On This Day: Monday September 26, 2005 This is the 269th day of the year, with 96 days remaining in 2005. Fact of the Day: ice cream cone Paper and metal cones were used during the 19th century in France, Germany, and Britain for eating ice cream. Italo Marchiony emigrated from Italy in the late 1800s and soon thereafter went into business in New York City with a pushcart dispensing lemon ice. Success soon led to a small fleet of pushcarts and the inventive Marchiony was inspired to develop a cone, first made of paper, later of pastry, to hold the icy delicacy. On September 22, 1903, he filed an application for a patent for a mold for the ice cream cone. However, numerous men who sold pastries at the World's Fair in 1904 also claimed to have been the inventor of the ice cream cone. Holidays Sri Lanka: Bandaranaike Day. Yemen: Revolution Day. Khmer Republic: Ceremony of the Dead. Ethiopia: Feast of the Finding of the True Cross/Maskal. Events 1580 - Sir Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, England, in the ship Golden Hind, having become the first British navigator to have circumnavigated the globe. 1687 - The Parthenon was destroyed in the war between Turks and the Venetians. 1777 - British troops occupied Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War. Sir William Howe had just defeated George Washington at the Battle of Brandywine and his forces easily captured the undefended capital. 1789 - Thomas Jefferson was appointed the first Secretary of State in the United States. 1815 - The Act of the Holy Alliance was signed by the Czar of Russia, Emperor of Austro-Hungary, and the King of Prussia -- in the name of Christianity. 1829 - Scotland Yard, British criminal investigation organization, was formed. 1901 - Leon Czolgosz, who murdered President William McKinley, was sentenced to death. 1913 - The first boat was raised in the Panama Canal locks. 1914 - Federal Trade Commission was established to foster competition in business and prevent monopolies. 1918 - The last major battle of World War I began when French and American troops attack German holdings in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. The battle ended in the eleventh hour of November 11. 1941 - U.S. Army established the Military Police Corps. 1950 - United Nations troops recaptured the South Korean capital of Seoul from the North Koreans. 1953 - Sugar rationing in Great Britain was ended after almost 14 years. 1955 - The New York Stock Exchange suffered a $44 million loss. 1957 - The musical "West Side Story," written by Leonard Bernstein, opened on Broadway. 1960 - The first televised presidential debate took place between Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy (in Chicago). 1962 - "The Beverly Hillbillies" premiered on television. 1964 - "Gilligan's Island" debuted on TV. 1967 - Hanoi rejected a U.S. peace proposal for the Vietnam War. 1969 - "The Brady Bunch" premiered on TV. 1969 - The Beatles last album, "Abbey Road," was released. 1972 - Richard M. Nixon met with Emperor Hirohito in Anchorage, Alaska, the first-ever meeting of a U.S. President and a Japanese monarch. 1984 - Great Britain formally agreed to honor the expiration of its ninety-nine-year lease on the island of Hong Kong. The agreement was signed in Peking. 1986 - William H. Rehnquist was sworn in as the 16th Chief Justice and Antonin Scalia joined the Supreme Court as its 103rd member. 1990 - Motion Picture Association of America instituted the NC-17 rating. 1991 - Four men and four women began a two-year stay in the sealed Biosphere Two in Oracle, Arizona, for science research. 1996 - U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid returned to Earth in the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis, after six months in orbit aboard the Russian space station Mir. It set an endurance record for an American and a woman in space. 1997 - Indonesian Airbus A-300 crashed while approaching Medan Airport in north Sumatra, killing all 234 people aboard. 2002 - A state-run Senegalese ferry capsized in the Atlantic Ocean, killing more than 1800 people. Births 1774 - Johnny Appleseed (Jonathan Chapman), American medicine man and planter. 1888 - T.S. Eliot, American Nobel Prize-winning poet. 1889 - Martin Heidegger, German existentialist philosopher. 1895 - George Raft (Ranft), American actor. 1898 - George Gershwin, American composer. 1914 - Jack LaLanne, American exercise and fitness guru. 1926 - Julie London (Peck), American singer. 1948 - Olivia Newton-John, Australian singer and actress. 1962 - Melissa Sue Anderson, American actress. Deaths 1820 - Legendary American frontiersman Daniel Boone. 1937 - Bessie Smith, American blues singer.