By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Saturday, Sept. 26, the 270th day of 2020. There are 96 days left in the year.

Todayís Highlight in History:

On Sept. 26, 1960, the first-ever debate between presidential nominees took place as Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon faced off before a national TV audience from Chicago.

On this date:

In 1777, British troops occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution.

In 1789, Thomas Jefferson was confirmed by the Senate to be the first United States secretary of state; John Jay, the first chief justice; Edmund Randolph, the first attorney general.

In 1888, poet T.S. Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 1955, following word that President Eisenhower had suffered a heart attack, the New York Stock Exchange saw its worst price decline since 1929.

In 1964, the situation comedy ìGilliganís Islandî premiered on CBS-TV.

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 1990, the Motion Picture Association of America announced it had created a new rating, NC-17, to replace the X rating.

In 1991, four men and four women began a two-year stay inside a sealed-off structure in Oracle, Arizona, called Biosphere 2. (They emerged from Biosphere on this date in 1993.)

In 1996, President Clinton signed a bill ensuring two-day hospital stays for new mothers and their babies.

In 2003, President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin (POOí-tihn) opened a two-day summit at Camp David.

In 2005, Army Pfc. Lynndie England was convicted by a military jury in Fort Hood, Texas, on six of seven counts stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.

In 2016, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton participated in their first debate of the presidential campaign at Hofstra University in New York; Clinton emphatically denounced Trump for keeping his personal tax returns and business dealings secret from voters while Trump repeatedly cast Clinton as a ìtypical politician.î

Ten years ago: Gloria Stuart, the 1930s Hollywood beauty who later became the oldest Academy Award acting nominee as the spunky survivor in ìTitanic,î died in Los Angeles at age 100.

Five years ago: Visiting Philadelphia on the final leg of his six-day U.S. trip, Pope Francis extolled Americaís founding ideals of liberty and equality while warning that religious freedom was under threat around the globe. Speaking at a U.N. summit on new development goals, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged billions in aid to the worldís poorest countries and said Beijing would forgive debts of those worst-off.

One year ago: President Donald Trump lashed out at the person who gave information to the whistleblower accusing him of abusing his office, saying that the individual was ìclose to a spyî who could have committed treason; he said of spies, ìWe used to handle it a little differently than we do now.î Jacques Chirac, a two-term French president who had been the first French leader to acknowledge the countryís role in the Holocaust, died at the age of 86.

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