Today in History: September 25, Military escorts Little Rock Nine into Central High

Today is Friday, Sept. 25, the 268th day of 2026. There are 97 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 25, 1957, nine Black students who had 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 and the National Guard.

Also on this date:

In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and sighted the Pacific Ocean.

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 1956, the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable officially went into service with a three-way ceremonial call between New York, Ottawa and London.

In 1978, 144 people were killed when a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 and a private plane collided over San Diego.

In 2005, in the presence of disarmament observers, the Irish Republican Army decommissioned its arsenal of weapons, officially ending a 36-year armed campaign for a unified Irish state.

In 2012, 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.”

In 2013, skipper Jimmy Spithill and Oracle Team USA won the America’s Cup with one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, speeding past Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand in the winner-take-all Race 19 on San Francisco Bay.

In 2018, Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home. (After serving nearly three years, Cosby went free in June 2021 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction.)

In 2025, a Paris court sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison after finding him guilty of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 campaign with funds from Libya. He served about three weeks behind bars before his conditional release while appealing his conviction.

Today’s Birthdays: Basketball Hall of Famer Hubie Brown is 93. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is 83. Actor-producer Michael Douglas is 82. Model Cheryl Tiegs is 79. Actor Mimi Kennedy is 78. Film director Pedro Almodovar is 77. Actor-director Anson Williams is 77. Actor Mark Hamill is 75. Basketball Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo is 75. Actor Heather Locklear is 65. Actor Aida Turturro is 64. Actor Tate Donovan is 63. Actor Maria Doyle Kennedy is 62. Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen is 61. Actor Will Smith is 58. Actor Catherine Zeta-Jones is 57. Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups is 50. Actor Clea DuVall is 49. Rapper T.I. is 46. Actor-rapper Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) is 43. Actor Zach Woods is 42. Actor Jordan Gavaris is 37. Actor Bella Ramsey is 23. Actor Leah Jeffries is 17.