On This Day: Sunday September 25, 2005 This is the 268th day of the year, with 97 days remaining in 2005. Fact of the Day: General Motors General Motors was founded by William Crapo "Billy" Durant, a Flint, Michigan entrepreneur. General Motors was founded as a holding company for Buick, then controlled by Durant, and acquired Oldsmobile later that year. The next year, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, and Oakland. Holidays Mozambique: Day of the Armed Forces. Russian Orthodox: St. Sergius of Radonezh. New Zealand: Dominion Day. Events 1493 - Christopher Columbus embarked on his second voyage to the New World. 1513 - Vasco Nunez de Balboa became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. 1676 - Greenwich Mean Time began when two very accurate clocks are set in motion at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England. Greenwich Mean Time, now known as Universal Time, became the standard for the world in 1884. 1690 - "Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick," the first U.S. newspaper, published its first and last editions (Boston). 1775 - American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen was captured by the British when he tried to invade Canada. 1789 - The first U.S. Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of the amendments became the Bill of Rights. 1804 - The Twelfth Amendment was ratified, changing the procedure of choosing the president and vice-president. 1847 - After a four-day fight, Monterey, Mexico was captured by U.S. forces under General Zachary Taylor, the future U.S. president. 1882 - First doubleheader was played in Major League Baseball: Providence v. Worcester. 1890 - Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park was established by President Benjamin Harrison. 1890 - Wilford Woodruff, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, issued his "Manifesto" renouncing the practice of polygamy. His reforms cleared the way for Utah to be accepted as the 45th state of the Union. 1890 - U.S. Congress established Yosemite National Park. 1918 - Brazil declared war on Austria. 1926 - Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company announced the 8-hour, 5-day work week. 1937 - German Chancellor Adolf Hitler met with Italian Premier Benito Mussolini in Munich. 1942 - War Labor Board ordered equal pay for women in the United States. 1957 - U.S. Army troops escorted nine black children to their classes at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Until the arrival of federal troops, riots and violence had prevented desegregation of the public school. 1959 - President Dwight Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev began Camp David talks. 1974 - Scientists warned that continued use of aerosol sprays would cause ozone depletion, leading to an increased risk of skin cancer and global weather changes and warming. 1978 - A Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 collided with a private plane over San Diego, killing 144 people. 1979 - The musical "Evita" opened on Broadway. 1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as the first female justice on the Supreme Court. 1987 - The booty of the pirate ship Wydah, sunk in 1717, was auctioned off for $400 million. Births 1897 - American William Faulkner, Nobel Prize-winning author. 1905 - Red (Walter) Smith, American sportswriter and columnist. 1931 - Barbara Walters, American television journalist. 1944 - Michael Douglas, American Academy Award-winning actor. 1951 - Mark Hamill, American actor. 1952 - Christopher Reeve, American actor. 1961 - Heather Locklear, American actress. 1968 - Will Smith, American actor and singer. Deaths 1960 - Emily Post, American etiquette expert. 1984 - Walter Pidgeon, American television and film actor. 2003 - George Plimpton, American author, journalist and editor.