Today in History
Today’s highlight:
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:
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.
1904: A New York City police officer ordered a female automobile passenger on Fifth Avenue to stop smoking a cigarette. A male companion was arrested and later fined $2 for “abusing” the officer.
1919: President Woodrow Wilson collapsed after a speech in Pueblo, Colorado, during a national speaking tour in support of the Treaty of Versailles.
1956: The first trans- Atlantic telephone cable officially went into service with a three-way ceremonial call between New York, Ottawa and London.
1962: Sonny Liston knocked out Floyd Patterson in round one to win the world heavyweight title at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
1974: Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tommy John underwent an experimental graft reconstruction of the ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow of his throwing arm to repair a career-ending injury; the procedure, which proved successful, is now referred to as “Tommy John surgery.”
1978: One hundred forty-four people were killed when a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 and a private plane collided over San Diego.
1981: Sandra Day O’connor was sworn in as the first female justice on the Supreme Court.
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.
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.
2018: Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison for drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama, in his weekly radio and Internet address, said the Republicans’ plan to slash taxes and cut spending if the GOP were to retake the House in November was no more than “an echo of a disastrous decade we can’t afford to relive.”
Five years ago: House Speaker John Boehner abruptly announced his resignation. During a visit to New York City, Pope Francis offered comfort to 9/11 victims’ families at ground zero.
One year ago: The White House released a rough transcript of President Donald Trump’s July 25 call with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, confirming that Trump had pushed Ukraine’s leader to work with Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr to investigate Joe Biden and his son. Members of Congress were able for the first time to review the secret whistleblower complaint involving Trump that had triggered an impeachment effort in the House.