Today in History....September 26

On this day in …

1776, the Continental Congress elects Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee as agents who will be sent to secure a formal alliance and negotiate a treaty between the United States and France

1777, British troops occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution

1789, Thomas Jefferson was appointed America's first secretary of state
1914, the Federal Trade Commission was established

1945, Lt. Col. Peter Dewey, a U.S. Army officer with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) becomes first American MIA in Vietnam

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

1960, the first televised debate between presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon took place in Chicago

1981, the twin-engine Boeing 767 made its maiden flight in Everett, Wash.

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

1996,


Astronaut Shannon Lucid returned to Earth in the shuttle Atlantis after six months aboard the Russian Mir space station.

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

ValuJet received federal permission to fly again three months after it was grounded following a deadly crash.

Richard Allen Davis, the killer of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, was formally sentenced to death in San Jose, Calif.