Today is Friday, Sept. 26, the 269th day of 2025
with 96 to follow.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus. Evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Neptune and Saturn.
On this date in history:
In 1777, British troops occupied Philadelphia.
In 1934, Britain's Queen Mary bestowed her name on Cunard-White Star Line's newest ocean liner in a christening ceremony in Scotland.
In 1950, U.N. troops took the South Korean capital of Seoul from North Korean forces.
In 1960, the first televised presidential debate aired from a Chicago TV studio. It featured candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon.
In 1983, the yacht Australia II won the America's Cup from the United States, ending the longest winning streak in sports -- 132 years.
In 1984, China and Britain initialed an accord to return Hong Kong to Chinese control when Britain's lease expired in 1997.
In 1990, the Motion Picture Association of America, under pressure from filmmakers, adopted the "NC-17" rating -- no children under 17 allowed -- to replace the "X" rating exploited by the porn industry.
In 1991, four men and four women entered the huge, airtight greenhouse Biosphere II in Arizona. They remained inside for two years, emerging on this date in 1993.
In 1992, a Nigerian Air Force transport plane crashed into a swamp shortly after takeoff from Lagos airport, killing all 158 people on board.
In 1996, the space shuttle Atlantis landed, returning astronaut Shannon Lucid to Earth. At the time, her six-month tour aboard the Mir space station was the longest stay in space for an American.
In 2005, U.S. Army Pfc. Lynndie England, photographed in widely distributed pictures with inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, was convicted of conspiracy and prisoner abuse. She was sentenced to three years in prison and paroled in March 2007.
In 2009, Typhoon Ketsana swept across the Philippines, killing about 500 people and causing the country's worst flooding in almost half a century. The storm then slammed into Southeast Asia and killed 163 people in Vietnam.
In 2017, Saudi King Salman announced the country will issue driver's licenses to women starting the following summer after years of pressure on the government.
In 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test, known as DART, slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos in its first planetary defense test that could protect Earth from future threats.
In 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm. The hurricane would go on to cause 252 deaths and nearly $80 billion in damage across the Southeast United States.
