Sept. 26
Today in history
Today is Sept. 26. On this day in:
1774: Johnny Appleseed, a pioneer nurseryman known for introducing apple trees across the American frontier, was born John Chapman in Leominster, Massachusetts. Appleseed’s reputation as a quirky, barefoot wanderer with a tin-pot hat and a passion for planting apple trees solidified his place as an American folk hero.
1914: President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Trade Commission Act into law, establishing the FTC. This new agency was created to promote consumer protection and eliminate harmful anticompetitive business practices.
1934: The RMS Queen Mary was launched at the John Brown & Co. shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland. The luxury liner serviced passengers traveling primarily between Southampton, England, and New York City before being retired at the end of 1967 and turned into a hotel and museum docked in Long Beach, California.
1957: “West Side Story” opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. The musical, inspired by Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” ran for 732 performances and became a contemporary classic.
1959: Typhoon Vera, also known as the Isewan Typhoon, made landfall near Shionomisaki on Honshu, Japan. The Category 5 storm caused catastrophic damage, resulting in over 5,000 deaths and leaving approximately 1.5 million people homeless.
1960: John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon faced off in the first televised U.S. presidential debate. Broadcast from a Chicago studio, it significantly influenced public perception, with Kennedy’s confident appearance contrasting sharply with Nixon’s more nervous demeanor.
1960: Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro delivered a 4-hour, 29-minute speech at the United Nations. His address, critiquing U.S. policies and advocating for unity against colonialism, remains one of the longest speeches ever delivered at the U.N. General Assembly.
1969: The Beatles released their 11th studio album, “Abbey Road,” through Apple Records. It featured the soon-to-be classics “Come Together” and “Here Comes the Sun,” and was the legendary group’s last album recorded together.
1969: “The Brady Bunch,” created by Sherwood Schwartz, made its debut on ABC. The series revolved around a large, blended family with six children – three boys and three girls – and it portrayed the adventures and challenges of merging two families into one.
2007: A mistrial was declared in the Phil Spector murder case. The music producer was on trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. Spector was eventually convicted of second-degree murder in a 2009 retrial and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison. He died behind bars in 2021.
2024: Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida after rapidly intensifying into a Category 4 storm in the Gulf of Mexico. At least 250 storm-related deaths were reported across seven states, and estimates said Helene caused more than $75 billion in damage.
– USA TODAY Network
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Today in history, September 26
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