Today’s highlights

On Sept. 27, 1996, 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.

On this date

1779: John Adams was named by Congress to negotiate the Revolutionary War’s peace terms with Britain.

1940: Germany, Italy and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, formally allying the World War II Axis powers.

1964: The government publicly released the report of the Warren Commission, which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy.

2013: President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by telephone, the first conversation between American and Iranian leaders in more than 30 years.

2018: During a day-long hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Blasey Ford said she was “100 percent” certain that she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when they were teenagers, and Kavanaugh then told senators that he was “100 percent certain” he had done no such thing.

2021: R&B singer R. Kelly was convicted in a sex trafficking trial in New York.

Today’s birthdays

Musician Randy Bachman is 81. Actor Liz Torres is 77. Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt is 75. Singer Shaun Cassidy is 66. Comedian Marc Maron is 61. Actor Gwyneth Paltrow is 52. Actor Indira Varma is 51. Rapper Lil Wayne is 42.