历史上的今天-Today in History 2012-09-26（在线收听）

 September 26th, 1960“And I think in the final analysis, it depends upon what we do here.” Millions of Americans tune in to watch presidential candidates debate on television for the first time. Squaring off in Chicago: Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, the Democratic candidate, “I think we are going to have to do a better job if we are going to meet the responsibilities which time in advance have placed upon us.” And the Republican candidate, Vice President Richard Nixon, “Because we are in a deadly competition, a competition not only with the men in the Kremlin, but the men in Peking.” Viewers give Kennedy tan, fit, rested, the edge over an exhausted Nixon, whose poor makeup job fails to ease his Five O'Clock shadow. Kennedy narrowly wins in November --- a sign of TV's growing influence on politics. 1980,Cuba's government abruptly closes Mariel harbor, ending a massive wave of refugees to the United States five months after it began. Known as the “freedom flotilla”, the refugees traveled in small boats from Fidel Castro's Cuba to Florida, overwhelming U.S. authorities. 1898,Composer George Gershwin, whose iconic tunes include “Rhapsody in Blue” and “I've Got Rhythm”, is born in Brooklyn, New York. 1888,T.S. Eliot, regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century with his work “The Waste Land”, is born in Saint Louis. Eliot won renewed fame when composer Andrew Lloyd Webber used the poet's words as the basis for his hit musical, “'Cats”.