Sunday, September 25, 2005
1066: King Harold II defeats the Vikings at Stamford Bridge, ending Danish authority in England.
1513: Vasco Núñez de Balboa becomes the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean. He claims the whole thing for the King of Spain.
1789: The U.S. Congress proposes 12 amendments to the recently adopted Constitution. Ten of them will be ratified.
1862: William Morris “Billy” Hughes, Australia’s seventh Prime Minister, is born at London, England. He’ll study law and qualify as a barrister at age 41 while working as a labor organizer for Sydney dockworkers.
1912: With money obtained from the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who has grown considerably more respectable after he's six feet under, Columbia University founds its School of Journalism.
1981: Arizona Court of Appeals Judge Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn in as the first female Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
1988: William Alton “Billy” Carter, the only U.S. Presidential sibling to have a beer named for him, dies at Plains, Georgia. His claim for “Billy Beer”: “It’s the best beer I’ve ever tasted, and I’ve tasted a lot.”
2004: Billionaire corporate raider Marvin Davis dies at Beverly Hills, California.