By: HISTORY.com Editors

1996

Shannon Lucid returns to Earth

Published: February 09, 2010Last Updated: May 27, 2025

U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid returns to Earth in the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis following six months in orbit aboard the Russian space station Mir.

On March 23, 1996, Lucid transferred to Mir from the same space shuttle for a planned five-month stay. A biochemist, Lucid shared Mir with Russian cosmonauts Yuri Onufriyenko and Yuri Usachev and conducted scientific experiments during her stay. She was the first American woman to live in a space station.

Beginning in August, her scheduled return to Earth was delayed by more than six weeks because of last-minute repairs to the booster rockets of Atlantis and then by a hurricane. Finally, on September 26, 1996, she returned to Earth aboard Atlantis, touching down at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Her 188-day sojourn aboard Mir set a new space endurance record for an American and a world endurance record for a woman.

When Sally Ride Took Her First Space Flight, Sexism Was the Norm

Ride was eminently qualified for space flight. So why did the press ask about makeup and periods?

By: Erin Blakemore

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on September 26th

1580

Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe

English seaman Francis Drake returns to Plymouth, England, in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to sail the earth. On December 13, 1577, Drake set out from England with five ships on a mission to raid Spanish holdings on the Pacific coast of the New World. After crossing the Atlantic, Drake abandoned two […]

1:44m read

1820

The famous frontiersman Daniel Boone dies in Missouri

On September 26, 1820 the pioneering frontiersman Daniel Boone dies quietly in his sleep at his son’s home near present-day Defiance, Missouri. The indefatigable voyager was 86. Boone was born in 1734 to Quaker parents living in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Following a squabble with the Pennsylvania Quakers, Boone’s family decided to head south and west, […]

2:08m read

1888

T.S. Eliot is born

Poet T.S. Eliot is born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 26, 1888. Eliot’s distinguished family tree included an ancestor who arrived in Boston in 1670 and another who founded Washington University in St. Louis. Eliot’s father was a businessman, and his mother was involved in local charities. Eliot took an undergraduate degree at Harvard, […]

1:24m read

1918

Meuse-Argonne offensive opens

At 5:30 on the morning of September 26, 1918, after a six-hour-long bombardment over the previous night, more than 700 Allied tanks, followed closely by infantry troops, advance against German positions in the Argonne Forest and along the Meuse River. Building on the success of earlier Allied offensives at Amiens and Albert during the summer […]

1:46m read

1934

RMS Queen Mary launches

On September 26, 1934, the RMS Queen Mary, one of the largest and fastest luxury ocean liners of its day, is launched.

1945

First U.S. soldier killed during Vietnam’s August Revolution

Lt. Col. Peter Dewey, a U.S. Army officer with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Vietnam, is shot and killed in Saigon. Dewey was the head of a seven-man team sent to Vietnam to search for missing American pilots and to gather information on the situation in the country after the surrender of the […]

1:40m read

1957

“West Side Story” opens on Broadway

On September 26, 1957, West Side Story, composed by Leonard Bernstein, opens at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. For the groundbreaking musical, Bernstein provided a propulsive and rhapsodic score that many celebrate as his greatest achievement as a composer. However, even without the triumph of West Side Story, Bernstein’s place in musical history was […]

3:46m read

1960

Kennedy and Nixon square off in first televised presidential debate

For the first time in U.S. history, a debate between major party presidential candidates—John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon—is shown on television.

1969

“The Brady Bunch” premieres

On September 26, 1969, American television audiences hear the soon-to-be-famous opening lyrics “Here’s the story of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls…” as “The Brady Bunch,” a sitcom that will become an icon of American pop culture, airs for the first time. The show was panned by critics and, according […]

2:10m read

1971

4th Oriole pitcher wins 20th game in a single season

On September 26, 1971, Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer wins his 20th game of the year, becoming the fourth Orioles pitcher to win 20 games in the 1971 season. This made the 1971 Orioles pitching staff the first since that of the 1920 Chicago White Sox to field four 20-game winners. The Orioles began the […]

1:48m read

1975

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” debuts in U.S. theaters

It flopped before becoming an audience-participation classic.

1980

Lake Placid's Olympic Village reopens as federal prison

Congress required that athletes' dorms be repurposed for inmates.

2005

IRA officially disarms

Two months after announcing its intention to disarm, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) gives up its weapons in front of independent weapons inspectors. The decommissioning of the group’s substantial arsenal took place in secret locations in the Republic of Ireland. One Protestant and one Catholic priest as well as officials from Finland and the United […]

1:40m read

2007

Mistrial declared in Phil Spector murder case

Music producer Phil Spector’s trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson ends in a mistrial when the jury cannot come to a unanimous verdict. On February 3, 2003, police responded to a 911 call and found the 40-year-old Clarkson dead of a gunshot wound to the mouth in the foyer of Spector’s mansion in […]

2:18m read

Space Exploration

11 videos

Space Exploration

6 Ways the Space Race Transformed Everyday American Life

The launch of Sputnik in October 1957 sparked a space race that reshaped education, science, technology and everyday life.

Space Exploration

Earthrise: Behind the Famed Apollo 8 Photo

Earthrise is a photo taken by NASA astronaut Bill Anders on December 24, 1968, that gave people an awe-inspiring view of their home planet.

Space Exploration

The Rise and Fall of Planet Pluto

Look back at the controversial decision to give Pluto the pink slip and shrink the solar system from nine planets to eight.

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