Skip to content

Today-History-Sep25

Today in History for Sept. 25: On this date: In 1493, Christopher Columbus set sail from Cadiz, Spain, with a flotilla of 17 ships on his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

Today in History for Sept. 25:

On this date:

In 1493, Christopher Columbus set sail from Cadiz, Spain, with a flotilla of 17 ships on his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and sailed into the Pacific Ocean.

In 1555, the Peace of Augsburg was signed, officially dividing Europe into the Roman Catholic church and the new Lutheran, or Protestant, church. Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, conceded lands to Protestantism to end the religious divisions in the empire.

In 1670, Dutch inventor Jan Van Der Hieda first demonstrated a fire engine using a water hose.

In 1690, "Publick Occurrences," the first American newspaper, published its first -- and last -- edition in Boston.

In 1726, Acadians signed a British oath of allegiance, on condition that they did not have to fight against the French.

In 1759, the ship "Tilbury of St. Esprit" was lost off Cape Breton with 200 lives.

In 1775, American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen was captured by the British as he led an attack on Montreal. (Allen was released by the British in 1778.)

In 1789, the first United States Congress adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, 10 of which became the "Bill of Rights." They guaranteed such freedoms as speech, expression and religion.

In 1888, the first letter from the serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper" was received at the Central News Agency in London.

In 1890, polygamy was officially banned by the Mormon Church. The announcement followed on the heels of an 1890 Supreme Court ruling denying all privileges of U.S. citizenship to Mormons who practised this outlawed form of marriage.

In 1897, novelist William Faulkner was born in Mississippi. Among his novels were "The Sound and the Fury" and "As I Lay Dying." He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949. He died July 6, 1962, at age 64.

In 1920, the names of eight baseball players involved in the "Black Sox Scandal" were made public. The Chicago White Sox players were bribed to deliberately lose the 1919 World Series. They were acquitted in court, but banned for life from baseball.

In 1940, Vidkun Quisling became leader of Nazi-occupied Norway.

In 1956, the transatlantic telephone cable system between Britain and North America was inaugurated with a three-way exchange of greetings between London, Ottawa, and New York. The $42-million network, which linked Oban, Scotland, to Clarenville, Nfld., consisted of two lines -- one each for east and west-bound calls -- laid 32 kilometres apart on the ocean floor.

In 1973, the American "Skylab 2" made a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean after spending 59 days in orbit.

In 1973, Gordie Howe made his first pro hockey appearance with sons Mark and Marty in a WHA exhibition game for the Houston Aeros. Mark set up his dad for a goal 21 seconds into the game against the New England Whalers.

In 1977, thousands attended the funeral of black South African activist Steven Biko, who had died in prison.

In 1978, a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 and a Cessna private plane collided in the air over San Diego, Calif., killing 150.

In 1979, the "Montreal Star" newspaper folded after 110 years of publication.

In 1980, the Cuban government finally ended the exodus of refugees after some 125,000 had fled to the United States.

In 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in and took her seat as the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1985, federal Communications Minister Marcel Masse resigned pending an investigation into election overspending. He rejoined cabinet Nov. 28 after the charges were dropped.

In 1988, a Toronto surgical team performed the first human sciatic nerve transplant, on a nine-year-old boy.

In 1989, Robert Bourassa led the Liberal party to a majority election victory in Quebec.

In 1991, Stan Waters -- Canada's first "elected" senator -- died of brain cancer. His victory in Alberta's 1989 election for a Senate nominee injected life into the debate over Senate reform. Waters, a member of the Reform Party, was appointed to the Upper Chamber by prime minister Brian Mulroney.

In 1991, Klaus Barbie, known as the "Butcher of Lyon," died in a French prison hospital at age 77. The former Nazi Gestapo chief was serving a life sentence.

In 1992, the U.S. launched an unmanned spacecraft bound for Mars, the first flight of its kind in 17 years.

In 1998, Frenchman Benoit Lecomte became the first person to swim the Atlantic Ocean. He had set off from Cape Cod, Mass., and reached the coast of Brittany after 72 days.

In 2000, Roy Romanow, 61, announced he was leaving politics after 35 years, the last nine of them at the helm as premier of Saskatchewan. He was later succeeded by Lorne Calvert.

In 2001, Michael Jordan ended his second retirement from the NBA, signing a two-year contract with the Washington Wizards.

In 2003, U.S.-based Levi Strauss announced it would shut down its remaining three plants in Canada - in Edmonton, Stoney Creek and Brampton, Ont., - and shift the production to lower-wage countries, throwing 1,180 people out of work.

In 2003, author, journalist and editor George Plimpton died in New York at age 76.

In 2003, France reported a staggering death toll of 14,802 from the summer heat wave.

In 2005, Don Adams, the comedian who played Maxwell Smart in the TV-series "Get Smart," died at age 82.

In 2006, the Air India inquiry, headed by Justice John Major, opened in Ottawa with testimony from the relatives of some of the 329 people killed when Flight 182 was blown up in 1985 off the coast of Ireland.

In 2008, a 20-year-old man was convicted in a Brampton, Ont., courthouse of conspiring in a group plot to bomb several Canadian targets, including Parliament Hill, RCMP headquarters and nuclear power plants. The accused, who was 17 when he committed his alleged offences, became the first person in Canada to be convicted under the Anti-terrorism Act passed by Ottawa in 2001.

In 2008, Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc., (founded in 1889), with $307 billion in assets, became the largest bank to collapse in U.S. history under the weight of its enormous bad bets on the mortgage market.

In 2016, golfing icon Arnold Palmer, who brought a country club sport to the masses with a hard-charging style, charisma and a commoner's touch, died at age 87. "The King" joined the PGA Tour in 1955 and won the Canadian Open for the first of his 62 titles. He went on to win seven majors.

In 2018, the prosecution withdrew an assault charge in Toronto against former star Blue Jays pitcher Roberto Osuna in exchange for a one-year agreement that he stay away from the mother of his child and continue counselling. The Crown said the complainant, Alejandra Roman Cota, had made it clear she would not return to Toronto to testify against Osuna.

In 2018, Pope Francis acknowledged that the sex abuse scandals surrounding the Catholic Church had outraged the faithful and said the church must change its ways if it wanted to keep future generations. The statement followed the release of a report that concluded at least 3,677 people were abused by clergy between 1946 and 2014.

In 2018, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said an Air Canada pilot had been awake for over 19 hours when his plane had a near miss at San Francisco International Airport late on the night of July 7, 2017. The plane mistakenly lined up to land on a taxiway that had four other planes on it at the time and cleared the first jet by only 30 metres when it initiated a go-around and started climbing.

In 2020, some pharmacies across Ontario started offering appointment-only COVID-19 tests. Tougher COVID-19 restrictions were also reimposed in Winnipeg and in Ontario due to a spike in cases. In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford said bars and restaurants would have to stop serving booze at 11 p.m. — and strip clubs must close entirely.

In 2020, the minority Liberal government made a deal with the NDP that averted a non-confidence vote — and a fall election.

In 2021, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor landed in Calgary aboard a Canadian Forces plane. They were welcomed home by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Global Affairs Minister Marc Garneau ahead of reunions with loved ones.

In 2022, post-tropical storm Fiona moved inland in southeastern Quebec after hammering Atlantic Canada. Nearly 267,000 Nova Scotia Power customers and more than 82,000 Maritime Electric customers remained in the dark, and more than 20,600 homes and businesses in New Brunswick were also without power.

----

The Canadian Press