On Sept. 26, 1087, William II, son of William the Conqueror, was crowned king of England.
In 1580 Francis Drake, aboard his ship Golden Hind, returned to England after sailing around the globe in 33 months, the first Englishman to accomplish the feat.
In 1774 folk hero Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman was born in Leominster, Mass.
In 1777 British forces captured Philadelphia in the Revolutionary War.
In 1789 Thomas Jefferson was appointed America’s first secretary of state, and John Jay the first chief justice.
In 1820 pioneer Daniel Boone died in Missouri at 85.
In 1898 George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn.
In 1914 the Federal Trade Commission was established.
In 1945 Hungarian-born composer Bela Bartok died in New York at 64.
In 1950 UN forces recaptured Seoul, South Korea’s capital, from North Korean troops.
In 1952 philosopher George Santayana died in Rome at 88.
In 1955, following word that President Dwight Eisenhower had a heart attack, the New York Stock Exchange saw its worst price decline since 1929.
In 1960 the first of four TV debates between presidential candidates Richard Nixon and John Kennedy was held in Chicago.
In 1969 the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album was released.
In 1980 Cuba abruptly ended the exodus of refugees to the U.S. from the port of Mariel after allowing about 125,000 to leave.
In 1986 William Rehnquist was sworn as the nation’s 16th chief justice, and Antonin Scalia joined the Supreme Court as its 103rd member.
In 1990 the Motion Picture Association of America announced it had created a new rating, NC-17, designed to bar moviegoers under age 17.
In 1991 four men and four women began a two-year stay inside a sealed glass-dome structure in Oracle, Ariz., called Biosphere 2.
In 1993 the Biosphere 2 project ended.
In 1996 Richard Davis, who murdered 12-year-old Polly Klaas, was sentenced to death in San Jose, Calif.
In 2000 actor Richard Mulligan died at 67 in Los Angeles.
In 2002 WorldCom ex-controller David Myers pleaded guilty to securities fraud, saying he was told by senior management to falsify records in the largest corporate accounting scandal in U.S. history.
In 2005 Army Pfc. Lynndie England was convicted by a military jury in Texas on six counts stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. (England was sentenced to 3 years in prison.) Also, international weapons inspectors backed by Protestant and Catholic clergymen announced the IRA’s full disarmament.
