Events on September 25 39
Year 275
In Rome (after the assassination of Aurelian), the Senate proclaims Marcus Claudius Tacitus Emperor.
Year 762
Led by Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, the Hasanid branch of the Alids begins the Alid Revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate.
Year 1066
The Battle of Stamford Bridge saw the defeat of Harald Hardrada King of Norway by King Harold II of England.
Year 1237
England and Scotland sign the Treaty of York, establishing the location of their common border.
Year 1513
Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches what would become known as the Pacific Ocean.
Year 1555
The Peace of Augsburg is signed in Augsburg by Charles V and the princes of the Schmalkaldic League.
Year 1690
Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, the first newspaper to appear in the Americas, is published for the first and only time.
Year 1775
American Revolutionary War: Ethan Allen surrenders to British forces after attempting to capture Montreal during the Battle of Longue-Pointe. Benedict Arnold and his expeditionary company set off from Fort Western, bound for Quebec City.
Year 1789
The United States Congress passes twelve amendments to the United States Constitution: The Congressional Apportionment Amendment (which was never ratified), the Congressional Compensation Amendment, and the ten that are known as the Bill of Rights.
Year 1790
Peking opera is born when the Four Great Anhui Troupes introduce Anhui opera to Beijing in honor of the Qianlong Emperor's eightieth birthday.
Year 1804
The Teton Sioux (a subdivision of the Lakota) demand one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a toll for allowing the expedition to move further upriver.
Year 1868
The Imperial Russian steam frigate Alexander Nevsky is shipwrecked off Jutland while carrying Grand Duke Alexei of Russia.
Year 1906
Leonardo Torres y Quevedo demonstrates the Telekino, guiding a boat from the shore, in what is considered to be the first use of a remote control.
Year 1911
An explosion of badly degraded propellant charges on board the French battleship Liberté detonates the forward ammunition magazines and destroys the ship.
Year 1926
The international Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery is first signed.
Year 1937
Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Eighth Route Army gains a minor, but morale-boosting victory in the Battle of Pingxingguan.
Year 1942
World War II: Swiss Police instruction dictates that "Under current practice ... refugees on the grounds of race alone are not political refugees", effectively denying entry to Jews trying to flee occupied Europe during the Holocaust.
Year 1944
World War II: Surviving elements of the British 1st Airborne Division withdraw from Arnhem in the Netherlands, thus ending the Battle of Arnhem and Operation Market Garden.
Year 1956
TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated.
Year 1957
Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is integrated by the use of United States Army troops.
Year 1959
Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka is mortally wounded by a Buddhist monk, Talduwe Somarama, and dies the next day.
Year 1962
The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas is elected President of the provisional government.
Year 1962
The North Yemen Civil War begins when Abdullah al-Sallal dethrones the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declares Yemen a republic under his presidency.
Year 1963
Lord Denning releases the UK government's official report on the Profumo Affair.
Year 1970
Ceasefire between Jordan and the Fedayeen ends fighting triggered by four hijackings on September 6 and 9.
Year 1974
The first ulnar collateral ligament replacement surgery (Tommy John surgery) performed, on baseball player Tommy John.
Year 1978
PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727, collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 and crashes in San Diego, killing 144 people.
Year 1983
Maze Prison escape: Thirty-eight IRA prisoners, armed with six handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out of the Maze prison.
Year 1992
NASA launches the Mars Observer, a $511 million probe to Mars, in the first U.S. mission to the planet in 17 years. Eleven months later, the probe would fail.