TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

1493 - Christopher Columbus left Spain with 17 ships on his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

1513 - Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa arrived in the Pacific Ocean when he crossed the Isthmus of Panama. He named the body of water the South Sea. He was probably the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.

1876 - The current state flag of Tasmania is adopted.

1956 - A transatlantic telephone-cable system began operation between Newfoundland and Scotland.

1957 - The largest explosion in a second series of British atomic tests at Maralinga, South Australia, takes place.

1957 - Over 1000 US paratroopers are required to escort nine black students into a previously all-white school.

1983 - A Soviet military officer, Stanislav Petrov, averted a potential worldwide nuclear war. He declared a false alarm after a US attack was detected by a Soviet early warning system. It was later discovered the alarms had been set off when the satellite warning system mistakenly interpreted sunlight reflections off clouds as the presence of enemy missiles.

1990 - The UN Security Council voted to impose an air embargo against Iraq. Cuba was the only dissenting vote.

1991 - The UN Security Council unanimously ordered a worldwide arms embargo against Yugoslavia and all of its warring factions.

2012 - China launched its first aircraft carrier into service.