This Sept. 25 roundup highlights events from Vasco Balboa’s 1513 sighting of the Pacific to a deadly 2023 fuel-depot blast in Nagorno-Karabakh. U.S. milestones include the 1690 debut of the first American newspaper, Congress proposing the amendments that became the Bill of Rights in 1789, and Sandra Day O'Connor’s 1981 appointment as the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice. Recent notable moments include the 2008 seizure of Washington Mutual and Ruth Bader Ginsburg becoming the first woman to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol in 2020.
On This Day — Sept. 25: From Balboa’s Pacific Sightings to Ginsburg Lying in State
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in state in Statuary Hall of the Capitol in Washington on September 25, 2020, in Washington, D.C. File Photo by Erin Schaff/UPI
This collection of notable events from Sept. 25 spans five centuries, from early exploration to recent geopolitical and legal milestones. Below are selected events organized chronologically with concise context.
1513: Spanish explorer Vasco Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and became the first known European to sight the Pacific Ocean.
1690: The first American newspaper, Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestic, was published in Boston.
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor makes remarks before swearing in Michael Chertoff as secretary of Homeland Security at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, on March 3, 2005. On September 25, 1981, O'Connor was sworn in as the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice. File Photo by Dennis Brack/UPI
1789: The First U.S. Congress approved 12 proposed amendments to the Constitution; ten were later ratified and became known as the Bill of Rights.
1882: Major League Baseball staged its first doubleheader, featuring teams from Providence, R.I., and Worcester, Mass.
1890: Sequoia National Park was established as the second U.S. national park and the first created specifically to protect a living organism.
The Constitution and Bill of Rights are on display in the rotunda of the National Archives Museum in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2019. The Bill of Rights was adopted September 25, 1789. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI
1957: Under escort from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, nine Black students entered and integrated the previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
1978: Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 collided with a small Cessna over San Diego, killing 144 people, including seven on the ground.
1981: Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
UPI File Photo
1984: Jordan announced it would restore diplomatic relations with Egypt, the first Arab country to do so since the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty led many nations to sever ties.
1988: Pope John Paul II beatified six people, including the Rev. Junípero Serra, the Spanish-born Franciscan who founded missions in California in the 1700s.
1992: A Florida judge granted a precedent-setting petition by a 12-year-old boy to legally "divorce" his mother — an unusual family law decision that drew national attention.
File Photo by Stefano Spaziani/UPI
1996: Clashes erupted after Israeli police opened fire on Palestinians protesting a new tunnel entrance beneath the Temple Mount; the violence continued for several days and left scores dead and many injured.
2008: Federal regulators seized Washington Mutual in what officials described at the time as the largest bank failure in U.S. history.
2010: A federal judge allowed California to resume executions after nearly a five-year moratorium while procedures were revised and a new death chamber was constructed.
File by Narek Aleksanyan/EPA-EFE
2011: Saudi King Abdullah announced that women would have the right to vote and run for local office beginning in 2015, though a simultaneous request to allow women to drive was not granted then.
2018: A Pennsylvania judge sentenced Bill Cosby to three to ten years in state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand; the Pennsylvania Supreme Court later overturned the conviction and ordered his release in June 2021.
2020: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the first woman to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol one week after her death from cancer at age 87.
2023: A massive blast at a fuel depot in Nagorno-Karabakh killed more than 200 people, mostly ethnic Armenians, amid a mass exodus of civilians to Armenia during an Azerbaijani military offensive.
Note: Dates and descriptions have been reviewed for clarity and accuracy; names and place spellings have been standardized (for example, Worcester, Mass.).
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