991 - Biosphere 2 opens.
- 1997 - A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A-300 crashes near Medan, Indonesia, airport, killing 234
- 1997 - An earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse.
- 2001 - Star Trek: Enterprise begins airing in the US.
- 2002 - Thirty people are killed in a gun attack at a temple in Gandhinagar, India
- 2002 - Five people are shot dead in a botched bank robbery in Norfolk, Nebraska, United States.
Births
- 1774 - Johnny Appleseed, American environmentalist (d. 1847)
- 1791 - Théodore Géricault, French writer (d. 1824)
- 1869 - Komitas, Armenian composer (d. 1935)
- 1870 - King Christian X of Denmark (d. 1947)
- 1871 - Winsor McCay, American cartoonist (d. 1934)
- 1873 - Aleksey Shchusev, Russian architect (d. 1949)
- 1874 - Lewis Hine, American photographer and social activist (d. 1940)
- 1877 - Alfred Cortot, Swiss pianist (d. 1962)
- 1875 - Edmund Gwenn, Welsh actor (d. 1959)
- 1876 - Edith Abbott, American social worker, educator, and author (d. 1957)
- 1887 - Antonio Moreno, Spanish-born actor (d. 1967)
- 1887 - Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, FRS, British scientist, engineer and inventor (d. 1979)
- 1888 - J. Frank Dobie, American folklorist and newspaper columnist (d. 1964)
- 1888 - T. S. Eliot, American poet and editor (d. 1965)
- 1889 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (d. 1976)
- 1891 - Charles Munch, French conductor and violinist (d. 1968)
- 1895 - George Raft, American actor (d. 1980)
- 1897 - Pope Paul VI (d. 1978)
- 1897 - Arthur Rhys Davids, English pilot (d. 1917)
- 1898 - George Gershwin, American composer (d. 1937)
- 1914 - Jack LaLanne, American fitness advocate
- 1925 - Marty Robbins, American singer (d. 1982)
- 1926 - Masatoshi Koshiba, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1926 - Julie London, American singer and actress (d. 2000)
- 1930 - Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor (d. 1966)
- 1932 - Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India
- 1932 - Richard Herd, American actor
- 1933 - Donna Douglas, American actress
- 1936 - Winnie Mandela, South African anti-apartheid activist
- 1943 - Ian Chappell, Australian test cricket player and broadcaster
- 1944 - Anne Robinson, British television host
- 1945 - Bryan Ferry, British singer
- 1946 - Christine Todd Whitman, American politician
- 1947 - Lynn Anderson, American singer
- 1948 - Olivia Newton-John, Australian singer
- 1951 - Stuart Tosh, Scottish musician
- 1954 - Kevin Kennedy, baseball manager and television host
- 1956 - Linda Hamilton, American actress
- 1962 - Melissa Sue Anderson, American actress
- 1967 - Shannon Hoon, American singer (Blind Melon) (d. 1995)
- 1968 - James Caviezel, American actor
- 1973 - Chris Small, Scottish snooker player
- 1975 - Emma Härdelin, Swedish singer (Garmarna and Triakel)
- 1976 - Michael Ballack, German footballer
- 1981 - Christina Milian, American actress and singer
- 1981 - Serena Williams, American tennis player
Deaths
- 1626 - Wakisaka Yasuharu, Japanese warrior (b. 1554)
- 1763 - John Byrom, English poet (b. 1692)
- 1764 - Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro, Spanish scholar (b. 1767)
- 1802 - Baron Jurij Vega, Slovenian mathematician, physicist, and military officer (b. 1754)
- 1820 - Daniel Boone, American frontiersman (b. 1734)
- 1868 - August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1790)
- 1877 - Hermann Grassmann, German mathematician and physicist (b. 1809)
- 1904 - John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (b. 1848)
- 1937 - Bessie Smith, American singer (b. 1894)
- 1945 - Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (b. 1881)
- 1947 - Hugh Lofting, British writer (b. 1886)
- 1952 - George Santayana, Spanish philosopher (b. 1863)
- 1978 - Manne Siegbahn, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1886)
- 1998 - Betty Carter, American singer (b. 1930)
- 2003 - Robert Palmer, British singer (b. 1949)
- 2005 - Don Adams, actor (b. 1923)
Holidays and observations
Also see September 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Discordianism - Bureflux
- European Day of Languages
External links
September 25 - September 27 - August 26 - October 26 - more historical anniversaries