September 25

Events
Up to 1900
275 In Rome, the Senate proclaims Marcus Claudius Tacitus Roman Emperor.
303 On a voyage preaching the gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded in Amiens, northern France.
1066 The Battle of Stamford Bridge marks the end of the Viking invasions of England.
1237 Scotland and England sign the Treaty of York, marking their common border.
1396 Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I defeats a Christian army at the Battle of Nicopolis.
1493 From Cadiz, Spain, Christopher Columbus sets sail on his second voyage.
1513 Spanish explorers become the first Europeans to sight the Pacific Ocean.
1621 Swedish troops take Riga in the Polish-Swedish War.
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.
1789 The United States Congress passes twelve amendments (changes) to the United States Constitution.
1790 Peking opera begins, to celebrate the birthday of Qianlong Emperor of China.
1804 The Teton Sioux (a subdivision of the Lakota) demand one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark expedition as a toll for moving further upriver.
1846 Mexican-American War: US forces under Zachary Taylor capture Monterrey, Mexico.
1868 The Imperial Russian steam frigate Alexander Neuski is shipwrecked off Jutland while carrying Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia.
1890 Sequoia National Park in California is founded.
1901 2000
1906 In presence of the King of Spain and a big crowd, Leonardo Torres Quevedo successfully demonstrates the invention of 'Telekino' in the Basque port city of Bilbao, guiding a boat from shore, in what is now considered the birth of the remote control.
1911 Ground is broken for Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
1912 Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York City.
1913 Charlie Chaplin signs his first movie contract.
1915 World War I: Start of the Second Battle of Champagne.
1926 The International Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery is first signed.
1929 Jimmy Doolittle performs the first blind flight from Mitchel Field, proving that full instrument flying from take-off to landing is possible.
1937 Second Sino-Japanese War: Minor but morale-boosting victory for Chinese forces.
1938 American Don Budge becomes the first tennis player to win all four Grand Slams in one year.
1942 Holocaust: Switzerland denies entry to Jewish refugees.
1944 World War II: The British 1st Airborne Division withdraw from Arnhem, Netherlands, ending Operation Market Garden.
1950 Korean War: UN forces enter Seoul.
1955 The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded.
1956 TAT-1, the first submarine (under the sea) transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated.
1957 Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas is integrated with help from United States Army troops.
1959 Sri Lankan Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike is shot by Buddhist monk Talduwe Somarama, and dies the next day.
1962 The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is proclaimed.
1962 The North Yemen Civil War begins.
1964 Mozambique's War of Independence from Portugal begins.
1969 The charter establishing the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is signed.
1972 In a referendum, voters in Norway reject membership of the European Community.
1976 - Irish rock band U2 forms in Dublin, Ireland.
1977 The first Chicago Marathon takes place, with around 4,200 runners taking part.
1978 A mid-air collision between two planes over San Diego, California results in 144 deaths.
1981 Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first female Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
1981 Belize joins the UN.
1983 The UK's biggest prison break-out since World War II occurs when 38 Republican prisoners at Maze Prison, armed with 6 handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out.
1983 The TGV high-speed train track, from Paris to Lyon, is opened along its entire length.
1992 NASA launches the Mars Observer to the planet Mars. It would fail 11 months later.
1996 The last of the Magdalene Asylums closes in Ireland.
1998 Mikulas Dzurinda becomes Prime Minister of Slovakia.
2000 With the Islamic King Fahd Cultural Centre, the biggest Mosque in Latin America is opened in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
From 2001
2003 A magnitude 8 earthquake hits Hokkaido, Japan.
2003 It is announced that 14,802 people died in France during the previous month's heatwave.
2005 Fernando Alonso wins the Formula One world championship, becoming the youngest Formula One world champion in history at the time, though the record has since been beaten by Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.
2007 Yasuo Fukuda becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
2008 Thabo Mbeki resigns as President of South Africa, and is replaced by Kgalema Motlanthe.
2008 The Shenzhou spacecraft is launched by China.
2009 In a joint television appearance at the G-20 Summit, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy accuse Iran of building a uranium enrichment facility.
2010 Ed Miliband becomes leader of the British Labour Party.
2017 Iraqi Kurdistan holds a vote on independence.
2018 American comedian Bill Cosby is sentenced to between three and ten years in prison.
2019 The Australian Capital Territory legalises cannabis for recreational use.
Births
Up to 1900
1358 Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1408)
1403 Louis III of Naples (d. 1434)
1525 Steven Borough, English explorer (d. 1584)
1599 Francesco Borromini, Swiss-Italian architect (d. 1667)
1613 Claude Perrault, French architect, physician and naturalist (d. 1688)
1644 Ole Romer, Danish astronomer (d. 1710)
1683 Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer (d. 1764)
1694 Henry Pelham, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1754)
1711 Qianlong, Chinese Emperor (d. 1799)
1725 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, French steam vehicle pioneer (d. 1804)
1729 Christian Gottlob Heyne, German classical scholar (d. 1812)
1734 Cardinal de Rohan, French cardinal and Bishop of Strasbourg (d. 1803)
1738 Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and politician (d. 1789)
1741 Wenzel Pichl, Czech composer, violinist, music director and writer (d. 1805)
1744 Frederick William II of Prussia (d. 1797)
1749 Abraham Gottlob Werner, German mineralogist (d. 1817)
1764 Fletcher Christian, English mutineer (d. 1793)
1766 Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, French statesman (d. 1822)
1773 Agostino Bassi, Italian naturalist, entomologist and botanist (d. 1856)
1782 Charles Maturin, Irish dramatist and writer (d. 1824)
1793 Felicia Hemans, British poet (d. 1835)
1807 Alfred Vail, American engineer (d. 1859)
1816 Georg August Rudolph, German politician, 3rd Mayor of Marburg (d. 1893)
1825 Joachim Heer, Swiss politician (d. 1879)
1829 Karl Alfred von Zittel, German palaeontologist (d. 1904)
1860 John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, 1st Governor-General of Australia (d. 1908)
1862 Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1952)
1866 Thomas Hunt Morgan, American geneticist (d. 1945)
1867 Augusto de Vasconcelos, Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1951)
1877 Plutarco Elias Calles, President of Mexico (d. 1945)
1879 Lope K. Santos, Filipino writer and labor leader (d. 1963)
1881 Lu Xun, Chinese writer (d. 1936)
1889 Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff, Scottish author (d. 1930)
1896 Sandro Pertini, President of Italy (d. 1990)
1897 William Faulkner, American writer (d. 1962)
1901 1950
1901 Robert Bresson, French director (d. 1999)
1903 Mark Rothko, Latvian-American painter (d. 1970)
1906 Jose Figueres Ferrer, Costa Rican politician (d. 1990)
1906 Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (d. 1975)
1908 Jacqueline Audry, French director and screenwriter (d. 1977)
1911 Eric Williams, 1st Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 1981)
1914 Elena Lucena, Argentine actress (d. 2015)
1915 Ethel Rosenberg, American executed for espionage (d. 1953)
1917 Phil Rizzuto, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2007)
1920 Sergei Bondarchuk, Ukrainian-born actor (d. 1994)
1921 Robert Muldoon, 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1992)
1922 Hammer DeRoburt, 1st President of Nauru (d. 1992)
1922 Roger Etchegaray, French cardinal (d. 2019)
1923 Sam Rivers, American musician (d. 2011)
1924 Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan, Indian activist and politician (d. 2016)
1925 Silvana Pampanini, Italian actress (d. 2016)
1927 Colin Davis, British conductor (d. 2013)
1929 Ronnie Barker, British comedian and actor (d. 2005)
1929 Barbara Walters, American broadcaster
1930 Nino Cerruti, Italian fashion designer
1930 Shel Silverstein, American humorist, singer-songwriter and writer (d. 1999)
1932 Jerry Medwin, Welsh footballer
1932 Adolfo Suarez, former Prime Minister of Spain (d. 2014)
1932 Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist (d. 1982)
1934 Jean Sorel, French actor
1935 Maj Sjowall, Swedish writer
1936 Juliet Prowse, South African actress and dancer (d. 1996)
1936 Moussa Traore, former President of Mali
1938 Jonathan Motzfeldt, 1st Prime Minister of Greenland (d. 2010)
1939 Feroz Khan, Indian actor (d. 2009)
1939 Harald Ringstorff, German politician
1939 Gianfranco Leoncini, Italian footballer (d. 2019)
1939 Leon Brittan, English politician (d. 2015)
1940 Takao Sakurai, Japanese boxer
1942 John Taylor, American jazz musician (d. 2015)
1942 Henri Pescarolo, French Formula One driver
1943 Massimo Mattioli, Italian cartoonist (d. 2019)
1943 Robert Walden, American actor
1943 Robert Gates, American politician
1944 Michael Douglas, American actor
1944 Jose Sacal, Mexican sculptor (d. 2018)
1945 Carol Vadnais, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2014)
1945 Dee Dee Warwick, American singer (d. 2008)
1946 Felicity Kendal, British actress
1947 Cheryl Tiegs, American model and actress
1949 Steve Mackay, American saxophonist (d. 2015)
1949 Pedro Almodovar, Spanish filmmaker
1951 1975
1951 Mark Hamill, American actor
1952 Bell hooks, American author, feminist and social activist
1952 Christopher Reeve, American actor (d. 2004)
1954 Sakis Boulas, Greek singer-songwriter (d. 2014)
1954 Joep Lange, Dutch physician and academic (d. 2014)
1954 Juande Ramos, Spanish football manager
1955 Zucchero Fornaciari, Italian singer-songwriter and musician
1955 Steven Severin, English musician, songwriter and producer
1955 Peter Muller, German politician
1955 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, German footballer
1956 Salvatore Bagni, Italian footballer
1957 Vladimir Popovkin, Russian politician (d. 2014)
1957 Michael Madsen, American actor and producer
1960 Ihor Belanov, Soviet-Ukrainian footballer
1960 Shinji Tanaka, Japanese footballer
1961 Heather Locklear, American actress
1961 Mark Gil, Filipino actor (d. 2014)
1962 Aida Turturro, American actress
1962 Dariusz Wdowczyk, Polish footballer and coach
1963 Tate Donovan, American actor
1963 Mikael Persbrandt, Swedish actor
1964 Barbara Dennerlein, German jazz musician
1965 Kenta Hasegawa, Japanese footballer
1965 Scottie Pippen, American basketball player
1966 Jason Flemyng, British actor
1968 Will Smith, American actor and rapper
1968 Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau, Prince of the Netherlands (d. 2013)
1969 Catherine Zeta-Jones, Welsh actress
1969 Hansie Cronje, South African cricketer (d. 2002)
1969 Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, American guitarist, songwriter and producer
1971 Jessie Wallace, English actress
1974 Richie Edwards, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1974 Victor Pacheco, Colombian footballer
1975 Declan Donnelly, English actor, television presenter and musician (Ant and Dec)
From 1976
1976 Petit, Portuguese footballer
1976 Charlotte Ayanne, Puerto Rican actress and model
1978 Ricardo Gardner, Jamaican footballer
1978 Jodie Kidd, English model
1978 Ryan Leslie, American music producer and singer-songwriter
1979 Jason Koumas, Welsh footballer
1980 Nikola Zigic, Serbian footballer
1983 Donald Glover, American actor, rapper, producer and screenwriter
1983 Yuhei Tokunaga, Japanese footballer
1983 Glenn Murray, English footballer
1984 Siphiwe Tshabalala, South African footballer
1984 Matias Silvestre, Argentine footballer
1986 John Barclay, Scottish rugby union player
1988 Joe Prospero, English actor
1989 Samantha Murray, English athlete
1990 Mao Asada, Japanese figure skater
1991 Emmy Clarke, American actress
1992 Keauna McLaughlin, American figure skater
1994 Jansen Panettiere, American actor
1995 Ryan Beatty, American singer
1995 Caitlin Fields, American figure skater
1997 Suzanne Schulting, Dutch short-track speed skater
Deaths
Up to 1900
303 Saint Fermin of Pamplona
1066 Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria (b. 1020)
1066 King Harald III of Norway (b. 1015)
1086 William VIII, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 1025)
1333 Prince Morikuni, Japanese shogun (b. 1301)
1496 Pietro Capponi, Italian soldier and statesman (b. 1447)
1506 Philip I of Castile (b. 1478)
1534 Pope Clement VII (b. 1478)
1602 Caspar Peucer, German physician, scholar and reformer (b. 1525)
1617 Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan (b. 1572)
1617 Francisco Suarez, Spanish theologian (b. 1548)
1630 Ambrogio Spinola, 1st Marquis of the Balbeses, Italian general and politician (b. 1569)
1665 Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (b. 1610)
1777 Johann Heinrich Lambert, Swiss mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer (b. 1728)
1792 Adam Gottlob Moltke, Danish statesman (b. 1710)
1794 Paul Rabaut, French Huguenot pastor (b. 1718)
1849 Johann Strauss I, Austrian composer (b. 1804)
1900 Felix-Gabriel Marchand, 11th Premier of Quebec (b. 1832)
1900 John N. Palmer, 15th Governor of Illinois (b. 1817)
1901 2000
1901 Arthur Fremantle, English general (b. 1835)
1918 Mikhail Vasilyevich Alekseyev, Russian general (b. 1857)
1928 Richard F. Outcault, American cartoonist (b. 1863)
1931 Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, German classical philologist (b. 1848)
1933 Ring Lardner, American writer (b. 1885)
1940 Marguerite Clark, American actress (b. 1883)
1941 Foxall P. Keane, American polo player, golfer and racing driver (b. 1867)
1944 Walter Breisky, Austrian politician (b. 1871)
1958 John B. Watson, American psychologist (b. 1878)
1960 Emily Post, American author (b. 1873)
1970 Erich Maria Remarque, German writer (b. 1898)
1971 Hugo Black, American politician and jurist (b. 1886)
1979 Tapio Rautavaara, Finnish javelin thrower, actor and singer (b. 1915)
1980 John Bonham, British musician (Led Zeppelin) (b. 1948)
1980 Lewis Milestone, Russian-American director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1895)
1983 King Leopold III of Belgium (b. 1901)
1983 Gunnar Thoroddsen, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1910)
1984 Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (b. 1897)
1986 Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist (b. 1896)
1987 Mary Astor, American actress (b. 1906)
1990 Prafulla Chandra Sen, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengal (b. 1897)
1991 Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal (b. 1913)
1992 Joseph Arthur Ankrah, Ghanaian politician (b. 1947)
1995 Annie Elizabeth Delany, American dentist and author (b. 1891)
1996 Nicu Ceausescu, Romanian politician (b. 1951)
From 2001
2003 Franco Modigliani, Italian economist (b. 1918)
2003 Edward Said, Palestinian-American critic (b. 1935)
2005 Don Adams, American actor (b. 1923)
2005 George Archer, American golfer (b. 1939)
2007 Nobuo Matsunaga, Japanese footballer (b. 1921)
2008 Derog Gioura, Nauruan politician (b. 1931)
2009 Alicia de Larrocha, Spanish pianist (b. 1923)
2010 Art Gilmore, American voice actor (b. 1912)
2011 Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmental and political activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner (b. 1940)
2012 Andy Williams, American singer and entertainer (b. 1927)
2014 Sulejman Tihic, Bosnian politician (b. 1951)
2014 Ulrick Cherubin, Canadian politician (b. 1943)
2014 Dorothy Tyler-Odam, English athlete (b. 1920)
2015 Moti Kirschenbaum, Israeli television personality (b. 1939)
2015 Claudio Baggini, Italian Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1936)
2015 John Galvin, American general (b. 1929)
2016 Arnold Palmer, American golfer (b. 1929)
2016 David Padilla, President of Bolivia (b. 1927)
2017 M. Cherif Bassiouni, Egyptian-American lawyer and human rights activist (b. 1937)
2017 Antony Booth, English actor (b. 1931)
2017 Nora Marks Dauenhauer, American author, poet and scholar (b. 1927)
2017 Elizabeth Dawn, English actress (b. 1939)
2017 Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, Egyptian world's second-heaviest woman (b. 1980)
2017 Helga Grebing, German historian (b. 1930)
2017 Anatoly Gromyko, Soviet-Russian scientist and diplomat (b. 1932)
2017 Bobby Knutt, English actor (b. 1945)
2018 Helena Almeida, Portuguese photographer and painter (b. 1934)
2018 Marie Colton, American politician (b. 1922)
2018 Ivan Kapitanets, Soviet-Russian military officer (b. 1928)
2018 Danny Lewicki, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1931)
2019 Jesper Hoffmeyer, Danish biologist (b. 1942)
2019 Donald Nicholls, Baron Nicholls of Birkenhead, British peer (b. 1933)
2019 Arne Weise, Swedish journalist and television personality (b. 1930)
2019 Michael D. Coe, American archaeologist, anthropologist and author (b. 1929)
Observances
Armed Forces/Revolution Day (Mozambique)
Days of the year