History of Today 26 September: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 26 September. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 26 September. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 26 September 2026, 01:02 AM

Important Events on 26 September in History

26 Sep 2024: Hurricane Helene makes landfall in Perry, Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, killing over 250 people, causing US$78.7 billion in damage and becoming the deadliest hurricane in the mainland United States since Katrina. Read more
26 Sep 2022: A mass shooting occurs at a school in Izhevsk, Udmurtia, Russia, resulting in the deaths of 18 people, including 11 children. Read more
26 Sep 2014: A mass kidnapping of 43 students from a teaching college occurs in Iguala, Mexico. Read more
26 Sep 2010: The Philippine Bar exam bombing occurs near the De La Salle University in Taft Avenue, Manila injuring 47 people. Read more
26 Sep 2009: Typhoon Ketsana hits the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, causing 700 fatalities. Read more
26 Sep 2002: The overcrowded Senegalese ferry, MV Le Joola, capsizes off the coast of the Gambia killing more than 1,000. Read more
26 Sep 2000: Anti-globalization protests in Prague (some 20,000 protesters) turn violent during the IMF and World Bank summits. Read more
26 Sep 2000: The MS Express Samina sinks off Paros in the Aegean Sea killing 80 passengers. Read more
26 Sep 1997: A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A300 crashes near Medan airport, killing 234. Read more
26 Sep 1997: An earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse. Read more
26 Sep 1994: A Yakovlev Yak-40 crashes into a river near Vanavara, Russia, killing 24. Read more
26 Sep 1992: A Nigerian Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashes in Ejigbo, Lagos, killing 159. Read more
26 Sep 1984: The United Kingdom and China agree to a transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, to take place in 1997. Read more
26 Sep 1983: Soviet Air Force officer Stanislav Petrov identifies a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike, thus preventing nuclear war. Read more
26 Sep 1983: Soyuz 7K-ST No. 16L, intended to launch a crew to the Salyut 7 space station, explodes on the launch pad. The launch escape system is activated before the Soyuz-U rocket explodes, saving the crew. Read more
26 Sep 1980: A terrorist bombing at the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, kills 13 people and injures 213 others. Read more
26 Sep 1978: Air Caribbean Flight 309 crashes in Residencial Las Casas in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing six. Read more
26 Sep 1960: In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Read more
26 Sep 1959: Typhoon Vera, the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in recorded history, makes landfall, killing 4,580 people and leaving nearly 1.6 million others homeless. Read more
26 Sep 1954: The Japanese rail ferry Tōya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, Japan, killing 1,172. Read more
26 Sep 1953: Rationing of sugar in the United Kingdom ends. Read more
26 Sep 1950: Korean War: United Nations troops recapture Seoul from North Korean forces. Read more
26 Sep 1942: Holocaust: Senior SS official August Frank issues a memorandum detailing how Jews should be "evacuated". Read more
26 Sep 1936: Spanish Civil War: Lluis Companys reshuffles the Generalitat de Catalunya, with the marxist POUM and anarcho-syndicalist CNT joining the government. Read more
26 Sep 1933: As gangster Machine Gun Kelly surrenders to the FBI, he shouts out, "Don't shoot, G-Men!", which becomes a nickname for FBI agents. Read more
26 Sep 1923: The German government calls off the passive resistance to the French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr. Read more
26 Sep 1919: Ukrainian War of Independence: The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine defeats the White Russian Volunteer Army at the Battle of Peregonovka. Read more
26 Sep 1918: World War I: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive began which would last until the total surrender of German forces. Read more
26 Sep 1917: World War I: The Battle of Polygon Wood begins. Read more
26 Sep 1914: The United States Federal Trade Commission is established by the Federal Trade Commission Act. Read more
26 Sep 1907: Four months after the 1907 Imperial Conference, New Zealand and Newfoundland are promoted from colonies to dominions within the British Empire. Read more
26 Sep 1905: Albert Einstein publishes the third of his Annus Mirabilis papers, introducing the special theory of relativity. Read more
26 Sep 1810: A new Act of Succession is adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates, and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte becomes heir to the Swedish throne. Read more

Famous Births on 26 September

26 Sep 2003: Jane Remover, American musician Jane Remover is an American rapper, record producer, and singer-songwriter. They made their debut with Teen Week in 2021, a progressive pop and digicore EP with themes of adolescence. The same year, they released their debut studio album, Frailty, a coming of age album following the similar themes of Teen Week, but encompassing a wide range of genres. Read more
26 Sep 2001: Xinyu Wang, Chinese tennis player Wang Xinyu is a Chinese professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 30 on 23 February 2026, and a best doubles ranking of world No. 16 on 20 May 2024. Partnering with Hsieh Su-wei, she won the women's doubles title at the 2023 French Open. Wang also won a silver medal in mixed doubles, alongside Zhang Zhizhen at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Read more
26 Sep 2000: Frankie Amaya, American soccer player Franuel "Frankie" Amaya is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Major League Soccer club CF Montréal, on loan from Liga MX club Toluca. Read more
26 Sep 2000: Princess Salma bint Abdullah, Jordanian princess Princess Salma bint Abdullah is the second daughter and third child of King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan. Read more
26 Sep 1997: Özge Yağız, Turkish actress Özge Yağız is a Turkish actress who gained widespread recognition for her breakout role as Reyhan in the popular drama series Yemin. She has starring in notable Turkish television dramas such as Sol Yanım, Baba, Safir, and Nature Of Love Read more
26 Sep 1995: Miloš Veljković, Serbian footballer Miloš Veljković is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Serbian SuperLiga club Red Star Belgrade. Born in Switzerland, he represents the Serbia national team. Read more
26 Sep 1994: Jack Conger, American swimmer John Peet Conger is a former American competition swimmer who specializes in butterfly and freestyle events. He is an Olympic gold medalist in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and the former American record-holder in the 200-yard butterfly with a best time of 1:37.35, having held this record for nearly a decade until Luca Urlando took 0.18 off his mark in an NCAA dual meet against the University of Tennessee. Read more
26 Sep 1993: Rosicleide Andrade, Brazilian Paralympic judoka Rosicleide Silva de Andrade is a Brazilian Paralympic judoka. She represented Brazil at the 2024 Summer Paralympics. Read more
26 Sep 1993: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, American basketball player Michael Anthony Edward Kidd-Gilchrist Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. Kidd-Gilchrist was drafted second overall by the Charlotte Bobcats in the 2012 NBA draft. He played for the University of Kentucky men's basketball team from 2011 to 2012. Read more
26 Sep 1992: Yoo Ara, South Korean singer and actress Yoo Ara is a South Korean singer and actress, known for her work as a former member of the South Korean girl group Hello Venus. Read more
26 Sep 1991: Alma Jodorowsky, French actress, fashion model and singer Alma Jodorowsky is a French actress, singer, and fashion model. Read more
26 Sep 1991: Dan Preston, English footballer Daniel Sean Preston is an English retired footballer who played as a defender. Read more
26 Sep 1989: Jonny Bairstow, English cricketer Jonathan Marc Bairstow is an English cricketer who played internationally for England in all formats as a right-handed wicket-keeper-batter. He represents Yorkshire in domestic cricket and London Spirit in The Hundred. Bairstow was part of the England team that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Read more
26 Sep 1988: Chris Archer, American baseball player Christopher Alan Archer is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Rays, Pittsburgh Pirates and Minnesota Twins. Read more
26 Sep 1988: James Blake, English singer-songwriter and producer James Blake Litherland is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. Known for his emotive, soulful light head voice and use of falsetto, he first gained recognition following the release of three extended plays in 2010: The Bells Sketch, CMYK and Klavierwerke. Blake subsequently signed with A&M Records to release his self-titled debut album (2011) the following year, which was met with critical praise and peaked within the top ten of the UK Albums Chart. Read more
26 Sep 1988: Kiira Korpi, Finnish figure skater Kiira Linda Katriina Korpi is a Finnish figure skater. She is a three-time European medalist, the 2010 Trophée Eric Bompard champion, the 2012 Rostelecom Cup champion, a two-time Cup of China medalist, and a five-time Finnish national champion. She retired from competitive skating in August 2015. Read more
26 Sep 1988: Buddy Matthews, Australian wrestler Matthew Adams is an Australian professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Buddy Matthews and is a former AEW World Trios Champion. He also makes appearances on the independent circuit. He is best known for his time with WWE where he performed under the ring name Buddy Murphy. Read more
26 Sep 1987: Rosanna Munter, Swedish singer-songwriter Rosanna Bella Victoria Eriksdotter Munter is an actress and recording artist from Sweden. She is best known as a member of the Swedish girl group Play, and she was in a collaborative project with White Lies bassist Charles Cave titled K.I.D.S. Read more
26 Sep 1986: Sean Doolittle, American baseball player Sean Robert Doolittle is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current coach for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the Oakland Athletics, Nationals, Cincinnati Reds, and Seattle Mariners. Read more
26 Sep 1985: Talulah Riley, English actress Talulah Jane Riley-Milburn is an English actress. She has appeared in films, including Pride & Prejudice (2005), St Trinian's (2007) and its sequel St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009), The Boat That Rocked (2009), and Inception (2010). She has also appeared on the HBO science fiction western series Westworld (2016–2018) and the FX biographical miniseries Pistol (2022). Read more
26 Sep 1984: Nev Schulman, American photographer, television host, and producer Yaniv "Nev" Schulman is an American TV host and producer. He is best known for the 2010 documentary film Catfish and the follow-up TV series Catfish: The TV Show on MTV of which he is the host and executive producer. Read more
26 Sep 1983: Ricardo Quaresma, Portuguese footballer Ricardo Andrade Quaresma Bernardo is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a winger. Read more
26 Sep 1982: Rob Burrow, English rugby player (died 2024) Robert Geoffrey Burrow was an English professional rugby league footballer who played as a scrum-half or hooker. Burrow spent his entire professional career with the Leeds Rhinos, making nearly 500 appearances as well as representing Great Britain, England, and Yorkshire. Read more
26 Sep 1982: John Scott, Canadian ice hockey player John Howard Scott is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman and winger. A professional player for nearly 10 seasons, Scott saw National Hockey League (NHL) action with the Minnesota Wild, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, San Jose Sharks, Buffalo Sabres, Arizona Coyotes and Montreal Canadiens. Scott was born in Edmonton, Alberta, but grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario. He graduated from Michigan Technological University in 2006. Read more
26 Sep 1982: Sun Li, Chinese actress Sun Li, also known as Susan Sun, is a Chinese actress, best known for TV dramas such as Goddess of Mercy (2003), Happiness as Flowers (2005), Shanghai Bund (2007), Empresses in the Palace (2011), The Legend of Mi Yue (2015), and Nothing Gold Can Stay (2017). Her films include Painted Skin (2008), The Breakup Guru (2014), Devil and Angel (2015), and Shadow (2018). In 2018, she became the youngest actress to achieve China's television "Grand Slam", having won Best Actress at the country's three major TV awards: Flying Apsaras Awards, Golden Eagle Awards, and Magnolia Awards. Read more
26 Sep 1981: Asuka, Japanese professional wrestler Kanako Urai is a Japanese professional wrestler. She has been signed to WWE since August 2015, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Asuka . Previously known as Kana (華名), she started her professional wrestling career in 2004. Read more
26 Sep 1981: Yao Beina, Chinese singer (died 2015) Yao Beina, also known as Bella Yao, was a Chinese singer and songwriter. She debuted as a professional singer with her portrayal of the diva of the musical Jin Sha (金沙) in 2005. After graduating from China Conservatory of Music in the same year, she started her singing career in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Political Department of the People's Liberation Army Navy. Read more
26 Sep 1981: Christina Milian, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress Christina Milian is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Following a number of minor television and film roles in the late 1990s, Milian made her recording debut on American rapper Ja Rule's 2000 single "Between Me and You", which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. Read more
26 Sep 1981: Ayumi Tsunematsu, Japanese voice actress Ayumi Tsunematsu is a Japanese voice actress. Read more
26 Sep 1981: Serena Williams, American tennis player Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 319 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. Williams won 73 WTA Tour–level singles titles, including 23 major women's singles titles—the most in the Open Era, and the second-most of all time. She is the only player to accomplish a Career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles, and the only player to have simultaneously held Olympic gold and all four major titles in both singles and doubles. Read more
26 Sep 1980: Patrick Friesacher, Austrian racing driver Patrick Friesacher is an Austrian racing driver. He is the longest-serving Red Bull driver, and also drove for the Minardi Formula One team during the first half of the 2005 season. Read more
26 Sep 1980: Brooks Orpik, American ice hockey player Richard Brooks Orpik is an American former professional ice hockey player. A defenseman, he played for the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL). A stay-at-home defenseman and locker room leader, Orpik is a two-time Stanley Cup champion, winning with the Penguins in 2009 and with the Capitals in 2018. Read more
26 Sep 1980: Daniel Sedin, Swedish ice hockey player Daniel Hans Sedin is a Swedish ice hockey executive and former winger who played his entire 17-season National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Vancouver Canucks from 2000 to 2018. He and Henrik both currently serve as co-presidents of hockey operations for the Canucks. Raised in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, Sedin and his identical twin brother Henrik played together throughout their careers; the pair were renowned for their effectiveness as a tandem. During his career, Daniel was known as a goal-scorer, while Henrik was known as a playmaker. Sedin tallied 393 goals and 648 assists in 1,306 games played in the NHL, ranking him as the Canucks' second-highest points scorer all time, behind only his brother Henrik. Read more
26 Sep 1980: Henrik Sedin, Swedish ice hockey player Henrik Lars Sedin is a Swedish ice hockey executive and former centre who played his entire 17-season National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Vancouver Canucks from 2000 to 2018. He additionally served as the Canucks' captain from 2010 until his retirement. He and identical twin brother Daniel both currently serve as President of Hockey Operations for the Canucks. Born and raised in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, the brothers played together throughout their careers; the pair were renowned for their effectiveness as a tandem. Henrik, a skilled passer, was known as a playmaker while Daniel was known as a goal-scorer. Sedin tallied 240 goals and 830 assists, for 1,070 points, in 1,330 NHL games, ranking him as the Canucks' all-time leading points scorer. Read more
26 Sep 1979: Chris Kunitz, Canadian ice hockey player Christopher Kunitz is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger who played in the National Hockey League (NHL). He played for the Anaheim Ducks, Atlanta Thrashers, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Tampa Bay Lightning and Chicago Blackhawks. Read more
26 Sep 1979: Naomichi Marufuji, Japanese wrestler Naomichi Marufuji is a Japanese professional wrestler, wrestling executive, and restaurateur. He is signed to Pro Wrestling Noah, where is the vice-president of CyberFight, the parent company of Noah. Known as the Genius of the Ark , Marufuji is the current GHC National Champion in his first reign and former four-time GHC Heavyweight Champion, as well as the first of two men to win Junior Heavyweight Championships in all three major Japanese promotions. Marufuji is widely referred to as one of the most influential professional wrestlers of the modern era, inspiring many international and national wrestlers such as Seth Rollins, Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, and others; his notes as an influential wrestler have garnered him the nickname "The Mastermind Behind Modern Wrestling". Read more
26 Sep 1979: Fuifui Moimoi, Tongan-New Zealand rugby league player Fuifui Moana Moimoi is a rugby league footballer who plays as a prop. Read more
26 Sep 1979: Cameron Mooney, Australian footballer Cameron Mooney is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the North Melbourne and Geelong Football Clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL). A forward, standing at 197 cm Mooney is renowned for his passion along with his poor tribunal history where he holds the record for the most suspensions in a single season by a VFL/AFL player. Read more
26 Sep 1979: Jaycie Phelps, American gymnast Jaycie Lynn Phelps is an American retired Olympic gymnast and member of the 1996 Olympic gold medal U.S. women's gymnastics team, the Magnificent Seven. She is known for her consistency and clean lines in her gymnastics. Read more
26 Sep 1979: Taavi Rõivas, Estonian politician, 16th Prime Minister of Estonia Taavi Rõivas is an Estonian former politician and businessman who served as Prime Minister of Estonia from 2014 to 2016. He led the Reform Party from 2014 to 2017 and was previously the Minister of Social Affairs from 2012 to 2014. On 9 November 2016, his second cabinet dissolved after his coalition partners, the Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica and Social Democratic Party, sided with the opposition in a no confidence motion. Read more
26 Sep 1979: Jacob Tierney, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter Jacob Daniel Tierney is a Canadian actor, director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television. He is the co-creator, co-writer, director, and executive producer of the Canadian sitcom Letterkenny (2016–2023), the executive producer and director of the first two seasons of its spinoff series, Shoresy (2022–2023), and the creator, writer, director and executive producer of the sports romance series Heated Rivalry (2025–present). Read more
26 Sep 1978: Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, Kenyan runner Robert "Mwafrika" Kipkoech Cheruiyot, sometimes known as Omar Ahmed, is a Kenyan marathon runner and is the former record holder and four-time winner of the Boston Marathon. Read more
26 Sep 1977: Kerem Özyeğen, Turkish singer-songwriter and guitarist Mor ve Ötesi is a Turkish alternative rock band from Istanbul. Its four current members are Harun Tekin, Kerem Kabadayı (drums), Burak Güven (bass) and Kerem Özyeğen. Former members include Alper Tekin and Derin Esmer. The band achieved mainstream success with the release of the album Dünya Yalan Söylüyor. In 2008, the band represented Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade with the song "Deli" (Lunatic). Read more
26 Sep 1977: Aka Plu, Japanese comedian and actor Yuko Matsuoka , better known as Aka Plu , is a Japanese comedian who is represented by the talent agency, Ohta Production. Her old stage name was Akai Plutonium . Her husband is Shingo Matsuoka which they were a comedy duo called Aka Plu to Danna. Read more
26 Sep 1976: Michael Ballack, German footballer Michael Ballack is a German former professional footballer who is now a football agent. He was selected by Pelé as one of FIFA's 100 Greatest Living Players, and as the UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year in 2002. He won the German Footballer of the Year award three times – in 2002, 2003 and 2005. Ballack was known for his passing range, powerful shot, strength and commanding presence in midfield. Read more
26 Sep 1976: Sami Vänskä, Finnish bass player Sami Vänskä is the former bassist of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. Read more
26 Sep 1975: Emma Härdelin, Swedish singer and violinist Emma Härdelin is a Swedish musician. She is a violinist and lead singer in folk-rock band Garmarna, which she joined in 1993 for their first album, and also lead singer for the folk band Triakel. Read more
26 Sep 1975: Jake Paltrow, American director and screenwriter Jake Paltrow is an American film director, screenwriter and actor. Coming from a family of actors, he is the younger brother of Gwyneth Paltrow and the son of Bruce Paltrow and Blythe Danner. Read more
26 Sep 1975: Chiara Schoras, German actress Chiara Schoras is a German actress. Read more
26 Sep 1974: Boris Cepeda, German-Ecuadorian pianist and diplomat Boris Cepeda is a German-Ecuadorian Pianist and Diplomat. Read more
26 Sep 1974: Gary Hall Jr., American swimmer Gary Wayne Hall Jr. is an American former competition swimmer who represented the United States at the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympics and won ten Olympic medals. He is a former world record-holder in two relay events. Hall is well known for his "pro-wrestling-like" antics before a competition, frequently strutting onto the pool deck in boxing shorts and robe, shadow boxing and flexing for the audience. Read more
26 Sep 1974: Martin Müürsepp, Estonian basketball player and coach Martin Müürsepp is an Estonian professional basketball coach and former player, who is the head coach of Haljala NGU of the I liiga. Widely regarded as one of Estonia's greatest basketball players of all time, he is the first Estonian to have played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Read more
26 Sep 1973: Marty Casey, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Martin Xavier "Marty" Casey
is an American rock musician who is the lead singer, primary songwriter and second guitarist of Lovehammers.
After years of building a strong local following in Chicago and the Midwest, Casey achieved international fame on the first season of the reality show Rock Star: INXS. Casey made it to the final two of the competition, finishing as the runner-up to winner J.D. Fortune. Although he was not chosen as the new singer for INXS, he was invited to tour as opening act. In 2006, Marty Casey and the Lovehammers opened on the first leg of the INXS Switched On Tour. Marty was a fan favorite on Rock Star: INXS, receiving the most viewer votes,
and topping the download charts with his performances of both covers and original material. Read more
26 Sep 1973: Julienne Davis, American actress, producer, and screenwriter Julienne Davis is an American actress, singer, and model. Read more
26 Sep 1973: Dr. Luke, American record producer and songwriter Łukasz Sebastian Gottwald, known professionally as Dr. Luke, Tyson Trax, and Made in China, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He began his professional music career as the Saturday Night Live Band's lead guitarist in 1996. In 2004 he produced Kelly Clarkson's single "Since U Been Gone" with Swedish record producer Max Martin, and later collaborated with Canadian producer Cirkut and fellow American producer Benny Blanco. Read more
26 Sep 1973: Chris Small, Scottish snooker player and coach Christopher Small is a retired Scottish professional snooker player and now a qualified snooker coach. His playing career was ended by the spinal condition ankylosing spondylitis. Read more
26 Sep 1973: Olga Vasdeki, Greek triple jumper Olga Vasdeki is a Greek triple jumper. Read more
26 Sep 1972: Ras Kass, American rapper and producer John R. Austin II, better known by his stage name Ras Kass, is an American rapper. He is a member of the hip hop supergroup The Hrsmn, along with Canibus, Killah Priest, and Kurupt in 2014. He is also a member of the group Golden State Project with Xzibit and Saafir. About.com ranked him No. 30 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007), while Pitchfork Media called him "one of the best rappers of all time". Read more
26 Sep 1972: Beto O'Rourke, American politician Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 16th congressional district from 2013 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, O'Rourke was the party's nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2018, a candidate for the presidential nomination in 2020, and the party's nominee for the 2022 Texas gubernatorial election. Read more
26 Sep 1972: Shawn Stockman, American singer Shawn "Slim" Stockman is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as a member of the vocal group Boyz II Men. In addition to Boyz II Men, Stockman was a member of the group Black Men United. He was also a judge on the NBC television show The Sing-Off for five seasons (2009–2014). Read more
26 Sep 1970: Daryl Beattie, Australian motorcycle racer Daryl Glen Beattie is an Australian former motorcycle racer. Read more
26 Sep 1970: Sheri Moon Zombie, American actress and fashion designer Sheri Moon Zombie is an American actress, model, dancer, and fashion designer. Read more
26 Sep 1970: David Parland, Swedish guitarist (died 2013) David Vincent Parland, also known by his stage name Blackmoon, was a Swedish metal guitarist noted for his work the bands Dark Funeral, Necrophobic and Infernal, all of which he co-founded. Read more
26 Sep 1969: Andy Petterson, Australian footballer and coach Andrew Keith Petterson is an Australian former soccer player and coach who is a goalkeeping coach for East Bengal. Read more
26 Sep 1969: David Slade, English director and producer David Aldrin Slade is an English film and television director and actor. His works include the films Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Slade is also a director for television, directing episodes for Breaking Bad, Awake, Hannibal, Crossbones, Powers, American Gods and Black Mirror. Before he was a film director, Slade was a director of commercials and music videos. Read more
26 Sep 1969: Holger Stanislawski, German footballer and manager Holger Stanislawski is a German football manager and former player. Read more
26 Sep 1969: Paul Warhurst, English footballer and manager Paul Warhurst is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender, midfielder or striker. Read more
26 Sep 1968: Jim Caviezel, American actor James Patrick Caviezel Jr. is an American actor. He played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ (2004) and Tim Ballard in Sound of Freedom (2023), and starred as John Reese on the CBS series Person of Interest (2011–2016). He also played Slov in G.I. Jane (1997), Private Witt in The Thin Red Line (1998), Detective John Sullivan in Frequency (2000), Catch in Angel Eyes (2001), and Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). Read more
26 Sep 1968: Ben Shenkman, American actor Ben Shenkman is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the comedy-drama series Royal Pains and the acclaimed HBO miniseries Angels in America, which earned him both Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations. Read more
26 Sep 1967: Bruno Akrapović, Bosnian footballer and manager Bruno Akrapović is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player. Read more
26 Sep 1967: Shannon Hoon, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1995) Richard Shannon Hoon was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer of the band Blind Melon from 1990 until his death in 1995. Read more
26 Sep 1967: Craig Janney, American ice hockey player Craig Harlan Janney is an American former professional ice hockey center who played twelve seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1987–88 until 1998–99, when blood clots ended his career prematurely. Read more
26 Sep 1966: Jillian Barberie, Canadian actress and sportscaster Jillian Marie Barberie is a Canadian television hostess, sportscaster, radio personality and actress. From 1995 to 2012, she was a co-host on the Los Angeles television morning news and entertainment program Good Day L.A. on Fox owned-and-operated station KTTV. From 2000 to 2005, she appeared on Fox Sports as the weather host for Fox NFL Sunday. From 2006 to 2013, she was known as Jillian Reynolds, from her second marriage. Read more
26 Sep 1966: Christos Dantis, Greek singer-songwriter and producer Christos Dantis, is a Greek multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, lyricist, and record producer best known for his hits such as "To Palio Mou Palto" and "Ena Tragoudi Akoma" and later for co-writing the song "My Number One" for Elena Paparizou, winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 for Greece. Read more
26 Sep 1966: Shane Dye, New Zealand jockey Raymond Shane Dye, is a former jockey. He was an apprentice jockey to Dave O’Sullivan at Matamata, before moving to Sydney, Australia where he was initially working with Vic Thompson at Warwick Farm in the late-1980s. In a distinguished riding career, Dye won the Melbourne Cup on Tawriffic in 1989 in then-record time, and won four consecutive Golden Slippers from 1989 to 1992. He also won the Cox Plate on Octagonal in 1995. Read more
26 Sep 1966: Craig Heyward, American football player (died 2006) Craig William Heyward, nicknamed "Ironhead", was an American professional football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Pittsburgh Panthers. He then played for the New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons, St. Louis Rams, and Indianapolis Colts in an 11-year NFL career. Read more
26 Sep 1965: Radisav Ćurčić, Serbian-Israeli basketball player Radisav Ćurčić is a Serbian-Israeli former professional basketball player. Standing at 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) and weighing 275 pounds (125 kg), he played the center position. He represented the Yugoslavia national basketball team internationally. Read more
26 Sep 1965: Petro Poroshenko, Ukrainian businessman and politician, 5th President of Ukraine Petro Oleksiiovych Poroshenko is a Ukrainian politician, oligarch, and former bureaucrat who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010, and as the Minister of Trade and Economic Development in 2012. From 2007 until 2012, he headed the Council of Ukraine's National Bank. He was elected president in 2014 in a landslide, avoiding the second round of voting by winning 55.46% in the first round. Read more
26 Sep 1964: Dave Martinez, American baseball player and coach David Martinez is an American former professional baseball manager and outfielder who most recently managed the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously served as the bench coach for the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs. He played in MLB for the Cubs, Montreal Expos, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, and Atlanta Braves from 1986 to 2001. Martinez had a .276 career batting average, 1,599 hits, 91 home runs, 795 runs scored, and 580 runs batted in. Read more
26 Sep 1963: Lysette Anthony, English actress and producer Lysette Anne Chodzko, known professionally as Lysette Anthony, is an English actress and model. She is known for her roles in the film Husbands and Wives (1992), as Princess Lyssa in the 1983 fantasy epic Krull, Christa Norris in the first series of the ITV comedy-drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983), Angie Tyler/Trenchard in the BBC1 sitcom Three Up, Two Down (1985–1989), and her role as Marnie Nightingale in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks (2016–2022). She appears in Bryan Adams' music videos from his 1984 album Reckless. Read more
26 Sep 1963: Joe Nemechek, American race car driver Joseph Frank Nemechek III is an American professional stock car racing driver. The 1992 NASCAR Busch Series champion, he has the third most national series starts in NASCAR history. Read more
26 Sep 1962: Melissa Sue Anderson, American-Canadian actress Melissa Sue Anderson is an American-Canadian actress. She began her career as a child actress after appearing in several commercials in Los Angeles. Anderson is known for her role as Mary Ingalls in the NBC drama series Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983), for which she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Read more
26 Sep 1962: Jonas Bergqvist, Swedish ice hockey player Jonas Pär Bergqvist is a Swedish former professional ice hockey right winger, who twice won an Olympic medal in his career. Read more
26 Sep 1962: Mark Haddon, English author and poet Mark Haddon is an English novelist, best known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003). He won the Whitbread Award, the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award, the Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth Writers' Prize for his work. Read more
26 Sep 1962: Steve Moneghetti, Australian runner Stephen James Moneghetti,, is an Australian long-distance runner and physical health consultant who has represented Australia on many occasions. He is a personal development consultant with the Ministry of Education and chair of the Victorian Review into Physical and Sport Education in Schools. Read more
26 Sep 1962: Al Pitrelli, American guitarist and songwriter Al Pitrelli is an American guitarist, best known for his work with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Megadeth, Alice Cooper and Savatage. He has performed with various acts as a band member, session musician and touring member, including Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Asia, Dee Snider, Kathy Troccoli, Taylor Dayne, Blue Öyster Cult, Exposé and Joe Lynn Turner. Read more
26 Sep 1962: Tracey Thorn, English singer-songwriter and writer Tracey Thorn is an English singer, songwriter, and author. She is best known as a member of the duo Everything but the Girl, active from 1982 to 2000, and again from 2022. She was in the band Marine Girls from 1980 to 1983. She has, at several junctures of her career, recorded and released albums as a solo artist, and has also written books, essays and columns. Read more
26 Sep 1962: Jacky Wu, Taiwanese singer, actor, and television host Jacky Wu is a Taiwanese television show host, singer, and actor. He hosts numerous variety shows, such as the long running popular Taiwanese variety show Guess. Read more
26 Sep 1961: Jeanie Buss, American sports executive Jeanie Marie Buss is an American sports executive who is the governor and minority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). She is also co-owner and promoter of the U.S. women's professional wrestling promotion Women of Wrestling (WOW). Read more
26 Sep 1961: Cindy Herron, American singer-songwriter and actress Cynthia Ann Herron, professionally known as Cindy Herron and sometimes credited as Cindy Herron–Braggs, is an American singer and actress. Herron is best known as a founding member of the R&B/pop group En Vogue, one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. She sang lead vocals on the group's first single "Hold On", which garnered mainstream success and sold over a million copies. Despite being absent from the group during certain periods, Herron and fellow group member Terry Ellis are the only original members to appear on all of the group's album releases to date. In the 1980s, Herron began her career as an actress, making her debut appearance in Up and Coming as "Valerie". Read more
26 Sep 1961: Marianne Mikko, Estonian journalist and politician Marianne Mikko is an Estonian politician and former Member of the European Parliament and former Member of the Parliament of Estonia for the Social Democratic Party, part of the Party of European Socialists. Mikko was born in Võru. Read more
26 Sep 1961: Will Self, English novelist and journalist William Woodard Self is an English writer, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Self is currently an honorary Professor at Brunel University London, where his interests include psychogeography. Read more
26 Sep 1960: Uwe Bein, German footballer and manager Uwe Bein is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
26 Sep 1960: Jouke de Vries, Dutch academic and politician Jouke de Vries is a Dutch political scientist, university administrator, and politician. He is chairman of the Executive Board of the University of Groningen (RUG) in the Netherlands. Before that he was Dean of the University of Groningen/Campus Fryslân in Leeuwarden. Read more
26 Sep 1960: Doug Supernaw, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2020) Douglas Anderson Supernaw was an American country music artist. After several years performing as a local musician throughout the state of Texas, he signed with BNA Records in 1993. Read more
26 Sep 1959: Andrew Bolt, Australian journalist Andrew Bolt is an Australian conservative social and political commentator. He has worked at the News Corp-owned newspaper company The Herald and Weekly Times (HWT) for many years, for both The Herald and its successor, the Herald Sun. His current roles include blogger and columnist at the Herald Sun and host of television show The Bolt Report each weeknight. In Australia, Bolt is a controversial public figure, who has frequently been accused of abrasive demeanour, racist views and inappropriate remarks on various political and social issues. Read more
26 Sep 1959: Trevor Dodds, Namibian golfer Trevor George Dodds is a Namibian professional golfer who formerly played on the PGA Tour. He is known for winning the 1998 edition of Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic. Read more
26 Sep 1959: Rich Gedman, American baseball player and coach Richard Leo Gedman is an American professional baseball hitting adviser with the Boston Red Sox, and a former coach and player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a catcher for the Red Sox (1980–1990), Houston Astros (1990–1991), and St. Louis Cardinals (1991–1992). Listed at 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m) and 210 pounds (95 kg), he batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Read more
26 Sep 1959: Ilya Kormiltsev, Russian poet and translator (died 2007) Ilya Valeryevich Kormiltsev was a Russian poet, translator, and publisher. Kormiltsev is most famous for working during the 1980s and the 1990s as a songwriter in Nautilus Pompilius, one of the most popular rock bands in the Soviet Union and, later, Russia. He was also a prominent literary translator and publisher. Since 1997, he translated into Russian many important pieces of modern prose, such as Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, or Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. In 2003, he established Ultra.Kultura publishing house, which immediately gained a scandalous reputation and was closed by the authorities in 2007. Through its brief history, Ultra.Kultura published numerous counter-culture books in a wide range from ultra-right to radical left authors. Read more
26 Sep 1958: Rudi Cerne, German figure skater and journalist Rudi Cerne is a German TV presenter and former figure skater. He is the 1984 European silver medalist and a two-time West German national champion. He competed at two Winter Olympics, finishing fourth in 1984. Read more
26 Sep 1958: Darby Crash, American singer-songwriter (died 1980) Jan Paul Beahm was an American singer who, along with longtime friend Pat Smear, co-founded the punk rock band the Germs and was best known as their lead vocalist. In 1980, he committed suicide by deliberately overdosing on heroin. Read more
26 Sep 1958: Robert Kagan, Greek-American historian and author Robert Kagan is an American columnist, neoconservative scholar, and U.S. foreign policy analyst and commentator. He is a leading advocate of liberal internationalism. Read more
26 Sep 1958: Kenny Sansom, English footballer Kenneth Graham Sansom is a former professional footballer who played as a left-back. An England international, he played for clubs such as Crystal Palace, Arsenal, Newcastle United, Coventry City, Queens Park Rangers, Everton and Watford. Read more
26 Sep 1958: Richard B. Weldon Jr., American sailor and politician Richard Weldon was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates representing Maryland District 3B, which then included parts of Frederick and Washington County, Maryland. He defeated Lisa Baugher in 2002 for the new 3B district. He defeated Paul Gilligan in 2006 to retain his seat. Read more
26 Sep 1957: Bob Staake, American author and illustrator Bob Staake STAK is an American illustrator, cartoonist, children's book author and designer. He lives and works in Chatham, Massachusetts on the elbow of Cape Cod. Read more
26 Sep 1957: Klaus Augenthaler, German footballer and manager Klaus "Auge" Augenthaler is a German former professional football player and manager. A defender, he won seven Bundesliga titles in his 15-year club career with Bayern Munich. He also represented the West Germany national team, winning the FIFA World Cup in 1990. Read more
26 Sep 1957: Michael Dweck, American photographer and director Michael Dweck is an American visual artist and filmmaker. Best known for his narrative photography, Dweck's work "explores ongoing struggles between identity and adaptation in endangered societal enclaves." In 2003, he became the first living photographer to have a solo exhibition at Sotheby's, and in 2012, he was the first American photographer to exhibit his work in Cuba since the beginning of the United States embargo in 1960.
He lives and works in New York City and in Montauk, New York. Read more
26 Sep 1957: Oscar Andrade, Brazilian politician (died 2026) Oscar Ilton de Andrade was a Brazilian politician. A member of the Liberal Front Party, he served in the Chamber of Deputies from 1996 to 2003. Read more
26 Sep 1956: Steve Butler, American race car driver and engineer Steve Butler is an American former auto racing driver. He won six national driving championships in USAC Sprint Car and Silver Crown open-wheel racing. Butler was highly regarded for his technical skills and performed chief mechanic duties on several of his winning race cars. He also communicated his view of racing to fans both as author and television commentator. Despite a relatively brief racing career (1981–1993), Butler is an inductee into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, the USAC Hall of Fame, and the Hoosier Auto Racing Fan's Hall of Fame. He retired at the age of 37 to pursue both an engineering career and more time with his growing family. Butler currently resides in Kokomo, IN. Read more
26 Sep 1956: Linda Hamilton, American actress Linda Carroll Hamilton is an American actress. Known for portraying tough, resilient characters, she made her film debut in 1979 before achieving fame with her starring role as Sarah Connor in The Terminator (1984) and two of its sequels, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). She is the recipient of various accolades, including two Saturn Awards, two MTV Movie Awards, a Satellite Award and a Romy Award, as well as nominations for three Golden Globes and one Primetime Emmy. Read more
26 Sep 1955: Carlene Carter, American singer-songwriter Carlene Carter is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of June Carter Cash and her first husband, Carl Smith. Read more
26 Sep 1954: Craig Chaquico, American guitarist Craig Clinton Chaquico is an American guitarist, songwriter, and composer. From 1974 to 1990 he was lead guitarist for the rock bands Jefferson Starship and Starship. In 1993, he started a solo career as an acoustic jazz guitarist and composer. Read more
26 Sep 1954: Kevin Kennedy, American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster Kevin Curtis Kennedy is an American former player, coach, and manager in professional baseball. Following an eight-season playing career in Minor League Baseball, he managed for 12 seasons in the minor leagues and four seasons in Major League Baseball. After his managerial career, Kennedy worked as a baseball commentator, including for ESPN, Fox Sports, the Tampa Bay Rays, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Read more
26 Sep 1954: Cesar Rosas, Mexican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist Cesar J. Rosas is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist best known as a member of the rock and roll group Los Lobos. Rosas also participates in the Latin supergroup Los Super Seven. Rosas is known for his trademark black sunglasses, goatee and black hair. He plays guitar left handed. Read more
26 Sep 1953: Dolores Keane, Irish singer and actress Dolores Keane was an Irish folk singer. She was a founding member of the group De Dannan and later pursued a solo recording and touring career. Read more
26 Sep 1953: Douglas A. Melton, American biologist and academic Douglas A. Melton is an American medical researcher who was the Xander University Professor at Harvard University and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute until 2022. Melton was a co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and was an original co-chairman of the Harvard University Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. Melton was involved in the founding of several biotech companies including Gilead Sciences, Ontogeny, iPierian, and Semma Therapeutics. Melton is a member of the National Academy of the Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a founding member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Read more
26 Sep 1953: Paul Stephenson, English police officer Sir Paul Robert Stephenson is a British retired police officer who served as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2009 to 2011. Read more
26 Sep 1951: Tommy Taylor, English footballer and manager Thomas Frederick Taylor is an English football manager and former footballer. As a footballer, he played as a defender. Read more
26 Sep 1951: Stuart Tosh, Scottish singer-songwriter and drummer Stuart Mcbeath Tosh is a Scottish drummer, songwriter and vocalist. He recorded and toured with a succession of bands during the 1970s and 1980s, including Pilot, The Alan Parsons Project, 10cc, Camel, and Roger Daltrey. Read more
26 Sep 1950: Andy Haden, New Zealand rugby player (died 2020) Andrew Maxwell Haden was a New Zealand rugby union player and All Black captain. He played at lock for Auckland and for New Zealand from 1972 until 1985. He also played club rugby for Ponsonby RFC in Auckland and for clubs in the United Kingdom and Italy. Read more
26 Sep 1949: Clodoaldo, Brazilian footballer and manager Clodoaldo Tavares de Santana, better known as Clodoaldo, is a Brazilian former footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Read more
26 Sep 1949: Wendy Saddington, Australian singer and journalist (died 2013) Wendy June Saddington, also known as Gandharvika Dasi, was an Australian blues, soul and jazz singer, and was in the bands Chain, Copperwine and the Wendy Saddington Band. She wrote for teen pop newspaper Go-Set from September 1969 to September 1970 as an agony aunt in her weekly "Takes Care of Business" column, and as a feature writer. Saddington had Top 30 chart success with her 1972 solo single "Looking Through a Window", which was written and produced by Billy Thorpe and Warren Morgan of the Aztecs. After adopting Krishna Consciousness in the 1970s she took the name Gandharvika Dasi. In March 2013 she was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and died in June, aged 63. Read more
26 Sep 1949: Jane Smiley, American novelist Jane Smiley is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel A Thousand Acres (1991). Read more
26 Sep 1949: Minette Walters, English journalist and author Minette Caroline Mary Walters is an English writer. Read more
26 Sep 1948: Olivia Newton-John, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actress (died 2022) Dame Olivia Newton-John was a British and Australian singer, songwriter and actress. With over 100 million records sold, Newton-John is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, as well as the highest-selling female Australian recording artist of all time. Read more
26 Sep 1948: Vladimír Remek, Czech politician, diplomat, cosmonaut and military pilot Vladimír Remek is a Czech politician and diplomat, as well as a former cosmonaut and military pilot. He flew aboard Soyuz 28 from 2 to 10 March 1978, becoming the first and only Czechoslovak in space. As the first flight of the Soviet space program's Interkosmos, he was the first space traveller from a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States. The European Space Agency considers him the "first European in space". Remek is considered to be the first astronaut from the European Union. Remek was a member of the European Parliament between 2004 and 2013 for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia. From 2014 to 2018, he was the Czech Ambassador to Russia. Read more
26 Sep 1947: Lucius Allen, American basketball player Lucius Oliver Allen Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. He is one of only a select few players to have won at least one high school state championship, collegiate national championship, and NBA championship. Read more
26 Sep 1947: Lynn Anderson, American singer and actress (died 2015) Lynn René Anderson was an American country singer and television personality. Her crossover signature recording, "Rose Garden", was a number one hit internationally. She also charted five number one and 18 top-ten singles on the Billboard country songs chart. Anderson is regarded as one of country music's most significant performers. Read more
26 Sep 1947: Philippe Lavil, French singer and actor Philippe Lavil, pseudonym of Philippe Durand de La Villejégu du Fresnay, is a French singer. He remained particularly famous for his hits singles "Il tape sur des bambous", "Elle préfère l'amour en mer" and "Kolé séré", a duet with Jocelyne Béroard. Lavil was also member of Les Enfoirés in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Read more
26 Sep 1947: Dick Roth, American swimmer Richard William Roth was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record holder in two events – the long course 200 m and 400 m individual medley. Read more
26 Sep 1946: Andrea Dworkin, American activist and author (died 2005) Andrea Rita Dworkin was an American radical feminist writer and activist best known for her analysis of pornography. Her feminist writings, beginning in 1974, span 30 years. They are found in a dozen solo works: nine books of non-fiction, two novels, and a collection of short stories. Another three volumes were co-written or co-edited with US constitutional law professor and feminist activist Catharine A. MacKinnon. Read more
26 Sep 1946: John MacLachlan Gray, Canadian actor, playwright, and composer John MacLachlan Gray, OC is a Canadian writer-composer-performer for stage, TV, film, radio and print. He is best known for his stage musicals and for his two seasons as a satirist on CBC TV's The Journal, as well as an author, speaker and social critic on cultural-political issues. Read more
26 Sep 1946: Mary Beth Hurt, American actress (died 2026) Mary Beth Hurt was an American actress of stage and screen. She was a three-time Tony Award-nominated actress, as well as a BAFTA Award and Independent Spirit Award nominee. Hurt was also the recipient of an Obie Award and a Clarence Derwent Award. Read more
26 Sep 1946: Radha Krishna Mainali, Nepalese politician Radha Krishna Mainali, better known as R. K. Mainali is a Nepalese politician. In the early 1970s he was one of the radical communists who led the Jhapa rebellion, inspired by the Naxalite movement in India. Read more
26 Sep 1946: Louise Simonson, American author Louise Simonson is an American comic book writer and editor. She is best known for her work on comic book titles such as Conan the Barbarian, Power Pack, X-Factor, The New Mutants, Superman: The Man of Steel, and Steel. She is often referred to by the nickname "Weezie". Among the comic characters she co-created are Cable, Steel, Power Pack, Rictor, Doomsday and the X-Men villain Apocalypse. Read more
26 Sep 1946: Claudette Werleigh, Haitian Prime Minister Claudette Werleigh is a Haitian politician who served as the prime minister of Haiti from 1995 to 1996. She was Haiti's first female prime minister. Read more
26 Sep 1945: Louise Beaudoin, Canadian academic and politician Louise Beaudoin is a Canadian politician who represented the electoral district of Rosemont in the National Assembly of Quebec until 2012, as a member of the Parti Québécois (PQ). She sat as an independent from June 6, 2011 to April 3, 2012. She is best known for her previous tenure as a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) for Chambly, from 1994 to 2003, when she occupied various ministerial positions. Read more
26 Sep 1945: Gal Costa, Brazilian singer (died 2022) Gal Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos, known professionally as Gal Costa, was a Brazilian singer of popular music. Twelve-time Brazilian Music Awards winner, she was one of the main figures of the tropicalia music scene in Brazil in the late 1960s and appeared on the acclaimed compilation Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis (1968). She was described by The New York Times as "one of Brazil's greatest singers." Read more
26 Sep 1945: Bryan Ferry, English singer-songwriter Bryan Ferry is an English singer and musician. He became known as the frontman of the band Roxy Music and also launched a solo career. Read more
26 Sep 1944: Jan Brewer, American politician, 22nd Governor of Arizona Janice Kay Brewer is an American politician who served as the 22nd governor of Arizona from 2009 to 2015, as a member of the Republican Party. Prior to this, Brewer was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, Arizona Senate, and Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and served as Secretary of State of Arizona from 2003 to 2009. Read more
26 Sep 1944: Keith O'Nions, English geologist and academic Sir Robert Keith O'Nions, is a British scientist and ex-President & Rector of Imperial College London. He is the former Director General of the Research Councils UK as well as Professor of the Physics and Chemistry of Minerals and Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. Read more
26 Sep 1944: Anne Robinson, English journalist and game show host Anne Josephine Robinson is a British journalist and television presenter, best known as the host of BBC game show The Weakest Link from 2000 to 2012, and again in 2017 for a one-off celebrity special for Children in Need. She presented the BBC consumer affairs programme Watchdog for a total of 15 years, from 1993 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2015. Robinson hosted the Channel 4 game show Countdown from June 2021 to July 2022, taking over from Nick Hewer. She left the programme on 13 July 2022 after one year, recording a total of 265 episodes. Read more
26 Sep 1943: Ian Chappell, Australian cricketer and sportscaster Ian Michael Chappell is an Australian commentator and former cricketer. Known as "Chappelli", he is considered as one of the greatest captains the game has seen. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation. Born into a cricketing family—his grandfather and brother also captained Australia—Chappell made a hesitant start to international cricket playing as a right-hand middle-order batsman and spin bowler. He found his niche when promoted to bat at number three. Chappell's blunt verbal manner led to a series of confrontations with opposition players and cricket administrators; the issue of sledging first arose during his tenure as captain, and he was a driving force behind the professionalisation of Australian cricket in the 1970s. He was the captain of the Australian squad which finished as runners-up at the 1975 Cricket World Cup. Read more
26 Sep 1943: Tim Schenken, Australian racing driver Timothy Theodore Schenken is a former racing driver from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He participated in 36 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 16 August 1970. He achieved one career podium at the 1971 Austrian Grand Prix, and scored a total of seven championship points. He did however have two non-championship race podiums – he finished third in the 1971 BRDC International Trophy and third in the 1972 International Gold Cup. Read more
26 Sep 1942: Kent McCord, American actor Kent Franklin McWhirter, known by his stage name Kent McCord, is an American retired actor, best known for his roles as Officer Jim Reed on the television series Adam-12, Captain "Boxey" Troy on Galactica 1980, and IASA Colonel John Robert "Jack" Crichton /
"Jack" the Ancient on Farscape. Read more
26 Sep 1942: Gloria E. Anzaldúa, American scholar of Chicana cultural theory (died 2004) Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was an American philosopher and scholar of Chicana feminism, cultural theory, and queer theory. She loosely based her best-known book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987), on her life growing up on the Mexico–Texas border and incorporated her lifelong experiences of social and cultural marginalization into her work. She also developed theories about the marginal, in-between, and mixed cultures that develop along borders, including on the concepts of Nepantla, Coyoxaulqui imperative, new tribalism, and spiritual activism. Her other notable publications include This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981), co-edited with Cherríe Moraga. Read more
26 Sep 1941: Salvatore Accardo, Italian violinist and conductor Salvatore Accardo is an Italian violinist and conductor, who is known for his performances of the works of Niccolò Paganini. Read more
26 Sep 1941: Martine Beswick, Jamaican-English model and actress Mary Rose Penso Beswick is a Jamaican-born British actress and model perhaps best known for her roles in two James Bond films, From Russia with Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965), who went on to appear in several other notable films in the 1960s. In 2019, she was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame. Read more
26 Sep 1941: David Frizzell, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist David Frizzell is an American country music singer. He is the younger brother of country musician Lefty Frizzell. His career started in the late 1950s, but he had his greatest success in the 1980s. Read more
26 Sep 1939: Ricky Tomlinson, English actor and screenwriter Eric Tomlinson is an English actor. He is best known for his television roles as Bobby Grant in the soap opera Brookside (1982–1988), DCI Charlie Wise in Cracker (1993–2006) and Jim Royle in The Royle Family (1998–2012). He also played the titular character in the football mockumentary Mike Bassett: England Manager (2001). Read more
26 Sep 1938: Lucette Aldous, New Zealand-Australian ballerina and educator (died 2021) Lucette Aldous was an Australian prima ballerina during her performing years. She was the resident principal dancer with The Australian Ballet, and well known for performing the role of Kitri in the film of Rudolf Nureyev's production of Don Quixote, receiving many honours for her years of performance including being appointed AC in the 2018 Australia Day Honours list. Read more
26 Sep 1938: Jonathan Goldsmith, American actor Jonathan Goldsmith is an American character actor. He began his career on the New York stage, then started a career in film and television. He appeared in several TV shows from the 1960s to the 1990s. He is best known for appearing in television commercials for Dos Equis beer, from 2006 to 2016, as the character The Most Interesting Man in the World. He began to portray the character again in January 2026 as part of Dos Equis' revival of that advertising campaign. Read more
26 Sep 1938: Lars-Jacob Krogh, Norwegian journalist (died 2010) Lars-Jacob Krogh was a Norwegian anchorman and television presenter. Read more
26 Sep 1937: Valentin Pavlov, Russian banker and politician, 11th Premier of the Soviet Union (died 2003) Valentin Sergeyevich Pavlov was a Soviet official who became a Russian banker following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Born in the city of Moscow, then part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Pavlov began his political career in the Ministry of Finance in 1959. Later, during the Brezhnev Era, he became head of the Financial Department of the State Planning Committee. Pavlov was appointed to the post of Chairman of the State Committee on Prices during the Gorbachev Era, and later became Minister of Finance in Nikolai Ryzhkov's second government. He went on to succeed Ryzhkov as head of government in the newly established post of Prime Minister of the Soviet Union. Read more
26 Sep 1937: Jerry Weintraub, American film producer and agent (died 2015) Jerome Charles Weintraub was an American film producer, talent manager and actor whose television films won him three Emmys. Read more
26 Sep 1936: Leroy Drumm, American sailor and songwriter (died 2010) Leroy Maxey Drumm was an American bluegrass and country songwriter whose work became part of the recorded repertoire of several prominent artists in the genre. He is best known as co-writer of "Colleen Malone," recorded by Hot Rize, which won the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Song of the Year award in 1991. Read more
26 Sep 1936: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, South African academic and politician, 8th First Lady of South Africa (died 2018) Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela-Mandela, also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist who was the second wife of Nelson Mandela. During her political career, she served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003, and from 2009 until her death, and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC) political party, she served on the ANC's National Executive Committee and headed its Women's League. Madikizela-Mandela was known to her supporters as the "Mother of the Nation". Read more
26 Sep 1935: Bob Barber, English cricketer Robert William "Bob" Barber is a former English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Cambridge University, Lancashire and Warwickshire from 1954 to 1969. He also played 28 Test matches for England. He was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1967.
An outstanding schoolboy cricketer at Ruthin School, Barber initially struggled to gain a place whilst at Cambridge after making his debut in 1955. Scoring 1000 runs for the first time in 1959, Barber was made captain of Lancashire. Read more
26 Sep 1935: Lou Myers, American actor (died 2013) Lewis Eddy Myers, also known professionally as Lou Myers or alternately as Lou Leabengula Myers, was an American actor and pianist. Read more
26 Sep 1935: Joe Sherlock, Irish politician (died 2007) Joe Sherlock was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 2002 to 2007, 1987 to 1992 and 1981 to 1982. He was a Senator for the Labour Panel from 1993 to 1997. Read more
26 Sep 1934: Neil Coles, English golfer and architect Neil Chapman Coles, MBE is an English professional golfer. Coles had a successful career in European golf, winning 29 important tournaments between 1956 and 1982. After reaching 50, he won a further 14 important Seniors tournaments between 1985 and 2002, winning his final European Seniors Tour event at the age of 67. He also played in eight Ryder Cup matches between 1961 and 1977. Read more
26 Sep 1932: Donna Douglas, American actress (died 2015) Donna Douglas was an American actress and singer, known for her role as Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). Following her acting career, Douglas became a real estate agent, gospel singer, inspirational speaker, and author of books for children and adults. Read more
26 Sep 1932: Joyce Jameson, American actress (died 1987) Joyce Jameson was an American actress, known for many television roles, including recurring guest appearances as Skippy, one of the "fun girls" in the 1960s television series The Andy Griffith Show as well as "the Blonde" in the Academy Award-winning The Apartment (1960). Read more
26 Sep 1932: Manmohan Singh, Indian economist and politician, 13th Prime Minister of India (died 2024) Manmohan Singh was an Indian economist, bureaucrat, academician and statesman who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Narendra Modi. A member of the Indian National Congress, Singh was the first and remains the only Sikh prime minister of India. He was also the first prime minister since Nehru to be re-appointed after completing a full five-year term. Read more
26 Sep 1932: Vladimir Voinovich, Russian author and poet (died 2018) Vladimir Nikolayevich Voinovich was a Russian writer and former Soviet dissident, and the "first genuine comic writer" produced by the Soviet system. Among his most well-known works are the satirical epic The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin and the dystopian Moscow 2042. He was forced into exile and stripped of his citizenship by Soviet authorities in 1980 but later rehabilitated and moved back to Moscow in 1990. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he continued to be an outspoken critic of Russian politics under the rule of Vladimir Putin. Read more
26 Sep 1931: Kenneth Parnell, American sex offender (died 2008) Kenneth Eugene Parnell was an American sex offender, child rapist, and kidnapper who abducted 7-year-old Steven Stayner in Merced, California, in 1972 and 5-year-old Timothy White in Ukiah, California, in 1980. He was convicted in 2004 for attempting to purchase a child for sex and died in prison. Read more
26 Sep 1930: Philip Bosco, American actor (died 2018) Philip Michael Bosco was an American actor. He was known for his Tony Award-winning performance as Saunders in the 1989 Broadway production of Lend Me a Tenor and for his starring role in the 2007 film The Savages. Bosco won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1988. Read more
26 Sep 1930: Joe Brown, English mountaineer and author (died 2020) Joseph Brown was an English mountaineer who was regarded as an outstanding pioneer of rock climbing during the 1950s and early 1960s. Together with his early climbing partner, Don Whillans, he was one of a new breed of British post-war climbers who came from working class backgrounds in contrast to the upper and middle class professionals who had dominated the sport up to the Second World War. He became the first person to climb the third-highest mountain in the world when he was on the 1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition. Some of his climbs were televised and he assisted with mountaineering scenes in several films; Brown died on 15 April 2020 at the age of 89. Read more
26 Sep 1928: Bob Van der Veken, Belgian actor (died 2019) Bob Van Der Veken was a Belgian actor. Read more
26 Sep 1928: Wilford White, American football player (died 2013) Wilford Parley "Whizzer" White was an American professional football player who was a halfback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He also was a member of the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was selected by the Chicago Bears in the third round of the 1951 NFL draft. He played college football for the Arizona State Sun Devils and became the school's first College Football All-American. Read more
26 Sep 1927: Robert Cade, American physician and educator, co-invented Gatorade (died 2007) James Robert Cade was an American physician, university professor, research scientist and inventor. Cade, a native of Texas, earned his bachelor and medical degrees at the University of Texas, and became a professor of medicine and nephrology at the University of Florida. Although Cade engaged in many areas of medical research, he is most widely remembered as the leader of the research team that created the sports drink Gatorade. Gatorade went on to have significant medical applications for treating dehydration in patients, and has generated over $500 million in royalties for the university. Read more
26 Sep 1927: Patrick O'Neal, American actor (died 1994) Patrick Wisdom O'Neal was an American actor and restaurateur. Read more
26 Sep 1927: Enzo Bearzot, Italian footballer and manager (died 2010) Enzo Bearzot was an Italian professional football player and manager. A defender and midfielder in his playing career, he also coached the Italy national team to victory in the 1982 FIFA World Cup. Read more
26 Sep 1926: Julie London, American singer and actress (died 2000) Julie London was an American singer and actress whose career spanned more than 40 years. A torch singer noted for her contralto voice, London recorded over thirty albums of pop and jazz standards between 1955 and 1969. Her recording of "Cry Me a River", a song she introduced on her debut album Julie Is Her Name, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. In addition to her musical notoriety, London was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1974 for her portrayal of Nurse Dixie McCall in the television series Emergency! Read more
26 Sep 1926: Manfred Mayrhofer, Austrian philologist and academic (died 2011) Manfred Mayrhofer was an Austrian Indo-Europeanist who specialized in Indo-Iranian languages. Mayrhofer served as professor emeritus at the University of Vienna. He is noted for his etymological dictionary of Sanskrit. Read more
26 Sep 1925: Norm Dussault, American-Canadian ice hockey player (died 2012) Joseph Normand Marcel "Ti-Nomme" Dussault was an American-born Canadian ice hockey player who played 206 games in the National Hockey League with the Montreal Canadiens from 1947 to 1951. The rest of his career lasted from 1945 to 1955 and was spent in the minor leagues. Read more
26 Sep 1925: Marty Robbins, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and race car driver (died 1982) Martin David Robinson, known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American country and western singer and songwriter, as well as a professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He was one of the most popular and successful singers of his genre for most of his nearly four-decade career, which spanned from the late 1940s to the early 1980s. He was also an early outlaw country pioneer. Read more
26 Sep 1924: Jean Hoerni, Swiss physicist, inventor and businessman (died 1997) Jean Amédée Hoerni was a Swiss-born American engineer. He was a silicon transistor pioneer, and a member of the "traitorous eight". He developed the planar process, an important technology for reliably fabricating and manufacturing semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. Read more
26 Sep 1923: Dev Anand, Indian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2011) Dev Anand was an Indian actor, writer, director and producer known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is considered as one of the greatest and most successful actors in the history of Indian cinema. Through a career that spanned over six decades, he worked in more than 100 films. Anand is a recipient of four Filmfare Awards, including two for Best Actor. The Government of India honoured him with Padma Bhushan, Indian third highest civilian honour in 2001 and with Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2002. Read more
26 Sep 1923: Hugh Griffiths, Baron Griffiths, English cricketer, lawyer, and judge (died 2015) William Hugh Griffiths, Baron Griffiths, MC, PC was a British soldier, cricketer, barrister, judge and life peer. Read more
26 Sep 1923: James Hennessy, English businessman and diplomat (died 2024) Sir James Patrick Ivan Hennessy was a British diplomat and public servant who was Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons from 1982 to 1987. Read more
26 Sep 1922: Takis Miliadis, Greek actor (died 1985) Panagiotis "Takis" Miliadis was a Greek actor who is known for his comedic acting roles. Read more
26 Sep 1922: Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia (died 2014) Nicholas Romanovich Romanov was a claimant to the headship of the House of Romanov and president of the Romanov Family Association. Although undoubtedly a descendant of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, his claimed titles and official membership in the former Imperial House were disputed by those who maintained that his parents' marriage violated the laws of the Russian Empire. Read more
26 Sep 1919: Barbara Britton, American actress (died 1980) Barbara Britton was an American film and television actress. She is best known for her Western film roles opposite Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, and Gene Autry and for her two-year tenure as inquisitive amateur sleuth Pam North on the television and radio series Mr. and Mrs. North. Read more
26 Sep 1919: Matilde Camus, Spanish poet and author (died 2012) Aurora Matilde Gómez Camus was a Spanish poet from Cantabria who also wrote non-fiction. Read more
26 Sep 1918: Eric Morley, English businessman and television host, founded the Miss World (died 2000) Eric Douglas Morley was an English television host and the founder of the Miss World pageant and Come Dancing programme. His widow, Julia Morley, is now head of the pageant and his son, Steve Douglas, is one of its presenters. Read more
26 Sep 1917: Réal Caouette, Canadian journalist and politician (died 1976) David Réal Caouette was a Canadian politician from Quebec. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) and leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada and founder of the Ralliement des créditistes. Outside politics he worked as a car dealer. Read more
26 Sep 1917: Tran Duc Thao, Vietnamese-French philosopher and theorist (died 1993) Trần Đức Thảo was a Vietnamese philosopher. His work attempted to unite phenomenology with Marxist philosophy. His work had some currency in France in the 1950s and 1960s, and was cited favorably by Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard and Louis Althusser. Read more
26 Sep 1914: Achille Compagnoni, Italian skier and mountaineer (died 2009) Achille Compagnoni was an Italian mountaineer and skier. Together with Lino Lacedelli on 31 July 1954 he was in the first party to reach the summit of K2. Read more
26 Sep 1914: Jack LaLanne, American fitness expert (died 2011) Francois Henri "Jack" LaLanne was an American fitness and nutrition guru and motivational speaker. He described himself as being a "sugarholic" and a "junk food junkie" until he was 15 years old. He also had behavioral problems but "turned his life around" after listening to a public lecture about the benefits of good nutrition by health food pioneer Paul Bragg. During his career, he came to believe that the country's overall health depended on the health of its population, and he referred to physical culture and nutrition as "the salvation of America". He was nicknamed the "Godfather of Fitness". Read more
26 Sep 1913: Frank Brimsek, American ice hockey player (died 1998) Francis Charles "Mr. Zero" Brimsek was an American professional ice hockey player. He was a goaltender for ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Boston Bruins and Chicago Black Hawks. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as a rookie and the Vezina Trophy twice, and he was named to the NHL All-Star team eight times. He was also a member of two Stanley Cup championships. At the time of his retirement in 1950, he held the records for most wins and shutouts recorded by an American goaltender; these records stood for 54 years and 61 years respectively. In 1966, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, the first American goalie to be inducted and in 1973, he was part of the inaugural class of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. In 1998, Brimsek was ranked 67 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players, the highest ranked American goaltender. Read more
26 Sep 1911: Al Helfer, American sportscaster (died 1975) George Alvin "Al" Helfer was an American radio sportscaster. Read more
26 Sep 1909: Bill France Sr., American race car driver, founded NASCAR (died 1992) William Henry Getty France was an American businessman and racing driver. He was also known as Bill France Sr. or Big Bill. He is best known for founding and managing NASCAR, a sanctioning body of American-based stock car racing. Read more
26 Sep 1909: A. P. Hamann, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (died 1977) Anthony P. "Dutch" Hamann was the city manager of San Jose, California, United States, from 1950 to 1969. During his tenure, San Jose grew from a small agriculture-based city of 95,000 residents to a large, economically diverse city of almost 500,000. Read more
26 Sep 1907: Anthony Blunt, English historian and spy (died 1983) Anthony Frederick Blunt, styled Sir Anthony Blunt from 1956 until November 1979, was a leading British art historian and a Soviet spy. Read more
26 Sep 1907: Shug Fisher, American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and comedian (died 1984) Shug Fisher was an American character actor, singer, musician, and comedian. During his 50-year entertainment career, he performed in many Western films, often as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers in serials and in B movies starring Roy Rogers. Fisher also was cast in supporting roles on a variety of television series, although most frequently on Gunsmoke and The Beverly Hillbillies. His comic trademarks included his ability to stutter at will and his bemused facial expressions. Read more
26 Sep 1907: Bep van Klaveren, Dutch boxer (died 1992) Lambertus "Bep" van Klaveren was a Dutch boxer, who won the gold medal in the featherweight division at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. Van Klaveren remains the only Dutch boxer to have won an Olympic gold medal. His younger brother Piet competed as a boxer at the 1952 Summer Olympics. Read more
26 Sep 1905: Millito Navarro, Puerto Rican baseball player (died 2011) Emilio Navarro, better known as "Millito Navarro", was a Puerto Rican second baseman and shortstop. Navarro was the second Puerto Rican to play baseball in the American Negro leagues, two years after Gacho Torres played for the 1926 Newark Stars. At the time of his death, at age 105, Navarro was the oldest former professional baseball player and the last surviving player from the American Negro League. Read more
26 Sep 1905: Karl Rappan, Austrian footballer and coach (died 1996) Karl Rappan was an Austrian footballer and coach. He played and managed mostly in Switzerland, where he won multiple titles. He had four tenures as coach of the Switzerland national team, which he managed in three World Cups, and is the all-time leader in matches won as coach of the Swiss team. He introduced a major football strategy known as the "bolt", which gave origin to the catenaccio system. He also helped create the UEFA Intertoto Cup. Read more
26 Sep 1902: Albert Anastasia, Italian-American mobster (died 1957) Umberto "Albert" Anastasia was an Italian-American mobster who was one of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organization, and would eventually rise to the position of boss in what became the modern Gambino crime family. He also controlled New York City's waterfront for most of his criminal career, mainly through dockworker unions. Anastasia was murdered on October 25, 1957, on the orders of Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino; Gambino subsequently became the boss of the family. Read more
26 Sep 1901: George Raft, American actor, singer, and dancer (died 1980) George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and the 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is remembered for his gangster roles in Quick Millions (1931) with Spencer Tracy, Scarface (1932) with Paul Muni, Each Dawn I Die (1939) with James Cagney, Invisible Stripes (1939) with Humphrey Bogart, and Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot (1959) with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon; and as a dancer in Bolero (1934) with Carole Lombard and a truck driver in They Drive by Night (1940) with Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and again with Bogart. Read more
26 Sep 1901: Ted Weems, American bandleader and musician (died 1963) Wilfred Theodore Wemyes, known professionally as Ted Weems, was an American bandleader and musician. Weems's work in music was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Read more
26 Sep 1900: Suzanne Belperron, French jewelry designer (died 1983) Suzanne Belperron, born in Saint-Claude, France, was an influential 20th-century jewellery designer based in Paris. She worked for the Boivin and Herz jewellery houses before the outbreak of World War II. Subsequently, she took over the Herz company, renaming it Herz-Belperron. She had many important clients, including royalty and people in the arts and show business on both sides of the Atlantic. Read more
26 Sep 1898: George Gershwin, American pianist and composer (died 1937) George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928) and his Piano Concerto (1925), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930) and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935), which included the hit "Summertime". His Of Thee I Sing (1931) was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, although as composer, he did not participate in reception of the award. Read more
26 Sep 1897: Pope Paul VI (died 1978) Pope Paul VI was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXIII, he continued the Second Vatican Council, which he closed in 1965, implementing its numerous reforms. He fostered improved ecumenical relations with Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches, which resulted in many historic meetings and agreements. Read more
26 Sep 1897: Arthur Rhys-Davids, English lieutenant and pilot (died 1917) Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids, was an English flying ace of the First World War. Read more
26 Sep 1895: Jürgen Stroop, German general (died 1952) Jürgen Stroop was a German SS commander and perpetrator of the Holocaust during the Nazi era, who served as SS and Police Leader in occupied Poland and Greece from 1942–1943 and 1943–1944. He held the rank of SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei from 1942–1945. He led the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and wrote the Stroop Report, a twelve-page account of the operation annexed with many original documents and pictures. Following the defeat of Germany, Stroop was prosecuted during the Dachau Trials and convicted of murdering nine U.S. prisoners of war. After his extradition to Poland, Stroop was tried, convicted, and executed for crimes against humanity. Read more
26 Sep 1894: Gladys Brockwell, American actress (died 1929) Gladys Brockwell was an American actress whose career began during the silent film era. Read more
26 Sep 1892: Robert Staughton Lynd, American sociologist and academic (died 1970) Robert Staughton Lynd was an American sociologist and professor at Columbia University, New York City. He is best known for conducting the first Middletown studies of Muncie, Indiana, with his wife, Helen Lynd; as the co-author of Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture (1929) and Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural Conflicts (1937); and a pioneer in the use of social surveys. He was also the author of Knowledge for What? The Place of the Social Sciences in American Culture (1939). In addition to writing and research, Lynd taught at Columbia from 1931 to 1960. He also served on U.S. government committees and advisory boards, including President Herbert Hoover's Research Committee on Social Trends and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Consumers' Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration. Lynd was also a member of several scientific societies. Read more
26 Sep 1891: William McKell, Australian politician, 12th Governor General of Australia (died 1985) Sir William John McKell was an Australian politician who served as the 12th governor-general of Australia, in office from 1947 to 1953. He had previously been the 27th premier of New South Wales from 1941 to 1947, as leader of the Labor Party. Read more
26 Sep 1891: Charles Münch, French violinist and conductor (died 1968) Charles Munch was an Alsatian French symphonic conductor and violinist. Noted for his mastery of the French orchestral repertoire, he was best known for his tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra between 1949 and 1962. Read more
26 Sep 1891: Hans Reichenbach, German philosopher from the Vienna Circle (died 1953) Hans Reichenbach was a leading philosopher of science, educator, and proponent of logical empiricism. He founded the Gesellschaft für empirische Philosophie in Berlin in 1928, also known as the "Berlin Circle". Carl Gustav Hempel, Richard von Mises, David Hilbert and Kurt Grelling all became members of the Berlin Circle. Read more
26 Sep 1890: Jack Tresadern, English footballer and manager (died 1959) John Tresadern was an English professional football player and manager. He played twice for the England national team. Read more
26 Sep 1889: Gordon Brewster, Irish cartoonist (died 1946) William Gordon Brewster was an Irish illustrator and editorial cartoonist. Read more
26 Sep 1889: Martin Heidegger, German philosopher and academic (died 1976) Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher whose work was central to the development of phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He has had significant impact within subsequent philosophy, social sciences and humanities, and theology. Read more
26 Sep 1889: Abdulkadir Inan, Bashkir/Turkish Turkologist (died 1976) Abdülkadir İnan was a Turkish historian and folklorist of Bashkir background. He was the author of over 350 scientific articles. Read more
26 Sep 1888: J. Frank Dobie, American journalist and author (died 1964) James Frank Dobie was an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist best known for his many books depicting the richness and traditions of life in rural Texas during the days of the open range. He was known in his lifetime for his outspoken liberal views against Texas state politics, and he carried out a long, personal war against what he saw as braggart Texans, religious prejudice, restraints on individual liberty, and the mechanized world's assault on the human spirit. He was instrumental in saving the Texas Longhorn breed of cattle from extinction. Read more
26 Sep 1888: T. S. Eliot, English poet, playwright, critic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1965) Thomas Stearns Eliot was a poet, essayist and playwright. He was a leading figure of modernist poetry in the English language where he altered the art through his use of pessimistic language, writing style, and verse structure. Awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature, he is considered one of the greatest poets of the English language. He is also noted for his critical essays, which often re-evaluated long-held cultural beliefs. Read more
26 Sep 1887: Edwin Keppel Bennett, English author and poet (died 1958) Edwin Keppel Bennett, noms de plume: Francis Bennett, Francis Keppel, was an English writer, poet, Germanist, and a prominent academic. He served as the president of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge between 1948 and 1956. Read more
26 Sep 1887: Antonio Moreno, Spanish-American actor and director (died 1967) Antonio Garrido Monteagudo, better known as Antonio Moreno or Tony Moreno, was a Spanish-born American actor and film director of the silent film era and through the 1950s. Read more
26 Sep 1887: Barnes Wallis, English scientist and engineer, invented the Bouncing bomb (died 1979) Sir Barnes Neville Wallis was an English engineer and inventor. He is best known for having invented the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise to attack the dams of the Ruhr Valley during World War II. Read more
26 Sep 1886: Archibald Hill, English physiologist, academic, and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1977) Archibald Vivian Hill, better known to friends and colleagues as A. V. Hill, was a British physiologist, one of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics and operations research. He shared the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his elucidation of the production of heat and mechanical work in muscles. Read more
26 Sep 1884: Jack Bickell, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (died 1951) John Paris Bickell was a Canadian businessman, philanthropist, and sports team owner. He is best known for his long-time association with the Toronto Maple Leafs professional ice hockey team as the owner, president, chairman and director 1924–1951. Read more
26 Sep 1878: Walter Steinbeck, German actor (died 1942) Walter Steinbeck was a German film actor. Read more
26 Sep 1877: Ugo Cerletti, Italian neurologist and academic (died 1963) Ugo Cerletti was an Italian neurologist who discovered the method of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) used in psychiatry. Electroconvulsive therapy is a therapy in which electric current is used to provoke a seizure for a short duration. This therapy is used in an attempt to treat certain mental disorders, and may be useful when other possible treatments have not, or cannot, cure the person of their mental disorder. Read more
26 Sep 1877: Alfred Cortot, Swiss pianist and conductor (died 1962) Alfred Denis Cortot was a Swiss pianist, conductor, and teacher who lived and worked in France for many years. He was one of the most renowned classical musicians of the 20th century. A pianist of massive repertory, he was especially valued for his poetic insight into Romantic piano works, particularly those of Chopin, Franck, Saint-Saëns and Schumann. For Éditions Durand, he edited editions of almost all piano music by Chopin, Liszt and Schumann. Read more
26 Sep 1877: Bertha De Vriese, Belgian physician (died 1958) Bertha De Vriese was a Belgian physician. When she earned her degree as a doctor of medicine at Ghent University, where she was the first woman to conduct research and the first woman physician to graduate from the school. Although she was not allowed to pursue an academic career, De Vriese opened a private pediatric clinic and served as the director of the Children's Ward at the Bijloke Hospital in Ghent. In 1914, she married Josef Vercouillie, also a physician. Read more
26 Sep 1876: Edith Abbott, American economist, social worker, and author (died 1957) Edith Abbott was an American economist, statistician, social worker, educator, and author. Abbott was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. Abbott was a pioneer in the profession of social work with an educational background in economics. She was a leading activist in social reform with the ideals that humanitarianism needed to be embedded in education. Abbott was also in charge of implementing social work studies to the graduate level. Though she was met with resistance on her work with social reform at the University of Chicago, she ultimately was successful and was elected as the school's dean in 1924, making her one of the first female deans in the United States. Abbott was foremost an educator and saw her work as a combination of legal studies and humanitarian work which shows in her social security legislation. She is known as an economist who pursued implementing social work at the graduate level. Her younger sister was Grace Abbott.Social work will never become a profession—except through the professional schools Read more
26 Sep 1876: Ghulam Bhik Nairang, Indian poet, lawyer, and politician (died 1952) Syed Ghulam Bhik Nairang was a distinguished lawyer, poet and Pakistan Movement leader. He was the Deputy Leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1938 to 1942, and was appointed to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in April 1950. Read more
26 Sep 1875: Edmund Gwenn, English-American actor (died 1959) Edmund Gwenn was an English actor. On film, he is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in the Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street (1947), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the corresponding Golden Globe Award, and a Photoplay Award. He received a second Golden Globe, Photoplay Award, and another Academy Award nomination for the comedy film Mister 880 (1950). He is also remembered for his appearances in four films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Read more
26 Sep 1874: Lewis Hine, American photographer and activist (died 1940) Lewis Wickes Hine was an American sociologist and muckraker photographer. His photographs taken during times such as the Progressive Era and the Great Depression captured young children working in harsh conditions, playing a role in bringing about the passage of the first child labor laws in the United States. Read more
26 Sep 1874: Charles Vyner Brooke, 3rd Raj of Sarawak (died 1963) Sir Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke was the last rajah of Sarawak from 1917 until his abdication in 1946. His cession of Sarawak to the British Empire marked the end of the Raj of Sarawak as well as the Brooke dynasty's 100-year rule over Sarawak. Read more
26 Sep 1873: Wacław Berent, Polish author and translator (died 1940) Wacław Berent was a Polish novelist, essayist and literary translator from the Art Nouveau period, publishing under the pen names S.A.M. and Wł. Rawicz. He studied Natural Science in Kraków and Zurich, and obtained a PhD in Munich before returning to Warsaw and embarking on a literary career around the turn of the century. Having devoted himself to writing he was influenced by Nietzsche, whom he translated. Berent became a member of the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature in 1933. Read more
26 Sep 1872: Max Ehrmann, American poet and lawyer (died 1945) Max Ehrmann was an American writer, poet, and attorney from Terre Haute, Indiana, widely known for his 1927 prose poem "Desiderata". He often wrote on spiritual themes. Read more
26 Sep 1870: Christian X of Denmark (died 1947) Christian X was King of Denmark from 1912 until his death in 1947, and the only King of Iceland as Kristján X, holding the title as a result of the personal union between Denmark and independent Iceland between 1918 and 1944. Read more
26 Sep 1869: Komitas, Armenian-French priest and composer (died 1935) Soghomon Soghomonian, ordained and commonly known as Komitas, was an Ottoman-Armenian priest, musicologist, composer, arranger, singer, and choirmaster, who is considered the founder of the Armenian national school of music. He is recognized as one of the pioneers of ethnomusicology. Read more
26 Sep 1865: Archibald Butt, United States Army Officer (died 1912) Archibald Willingham DeGraffenreid Clarendon Butt was an American Army officer and aide to presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. After a few years as a newspaper reporter, he served two years as the First Secretary of the American embassy in Mexico. He was commissioned in the United States Volunteers in 1898 and served in the Quartermaster Corps during the Spanish–American War. After brief postings in Washington, D.C., and Cuba, Butt was appointed military aide to Republican presidents Roosevelt and Taft. He was a highly influential advisor on a wide range of topics to both men, and his writings are a major source of historical information on the presidencies. He died in the sinking of the British liner Titanic in 1912. Read more
26 Sep 1865: Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford (died 1937) Mary Du Caurroy Russell, Duchess of Bedford, was a British aviator and ornithologist. She was honoured for her work in founding hospitals and working in them during the First World War. She later financed and took part in record breaking flights to Karachi and Cape Town. Read more
26 Sep 1856: Anna Paaske, Norwegian opera singer and music teacher (died 1935) Anna Paaske was a Norwegian opera singer and music teacher. She often performed in Wagner roles in concerts in Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and was especially popular in Germany. Her stage career ended after she injured her foot, from which she never fully recovered. Read more
26 Sep 1849: Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1936) Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs. Pavlov also conducted significant research on the physiology of digestion, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904. Read more
26 Sep 1848: Henry Walters, American art collector and philanthropist (died 1931) Henry Walters was noted as an art collector and philanthropist, a founder of the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland, which he donated to the city in his 1931 will for the benefit of the public. From the late 19th century, Walters lived most of the time in New York City, where from 1903 on, he served on the executive committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was selected as second vice president in 1913, a position he held until his death. Read more
26 Sep 1843: Joseph Furphy, Australian author and poet (died 1912) Joseph Furphy was an Australian author and poet. He mostly wrote under the pseudonym Tom Collins and is best known for his novel Such Is Life (1903), regarded as an Australian classic. Read more
26 Sep 1840: Louis-Olivier Taillon, Canadian lawyer and politician, 8th Premier of Quebec (died 1923) Sir Louis-Olivier Taillon was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was the eighth premier of Quebec, serving two separate terms. Read more
26 Sep 1820: Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Indian philosopher, painter, and academic (died 1891) Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay, popularly known as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, was an Indian educator and social reformer of the 19th century. Read more

Notable Deaths on 26 September

26 Sep 2024: John Ashton, American actor (born 1948) John David Ashton was an American actor, known for his roles in the Beverly Hills Cop films, Some Kind of Wonderful, and Midnight Run. Read more
26 Sep 2019: Jacques Chirac, French politician, President of France (born 1932) Jacques René Chirac was President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995. Read more
26 Sep 2016: Toughie, last known Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog (h. fl. 2005) Toughie was the last known living Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog. The species, scientifically known as Ecnomiohyla rabborum, is thought to be extinct, as the last specimen—Toughie—died in captivity on September 26, 2016. Read more
26 Sep 2015: Eudóxia Maria Froehlich, Brazilian zoologist (born 1928) Eudóxia Maria Froehlich was a Brazilian zoologist. Read more
26 Sep 2015: Sidney Phillips, American soldier, physician, and author (born 1924) Sidney Clarke Phillips, Jr. was a United States Marine, family practice physician, and author from Mobile, Alabama. He provided source material and interviews for the making of Ken Burns' PBS documentary film The War and the HBO miniseries The Pacific. His recollections revolve around his time as a young man fighting in the Pacific War. Read more
26 Sep 2015: Ana Seneviratne, Sri Lankan police officer and diplomat (born 1927) Ganegoda Appuhamelage Don Edmund Ananda Seneviratne was a Sri Lankan police officer. He was the former Inspector-General of Police, Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Malaysia, former adviser to Cabinet Minister of National Security and ex member Public Service Commission of Sri Lanka. Read more
26 Sep 2014: Jim Boeke, American football player and coach (born 1938) James Frederick Boeke was an American professional football offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles Rams, Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints. He played college football at Heidelberg College. Read more
26 Sep 2014: Sam Hall, American screenwriter (born 1921) Allison Samuel Hall, known as Sam Hall, was a screenwriter known for his work in daytime soap operas, particularly Dark Shadows and One Life to Live. Hall also co-wrote the 1976 PBS miniseries The Adams Chronicles. Read more
26 Sep 2014: Gerald Neugebauer, American astronomer and physicist (born 1932) Gerhart Otto "Gerry" Neugebauer was an American astronomer known for his pioneering work in infrared astronomy. Read more
26 Sep 2014: Tamir Sapir, Georgian-American businessman (born 1946) Tamir Sapir was a Georgian-born, Georgian-American businessman, real estate developer and investor. He was the founder of the Sapir Organization, a real estate investment firm based in New York City. Sapir originally made his fortune trading oil and fertilizers with the Soviet Union during the 1980s. He became a billionaire in 2002, with his wealth peaking in 2007 at US$2 billion, according to Forbes. Read more
26 Sep 2013: Azizan Abdul Razak, Malaysian politician, 10th Menteri Besar of Kedah (born 1944) Azizan bin Abdul Razak was a Malaysian politician who served as the 10th Menteri Besar of the state of Kedah from 2008 to 2013. A member of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), he was the first Chief Minister of Kedah from a party other than the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). He held the seat of Sungai Limau in the Kedah state assembly from 2004 until his death in 2013. He was also the state commissioner for PAS in Kedah and a member of the central committee of the national party. Read more
26 Sep 2013: Seánie Duggan, Irish hurler (born 1922) Seán "Seánie" Duggan was an Irish hurler who played as a goalkeeper for the Galway senior team. Read more
26 Sep 2013: Mario Montez, Puerto Rican-American actor (born 1935) René Rivera, known professionally as Mario Montez, was one of the Warhol superstars, appearing in thirteen of Andy Warhol's underground films from 1964 to 1966. He took his name as a male homage to the actress Maria Montez, an important gay icon in the 1950s and 1960s. Before appearing in Warhol's films, he appeared in Jack Smith's underground films Flaming Creatures and Normal Love. Montez also stars in the Ron Rice film Chumlum, made in 1964. Mario Montez, was "a staple in the New York underground scene of the 1960s and '70s." Read more
26 Sep 2013: Sos Sargsyan, Armenian actor and director (born 1929) Sos Artashesi Sargsyan was a prominent Armenian actor, director and writer. Read more
26 Sep 2012: M'el Dowd, American actress and singer (born 1933) Mary Ellen Dowd was an American stage, musical theatre and film actress, and singer, whose career spanned half a century. Beginning in Shakespeare roles and films in the 1950s, Dowd continued to perform on stage, film and television into the 21st century. A frequent performer on Broadway in the 1960s, Dowd originated the role of Morgan le Fay in the musical Camelot. Read more
26 Sep 2012: Sylvia Fedoruk, Canadian physicist and politician, 17th Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan (born 1927) Sylvia Olga Fedoruk was a Canadian physicist, medical physicist, curler and the 17th lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan, from 1988 to 1994. Read more
26 Sep 2012: Eugene Genovese, American historian and author (born 1930) Eugene Dominic Genovese was an American historian of the American South and American slavery. He was noted for bringing a Marxist perspective to the study of power, class and relations between planters and slaves in the South. His book Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made won the Bancroft Prize. He wrote during the Cold War; his political beliefs were viewed by some as highly controversial at the time. He later abandoned the left and Marxism and embraced traditionalist conservatism. Read more
26 Sep 2012: Sam Steiger, American journalist and politician (born 1929) Samuel Steiger was an American politician, journalist, political pundit. He served five terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, two terms in the Arizona State Senate, and one term as mayor of Prescott, Arizona. Steiger also made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate, served as a special assistant to Arizona Governor Evan Mecham, and hosted political talk shows on both radio and television. Despite these accomplishments, Steiger is best known for two incidents: one, while he was a sitting congressman, was the 1975 killing of two burros; the second was painting a crosswalk between Prescott's courthouse and nearby Whiskey Row. Read more
26 Sep 2011: Bob Cassilly, American sculptor, founded the City Museum (born 1949) Robert James Cassilly Jr. was an American sculptor, entrepreneur, and creative director based in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1997, Cassilly founded the idiosyncratic City Museum, which draws over 700,000 visitors a year and is one of the city's leading tourist attractions. Read more
26 Sep 2010: Terry Newton, English rugby player (born 1978) Terry Newton was an English professional rugby league footballer who played as a hooker. He began his professional career with Leeds Rhinos in 1996, before joining his hometown club Wigan Warriors in 2000. He later also played for Bradford Bulls and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats. During his career, he won two Challenge Cup medals and was a runner-up in four Super League Grand Finals. He was one of a handful of players to feature in each of the first 15 seasons of the Super League. At international level, he was capped 15 times by Great Britain between 1998 and 2007, and also represented England and Lancashire. Read more
26 Sep 2010: Gloria Stuart, American actress (born 1910) Gloria Frances Stuart was an American actress, visual artist and activist. She was known for her roles in pre-code films, and garnered renewed fame late in life for her portrayal of Rose Dawson Calvert in James Cameron's epic romance Titanic (1997), one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Her performance in the film won her a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role and earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture. Read more
26 Sep 2008: Marc Moulin, Belgian keyboard player, producer, and journalist (born 1942) Marc Moulin was a Belgian musician and journalist. In the early-mid seventies, he was the leader of the jazz-rock group Placebo. He went on to become a member of the avant-rock band Aksak Maboul in 1977 and also formed the pop group Telex in 1978. Moulin was one of Belgium's jazz legends, making jazz-influenced records for over 30 years. Read more
26 Sep 2008: Paul Newman, American actor, director, producer, and businessman (born 1925) Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, filmmaker, racecar driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He has been described as "one of the last of the great 20th-century movie stars". He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, seven Golden Globe Awards, an Actor Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear for Best Actor, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and nominations for two Grammy Awards and a Tony Award. Along with his Best Actor Academy Award win, Newman also received the Academy Honorary Award and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Read more
26 Sep 2007: Bill Wirtz, American businessman (born 1929) William Wadsworth Wirtz was the chief executive officer and controlling shareholder of the family-owned Wirtz Corporation. He was best known as the owner of the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League, who are part of Wirtz Corp's holdings. Wirtz also served as the Blackhawks' team president for over four decades. Read more
26 Sep 2006: Byron Nelson, American golfer and coach (born 1912) John Byron Nelson Jr. was an American professional golfer between 1935 and 1946, widely considered one of the greatest golfers of all time. Read more
26 Sep 2006: Iva Toguri D'Aquino, American wartime propaganda broadcaster (born 1916) Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino was an American citizen visiting Japan when World War II began. Unable to return to the United States, she risked her life smuggling food to American service men held in prisoner of war camps. Read more
26 Sep 2005: Helen Cresswell, English author and screenwriter (born 1934) Helen Cresswell was an English television scriptwriter and author of more than 100 children's books, best known for comedy and supernatural fiction. Her most popular book series, Lizzie Dripping and The Bagthorpe Saga, were also the basis for television series. Read more
26 Sep 2004: Marianna Komlos, Canadian bodybuilder, model, and wrestler (born 1969) Marianna Komlos was a Canadian bodybuilder, fitness model and professional wrestling manager. She is perhaps best known for her stint in World Wrestling Federation in 1999 as Marianna and "Mrs. Cleavage", where she was the Manager for a wrestler known as "Beaver Cleavage", a parody of the TV show Leave It to Beaver. Following the termination of the Beaver Cleavage gimmick in a scripted 'storm out' by Charles Warrington due to the absurdity of the gimmick, Marianna was portrayed as the girlfriend of Warrington, going by the name of 'Chaz'. Read more
26 Sep 2003: Shawn Lane, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (born 1963) Shawn Lane was an American musician who released two studio albums and collaborated with a variety of musicians including Ringo Starr, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Reggie Young, Joe Walsh, Jonas Hellborg, Anders Johansson, Jens Johansson and many others. After studying the piano, he learned to play the guitar, which he played with exceptional speed. Read more
26 Sep 2003: Robert Palmer, English singer-songwriter (born 1949) Robert Allen Palmer was an English singer and songwriter. He was known for his powerful and soulful voice, sartorial elegance, and stylistic explorations, combining soul, funk, jazz, rock, pop, reggae, and blues. His 1986 single "Addicted to Love" and its accompanying video came to "epitomise the glamour and excesses of the 1980s". Read more
26 Sep 2002: Nils Bohlin, Swedish engineer, invented three-point safety belt (born 1920) Nils Ivar Bohlin was a Swedish mechanical engineer and inventor who invented the three-point safety belt while working at Volvo. Read more
26 Sep 2000: Richard Mulligan, American actor (born 1932) Richard Mulligan was an American character actor. He was known for his roles in the sitcoms Soap (1977–1981) and Empty Nest (1988–1995). Mulligan was the winner of two Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe Award (1989). He was the younger brother of film director Robert Mulligan. Read more
26 Sep 2000: Baden Powell de Aquino, Brazilian guitarist and composer (born 1937) Baden Powell de Aquino, known professionally as Baden Powell, was a Brazilian virtuoso guitarist and composer. He combined classical techniques with popular harmony and swing. He performed in many styles, including bossa nova, samba, Brazilian jazz, Latin jazz and MPB. He performed on stage during most of his lifetime. Powell composed many pieces for guitar, some of them now considered guitar standards, such as Abração em Madrid, Braziliense, Canto de Ossanha, Casa Velha, Consolação, Horizon, Imagem, Lotus, Samba, Samba em Prelúdio, Samba Triste, Simplesmente, Tristeza e Solidão, and Samba da Benção. He released Os Afro-sambas, a watershed album in MPB, with Vinicius de Moraes in 1966. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Brazilian guitar players of all time. Read more
26 Sep 1999: Oseola McCarty, American philanthropist (born 1908) Oseola McCarty was a local washerwoman in Hattiesburg, Mississippi who became The University of Southern Mississippi's (USM) most famous benefactor. Read more
26 Sep 1998: Betty Carter, American singer (born 1930) Betty Carter was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative interpretation of lyrics and melodies. Vocalist Carmen McRae once remarked: "There's really only one jazz singer—only one: Betty Carter." Read more
26 Sep 1997: Dorothy Kingsley, American screenwriter and producer (born 1909) Dorothy Kingsley was an American screenwriter, who worked extensively in film, radio, and television. Read more
26 Sep 1996: Nicu Ceaușescu, Romanian politician (born 1951) Nicu Ceaușescu was a Romanian physicist and communist politician who was the youngest child of Romanian leaders Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu. He was a close associate of his father's political regime and considered the President's heir presumptive. Read more
26 Sep 1995: Kalju Pitksaar, Estonian chess player (born 1931) Kalju Pitksaar was an Estonian chess player, who won the Estonian Chess Championship. Read more
26 Sep 1991: Billy Vaughn, American singer and bandleader (born 1919) William Vaughn, popularly known as Billy Vaughn was an American musician, singer, multi-instrumentalist, orchestra leader, and A&R man for Dot Records. Read more
26 Sep 1990: Hiram Abas, Turkish intelligence officer (born 1932) Hiram Abas was a Turkish intelligence official in the National Intelligence Organization (MIT). He retired after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, but returned in August 1986 as deputy to MIT chief Hayri Ündül, retiring again in 1988. He was assassinated on 26 September 1990 by leftwing revolutionary group Dev Sol. Read more
26 Sep 1990: Alberto Moravia, Italian author and critic (born 1907) Alberto Pincherle, known by his pseudonym Alberto Moravia, was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism. Moravia is best known for his debut novel Gli indifferenti and for the anti-fascist novel Il conformista, the basis for the film The Conformist (1970) directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Other novels of his adapted for the cinema are Agostino, filmed with the same title by Mauro Bolognini in 1962; Il disprezzo, filmed by Jean-Luc Godard as Le Mépris ; La noia (Boredom), filmed with that title by Damiano Damiani in 1963 and released in the US as The Empty Canvas in 1964 and La ciociara, filmed by Vittorio De Sica as Two Women (1960). Cédric Kahn's L'Ennui (1998) is another version of La noia. Read more
26 Sep 1989: Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Indian singer-songwriter and producer (born 1920) Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, known professionally as Hemanta Mukherjee and Hemant Kumar, was an Indian music director and a playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, along with several other Indian languages, including Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Assamese, Tamil, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Konkani, Sanskrit and Urdu. He was an artist in Bengali and Hindi film music, Rabindra Sangeet, and various other genres. He was the recipient of two National Awards for Best Male Playback Singer and was popularly known as the "Voice of God". Read more
26 Sep 1988: Branko Zebec, Croatian and Yugoslav football player and coach (born 1929) Branislav "Branko" Zebec was a Croatian footballer and manager who played for Yugoslavia. Read more
26 Sep 1987: Ramang, Indonesian footballer and manager (born 1928) Andi Ramang was an Indonesian footballer who played as a forward, who was considered one of the most influential players in the country in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also referred to as Rusli Ramang in official FIFA documents. Read more
26 Sep 1987: Herbert Tichy, Austrian geologist, journalist, and mountaineer (born 1912) Herbert Tichy was an Austrian writer, geologist, journalist and climber. Read more
26 Sep 1984: Paquirri, Spanish bullfighter (born 1948) Francisco Rivera Pérez, better known as Paquirri, was a Spanish bullfighter. He died after being gored by a bull named Avispado at the Pozoblanco bullring. During his career, he was six times borne shoulder-high out through the Great Gate at Las Ventas. Read more
26 Sep 1984: John Facenda, American sportscaster (born 1913) John Thomas Ralph Augustine James Facenda was an American broadcaster and sports announcer. He was a fixture on Philadelphia radio and television for decades, and achieved national fame as a narrator for NFL Films and Football Follies. Through his work with NFL Films, Facenda was known by many National Football League fans as "The Voice of God". Read more
26 Sep 1982: Alec Hurwood, Australian cricketer (born 1902) Alexander Hurwood, was an Australian cricketer who played in two Tests in the 1930–31 season. Read more
26 Sep 1979: Arthur Hunnicutt, American actor (born 1910) Arthur Lee Hunnicutt was an American actor known for his portrayal of old, wise, grizzled rural characters. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Big Sky (1952). He was also known for his role in the Western television series Sugarfoot (1957–1961). Read more
26 Sep 1978: Manne Siegbahn, Swedish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1886) Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn was a Swedish physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1924 "for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy." Read more
26 Sep 1977: Uday Shankar, Indian dancer and choreographer (born 1900) Uday Shankar was an Indian dancer and choreographer, best known for creating a fusion style of dance, adapting European theatrical techniques to Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian classical, folk, and tribal dance, which he later popularised in India, Europe, and the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. He was a pioneer of modern dance in India. Read more
26 Sep 1976: Leopold Ružička, Croatian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1887) Leopold Ružička was a Croatian-Swiss scientist and joint winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes" "including the first chemical synthesis of male sex hormones." He worked most of his life in Switzerland, and received eight doctorates honoris causa in science, medicine, and law; seven prizes and medals; and twenty-four honorary memberships in chemical, biochemical, and other scientific societies. Read more
26 Sep 1973: Samuel Flagg Bemis, American historian and author (born 1891) Samuel Flagg Bemis was an American historian and biographer. For many years he taught at Yale University. He was also president of the American Historical Association and a specialist in American diplomatic history. He was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes. Jerald A. Combs says he was "the greatest of all historians of early American diplomacy." Read more
26 Sep 1973: Ralph Earnhardt, American race car driver (born 1928) Ralph Lee Earnhardt was an American stock car racer and patriarch of the Earnhardt racing family. He was the father of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt, grandfather of Kerry Earnhardt, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Read more
26 Sep 1973: Anna Magnani, Italian actress and singer (born 1908) Anna Maria Magnani was an Italian actress. She was the first Italian woman to win an Academy Award. Read more
26 Sep 1972: Charles Correll, American actor and screenwriter (born 1890) Charles James Correll was an American radio comedian, actor and writer who was best known for his work in the radio Amos 'n' Andy radio series with Freeman Gosden. Correll voiced the main character, Andy Brown, along with various lesser characters. Read more
26 Sep 1968: Ben Shlomo Lipman-Heilprin, Polish-Israeli neurologist and physician (born 1902) Ben Shlomo Lipman-Heilprin was an Israeli physician and director of the Neurology Department of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Read more
26 Sep 1968: Daniel Johnson Sr., Canadian lawyer and politician, 20th Premier of Quebec (born 1915) Francis Daniel Johnson Sr. was a Canadian politician and the 20th premier of Quebec from 1966 until his death in 1968. Read more
26 Sep 1968: Władysław Kędra, Polish pianist (born 1918) Władysław Kędra was a Polish pianist. Read more
26 Sep 1965: James Fitzmaurice, Irish soldier and pilot (born 1898) James Michael Christopher Fitzmaurice DFC was an Irish aviation pioneer. He was a member of the crew of the Bremen, which made the first successful trans-Atlantic aircraft flight from East to West on 12–13 April 1928. Read more
26 Sep 1961: Charles Erwin Wilson, American politician, 5th United States Secretary of Defense (born 1890) Charles Erwin Wilson was an American engineer and businessman who served as United States Secretary of Defense from 1953 to 1957 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Known as "Engine Charlie", he was previously the president and chief executive officer of General Motors. In the wake of the Korean War, he cut the defense budget significantly. Read more
26 Sep 1959: S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (born 1899) Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, also known as "The Silver Bell of Asia", was a Ceylonese statesman who served as the fourth Prime Minister of the Dominion of Ceylon, from 1956 until his assassination in 1959. The founder of the left-wing and Sinhalese nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), he was elected the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon after creating a powerful coalition called the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and contesting on the lines of Sinhalese nationalism and democratic socialism. He achieved a landslide victory over the ruling United National Party in the general elections in 1956. Read more
26 Sep 1959: Leslie Morshead, Australian general (born 1889) Lieutenant General Sir Leslie James Morshead, was an Australian soldier, teacher, businessman, and farmer, whose military career spanned both world wars. During the Second World War, he led the Australian and British troops at the Siege of Tobruk (1941) and at the Second Battle of El Alamein, achieving decisive victories over Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. His soldiers nicknamed him "Ming the Merciless", later simply "Ming", after the villain in the Flash Gordon comics. Read more
26 Sep 1959: Teodor Ussisoo, Estonian furniture designer and educator (born 1878) Teodor Ussisoo was an Estonian pedagogue, furniture designer, and interior architect. Read more
26 Sep 1957: Arthur Powell Davies, American minister and author (born 1902) Arthur Powell Davies was an English and American minister and theologian. He served as the minister of All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, D.C. from 1944 until his death in 1957. A prolific author of theological books and sermon collections, he came to national prominence in the U.S. through his liberal activism advocating civil rights for African-Americans and women and ethical stands against post-war nuclear proliferation and the methods employed by the American government during the era of McCarthyism. Read more
26 Sep 1954: Ellen Roosevelt, American tennis player (born 1868) Ellen Crosby Roosevelt was an American tennis player. Roosevelt was a daughter of John Aspinwall Roosevelt, an estate proprietor, and Ellen Murray Crosby. She started playing tennis with her sister Grace in 1879 when her father installed a tennis court at their mansion. Read more
26 Sep 1953: Xu Beihong, Chinese painter and educator (born 1895) Xu Beihong, also known as Ju Péon, was a Chinese painter. Read more
26 Sep 1952: George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, novelist, and poet (born 1863) George Santayana was a Spanish American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, he moved to the United States at the age of eight. Read more
26 Sep 1951: Hans Cloos, German geologist and academic (born 1885) Hans Cloos was a prominent German structural geologist. Read more
26 Sep 1947: Hugh Lofting, English-American author and poet (born 1886) Hugh John Lofting was an English-American writer, trained as a civil engineer, who created the classic children's literature character Doctor Dolittle. The fictional physician talking to animals, based in an English village, first appeared in illustrated letters to his children which Lofting sent from British Army trenches in the First World War. Lofting settled in the United States soon after the war and before his first book was published. Read more
26 Sep 1946: William Strunk Jr., American author and educator (born 1869) William Strunk Jr. was an American professor of English at Cornell University and the author of The Elements of Style (1918). After his former student E. B. White revised and extended the book, The Elements of Style became an influential guide to writing in the English language, informally known as "Strunk & White". Read more
26 Sep 1945: Béla Bartók, Hungarian pianist and composer (born 1881) Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers. Among his notable works are the opera Bluebeard's Castle, the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, the Concerto for Orchestra and six string quartets. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became known as ethnomusicology. Per Anthony Tommasini, Bartók "has empowered generations of subsequent composers to incorporate folk music and classical traditions from whatever culture into their works," and was "a formidable modernist who in the face of Schoenberg’s breathtaking formulations showed another way, forging a language that was an amalgam of tonality, unorthodox scales and atonal wanderings." His work is often described as being a combination of traditional peasants' folk music and avant-garde music. Read more
26 Sep 1943: Henri Fertet, French Resistance fighter (born 1926) Henri Claude Fertet was a French schoolboy and resistance fighter who was executed by the German occupying forces during World War II. He was posthumously awarded several national honours. He is known for the letter he wrote to his parents on the morning of his execution, and he has become one of those who symbolise the French Resistance. Read more
26 Sep 1937: Bessie Smith, American singer and actress (born 1894) Bessie Smith was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the "Empress of the Blues" and formerly Queen of the Blues, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists. Read more
26 Sep 1935: Andy Adams, American author (born 1859) Andy Adams was an American writer of Western fiction. Read more
26 Sep 1935: Iván Persa, Slovene-Hungarian priest and author (born 1861) Iván Persa was a Hungarian Slovene Roman Catholic priest and writer. Read more
26 Sep 1922: Charles Wade, Australian politician, 17th Premier of New South Wales (born 1863) Sir Charles Gregory Wade KCMG, KC, JP was Premier of New South Wales 2 October 1907 – 21 October 1910. Read more
26 Sep 1904: Lafcadio Hearn, Greek-Japanese author and academic (born 1850) Patrick Lafcadio Hearn was a Greek and Irish writer, translator, and teacher whose work played a significant role in the introduction of the culture and literature of Japan to the mainstream Western world. Read more
26 Sep 1904: John Fitzwilliam Stairs, Canadian businessman and politician (born 1848) John Fitzwilliam Stairs, also known as John Fitz William Stairs was an entrepreneur and statesman, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a member of the prominent Stairs family of merchants and shippers founded by William Machin Stairs (1789–1865) that included the Victorian era explorer, William Grant Stairs. Read more
26 Sep 1902: Levi Strauss, German-American businessman, founded Levi Strauss & Co. (born 1829) Levi Strauss was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm of Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) began in 1853 in San Francisco, California. Read more
26 Sep 1877: Hermann Grassmann, German mathematician and physicist (born 1809) Hermann Günther Grassmann was a German polymath known in his day as a linguist and now also as a mathematician. He was also a physicist, general scholar, and publisher. His mathematical work was little noted until he was in his sixties. His work preceded and exceeded the concept which is now known as a vector space. He introduced the Grassmannian, the space which parameterizes all k-dimensional linear subspaces of an n-dimensional vector space V. In linguistics he helped free language history and structure from each other. Read more
26 Sep 1868: August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (born 1790) August Ferdinand Möbius was a German mathematician and theoretical astronomer. Read more
26 Sep 1847: John Oliver Curran, Irish physician (born 1819) John Oliver Curran MRIA was an Irish physician, medical writer and reviewer. He studied at the University of Glasgow and Trinity College Dublin, trained at the Meath Hospital, Jervis Street Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital, and later taught medicine at the Apothecaries' Hall School, Dublin. He was also a physician to the Dublin General Dispensary. He was a lifelong vegetarian, having abstained from meat from early childhood, and also avoided eggs, cheese, tea and coffee. During the 1847 fever epidemic in Dublin, he criticised conditions in fever hospitals. He died of typhus after nursing the French medical commissioner Henri Gueneau de Mussy. Read more
26 Sep 1846: Thomas Clarkson, English abolitionist (born 1760) Thomas Clarkson was an English abolitionist, and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and helped achieve passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807, which ended British trade in slaves. Read more
26 Sep 1830: Teresa Casati, Italian noblewomen and revolutionary (born 1787) Teresa Casati Confalonieri was an Italian noblewoman and revolutionist. She is known as the wife of revolutionist Federico Confalonieri, sister of former Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Gabrio Casati, and as an important figure in the Risorgimento. Read more
26 Sep 1825: José Bernardo de Tagle y Portocarrero, Marquis of Torre Tagle, Peruvian soldier and politician, 2nd President of Peru (born 1779) José Bernardo de Tagle y Portocarrero, 4th Marquess of Torre Tagle, was a Peruvian soldier and politician who served as the Interim President of Peru in 1823 as well as the second President of Peru from 1823 to 1824. He was a supporter of liberalism. Read more
26 Sep 1820: Daniel Boone, American hunter and explorer (born 1734) Daniel Boone was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose adventures made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies. In 1775, under commission from Judge Richard Henderson's Transylvania Company, Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky in the face of resistance from nearby Native American tribes. He founded Boonesborough, one of the first English-speaking settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains. By the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people had entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone. Read more
26 Sep 1802: Jurij Vega, Slovene mathematician and physicist (born 1754) Baron Jurij Bartolomej Vega was a Slovene mathematician, physicist, and artillery commissioned officer. Read more
26 Sep 1800: William Billings, American composer and educator (born 1746) William Billings was an American composer and is regarded as the first American choral composer and leading member of the First New England School. Read more

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