September 25 is the 268th day of the year (269th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 97 days remaining until the end of the year.
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.
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 Elías 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 – José 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 Suárez, former Prime Minister of Spain (d. 2014)
- 1932 – Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist (d. 1982)
- 1934 – Jean Sorel, French actor
- 1935 – Maj Sjöwall, Swedish writer
- 1936 – Juliet Prowse, South African actress and dancer (d. 1996)
- 1936 – Moussa Traoré, 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 – José 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 Almodóvar, 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 Müller, 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 – Víctor 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 – Matías 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
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 – Félix-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 Chérubin, 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)
- Armed Forces/Revolution Day (Mozambique)
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