– On Sept. 27, 1939, Warsaw, Poland, surrendered after weeks of resistance to invading forces from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II.

– In 1854, the first great disaster involving an Atlantic Ocean liner occurred when the steamship Arctic sank with 300 people aboard.

– In 1959, a typhoon battered the main Japanese island of Honshu, killing nearly 5,000 people.

– In 1964, the Warren Commission issued a report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy.

– In 199s, In Afghanistan, the Taliban, a band of former seminary students, drove the government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani out of Kabul, captured the capital and executed former leader Najibullah.

Slightly less tragic things that happened today:

– In 1779, John Adams was named to negotiate the Revolutionary War’s peace terms with Britain.

– In 1979, Congress gave final approval to forming the Department of Education, the 13th Cabinet agency in U.S. history.

– In 1991, President Bush announced that he was eliminating all U.S. battlefield nuclear weapons, and called on the Soviet Union to match the gesture.

– In 2000, Venus Williams became only the second player to win Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Olympics in the same year with her victory over Elena Dementieva.

Today’s birthdays: