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Explore 25 September

Explore 25 September: Harald Hardrada falls at Stamford Bridge, Balboa sights the Pacific, Algeria is proclaimed a republic and a treaty settles Germany’s faith. Meet Shostakovich, William Faulkner and Mark Hamill, born on this date.

This day through time →6 verified events across 3 eras

⌛6Full
Timeline ◈3Historic
Moments ♙6Born
Today ✦3Lives
Remembered
The Battle of Stamford Bridge, painted by Peter Nicolai Arbo in 1870.
The Battle of Stamford Bridge, painted by Peter Nicolai Arbo in 1870.
Image creditPeter Nicolai Arbo · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1066

Harald Hardrada falls at Stamford Bridge

On 25 September 1066 an English army led by King Harold II defeated an invading Norwegian force under Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire. Hardrada and Harold’s exiled brother Tostig, who had allied with him, were both killed.

The Norwegians are said to have left their mail shirts on their ships on a hot day, and only 24 of their 300 ships were needed to carry the survivors home. Harold had little time to celebrate: William of Normandy landed in the south, and Harold was defeated at Hastings that October.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Battle of Stamford Bridge ↗
Vasco Núñez de Balboa.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa.
Image creditAnonymous (Spain)Unknown author after a 18th-century engraving · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1513

Balboa sights the Pacific

On 25 September 1513, or the 27th according to some sources, Vasco Núñez de Balboa became the first European to sight the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean, from a mountain peak in Darién on the Isthmus of Panama. He had set out on 1 September with about 200 Spaniards and more than 1,000 native bearers, hacking through jungle and crossing rivers and swamps.

Days later the party reached the shore of the Gulf of San Miguel, where Balboa claimed the ‘Mar del Sur’, the South Sea, and its coasts for the king of Castile.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Vasco Núñez de Balboa ↗
Ferhat Abbas.
Ferhat Abbas.
Image creditAnefo · CC0Resized and cropped for display.
1962

Algeria is proclaimed a republic

The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria was formally proclaimed on 25 September 1962, less than three months after the country became independent on 5 July.

Ferhat Abbas, who presided over the Algerian Constituent Assembly that year, had first tried to work with the French, joining the National Liberation Front only in 1956 after those attempts failed. In 1958 he had become the first president of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Algeria, independent Algeria ↗
♙
PEOPLE

Born Today

Thomas Hunt Morgan
Image creditUnknown authorUnknown author · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1866

Thomas Hunt Morgan

American biologist whose fruit-fly experiments established the role of chromosomes in heredity, a Nobel laureate in 1933.

William Faulkner
Image creditCarl Van Vechten · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1897

William Faulkner

American novelist of Mississippi, author of The Sound and the Fury, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949.

Mark Hamill
Image creditKevin Paul · CC BY 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1951

Mark Hamill

American actor who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films.

Christopher Reeve
Image creditJbfrankel · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1952

Christopher Reeve

American actor best known as Superman, who after a riding accident in 1995 became a leading advocate for spinal-cord research.

✦
LIVES REMEMBERED

Remembered Today

Pope Clement VII
Image creditSebastiano del Piombo · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1534

Pope Clement VII

Pope from 1523 to 1534, whose refusal to annul Henry VIII’s marriage led to England’s break with Rome.

John Bonham
Image creditDina Regine · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
Died 1980

John Bonham

English drummer of Led Zeppelin.

Franco Modigliani
Image creditUmofomia · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized and cropped for display.
Died 2003

Franco Modigliani

Italian-American economist and Nobel laureate in 1985.

HISTORY & TIMELINE

Finished the highlights?

Follow 25 September chronologically, from the Middle Ages to the modern day, with 6 verified events and the sources behind them.

This day through time →
Sources & further reading