Today in History: September 25, Sandra Day O’Connor sworn in
Sep 24, 2022, 9:00 PM | Updated: 9:29 pm
Today in History
Today is Sunday, Sept. 25, the 268th day of 2022. There are 97 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 25, 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.
On this date:
In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and sighted the Pacific Ocean.
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 (vehr-SY’).
In 1956, the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable officially went into service with a three-way ceremonial call between New York, Ottawa and London.
In 1964, the situation comedy “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” starring Jim Nabors, premiered on CBS-TV.
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 1992, NASA’s Mars Observer blasted off on a $980 million mission to the red planet (the probe disappeared just before entering Martian orbit in August 1993).
In 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin began a five-day swing through the United States as he arrived in New York, hoping to encourage American investment in his country’s struggling economy.
In 2016, golf legend Arnold Palmer, 87, died in Pittsburgh. Jose Fernandez, 24, ace right-hander for the Miami Marlins, was killed in a boating accident with two friends off Miami Beach. Country singer Jean Shepard, a Grand Old Opry staple, died in Nashville at 82.
In 2018, Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison for drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home. (After nearly three years in prison, Cosby went free in June 2021 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction.)
In 2020, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lay in state at the U.S. Capitol, making history as the first woman so honored in America. Gov. Ron DeSantis lifted all restrictions on restaurants and other businesses in Florida and banned local fines against people who refused to wear masks as he sought to reopen the state’s economy despite the spread of the coronavirus.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly, pledged U.S. support for Syrians trying to oust President Bashar Assad, calling him “a dictator who massacres his own people.” Singer and TV host Andy Williams died at his Branson, Missouri, home at the age of 84.
Five years ago: Former congressman Anthony Weiner was sentenced to 21 months behind bars for illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl. North Korea’s top diplomat said his country had the right to shoot down U.S. warplanes, after President Donald Trump’s weekend tweet suggesting that the North’s Kim Jong Un “won’t be around much longer.” Britain’s Prince Harry and girlfriend Meghan Markle made their first public appearance as a couple, attending a wheelchair tennis event at the Invictus Games for wounded veterans in Toronto.
One year ago: An Amtrak train derailed in north-central Montana killing three people and leaving seven others hospitalized.
Today’s Birthdays: Former broadcast journalist Barbara Walters is 93. Folk singer Ian Tyson is 89. Polka bandleader Jimmy Sturr is 81. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is 79. Actor Josh Taylor is 79. Actor Robert Walden is 79. Actor-producer Michael Douglas is 78. Model Cheryl Tiegs is 75. Actor Mimi Kennedy is 74. Movie director Pedro Almodovar is 73. Actor-director Anson Williams is 73. Actor Mark Hamill is 71. Basketball Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo is 71. Actor Colin Friels is 70. Actor Michael Madsen is 64. Actor Heather Locklear is 61. Actor Aida Turturro is 60. Actor Tate Donovan is 59. TV personality Keely Shaye Smith is 59. Actor Maria Doyle Kennedy is 58. Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen is 57. Actor Jason Flemyng is 56. Actor Will Smith is 54. Actor Hal Sparks is 53. Actor Catherine Zeta-Jones is 53. Rock musician Mike Luce (Drowning Pool) is 51. Actor Bridgette Wilson-Sampras is 49. Actor Clea DuVall is 45. Actor Robbie Jones is 45. Actor Joel David Moore is 45. Actor Chris Owen is 42. Rapper T. I. is 42. Actor Van Hansis is 41. Actor Lee Norris is 41. Actor/rapper Donald Glover (AKA Childish Gambino) is 39. Actor Zach Woods is 38. Actor Jordan Gavaris is 33. Olympic silver medal figure skater Mao Asada is 32. Actor Emmy Clarke is 31.
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