How many days and weeks until September 25th?

On September 25th 1066 Harold Godwinson fell on a Norwegian army at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire, having marched some 185 miles from London in four days and taken the invaders entirely by surprise. Harald Hardrada, the last of the great Viking kings, was killed, as was Harold’s own brother Tostig. The survivors needed twenty-four ships to carry them home; three hundred had brought them. Three days later William of Normandy landed at Pevensey, and Harold had to turn round and march south again.

The Battle of Loos began on September 25th 1915, the largest British attack of the war to that date and the first in which the British used poison gas. The air was too still, and in places the gas drifted back over the men who had released it. The ground gained was slight and the losses were very heavy.

The first transatlantic telephone cable opened for business on September 25th 1956, running from Gallanach Bay near Oban to Clarenville in Newfoundland. It carried thirty-six conversations at once and took 588 calls between London and New York in its first day. Before it, transatlantic calls went by radio and could be overheard by anyone with a good enough set.

Michael Douglas, the film actor and producer who made his name in Wall Street, was born on September 25th 1944 and Catherine Zeta-Jones, the actress who won an Oscar for Chicago, exactly twenty-five years later. Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, was born in 1951 and Will Smith, the actor and rapper known for Men in Black, in 1968.

Born on September 25th: star sign, birthstone and birth flower

Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones — both named above — share this star sign with everyone else born in the same window.

None of this is settled fact in the way the history above is — zodiac dates, birthstones and birth flowers are conventions rather than laws, and different sources hedge them slightly differently. The birthstone is the most standardised of the three (set by the trade in 1912 and revised since); the birth flower is the least, resting on Victorian tradition rather than any governing body.

Gift ideas for a September 25th birthday

A small, themed starting point rather than a shopping list — sapphire for the stone, Libra for the sign, and the sky itself on the day.

September birthstone necklace

A simple pendant in the actual September birthstone colour, from a long-running UK jewellery brand.

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Libra constellation necklace

Stainless steel, sign selectable at checkout — choose Libra for a September 25th birthday.

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Personalised birth flower & birthstone disc

Engraved with a name, the September birthstone and the aster — both in one pendant, in a gift box.

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Personalised star map print

The actual night sky over a chosen place on September 25th, whichever year — a print rather than jewellery.

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