September 25 in History

Significant events that happened on this day.

Historical Events

2002

The Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft launched, carrying the first Belgian astronaut to the International Space Station

Frank De Winne became Belgium's first person in space, joining a Russian commander and a Belgian flight engineer. The mission marked the first use of...

1992

NASA launched the Mars Observer spacecraft, which mysteriously disappeared just before reaching Mars

After an 11-month journey covering 450 million miles, the $980 million spacecraft went silent three days before entering Mars orbit. Despite extensive...

1981

Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as the first female Supreme Court Justice

Major

Despite graduating third in her Stanford Law class, O'Connor couldn't get a job at any law firm in the 1950s except as a legal secretary. Reagan nomin...

1970

Journalist Bill Cardoso first used the term "gonzo journalism" in a letter to Hunter S. Thompson

Cardoso was praising Thompson's article about the Kentucky Derby, calling it "pure gonzo journalism." The term came from a Boston Irish slang word mea...

1959

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright opened in New York City

Wright's spiral design was so controversial that 21 artists petitioned against exhibiting their work in it before opening. The building itself became...

1957

Federal troops escorted nine Black students into Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas

Major

The "Little Rock Nine" faced violent mobs and threats after the state's governor tried to block their enrollment. President Eisenhower federalized the...

1944

Operation Market Garden began as Allied forces attempted to capture bridges in the Netherlands

Major

This massive airborne operation dropped 35,000 paratroopers behind German lines to secure key bridges. The plan was to end the war by Christmas 1944,...

1926

Henry Ford announced the 8-hour, 5-day work week for his factory workers

Major

Ford didn't make this change out of pure generosity—he realized well-rested workers were more productive and could afford to buy his cars if they had...

1906

Spanish composer Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrated the first radio-controlled device in Bilbao harbor

Torres Quevedo successfully piloted a boat using wireless radio signals from the shore, pioneering what would eventually become remote control technol...

1897

Author William Faulkner was born in Mississippi and would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature

Faulkner dropped out of high school and was rejected by the U.S. Army for being too short. He created the fictional Yoknapatawpha County setting for m...

1890

Congress established Sequoia National Park to protect giant sequoia trees, some over 3,000 years old

This made it America's second national park, created just one week after Yosemite. The park protects the General Sherman tree, the largest living thin...

1789

The United States Congress proposed the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights

Major

These amendments guaranteed fundamental rights including freedom of speech, religion, and the press. James Madison drafted the proposals after critici...

1775

American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen was captured by British forces near Montreal

Allen had led the famous capture of Fort Ticonderoga earlier that year with his Green Mountain Boys, reportedly demanding surrender "in the name of th...

1513

Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas

Major

After a grueling trek across the Isthmus of Panama, Balboa waded into the water in full armor to claim the entire Pacific Ocean and all its shores for...