This Day in History – September 26, 2011

1580 Sir Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth. 1687 The Parthenon in Athens is partially destroyed by an explosion caused by the bombing from Venetian forces led by Morosini who are 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. 1820 Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson proved tomatoes weren’t poisonous by eating several on the steps of the courthouse in Salem, New Jersey. 1824 Kapiolani defies Pele (Hawaiian volcano goddess) & lives 1872 The first Shriners Temple (called Mecca) is established in New York City. 1907 New Zealand and Newfoundland each become dominions within the British Empire. 1908 Ed Reulbach becomes the first and only pitcher to throw two shutouts in one day against the Brooklyn Dodgers. 1914 The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is established by the Federal Trade Commission Act. 1918 World War I: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the bloodiest single battle in American history, begins. 1950 Indonesia is admitted to the United Nations. 1950 Because of forest fire in Br Columbia, blue moon appears in England 1960 Longest speech in UN history (4 hrs, 29 mins, by Fidel Castro) 1960 In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy. 1962 The Yemen Arab Republic is proclaimed. 1968 Hawaii Five-O debuts as an hourly program on CBS 1970 The Laguna Fire starts in San Diego County, California, burning 175,425 acres (710 km²). 1972 American Museum of Immigration dedicated 1973 Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time. 1975 Phillies & NY Mets play a doubleheader that ends at 3:15 AM 1979 1984 summer LA Olympic coverage sold to ABC for $225 million 1981 Baseball: Nolan Ryan sets a Major League record by throwing his fifth no-hitter. 1983 Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a likely worldwide nuclear war by correctly identifying a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike. 1983 Cosmonauts Titov & Strekalov are saved from exploding Soyuz T-10 1984 Pres Reagan vetoes sanctions against South Africa 1984 The United Kingdom agrees to the handover of Hong Kong 1986 Antonin Scalia becomes a Supreme Court Justice 1986 William Rehnquist becomes Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 1986 Bobby (Patrick Duffy) returns to Dallas, his death is attributed to his wife Pam’s bad dream (erases all of last season) 1988 Canada`s Ben Johnson stripped of his 100-m gold failing drug test 1988 NYC’s Rockefeller Center declared a national landmark 1990 Motion Picture Assn of America creates new NC-17 rating 1991 2 year experimental Biosphere 2 in Oracle Arizona begins 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. 2000 Anti-globalization protests in Prague (some 20,000 protesters) turn violent during the IMF and World Bank summits. 2000 The MS Express Samina sinks off Paros in the Agean sea killing 80 passengers. 2008 Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy becomes first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel. 2009 Typhoon Ketsana hit the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, causing 700 fatalities.]]]]> ]]>