1777: British troops occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution.
1789: Thomas Jefferson was confirmed by the Senate to be the first United States secretary of state; John Jay, the first chief justice; Edmund Randolph, the first attorney general.
1892: John Philip Sousa and his newly formed band performed publicly for the first time at the Stillman Music Hall in Plainfield, N.J.
1914: The Federal Trade Commission was established.
1937: The radio drama The Shadow, starring Orson Welles, premiered on the Mutual Broadcasting System.
1957: The musical play West Side Story opened on Broadway.
1960: The first-ever debate between presidential nominees took place as Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon faced off before a national TV audience.
1981: The twin-engine Boeing 767 made its official debut in Everett, Was.
1986: William H. Rehnquist was sworn in as the 16th chief justice of the United States, while Antonin Scalia joined the Supreme Court as its 103rd member.
1991: Four men and four women began a two-year stay inside a sealed-off structure in Oracle, Ariz., called Biosphere 2. (They emerged from Biosphere on this date in 1993.)
Associated Press