Today in history

By Associated Press

Sept. 27

In 1779, John Adams was named by Congress to negotiate the Revolutionary War’s peace terms with Britain.

In 1903, a Southern Railway mail train derailed near Danville, Virginia, killing 11; the accident inspired the famous ballad, “Wreck of the Old 97.”

In 1939, Warsaw, Poland, surrendered after weeks of resistance to invading forces from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II.

In 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, formally allying the World War II Axis powers.

In 1964, the government publicly released the report of the Warren Commission, which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy.

In 1979, Congress gave its final approval to forming the U.S. Department of Education.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush announced in a nationally broadcast address that he was eliminating all U.S. battlefield nuclear weapons and called on the Soviet Union to match the gesture.

In 1994, more than 350 Republican congressional candidates gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to sign the “Contract with America,” a 10-point platform they pledged to enact if voters sent a GOP majority to the House.

In 2013, President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by telephone, the first conversation between American and Iranian leaders in more than 30 years.

In 2018, during a day-long hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Blasey Ford said she was “100%” certain that she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when they were teenagers, and Kavanaugh then told senators that he was “100 percent certain” he had done no such thing.

In 2021, R&B singer R. Kelly was convicted in a sex trafficking trial in New York, after decades of avoiding criminal responsibility for numerous allegations of misconduct with young women and children.

Sept. 28

In 1781, American forces in the Revolutionary War, backed by a French fleet, began their successful siege of Yorktown, Virginia.

In 1924, three U.S. Army planes landed in Seattle, having completed the first round-the-world trip by air in 175 days.

In 1941, Ted Williams became the most recent American League baseball player to hit over .400 for a season, batting .406 for the Boston Red Sox.

In 1962, a federal appeals court found Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett in civil contempt for blocking the admission of James Meredith, a Black student, to the University of Mississippi.

In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed an accord at the White House ending Israel’s military occupation of West Bank cities and laying the foundation for a Palestinian state.

In 2000, capping a 12-year battle, the U.S. government approved use of the abortion pill RU-486.

In 2020, the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic reached 1 million, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University.

In 2022, Hurricane Ian barreled ashore in southwestern Florida as a massive Category 4 storm. About 2.5 million people were ordered to evacuate before the storm hit the coast with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph.

—From AP reports