Today is Friday, September 25, the 268th day of 2015. There are 97 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight:
On September 25, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed a measure establishing Sequoia National Park.
On this date:
In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and sighted the Pacific Ocean.
In 1690, one of the earliest American newspapers, Publick Occurrences, published its first — and last — edition in Boston.
In 1775, American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen was captured by the British as he led an attack on Montreal. (Allen was released by the British in 1778.)
In 1789, the first United States Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. (Ten of the amendments became the Bill of Rights.)
In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson collapsed after a speech in Pueblo, Colorado, during a national speaking tour in support of the Treaty of Versailles.
In 1932, the Spanish region of Catalonia received a Charter of Autonomy (however, the Charter was revoked by Francisco Franco at the end of the Spanish Civil War).
In 1957, nine black students who’d been forced to withdraw from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, because of unruly white crowds were escorted to class by members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
In 1965, the first installment of “In Cold Blood,” Truman Capote’s account of the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, appeared in The New Yorker. (The work was published in book form the following year.)
In 1974, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tommy John underwent an experimental graft reconstruction of the ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow of his throwing arm to repair a career-ending injury; the procedure, which proved successful, is now referred to as “Tommy John surgery.”
In 1978, 144 people were killed when a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 and a private plane collided over San Diego.
In 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor was sworn in as the first female justice on the Supreme Court.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton pulled open the door of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, as he welcomed nine blacks who’d faced hate-filled mobs 40 years earlier.
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush wrapped up a three-day trip designed to convey hands-on leadership during the Gulf Coast hurricanes, promising to act on military leaders’ request for a national search-and-rescue strategy. A U.S. military helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, killing all five American crew members. Actor-comedian Don Adams died in Los Angeles at age 82.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama, in his weekly radio and Internet address, said the Republicans’ plan to slash taxes and cut spending if the GOP were to retake the House in November was no more than “an echo of a disastrous decade we can’t afford to relive.” Three crew members, including American astronaut Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, touched down safely, although a day late, in Kazakhstan aboard their Soyuz capsule following a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station.
One year ago: Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation. President Barack Obama, in a sober assessment of international efforts to stem a deadly Ebola outbreak, warned a high-level United Nations gathering that there was a “significant gap” between what had been offered so far and what was actually needed to stem the health crises in West Africa. Derek Jeter capped his Yankee Stadium farewell with a game-winning single in the bottom of the ninth inning to give New York a 6-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
Today’s birthdays: Broadcast journalist Barbara Walters is 86. Folk singer Ian Tyson is 82. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is 72. Actor Josh Taylor is 72. Actor Robert Walden is 72. Actor-producer Michael Douglas is 71. Model Cheryl Tiegs is 68. Actress Mimi Kennedy is 67. Movie director Pedro Almodovar is 66. Actor-director Anson Williams is 66. Actor Mark Hamill is 64. Basketball Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo is 64. Polka bandleader Jimmy Sturr is 64. Actor Colin Friels is 63. Actor Michael Madsen is 57. Actress Heather Locklear is 54. Actress Aida Turturro is 53. Actor Tate Donovan is 52. TV personality Keely Shaye Smith is 52. Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen is 50. Actor Jason Flemyng is 49. Actor Will Smith is 47. Actor Hal Sparks is 46. Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones is 46. Rock musician Mike Luce (Drowning Pool) is 44. Actress Bridgette Wilson-Sampras is 42. Actress Clea DuVall is 38. Actor Robbie Jones is 38. Actor Joel David Moore is 38. Actor Chris Owen is 35. Rapper T. I. is 35. Actor Van Hansis is 34. Actor Lee Norris is 34. Actor/rapper Donald Glover (AKA Childish Gambino) is 32. Actor Zach Woods (TV: “Silicon Valley”; “The Office”) is 31. Singer Diana Ortiz (Dream) is 30. Actor Jordan Gavaris (TV: “Orphan Black”) is 26. Olympic silver medal figure skater Mao Asada is 25. Actress Emmy Clarke is 24.
Thought for today: “It is as fatal as it is cowardly to blink (at) facts because they are not to our taste.” — John Tyndall, English physicist (1820-1893).
Associated Press
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