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Today in History, September 26th

On September 26, 1960, Kennedy and Nixon met in the first televised presidential debate. Plus Drake's voyage home and West Side Story.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published September 26, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

September 26 is best known for 1960, when John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon met in the first televised U.S. presidential debate. The date also saw Francis Drake finish sailing around the world in 1580 and West Side Story open on Broadway in 1957.

The big story: Kennedy and Nixon debate on live TV (1960)

Before September 26, 1960, Americans had never watched two major-party presidential candidates argue it out on live television. That night, in a Chicago studio, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Vice President Richard M. Nixon did exactly that, in the first of four televised debates. The subject was domestic policy, but much of what viewers took away had little to do with policy. Kennedy looked relaxed and at home in front of the cameras. Nixon seemed tense, and he had turned down makeup. Kennedy came out of the evening widely seen as the winner. Nixon recovered in the second and third debates, and the fourth, on October 21, turned to foreign affairs. The race stayed close to the end. On November 8, Kennedy took 49.7 percent of the popular vote to Nixon’s 49.6, one of the narrowest margins in a U.S. presidential election. Ever since, candidates have worried about lighting as much as talking points.

More events on September 26

Year	What happened
1580	Francis Drake sailed the Golden Hind into Plymouth, England, the first British navigator to circle the globe.
1820	Frontiersman Daniel Boone died at his son’s home in Missouri, at age 86.
1918	The Meuse-Argonne offensive opened, with Allied infantry and more than 700 tanks pushing against German lines in France.
1934	The RMS Queen Mary, among the largest and fastest ocean liners of its day, was launched.
1945	OSS officer Lt. Col. Peter Dewey was shot and killed in Saigon, the first U.S. soldier to die in Vietnam during its August Revolution.
1957	Leonard Bernstein’s musical West Side Story opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre.
1969	The Brady Bunch premiered. Critics panned it; audiences kept it alive for decades.
1983	Australia II won the America’s Cup, ending a U.S. winning streak that went back to the race’s founding in 1851.
1996	Astronaut Shannon Lucid returned to Earth aboard the shuttle Atlantis after six months on the Russian space station Mir.
2005	The Irish Republican Army gave up its weapons under the watch of independent inspectors, two months after announcing it would disarm.

Born on September 26

1888: T.S. Eliot, modernist poet, playwright and critic, born in St. Louis, Missouri.
1898: George Gershwin, composer of Broadway musicals and jazz-tinged concert works, born in Brooklyn, New York.
1981: Serena Williams, tennis champion with 23 Grand Slam singles titles, born in Saginaw, Michigan.