Today is the 188th day of 2025. There are 177 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1993: Hurricane Calvin hits the Mexican mainland, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction along the Pacific Coast.

OTHER EVENTS

1307: King Edward I of England dies on his way to subdue the new Scottish king, Robert the Bruce.

1438: King Charles VII of France issues the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, restricting the rights of the pope and in many cases making the pope’s jurisdiction subject to the will of the king.

1456: A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.

1534: The first act of trade between the French and Amerindians takes place when Jacques Cartier trades items with the Micmacs at Chaleur Bay.

1647: A people’s uprising against high prices and Spanish rule takes place in Naples.

1718: Alexis, son of Russia’s Peter the Great, dies in a Moscow fortress after being tortured on his father’s orders and questioned about a conspiracy.

1776: The American Declaration of Independence is approved by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia; the day is now reconised and celebrated as Independence Day in the United States.

1862: Lewis Carroll, an Oxford University student, narrates a story to a group of friends during a boat trip; the story is later published as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

1898: United States annexes the island of Hawaii.

1928: In Chillicothe, Missouri, pre-sliced bread first goes on sale; the loaves, baked by a local company, are cut using a machine designed by Otto Rohwedder.

1946: The Arab Higher Committee accuses President Harry S Truman of “irresponsible” statements, urging him to admit Jews to the US if his sympathy for the plight of Jews in Europe is genuine.

1958: Baron I Shacklette, chief investigator of a US house subcommittee, resigns after being caught using a microphone in a hotel room to secure evidence on Bernard Goldfine.

1973: Iraq executes 23 people accused of attempting to overthrow the Government.

1978: Czech-born tennis player Martina Navratilova defeats Chris Evert to win her first of nine Wimbledon singles titles.

1985: Brigadier General Lansana Conte, president of Guineas, tells a cheering crowd in the capital city of Conakry that the leader of a failed coup has just been captured and that he and his collaborators would be tried and shot; Colonel Diara Traore, a former prime minister, had attempted to seize power while Conte was out of the country attending a meeting in Togo of the Economic Community of West African States.

1994: Tutsi rebels seize most of Kigali and another key city in Rwanda, ending the worst of the genocide by Hutu militants in those areas.

1997: Britain’s House of Lords backs a Bill that will give princesses equal rights with princes in succession to the throne.

1999: A strike by more than 200,000 unionised truck drivers enters its third and last day — snaring traffic throughout Argentina; the protest is against a new tax on automobiles, boats and aircraft earmarked to boost teachers’ salaries.

2001: After four days the US surrenders Air Force Sergeant Timothy Woodland, accused of rape, to Japanese authorities who later sentence him to 32 months in jail; the delay of the US officials enrages people on Okinawa, where three American servicemen raped a 12-year-old girl in 1995. Portugal decriminalises the possession of recreational drugs for personal use, joining Spain and Italy in treating drug use as a medical rather than criminal matter.

2002: American Juli Inkster wins her seventh major golf tournament when she defeats Annika Sorenstam of Sweden by two strokes to win the US Women’s Open.

2003: US President George W Bush’s Administration acknowledges for the first time that Bush relied on faulty intelligence when he claimed in his January State of the Union address that Iraq had sought to buy uranium from Africa.

2004: The Government announces that the US military will review the individual cases of the 595 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to determine whether they are legally held.

2005: A string of rush-hour explosions tear into at least three London subway trains and a double-decker bus in the worst attack on London since World War II, killing at least 52 people and injuring 700.

2006: Spain reports its first case of H5N1 bird flu, discovered in a wild fowl in a marshland area.

2007: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter Alan Johnston is released after nearly four months in captivity in the Gaza Strip, where he was held by the shadowy, little-known militant group, Army of Islam.

2009: A memorial service is held for singer Michael Jackson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California; a worldwide audience estimated at over 2.5 billion see performances by Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Hudson, and Shaheen Jafargholi.

2010: Scientists say ancient man ventured into northern Europe far earlier than previously thought, settling on England’s east coast more than 800,000 years prior.

2011:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the last Harry Potter film, premieres in London.

2012: In Wimbledon women’s tennis Serena Williams beats Agnieszka Radwaska of Poland 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to win her fifth Wimbledon singles crown; five hours later she teams with sister Venus to win the doubles title.

2019: In the FIFA Women’s World Cup Final, defending champions USA win a record fourth title, beating the Netherlands, 2-0.

2020: Dannes Coronel, Ecuadorian soccer defender (27 caps; El Nacional), dies from a heart attack at 47.

2021: Jovenel Moïse, Haitian politician and president of Haiti from 2017 to 2021, is assassinated at age 53.

2022: (Patrick Henry) “Adam” Wade, the first black US game show host (Musical Chairs), dies of complications from Parkinson’s disease at 87.

2023: The US White House announces the last of its chemical weapons has been destroyed in eastern Kentucky as part of the international Chemical Weapons Convention, ending a practice begun in World War I. The world’s first robot-human press conference takes place in Geneva, Switzerland, with reporters asking, “Will you rebel against humans?”

2024: For the first time, more than three million passengers are recorded passing through US airport security in one day, amid an increase in air travel in the US. A heat wave across western American states breaks temperature records, including in Las Vegas which reaches an all-time record of 120 degrees.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author (1804-1882); Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian soldier-statesman (1807-1882); Louis Armstrong, US jazz musician (1900-1971); Geraldo Rivera, TV personality-news correspondent (1943- );

M S Dhoni, Indian cricketer (1981- ); George Owu, Ghanaian footballer (1982- ); Lena Ma, Miss World Canada fourth runner-up (1987- )

Pre-sliced bread first goes on sale in Chillicothe, Missouri, USA, on this day, 1928. A machine designed by Otto Rohwedder is used to cut the loaves.

Haitian politician and president of Haiti Jovenel Moïse is assassinated at age 53 on this day, 2021. Dieu Nalio Chery