September 26:

1960 : First Kennedy-Nixon debate

For the first time in U.S. history, a debate between major party
presidential candidates is shown on television. The presidential
hopefuls, John F. Kennedy, a Democratic senator of Massachusetts, and
Richard M. Nixon, the vice president of the United States, met in a
Chicago studio to discuss U.S. domestic matters.

Kennedy emerged the apparent winner from this first of four televised
debates, partly owing to his greater ease before the camera than
Nixon, who, unlike Kennedy, seemed nervous and declined to wear
makeup. Nixon fared better in the second and third debates, and on
October 21 the candidates met to discuss foreign affairs in their
fourth and final debate. Less than three weeks later, on November 8,
Kennedy won 49.7 percent of the popular vote in one of the closest
presidential elections in U.S. history, surpassing by a fraction the
49.6 percent received by his Republican opponent.

One year after leaving the vice presidency, Nixon returned to
politics, winning the Republican nomination for governor of
California. Although he lost the election, Nixon returned to the
national stage in 1968 in a successful bid for the presidency. Like
Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Nixon declined to debate his opponent in the
1968 presidential campaign. Televised presidential debates returned in
1976, and have been held in every presidential campaign since.

history.com/tdih.do


1580 : Drake circumnavigates the globe
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5375

1957 : Bernstein's West Side Story opens
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=7032

1996 : Shannon Lucid returns to Earth
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5377

#########################################