Today in History: September 26, Kennedy and Nixon hold nationally televised presidential debate

Today is Saturday, Sept. 26, the 269th day of 2026. There are 96 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 26, 1960, the first nationally televised debate between presidential candidates took place as Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon faced off in Chicago.

Also on this date:

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

In 1954, the Japanese commercial ferry Toya Maru sank during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, claiming more than 1,150 lives.

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. Rehnquist died in 2005 and Scalia in 2016.

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 2 on this date in 1993.

In 2000, thousands of anti-globalization protesters clashed with police in demonstrations during a summit of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Prague.

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 2020, President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Barrett would be confirmed the following month.)

In 2022, NASA's Dart mission became the first spacecraft to ram an asteroid in a dress rehearsal for deflecting a space object's trajectory.

In 2024, Helene, a major Category 4 hurricane, made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region. It went on to cut a swath across Georgia and South Carolina before triggering historic flooding in North Carolina and Tennessee, causing an estimated $78 billion in damage and 219 deaths.

Today’s Birthdays: Country singer David Frizzell is 85. Singer Bryan Ferry is 81. Author Jane Smiley is 77. Singer-guitarist Cesar Rosas (Los Lobos) is 72. Actor Linda Hamilton is 70. Actor Melissa Sue Anderson is 64. Actor Jim Caviezel (kuh-VEE’-zuhl) is 58. Singer Shawn Stockman (Boyz II Men) is 54. Hockey Hall of Famers Daniel and Henrik Sedin are 46. Tennis player Serena Williams is 45. Singer-actor Christina Milian is 45. Actor Zoe Perry is 43. Actor Alisha Weir is 17.