Today in History for 16th September 2026

[CoM Moderators]

Historical Events

1926 - Hurricane in Florida and Alabama kills 372
1940 - Leo Durocher is suspended from Ebbets Field for "inciting a riot"
1940 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Selective Training and Service Act, the first US peacetime draft
1996 - Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Panama City, Florida, on WTBB 97.7 FM
1999 - First-ever season of "Big Brother" reality show begins on the Veronica channel in the Netherlands

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1812 - Robert Fortune, Scottish botanist and plant hunter (established East India tea company in India), born in Kelloe, Scotland (d. 1880)
1832 - George Washington Custis Lee, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Fort Monroe, Virginia (d. 1913)
1940 - Hamiet Bluiett, American jazz baritone saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer (World Saxophone Quartet - "Hattie Wall'), born in Brooklyn, Illinois (d. 2018)
1953 - Alan Barton, English musician (Black Lace, Smokie), born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England (d. 1995)
1973 - Alexander Vinokourov, Russian-Kazakhtani road cyclist, born in Petropavl, Kazakh S.S.R.

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1736 - Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Dutch-German-Polish physicist, inventor and scientific instrument maker, who invented the thermometer and the Fahrenheit scale, dies at 50
1983 - Roy Andries de Groot, Dutch-British-American culinary writer and wine critic, takes his own life at 73
1984 - Richard Brautigan, American novelist and poet (Trout Fishing in America), takes his own life at 49 [exact date estimated based on forensic investigation]
1992 - Millicent Fenwick, American politician (Rep-R-NJ 1975-82), dies at 82
2016 - Dorothy Cann Hamilton, American businesswoman and founder of the French Culinary Institute, dies in a car accident at 67

More Famous Deaths »