1988: Florence Griffith-Joyner, boosted by a following wind one metre over the allowable limit of two metres a second, clocked 10.54 seconds, the second fastest time in history. The 28-year-old Californian made a high-class field look second rate and was smiling well before the finish. The victory was confirmation that Griffith-Joyner, who smashed the world record this year when she clocked 10.49 in the US Olympic trials, is now without question the world’s top woman sprinter. She is a full-time athlete, promotes herself skilfully and stands to make a great deal of money from athletics before she retires. Griffith-Joyner’s performance, achieved in a relatively sober outfit, means she will finally be remembered for what she did on the track rather than what she wore.
Other major events on September 25
1775 American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen is captured by the British.
1955 The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded.
1959 Sri Lankan Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike is assassinated.
1966 Two typhoons hit Japan, leaving more than 300 people dead and missing.
1978 PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727-214, collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 and crashes in San Diego, California, resulting in the deaths of 144 people.
1981 Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn in as the first female US Supreme Court justice.
1983 Syria and Saudi Arabia reach a ceasefire agreement on Lebanon.
1989 Vietnamese troops complete their final withdrawal from Cambodia.
1990 The UN Security Council imposes an air embargo against Iraq and Kuwait.
1993 Three American soldiers are killed in Somalia when a rocket-propelled grenade brings down their helicopter.
2005 A US military helicopter crashes during an anti-militant operation in Afghanistan, killing all five American crew members.
2007 Yasuo Fukuda, a dovish lawmaker, takes over as prime minister of Japan.
2008 Kgalema Motlanthe becomes the third president of South Africa since the end of white rule.
2011 19 die after a plane crash-lands in Nepal.
2012 An Antonov An-72 military transport plane crashes in Kazakhstan, killing all 27 people on board.
2017 Iraqi Kurds vote in an independence referendum.
