August 25
1718 - 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; it took him 21 hours and 45 minutes.
1928 - An expedition led by Richard E. Byrd set sail from Hoboken, New Jersey on its journey to Antarctica.
1916 - The Department of the Interior created the National Park Service to manage and preserve national parks and monuments for future generations.
1944 - Paris was liberated from Nazi occupation by Allied forces during World War II.
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.
1985 - Samantha Smith, 13, the schoolgirl whose letter to Yuri V. Andropov resulted in her famous peace tour of the Soviet Union, died with her father in an airliner crash in Auburn, Maine, that also killed four other passengers and two crew members.
2001 - Singer and actress Aaliyah died in a plane crash in the Bahamas at age 22.
2003 - NASA launched the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.
2009 - Edward "Ted" Kennedy, who served as a Democratic senator for Massachusetts since 1962, died after a battle with brain cancer at age 77.
2012 - Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died after suffering complications from a heart bypass operation.
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.
2017 - Hurricane Harvey, the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade, made landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas, with 130 mph sustained winds; the storm would deliver five days of rain totaling close to 52 inches, the heaviest tropical downpour that had ever been recorded in the continental U.S. The hurricane left at least 68 people dead and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas.
2017 - President Donald Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of a misdemeanor contempt-of-court charge for defying a judge’s orders that he stop conducting immigration patrols; the 85-year-old retired lawman had faced the prospect of jail time at his sentencing in October.
2018 - John McCain, who had spent years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam before a 35-year political career representing Arizona in the U.S. Senate, died at age 81 after a battle with brain cancer.
2020 - Two people were shot to death and a third was wounded as 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse opened fire 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. (Rittenhouse, who was taken into custody in Illinois the next day, said he was defending himself after the three men attacked him as he tried to protect businesses from protesters; he was acquitted on all charges, including homicide.)
2021 - Secretary of State Antony Blinken said about 4,500 Americans had been evacuated so far from Afghanistan; officials believed there were about 6,000 Americans wanting to leave when the U.S. airlift began in mid-August. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a security alert warning American citizens to stay away from three specific gates at the airport in Kabul. (There would be a deadly suicide bomb attack at the airport the following day.)
Birthdays
24 - China Anne McClain (actress)
28 - Josh Flitter (actor)
35 - Blake Lively (actress)
41 - Rachel Bilson (actress)
44 - Kel Mitchell (actor)
45 - Jonathan Togo (actor)
46 - Alexander Skarsgard (actor)
48 - Eric Millegan (actor)
49 - Ben Falcone (actor)
51 - Nathan Page (actor)
51 - Brice Long (singer)
52 - Claudia Schiffer (model)
52 - Jo Dee Messina (singer)
53 - Cameron Mathison (actor)
54 - Rachael Ray (TV chef)
54 - David Alan Basche (actor)
56 - Robert Maschio (actor)
58 - Blair Underwood (actor)
61 - Joanne Whalley (actress)
61 - Billy Ray Cyrus (singer)
61 - Ally Walker (actress)
62 - Ashley Crow (actress)
64 - Christian LaBlanc (actor)
64 - Tim Burton (director)
68 - Elvis Costello (singer)
71 - Rob Halford (singer)
73 - John Savage (actor)
73 - Gene Simmons (singer)
78 - Anthony Heald (actor)
89 - Tom Skerritt (actor)
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Today in Sports History - August 25
1946 - Ben Hogan wins the PGA Championship, the first of nine majors in his career.
1960 - The AFL starts a new tradition by placing players' names on the backs of their jerseys.
1968 - Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to win the U.S. singles tennis championship.
1985 - Dwight Gooden became the youngest pitcher to win 20 major league baseball games in a season at 20 years, 9 months and 9 days old.
1996 - Tiger Woods wins the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship.
2001 - #4 Nebraska opens the season with a 21-7 win over TCU.
2019 - Rory McIlroy wins the Tour Championship and takes home the biggest prize ever awarded in golf at $15 million.
1718 - 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; it took him 21 hours and 45 minutes.
1928 - An expedition led by Richard E. Byrd set sail from Hoboken, New Jersey on its journey to Antarctica.
1916 - The Department of the Interior created the National Park Service to manage and preserve national parks and monuments for future generations.
1944 - Paris was liberated from Nazi occupation by Allied forces during World War II.
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.
1985 - Samantha Smith, 13, the schoolgirl whose letter to Yuri V. Andropov resulted in her famous peace tour of the Soviet Union, died with her father in an airliner crash in Auburn, Maine, that also killed four other passengers and two crew members.
2001 - Singer and actress Aaliyah died in a plane crash in the Bahamas at age 22.
2003 - NASA launched the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.
2009 - Edward "Ted" Kennedy, who served as a Democratic senator for Massachusetts since 1962, died after a battle with brain cancer at age 77.
2012 - Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died after suffering complications from a heart bypass operation.
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.
2017 - Hurricane Harvey, the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade, made landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas, with 130 mph sustained winds; the storm would deliver five days of rain totaling close to 52 inches, the heaviest tropical downpour that had ever been recorded in the continental U.S. The hurricane left at least 68 people dead and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas.
2017 - President Donald Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of a misdemeanor contempt-of-court charge for defying a judge’s orders that he stop conducting immigration patrols; the 85-year-old retired lawman had faced the prospect of jail time at his sentencing in October.
2018 - John McCain, who had spent years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam before a 35-year political career representing Arizona in the U.S. Senate, died at age 81 after a battle with brain cancer.
2020 - Two people were shot to death and a third was wounded as 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse opened fire 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. (Rittenhouse, who was taken into custody in Illinois the next day, said he was defending himself after the three men attacked him as he tried to protect businesses from protesters; he was acquitted on all charges, including homicide.)
2021 - Secretary of State Antony Blinken said about 4,500 Americans had been evacuated so far from Afghanistan; officials believed there were about 6,000 Americans wanting to leave when the U.S. airlift began in mid-August. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a security alert warning American citizens to stay away from three specific gates at the airport in Kabul. (There would be a deadly suicide bomb attack at the airport the following day.)
Birthdays
24 - China Anne McClain (actress)
28 - Josh Flitter (actor)
35 - Blake Lively (actress)
41 - Rachel Bilson (actress)
44 - Kel Mitchell (actor)
45 - Jonathan Togo (actor)
46 - Alexander Skarsgard (actor)
48 - Eric Millegan (actor)
49 - Ben Falcone (actor)
51 - Nathan Page (actor)
51 - Brice Long (singer)
52 - Claudia Schiffer (model)
52 - Jo Dee Messina (singer)
53 - Cameron Mathison (actor)
54 - Rachael Ray (TV chef)
54 - David Alan Basche (actor)
56 - Robert Maschio (actor)
58 - Blair Underwood (actor)
61 - Joanne Whalley (actress)
61 - Billy Ray Cyrus (singer)
61 - Ally Walker (actress)
62 - Ashley Crow (actress)
64 - Christian LaBlanc (actor)
64 - Tim Burton (director)
68 - Elvis Costello (singer)
71 - Rob Halford (singer)
73 - John Savage (actor)
73 - Gene Simmons (singer)
78 - Anthony Heald (actor)
89 - Tom Skerritt (actor)
===============================
Today in Sports History - August 25
1946 - Ben Hogan wins the PGA Championship, the first of nine majors in his career.
1960 - The AFL starts a new tradition by placing players' names on the backs of their jerseys.
1968 - Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to win the U.S. singles tennis championship.
1985 - Dwight Gooden became the youngest pitcher to win 20 major league baseball games in a season at 20 years, 9 months and 9 days old.
1996 - Tiger Woods wins the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship.
2001 - #4 Nebraska opens the season with a 21-7 win over TCU.
2019 - Rory McIlroy wins the Tour Championship and takes home the biggest prize ever awarded in golf at $15 million.
