Today in History: September 25, soldiers escort Black students into Little Rock high school

Today in History

Today is Monday, Sept. 25, the 268th day of 2023. 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.

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 sitcom “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” starring Jim Nabors, premiered on CBS.

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, hoping to encourage American investment in his country’s struggling economy.

In 2012, 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.”

In 2013, skipper Jimmy Spithill and Oracle Team USA won the America’s Cup with one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, speeding past Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand in the winner-take-all Race 19 on San Francisco Bay.

In 2016, golf legend Arnold Palmer died at age 87.

In 2017, former congressman Anthony Weiner was sentenced to 21 months behind bars for illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl.

In 2018, Bill Cosby was sentenced to three-to-10 years in prison for drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home. (After serving nearly three years, 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 the United States.

Today’s Birthdays: Polka bandleader Jimmy Sturr is 82. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is 80. Actor Josh Taylor is 80. Actor Robert Walden is 80. Actor-producer Michael Douglas is 79. Model Cheryl Tiegs is 76. Actor Mimi Kennedy is 75. Movie director Pedro Almodovar is 74. Actor-director Anson Williams is 74. Actor Mark Hamill is 72. Basketball Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo is 72. Actor Colin Friels is 71. Actor Michael Madsen is 65. Actor Heather Locklear is 62. Actor Aida Turturro is 61. Actor Tate Donovan is 60. TV personality Keely Shaye Smith is 60. Actor Maria Doyle Kennedy is 59. Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen is 58. Actor Jason Flemyng is 57. Actor Will Smith is 55. Actor Hal Sparks is 54. Actor Catherine Zeta-Jones is 54. Rock musician Mike Luce (Drowning Pool) is 52. Actor Bridgette Wilson-Sampras is 50. Actor Clea DuVall is 46. Actor Robbie Jones is 46. Actor Joel David Moore is 46. Actor Chris Owen is 43. Rapper T. I. is 43. Actor Van Hansis is 42. Actor Lee Norris is 42. Actor/rapper Donald Glover is 40. Actor Zach Woods is 39. Actor Jordan Gavaris is 34. Olympic silver medal figure skater Mao Asada is 33. Actor Emmy Clarke is 32.