TODAY IN HISTORY

Sept. 25, 1981

Sandra Day O’Connor was sworn in as the first female justice on the Supreme Court.

ALSO ON THIS DATE

1513

Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and sighted the Pacific Ocean.

1690

One of the earliest American newspapers, Publick Occurrences, published its first - and last - edition in Boston.

1775

American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen was captured by the British as he led an attack on Montreal.

1789

The first U.S. Congress adopted 12amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification.

1919

President Woodrow Wilson collapsed after a speech in Pueblo, Colo., during a national speaking tour in support of the Treaty of Versailles.

1957

Nine black students who’d been forced to withdraw from Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., because of unruly white crowds were escorted to class by members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division.

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.”

1992

NASA’s Mars Observer blasted off on a $980million mission to the red planet.

2017

North Korea’s top diplomat said his country had the right to shoot down U.S. warplanes, after President Donald Trump’s weekend tweet suggesting that the North’s Kim Jong Un “won’t be around much longer.”