September 25
2008-09-25 08:29
Today is Thursday, September 25, the 269th day of 2008. There are 97 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1066 - Harold II, king of England, defeats the Norwegians under King Harald the Ruthless at the battle of Stamford Bridge near York, but falls against the Normans three weeks later.
1493 - Christopher Columbus sets sail from Cadiz, Spain, with a flotilla of 17 ships on his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere.
1523 - The Duke of Albany lands at Dumbarton from France and begins rallying Scots against England.
1555 - The Peace of Augsburg is declared by the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire, granting the first permanent legal basis for the existence of Lutheranism as well as Catholicism in Germany.
1604 - Spanish forces under Ambrogio de Spinola capture Ostend from Dutch after more than three years of siege.
1663 - Neuhausel, Hungary, surrenders to Turks, who then threaten to invade Germany.
1688 - France's King Louis XIV invades Palatinate, uniting German princes against him.
1789 - The first United States Congress adopts 12 amendments to the Constitution; sending them to the states for ratification. Ten of the amendments become the Bill of Rights.
1894 - British annex Pondoland, connecting Cape Colony and Natal, in Africa.
1959 - Premier SWRD Bandaranaike of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, is assassinated by a Buddhist monk who opposed his economic policies.
1963 - The military of the Dominican Republic overthrows the government of President Juan D Bosch seven months after the country's first democratic elections.
1966 - Two typhoons hit Japan, leaving more than 300 people dead and missing.
1970 - Jordan's King Hussein and Palestinian guerrilla leaders agree on cease-fire to end weeklong "Black September" civil war in Jordan that left between 1 000 and 5 000 dead.
1972 - Japan's Premier Kakuei Tanaka arrives in Beijing, becoming first Japanese premier to set foot in China since World War II.
1973 - Three-man crew of US space laboratory, Skylab 2, makes safe splashdown in Pacific Ocean after record 59 days in orbit around earth.
1976 - Prime Minister Ian Smith accepts a proposal for eventual black rule in Rhodesia in a broadcast to the nation.
1984 - Jordan and Egypt resume diplomatic relations after seven-year break.
1988 - Security forces kill 12 people and injure five others in Rangoon, Burma, as political unrest continues.
1992 - The first contingent of a 600-member Japanese UN peacekeeping unit arrives in Cambodia, among the first Japanese soldiers to serve overseas since World War II.
1993 - Three American soldiers are killed in Somalia when a rocket-propelled grenade brings down their helicopter.
1996 - At least 40 Palestinians and 11 Israelis are killed in a fight, triggered by Israel creating a new opening to an archaeological tunnel at a sensitive religious site in Jerusalem.
1997 - The Palestinian Authority shuts down 17 Hamas institutions and arrests 13 activists in a move aimed at appeasing the Israeli government.
1999 - Students pay tribute to six protesters who died during two days of fighting with police in Jakarta, Indonesia. They were protesting a security law giving the military emergency powers.
2000 - Stunned by an apparent electoral defeat, Slobodan Milosevic's allies urge the opposition to allow a runoff election in Serbia.
2001 - Sefer Halilovic, a former commander of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Muslim-led army, surrenders to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague. The tribunal charges Halilovic in connection with the September 1993 massacre of more than 60 Bosnian Croat civilians.
2003 - Experts from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency say they found traces of highly enriched uranium in Iran at the Kalaye Electric Co on the outskirts of Teheran.
2004 - A posting on an internet site carrying Islamic militant content claims that an al-Qaeda-linked group killed British hostage Kenneth Bigley. The site had been used in the past to post the videotapes of the beheadings of two American engineers who were taken hostage with Bigley.
2005 - Israel presses forward with a broad offensive against Islamic militants, killing an Islamic Jihad commander in a pinpoint airstrike in the Gaza Strip and rounding up more than 200 wanted Palestinians.
2006 - Gunmen kill the southern provincial head of Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs, Safia Ama Jan, outside her home in apparent retribution for her efforts to help educate women.
2007 - Myanmar's military government bans assemblies of more than five people and imposes curfews in the country's two largest cities after thousands of Buddhist monks and sympathizers defied orders to stay out of politics and protested once again.
Today's Birthdays:
William Faulkner, US writer and Nobel laureate (1897-1962); Dmitri Shostakovich, Soviet composer (1906-1975); Robert Bresson, French film director (1901-1999); Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist (1932-1982); Christopher Reeve, US actor (1952-2004); Barbara Walters, US news anchor (1931--); Michael Douglas, US actor (1944--); Will Smith, actor/rapper (1968--); Catherine Zeta-Jones, Welsh actress (1969--).
Thought For Today:
History is too serious to be left to historians - Iain Macleod, British politician (1913-1970).
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- SAPA