Historical timeline for September 26

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.

A mass shooting occurs at a school in Izhevsk, Udmurtia, Russia, resulting in the deaths of 18 people, including 11 children.

A mass kidnapping of 43 students from a teaching college occurs in Iguala, Mexico.

The Philippine Bar exam bombing occurs near the De La Salle University in Taft Avenue, Manila injuring 47 people.

Typhoon Ketsana hits the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, causing 700 fatalities.

The overcrowded Senegalese ferry, MV Le Joola, capsizes off the coast of the Gambia killing more than 1,000.

Anti-globalization protests in Prague (some 20,000 protesters) turn violent during the IMF and World Bank summits.

The MS Express Samina sinks off Paros in the Aegean Sea killing 80 passengers.

A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A300 crashes near Medan airport, killing 234.

An earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse.

A Yakovlev Yak-40 crashes into a river near Vanavara, Russia, killing 24.

A Nigerian Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashes in Ejigbo, Lagos, killing 159.

The United Kingdom and China agree to a transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, to take place in 1997.

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.

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.

A terrorist bombing at the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, kills 13 people and injures 213 others.

Air Caribbean Flight 309 crashes in Residencial Las Casas in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing six.

In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

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.

The Japanese rail ferry Tōya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, Japan, killing 1,172.