August 25
1718 - The city of New Orleans was founded by French settlers and named after the Duke of Orleans.
1825 - Uruguay declared its independence from Brazil.
1875 - Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, taking him 21 hours and 45 minutes.
1916 - The Department of the Interior created the National Park Service to manage and preserve national parks and monuments for future generations.
1921 - The United States signed a peace treaty with Germany.
1928 - An expedition led by Richard E. Byrd set sail from Hoboken, New Jersey, on its journey to Antarctica.
1944 - Paris was liberated from Nazi occupation by Allied forces.
1950 - President Harry S. Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.
1975 - The Bruce Springsteen album "Born to Run" was released by Columbia Records.
1981 - The U.S. spacecraft Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending back pictures of and data about the ringed planet.
1984 - Author Truman Capote was found dead in Los Angeles at age 59.
1985 - Samantha Smith, the schoolgirl whose letter to Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov resulted in her peace tour of the communist country, was killed along with her father in a plane crash in Maine.
1997 - The tobacco industry agreed to an $11.3 billion settlement with the state of Florida.
1998 - Former Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell died at age 90.
2001 - Singer and actress Aaliyah, along with eight others, died in a plane crash in the Bahamas; she was 22 years old.
2003 - NASA launched the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.
2009 - Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts died from a cancerous brain tumor at age 77.
2011 - Fifty-two people were killed in a fire at a casino in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey that was allegedly targeted by a drug cartel.
2012 - Neil Armstrong, the first human to walk on the surface of the moon, died after suffering complications from heart bypass surgery at age 82 in Cincinnati.
2014 - A funeral was held in St. Louis for Michael Brown, the Black 18-year-old who was shot to death by a police officer in suburban Ferguson, Missouri.
2016 - Hillary Clinton said that Donald Trump had unleashed the “radical fringe” within the Republican Party, dubbing Trump’s campaign as one that will “make America hate again”; Trump defended his hard-line approach to immigration while trying to make the case to minority voters that Democrats had abandoned them.
2017 - Hurricane Harvey, the fiercest hurricane to hit the United States in more than a decade, made landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas, with 130 mph sustained winds; the storm would deliver five days of torrential rain fall totaling 52 inches, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental United States.
2018 - Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who had spent years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam before a 35-year political career that took him to the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, died at age 81 after a battle with brain cancer.
2020 - Two people were shot to death and a third was wounded as a gunman fired on protesters with an AR-15-style rifle during a third night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake. (Seventeen-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who was taken into custody in Illinois the next day, is facing charges including reckless homicide; he said he was defending himself after the three men attacked him as he tried to protect businesses from protesters.)
2020 - Jerry Falwell Jr. announced his resignation as the head of Liberty University after a provocative photo and revelations of his wife’s extramarital affair roiled the evangelical Virginia school founded by his father.
Birthdays
23 - China Anne McClain (actress)
27 - Josh Flitter (actor)
33 - Alexandra Burke (singer)
34 - Blake Lively (actress)
40 - Rachel Bilson (actress)
43 - Kel Mitchell (actor)
44 - Jonathan Togo (actor)
45 - Alexander Skarsgard (actor)
47 - Eric Millegan (actor)
48 - Ben Falcone (actor)
50 - Nathan Page (actor)
50 - Brice Long (country singer)
51 - Claudia Schiffer (model)
51 - Jo Dee Messina (country singer)
52 - Cameron Mathison (actor)
53 - Rachael Ray (chef)
53 - David Alan Basche (actor)
55 - Robert Maschio (actor)
57 - Blair Underwood (actress)
60 - Joanne Whalley (actress)
60 - Billy Ray Cyrus (country singer)
60 - Ally Walker (actress)
61 - Ashley Crow (actress)
63 - Christian LeBlanc (actor)
63 - Tim Burton (director)
67 - Elvis Costello (singer)
70 - Rob Halford (singer)
72 - John Savage (actor)
72 - Gene Simmons (singer)
77 - Anthony Heald (actor)
88 - Tom Skerritt (actor)
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Today in Sports History - August 25
1946 - Ben Hogan wins the PGA Championship, his first career major.
1968 - Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to win the U.S. Open men's tennis singles championship.
1985 - Dwight Gooden became the youngest pitcher to win 20 major league baseball games in a season (20 years, 9 mos, 9 days old).
1986 - Mark McGwire of the Oakland Athletics hits his first career home run.
1991 - American track star Carl Lewis breaks the world record in the 100 meter dash at the World Track & Field Championships with a time of 9.86 seconds, breaking the record of 9.90 set two months prior by fellow American Leroy Burrell.
1996 - Tiger Woods wins the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship.
2003 - Tennis star Pete Sampras announced his retirement during a news conference at the U.S. Open in New York.
2011 - The New York Yankees became the first team in major league history to hit three grand slams in a game, with Robinson Cano, Russell Martin and Curtis Granderson connecting in a 22-9 romp over the Oakland Athletics.
2019 - Rory McIlroy wins the Tour Championship and along with it the largest championship purse in PGA history at $15 million.
1718 - The city of New Orleans was founded by French settlers and named after the Duke of Orleans.
1825 - Uruguay declared its independence from Brazil.
1875 - Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, taking him 21 hours and 45 minutes.
1916 - The Department of the Interior created the National Park Service to manage and preserve national parks and monuments for future generations.
1921 - The United States signed a peace treaty with Germany.
1928 - An expedition led by Richard E. Byrd set sail from Hoboken, New Jersey, on its journey to Antarctica.
1944 - Paris was liberated from Nazi occupation by Allied forces.
1950 - President Harry S. Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.
1975 - The Bruce Springsteen album "Born to Run" was released by Columbia Records.
1981 - The U.S. spacecraft Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending back pictures of and data about the ringed planet.
1984 - Author Truman Capote was found dead in Los Angeles at age 59.
1985 - Samantha Smith, the schoolgirl whose letter to Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov resulted in her peace tour of the communist country, was killed along with her father in a plane crash in Maine.
1997 - The tobacco industry agreed to an $11.3 billion settlement with the state of Florida.
1998 - Former Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell died at age 90.
2001 - Singer and actress Aaliyah, along with eight others, died in a plane crash in the Bahamas; she was 22 years old.
2003 - NASA launched the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.
2009 - Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts died from a cancerous brain tumor at age 77.
2011 - Fifty-two people were killed in a fire at a casino in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey that was allegedly targeted by a drug cartel.
2012 - Neil Armstrong, the first human to walk on the surface of the moon, died after suffering complications from heart bypass surgery at age 82 in Cincinnati.
2014 - A funeral was held in St. Louis for Michael Brown, the Black 18-year-old who was shot to death by a police officer in suburban Ferguson, Missouri.
2016 - Hillary Clinton said that Donald Trump had unleashed the “radical fringe” within the Republican Party, dubbing Trump’s campaign as one that will “make America hate again”; Trump defended his hard-line approach to immigration while trying to make the case to minority voters that Democrats had abandoned them.
2017 - Hurricane Harvey, the fiercest hurricane to hit the United States in more than a decade, made landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas, with 130 mph sustained winds; the storm would deliver five days of torrential rain fall totaling 52 inches, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental United States.
2018 - Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who had spent years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam before a 35-year political career that took him to the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, died at age 81 after a battle with brain cancer.
2020 - Two people were shot to death and a third was wounded as a gunman fired on protesters with an AR-15-style rifle during a third night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake. (Seventeen-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who was taken into custody in Illinois the next day, is facing charges including reckless homicide; he said he was defending himself after the three men attacked him as he tried to protect businesses from protesters.)
2020 - Jerry Falwell Jr. announced his resignation as the head of Liberty University after a provocative photo and revelations of his wife’s extramarital affair roiled the evangelical Virginia school founded by his father.
Birthdays
23 - China Anne McClain (actress)
27 - Josh Flitter (actor)
33 - Alexandra Burke (singer)
34 - Blake Lively (actress)
40 - Rachel Bilson (actress)
43 - Kel Mitchell (actor)
44 - Jonathan Togo (actor)
45 - Alexander Skarsgard (actor)
47 - Eric Millegan (actor)
48 - Ben Falcone (actor)
50 - Nathan Page (actor)
50 - Brice Long (country singer)
51 - Claudia Schiffer (model)
51 - Jo Dee Messina (country singer)
52 - Cameron Mathison (actor)
53 - Rachael Ray (chef)
53 - David Alan Basche (actor)
55 - Robert Maschio (actor)
57 - Blair Underwood (actress)
60 - Joanne Whalley (actress)
60 - Billy Ray Cyrus (country singer)
60 - Ally Walker (actress)
61 - Ashley Crow (actress)
63 - Christian LeBlanc (actor)
63 - Tim Burton (director)
67 - Elvis Costello (singer)
70 - Rob Halford (singer)
72 - John Savage (actor)
72 - Gene Simmons (singer)
77 - Anthony Heald (actor)
88 - Tom Skerritt (actor)
============================================
Today in Sports History - August 25
1946 - Ben Hogan wins the PGA Championship, his first career major.
1968 - Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to win the U.S. Open men's tennis singles championship.
1985 - Dwight Gooden became the youngest pitcher to win 20 major league baseball games in a season (20 years, 9 mos, 9 days old).
1986 - Mark McGwire of the Oakland Athletics hits his first career home run.
1991 - American track star Carl Lewis breaks the world record in the 100 meter dash at the World Track & Field Championships with a time of 9.86 seconds, breaking the record of 9.90 set two months prior by fellow American Leroy Burrell.
1996 - Tiger Woods wins the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship.
2003 - Tennis star Pete Sampras announced his retirement during a news conference at the U.S. Open in New York.
2011 - The New York Yankees became the first team in major league history to hit three grand slams in a game, with Robinson Cano, Russell Martin and Curtis Granderson connecting in a 22-9 romp over the Oakland Athletics.
2019 - Rory McIlroy wins the Tour Championship and along with it the largest championship purse in PGA history at $15 million.
