This Day in History - May 25

Today is the 145th day of 2023. There are 220 days left in the year.

In 45 minutes legendary black American athlete Jesse Owens equals or breaks four world records at a Big Ten meet in Michigan, USA.

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT

2020: Video of African American George Floyd's arrest and murder while restrained in Minneapolis police custody, showing he was pinned to the ground by police officer Derek Chauvin's knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, ignites widespread condemnation and nationwide protests.

OTHER EVENTS

1241: The Jewish community of Frankfurt am Main, Germany is attacked for the first time.

1571: Pope Pius V forms The Holy League with other Catholic maritime states — including Spain, Venice, Naples and Sicily — to fight the Ottomans.

1720: The Ship Le Grand St Antoine reaches Marseille, bringing Europe's last major plague outbreak which kills around 100,000.

1784: Jews are expelled from Warsaw by Marshall Mniszek.

1887: A gas lamp at Paris Opera catches fire and 200 die.

1895: The trial of acclaimed Irish writer Oscar Wilde ends with him being found guilty of "committing acts of gross indecency with certain male persons"; he is sentenced to two years of hard labour.

1898: Chocolatier Milton S Hershey weds Catherine Sweeney at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

1911: A revolution in Mexico overthrows President Porfirio Diaz.

1919: African American entrepreneur and first American, female, self-made millionaire Madame C J Walker dies of kidney failure complications at 51.

1923: The Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd (JPS) is registered. The independence of Transjordan — now Jordan — under Amir Abdullah is proclaimed.

1935: Legendary American athlete Jesse Owens equals or breaks four world records in 45 minutes at a Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan — remembered as "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport".

1937: The first airmail letter to circle the globe returns to New York.

1941: In the Ganges Delta region in India 5,000 drown in a storm.

1946: Abdullh I, ruler of Transjordan, proclaims himself king.

1953: The first non-commercial educational television station is established in Houston, Texas.

1959: The US Supreme Court rules Louisiana prohibiting black-white boxing is unconstitutional.

1964: The US Supreme Court rules closing schools to avoid desegregation is unconstitutional.

1965: Boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson weds Millie Bruce in Los Angeles. Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston at 2:12 of round 1 at Central Maine Civic Center, Lewiston, reatining his WBC/WBA heavyweight boxing title.

1969: Midnight Cowboy is released in theatres, and the drama — starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman — goes on to become the only X-rated film to win the Academy Award for best picture.

1977: George Lucas's space opera film Star Wars (later known as Star Wars: Episode IVNew Hope) is released, launching one of the most successful and influential franchises in motion picture history.

1982: Ferguson Jenkins becomes the seventh pitcher to strike out 3,000 batters.

1983: The first US National Missing Children's Day is proclaimed. A fire in Nassermeer, Egypt, kills 357.

1989: Chinese Premier Li Peng denies that troops surrounding Beijing are deployed to crush student protests.

1991: In a two-day airlift Israel brings 15,000 Ethiopian Jews from the besieged city of Addis Ababa to Israel.

1992: Jay Leno makes his debut as permanent host of NBC's Tonight Show, succeeding Johnny Carson.

1998: Indonesia's new president, B J Habibie, announces that elections will be held and begins releasing some political prisoners.

2006: US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair hold a White House news conference in which they acknowledge making costly mistakes in Iraq.

2011: The last episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show airs; the long-running TV programme helped make Winfrey one of the richest and most influential women in the United States.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS

Ralph Waldo Emerson, US writer (1803-1882); Padre Pio, Italian priest and saint (1887-1968); Igor Sikorsky, Russian aircraft designer, and developer of the helicopter (1889-1972); Beverly Sills, US opera singer (1929-2007); Ian McKellen, English actor (1939- ); Frank Oz, British-born director/voice of Yoda and Miss Piggy (1944- ); Lincoln Barrington "Sugar" Minott, Jamaican reggae singer, producer, and sound system operator (1956-2010); Mike Myers, Canadian actor-comedian (1963- )

— AP/Jamaica Observer

Lincoln Barrington "Sugar" Minott — Jamaican reggae singer, producer and sound system operator — is born this day, 1956.

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