This Day in History - February 25

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Today is the 56th day of 2012. There are 310 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight

2007: In Detroit, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan stressed religious unity during what was billed as his final major speech, saying the world was at war because Christians and Muslims were divided.

Other Events

1779: A militia led by George Rogers Clark routed the British from Fort Sackville in the Revolutionary War Battle of Vincennes in present-day Indiana.

1836: Inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver.

1862: Nashville, Tennessee was occupied by federal forces during the Civil War; it was the first Confederate capital to fall to the Union.

1901: United States Steel Corporation was incorporated by JP Morgan.

1913: The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Philander Chase Knox.

1919: Oregon became the first state to tax gasoline, at one cent per gallon.

1922: French serial killer Henri Landru, convicted of murdering 10 women and the son of one of them, was executed in Versailles.

1948: Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia.

1950: "Your Show of Shows," starring Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris, debuted on NBC-TV.

1964: Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) became world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.

1970: Russian-born American painter Mark Rothko died in New York, a suicide, at age 66.

1986: President Ferdinand Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a tainted election; Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency.

1991: During the Persian Gulf War, 28 Americans were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile hit a US barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

2002: Former NBA star Jayson Williams was charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of Costas "Gus" Christofi, a limousine driver at Williams' estate in Alexandria Township, NJ (A jury convicted Williams in 2004 of trying to cover up the slaying; it acquitted Williams of aggravated manslaughter but deadlocked on a lesser charge of reckless manslaughter.)

2007: A female suicide bomber triggered a ball bearing-packed charge, killing at least 41 people at a mostly Shiite college in Baghdad.

2011: The Obama White House broke decades of tradition, naming Jeremy Bernard the first man to ever serve as social secretary in the female-dominated East Wing.

Today's Birthdays

CBS newsman Bob Schieffer (1937- ); Actress Diane Baker (1938- ); Actress Karen Grassle (1942- ); Latin singer Julio Iglesias Jr. (1973- ); Comedian-actress Chelsea Handler (1975- )