Today in history: Sept. 25
In 2017, Britain’s Prince Harry and girlfriend Meghan Markle made their first public appearance as a couple, attending a wheelchair tennis event at the Invictus Games for wounded veterans in Toronto.
1911: Fenway Park
In 1911, ground was broken for Boston’s Fenway Park.
1956: Trans-Atlantic Telephone Cable
In 1956, the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable officially went into service with a three-way ceremonial call between New York, Ottawa and London.
1957: The Little Rock Nine
In 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.
1978: Plane Collision
In 1978, 144 people were killed when a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 and a private plane collided over San Diego.
2011: Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer
In 2011, declaring they’d been detained because of their nationality, not their actions, Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer, two American hikers held for more than two years in an Iranian prison, returned to the United States.
2011: Wangari Maathai
Ten years ago: Wangari Maathai (wan-GAH’-ree mah-DY’), 71, the first African woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, died in Nairobi.
2012: Andy Williams
Singer and TV host Andy Williams died at his Branson, Missouri, home at the age of 84.
2012: Bashar Assad
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly, pledged U.S. support for Syrians trying to oust President Bashar Assad, calling him “a dictator who massacres his own people.”
2015: John Boehner
In 2015, House Speaker John Boehner abruptly announced his resignation.
2016: Arnold Palmer
Five years ago: Golf legend Arnold Palmer, 87, died in Pittsburgh.
2016: Jose Fernandez
Five years ago: Jose Fernandez, 24, ace right-hander for the Miami Marlins, was killed in a boating accident with two friends off Miami Beach.
2017: Anthony Weiner
In 2017, former congressman Anthony Weiner was sentenced to 21 months behind bars for illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl.
2017: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
In 2017, Britain’s Prince Harry and girlfriend Meghan Markle made their first public appearance as a couple, attending a wheelchair tennis event at the Invictus Games for wounded veterans in Toronto.
2018: Bill Cosby
In 2018, Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison for drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home. (After nearly three years in prison, Cosby went free in June 2021 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction.)
2020: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
One year ago: The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lay in state at the U.S. Capitol, making history as the first woman so honored in America.