On this day: September 25
A European sees the Pacific Ocean for the first time, Congress passes the Bill of Rights, the Little Rock Nine get a U.S. Army escort to school, and Led Zeppelin's John Bonham dies, all on this day.
1513: The Pacific Ocean is discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa when he crosses the Isthmus of Panama. Balboa, who is truly the first European to see the Pacific Ocean, names the body of water the South Sea.
1513: The Pacific Ocean is discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa when he crosses the Isthmus of Panama. Balboa, who is truly the first European to see the Pacific Ocean, names the body of water the South Sea.
1690: Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick, the first multi-page newspaper to appear in the Americas, is published for the first and only time. The paper, which was published at the London Coffee House in Boston, is shut down by the British colonial authorities four days later.
1775: American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen is captured by the British as he leads an attack on Montreal. First imprisoned aboard Royal Navy ships, he's eventually paroled in New York City and finally released in a prisoner exchange in 1778.
1789: The U.S. Congress passes 12 amendments to the United States Constitution: the Congressional Apportionment Amendment (which was never ratified), the Congressional Compensation Amendment (ratified in 1992 as the 27th Amendment), and the 10 that are known as the Bill of Rights.
1882: The first major league double header was played, with the Worcester Brown Stockings defeating the Providence Grays 4-3 in the first game while Providence beat Worcester 8-6 in the second game.
1890: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Wilford Woodruff publishes a manifesto formally renouncing the practice of polygamy. The Manifesto was a response to mounting anti-polygamy pressure from the U.S. Congress, which by 1890 had disincorporated the church, escheated its assets to the U.S. federal government, and imprisoned many prominent polygamist Mormons.
1897: Author William Faulkner, who would go on to write such works such as "The Sound and the Fury" and "As I Lay Dying" and win the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature, is born in New Albany, Miss.
1929: Broadcast journalist and TV personality Barbara Walters is born in Boston. Walters co-hosed ABC's news magazine "20/20" for 25 years, was the first female co-anchor of network evening news, working with Harry Reasoner on the "ABC Evening News," and created the morning talk show "The View," which she still co-hosts part-time.
1944: Actor and filmmaker Michael Douglas, best known for such movies as "Romancing the Stone," "Wall Street" and "Fatal Attraction," is born in New Brunswick, N.J.
1947: Model Cheryl Tiegs, best known for her long-running affiliation with the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, is born in Breckenridge, Minn.
1951: Actor Mark Hamill, best known as Luke Skywalker in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, is born in Oakland, Calif.
1952: Actor Christopher Reeve, best known for playing Superman in four movies between 1978 and 1987, is born in New York City.
1955: "The Toast of the Town," a TV variety show hosted by Ed Sullivan since 1948, is officially renamed "The Ed Sullivan Show." The show would last another 16 years, running until June 6, 1971.
1956: TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated. Running between Gallanach Bay, near Oban, Scotland and Clarenville, Newfoundland, Canada, the cable carries 588 London-U.S. calls and 119 London-Canada calls in the first 24 hours of public service.
1957: Nine black children who had been forced leave while attempting to enroll at Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., because of unruly white crowds are escorted back to class by members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division.
1961: The drama "The Hustler," starring Paul Newman as small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson and Jackie Gleason as legendary pool player "Minnesota Fats," premieres in Washington, D.C. The film would go on to earn nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Newman, Best Supporting Actor for both Gleason and George C. Scott and Best Actress for Piper Laurie. However, it won only for its art direction and cinematography.
1961: Actress and model Heather Locklear, best known for her television roles on "Dynasty," "T.J. Hooker," "Melrose Place" and "Spin City," is born in Los Angeles.
1965: The half hour Saturday morning cartoon "The Beatles" premieres on TV. The show, which ran until Sept. 7, 1969, is the first weekly television series to feature animated versions of real, living people. Each episode is named after a Beatles song, with the story based on its lyrics and the song being played at some time in the episode.
1968: Actor and rapper Will Smith, who got his start as "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and go on to become a movie star in such films as "Men in Black," "Independence Day," "I am Legend," "Ali" and "The Pursuit of Happyness," is born in Philadelphia.
1969: Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones ("Traffic," "The Mask of Zorro," "Chicago") is born in Swansea, Wales.
1980: Led Zeppelin drummer John "Bonzo" Bonham dies of asphyxiation on his own vomit due to consumption of alcohol while sleeping at Jimmy Page's house in Clewer, Windsor, England. He was 32. The remaining members of the band would decide to disband in December 1980 rather than replace Bonham, who is widely considered to be one of the greatest drummers in the history of rock music.
1980: Rapper and actor T.I., known for such songs as "Bring Em Out," "What You Know" and "I'm Back" and for his roles in "Takers," "ATL" and the Starz drama series "Boss," is born under the birth name Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. in Atlanta.
1981: Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the 102nd person sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and the first woman to hold the office.
1981: The drama "Chariots of Fire" premieres in theaters. The movie tells the story of two British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, who compete in the 1924 Olympics. The movie would go on to earn seven Academy Award nomination and win four, including Best Picture and Best Original Score for its memorable theme by Greek composer Vangelis.
1987: The comedy "The Princess Bride," starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, Chris Sarandon, Peter Falk and Fred Savage and directed by Rob Reiner, premieres in theaters. The movie, which combines comedy, adventure, romance and fantasy, is initially a modest success but grows into a cult classic.
1992: NASA launches the $511 million Mars Observer probe, the first U.S. mission to the planet in 17 years. Eleven months later, with the probe three days from reaching orbit around Mars, NASA loses communication with the spacecraft.
1992: Jimmy Connors beats Martina Navratilova in a pay-per-view tennis match at Las Vegas' Caesars Palace billed as "The Battle of the Champions," a modern version of the famous 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. Despite the match featuring a hybrid set of rules designed to favor Navratilova, Connors wins 7-5, 6-2.
2001: Michael Jordan announces he is returning to basketball with the NBA's Washington Wizards. Jordan had retired from the Chicago Bulls in January 1999 and bought a minority stake in and became a front office executive for the Wizards in 2000.
2005: Actor and comedian Don Adams, best known as bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the TV sitcom "Get Smart," dies from a lung infection at the age of 82 in Los Angeles.
2006: The Louisiana Superdome, a symbol of misery during Hurricane Katrina when it was damaged by the storm and housed thousands of people seeking shelter, reopens for a New Orleans Saints football game.
2009: President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a joint TV appearance for a G-20 summit, accuse Iran of building a secret nuclear enrichment facility.
