Today in history, 25/9

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, on his second voyage of discovery to the New World.

1513 - Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa becomes the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean after crossing the Isthmus of Panama.

1615 - Lady Arabella Stuart dies in Tower of London.

1818 - The first transfusion using human blood takes place at Guy's Hospital in London.

1918 - ANZAC Mounted Division capture Amman during the final days of the fighting in Palestine.

1940 - Nazi collaborationist Quisling government is established in Norway during World War II.

1943 - In World War II the Russians liberate Smolensk, one of the most important bastions still left to the Germans in Russia.

1956 - The first transatlantic telephone cable is put into service, from Oban, Scotland to Clarenville, Newfoundland.

1957 - US National Guardsmen escort nine black children into Little Rock Central High School, Arkansas as whites protest outside.

1962 - Sonny Liston wins the world heavyweight boxing title after knocking out fellow American Floyd Patterson in the first round in Chicago.

1973 - Three-man crew of US space laboratory, Skylab 2, makes safe splashdown in Pacific Ocean after record 59 days in orbit around Earth.

1974 - Scientists warn that continued use of aerosol sprays will cause ozone depletion.

1976 - Prime Minister Ian Smith accepts a proposal for eventual black rule in Rhodesia in a broadcast to the nation.

1977 - South African black civil rights leader Steve Biko is buried in King William's Town after dying in police custody.

1978 - 144 people are killed in the US when a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 and a private plane collide over San Diego.

1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor sworn in as first female justice of the US Supreme Court.

1983 - Thirty-eight prisoners, most of them Irish Republican Army

1988 - American sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner wins the women's 100m at the Seoul Olympics.

1990 - The UN Security Council adopts a stringent air embargo against Iraq and occupied Kuwait, barring passenger and cargo traffic except in humanitarian circumstances.

1997 - The British Thrust SuperSonic car sets a new land speed record in Nevada of 714.1 mph (1,149.2 km/h).

1998 - Two workers die at Esso's Longford natural gas production plant near Sale in Victoria in a massive explosion which cripples the state's gas supplies for weeks.

2000 - At the Sydney Olympics, Cathy Freeman takes gold in the women's 400m in front of an excited capacity crowd.

2003 - Experts from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency say they've found traces of highly enriched uranium in Iran.

2005 - US actor and comedian Don Adams, best known for his role as the bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the television espionage spoof Get Smart, dies aged 82.

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.

2008 - Kgalema Motlanthe, an anti-apartheid activist, becomes the third president of South Africa since the end of white rule.

2011 - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, considered a reformer by the standards of his own ultra-conservative kingdom, decrees that women will for the first time have the right to vote and stand for local elections due in 2015.

2012 - Popular US singer Andy Williams dies at his home in Missouri aged 84.

2013 - Nearly a dozen of Syria's powerful rebel factions, including one linked to al-Qaeda, formally break with the main opposition group in exile and call for Islamic law in the country.

2016 - Death of US golfing great Arnold Palmer, aged 87, who became the first pro golfer to earn more than $1 million in prize money and took home a total of 93 titles.

2017 - Richmond champion Dustin Martin takes out the 2017 Brownlow Medal with a record-breaking 36 votes.

Today's Birthdays:

William Morris "Billy" Hughes, Australian World War I prime minister (1862-1952); William Faulkner, US author (1897-1962); Dmitri Shostakovich, Soviet composer (1906-1975); Barbara Walters, US TV commentator (1929-); Michael Douglas, US actor-producer (1944-); Felicity Kendal, British actress (1946-); Colin Friels, Australian actor (1952-); Christopher Reeve, US actor (1952-2004); Heather Locklear, US actress (1961-); Will Smith, US actor/singer (1968-); Catherine Zeta-Jones, Welsh-born actress (1969-); Hansie Cronje, South African cricketer (1969-2002); TI, US rapper and producer (1980-); Donald Glover, US actor and rapper (1983-).

Thought For Today:

History is too serious to be left to historians - Iain Macleod, British politician (1913-1970).

Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.