September 26
For the first time in U.S. history, a debate between major party presidential candidates is shown on television. The presidential hopefuls, John F. Kennedy, a Democratic Party senator of Massachusetts, and Richard M. Nixon, the vice president of the United States, meet in a Chicago studio to discuss U.S. domestic matters. – 1960.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and committees in the Soviet legislature pass a bill to allow the publication of books, newspapers, and magazines without government approval. – 1989.
A ferry from Senegal capsizes off the coast of Gambia. Only 64 out of more than 1,000 passengers were rescued to make it one of the worst maritime disasters in history. – 2002.
September 27
U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt writes to German chancellor Adolf Hitler regarding the threat of war in Europe, especially in the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. Hitler ignored the international community’s pleas for a peaceful solution and later invades Czechoslovakia in March 1939. – 1938.
September 28
Claiming his right to the English throne, William, duke of Normandy, France, invades England at Pevensey on Britain’s southeast coast. His subsequent defeat of King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings marked the beginning of a new era in British history. – 1066.
In one of the worst maritime disasters of the century, 852 passengers die when the Estonia, a large car-and-passenger ferry, sinks in the Baltic Sea. – 1994.
September 29
On the outskirts of Kiev in the Nazi-occupied Ukraine, Jews are marched in small groups to the Babi Yar ravine north of the city, ordered to strip naked, and were machine-gunned into the ravine. The massacre ended September 30 and the approximate 34,000 Jewish dead and wounded were covered over with dirt and rock. The Babi Yar massacre became a symbol of Jewish suffering in the Holocaust. – 1941.
Seven persons suddenly die of unknown causes in northwest Chicago. Further investigation revealed that all seven took Tylenol capsules, which had been poisoned with cyanide. The culprit was never caught, but the mass murder led to new tamper-proof medicine containers. – 1982.
September 30
U.S. president Woodrow Wilson gives a speech in Congress in support of guaranteeing women the right to vote. – 1918.
Black farmers meet in Elaine, Ark. to establish the Progressive Farmers and Householders Union to fight for better pay and higher cotton prices. They are shot at by a group of whites, and return the fire. News of the confrontation spread and a riot ensues, which leaves at least 100, perhaps several hundred blacks, dead and 67 indicted for inciting violence. – 1919.
Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French premier Edouard Daladier, and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain sign the Munich Pact, which seals the fate of Czechoslovakia to virtually hand it over to Germany in the name of peace. – 1938.
October 1
An act of Congress creates Yosemite National Park. U.S. president Benjamin Harrison paved the way for generations of hikers, campers, and nature-lovers, along with countless “Don’t Feed the Bears” signs. – 1890.
T.E. Lawrence, a legendary British soldier known as Lawrence of Arabia and instrumental commander in the Allied campaign during World War I, helps lead a combined Arab and British force to capture Damascus from the Turks to complete the liberation of Arabia during World War I. – 1918.
Twelve high-ranking Nazis are sentenced to death by the International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. – 1946.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) is signed by president Richard Nixon which requires employers to provide safe and healthy work-places. – 1970.
October 2
Joining with 400,000 coal-miners already on strike, 500,000 CIO steel-workers close down the Nation’s foundries, steel mills, and iron mills, demand for pensions, better wages, and better working conditions. – 1949.
Actor Rock Hudson, 59, becomes the first major U.S. celebrity to die of complications from AIDS. Hudson’s death raised public awareness of the epidemic, which until that time had been ignored by many in the mainstream as a gay plague. – 1985.