Today is Saturday, Sept. 27, the 271st day of 2008. There are 95 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Sept. 27, 1964, the government publicly released the report of the Warren Commission, which found that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy.

On this date:

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

• In 1825, the first locomotive to haul a passenger train was operated by George Stephenson in England.

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

• In 1942, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra performed together for the last time, at the Central Theater in Passaic, N.J., prior to Miller’s entry into the Army.

• In 1954, “Tonight!” hosted by Steve Allen, made its network debut on NBC-TV.

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

• In 1991, President George H.W. Bush announced in a nationally broadcast address that he was eliminating all U.S. battlefield nuclear weapons, and called on the Soviet Union to match the gesture.

Ten years ago: St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire’s record-breaking season ended with his 69th and 70th homers.

Five years ago: President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Iran and North Korea to abandon suspected nuclear-weapons programs, but disagreed over how to deal with both countries; Putin also declined at the end of a two-day summit at Camp David to pledge any postwar help for Iraq. Entertainer Donald O’Connor died in Calabasas, Calif., at age 78.

Today’s Birthdays: Former Illinois Sen. Charles Percy is 89. Actress Jayne Meadows is 88. Movie director Arthur Penn is 86. Actress Sada Thompson is 79. Actress Kathleen Nolan is 75. Actor Wilford Brimley is 74. Actor Claude Jarman Jr. is 74. Author Barbara Howar is 74. Producer Don Cornelius (“Soul Train”) is 72. Singer-musician Randy Bachman (Bachman-Turner Overdrive) is 65. Actress Liz Torres is 61. Actor A Martinez is 60. Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is 58. Rock singer Meat Loaf is 57. Rock musician Greg Ham (Men At Work) is 55. Singer Shaun Cassidy is 50. Rock singer Stephan Jenkins (Third Eye Blind) is 44. Actor Patrick Muldoon is 40. Singer Mark Calderon is 38. Actress Amanda Detmer is 37. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is 36. Rock singer Brad Arnold (3 Doors Down) is 30. Rapper Lil’ Wayne is 26. Singer Avril Lavigne is 24.



Thought for Today: “Sanity is a madness put to good uses.”—George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher (1863-1952).