Today is Friday, Sept. 25, the 269th day of 2020. There are 97 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 25, 1957, nine Black students who’d been forced to withdraw from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, because of unruly white crowds were escorted to class by members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
On this date:
- In 1789, the first United States Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. (Ten of the amendments became the Bill of Rights.)
- In 1911, ground was broken for Boston’s Fenway Park.
- In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson collapsed after a speech in Pueblo, Colo., during a national speaking tour in support of the Treaty of Versailles (vehr-SY').
- In 1956, the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable officially went into service with a three-way ceremonial call between New York, Ottawa and London.
- In 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.”
- In 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor was sworn in as the first female justice on the Supreme Court.
- In 1992, NASA’s Mars Observer blasted off on a $980 million mission to the red planet (the probe disappeared just before entering Martian orbit in August 1993).
Today’s Birthdays:
Broadcast journalist Barbara Walters is 91. Actor-producer Michael Douglas is 76. Actor Mark Hamill is 69. Actor Heather Locklear is 59. Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen is 55. Actor Will Smith is 52.Actor Catherine Zeta-Jones is 51. Rapper T. I. is 40. Actor/rapper Donald Glover (AKA Childish Gambino) is 37.