Calendar for September 26th, 2010

2001: Start of Banned Books Week

2006: Full Harvest Moon

1687: Parthenon partially destroyed by Venetians, Athens, Greece

Born 1774: Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman (farmer, folk legend)

Died 1820: Daniel Boone (frontiersman)

1820: On the steps of the Salem, New Jersey courthouse, Colonel Robert Johnson bit into a tomato in order to prove wrong the long-lasting theory that tomatoes were poisonous

Born 1849: Ivan Pavlov (physiologist)

Born 1862: Arthur B. Davies (artist)

1872: The Shriners, a fraternal and charitable organization, opened its first temple

Born 1888: T.S. Eliot (poet)

Born 1898: George Gershwin (composer)

Born 1914: Jack LaLanne (fitness guru)

Died 1937: Bessie Smith (singer)

Born 1948: Olivia Newton-John (singer)

1960: Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy confronted each other in the first televised presidential debate

Born 1962: Melissa Sue Anderson (actress)

1962: The Beverly Hillbillies debuted on television

Died 1978: World's oldest alligator on record (age 66)

Born 1981: Serena Williams (tennis player)

1983: Australia won the America's Cup. It was the first time in 132 years that the U.S. did not win

Died 2003: Robert Palmer (singer)

Died 2008: Paul Newman (actor & businessman)