History of 25 March
1906 – Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw, the son of coal and railroad baron William Thaw, shot and killed Stanford White. White, a prominent architect, had a tryst with Florence Evelyn Nesbit before she married Thaw. The shooting took place at the premiere of Mamzelle Champagne in New York.
1910 – The U.S. Congress authorized the use of postal savings stamps.
1917 – The first American fighting troops landed in France.
1920 – The Greeks took 8,000 Turkish prisoners in Smyrna.
1921 – Samuel Gompers was elected head of the AFL for the 40th time.
1938 – Gaelic scholar Douglas Hyde was inaugurated as the first president of the Irish Republic.
1941 – Finland declared war on the Soviet Union.
1946 – Ho Chi Minh traveled to France for talks on Vietnamese independence.
1948 – The Soviet Union tightened its blockade of Berlin by intercepting river barges heading for the city.
1950 – North Korea invaded South Korea initiating the Korean War.
1951 – In New York, the first regular commercial color TV transmissions were presented on CBS using the FCC-approved CBS Color System. The public did not own color TV at the time.
1959 – The Cuban government seized 2.35 million acres under a new agrarian reform law.
1959 – Eamon De Valera became president of Ireland at the age of 76.
1962 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of unofficial non-denominational prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.
1964 – U.S. President Lyndon Johnson ordered 200 naval personnel to Mississippi to assist in finding three missing civil rights workers.
1968 – Bobby Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit a grand-slam home run in his first game with the Giants. He was the first player to debut with a grand slam.
1970 – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission handed down a ruling (35 FR 7732), making it illegal for radio stations to put telephone calls on the air without the permission of the person being called.
1973 – Erskine Childers Jr. became president of Ireland after the retirement of Eamon De Valera.
1973 – White House Counsel John Dean admitted that U.S. President Nixon took part in the Watergate cover-up.
1975 – Mozambique became independent. Samora Machel was sworn in as president after 477 years of Portuguese rule.
1981 – The U.S. Embassy in San Salvador was damaged when gunmen attacked using rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
1981 – The Dow Jones industrial average of selected stocks on the New York Stock Exchanged closed at its highest level in more than eight years.
1982 – Wayne Gretzky became the first player in the NHL to score 200 points in a season.
1983 – The U.S. Congress passed legislation to rescue the U.S. social security system from bankruptcy.
1985 – It was reported that a U.S. Army Major stationed in East Germany had been shot and killed by a Soviet Border Guard.
1986 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered emergency aid for the Honduran army. U.S. helicopters took Honduran troops to the Nicaraguan border.
1988 – Robert E. Chambers Jr. pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin. The case was known as New York City’s “preppie murder case.”
1989 – In Paris, the Louvre reopened with I.M. Pei’s new courtyard pyramid.
1990 – A fire in Happy Land, an illegal New York City social club, killed 87 people.
1990 – Estonia voted for independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 – Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched a major counter-offensive to recapture key towns from Kurds in northern Iraq.
1992 – Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth after spending 10 months aboard the orbiting Mir space station.
1993 – President de Klerk admitted that South Africa had built six nuclear bombs, but said that they had since been dismantled.
1994 – United States troops completed their withdrawal from Somalia.
1995 – Boxer Mike Tyson was released from jail after serving 3 years.
1996 – An 81-day standoff by the antigovernment Freemen began at a ranch near Jordan, MT.
1996 – The U.S. issued a newly redesigned $100 bill for circulation.
1998 – A cancer patient was the first known to die under Oregon’s doctor-assisted suicide law.
1998 – The FCC nets $578.6 million at auction for licenses for new wireless technology.
1998 – Quinn Pletcher was found guilty on charges of extortion. He had threatened to kill Bill Gates unless he was paid $5 million.
2002 – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dismissed complaints against Walt Disney Co.’s ABC network broadcast of Victoria’s Secret fashion show in November 2001.
2004 – The U.S. Senate voted (61-38) on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 1997) to make it a separate crime to harm a fetus during the commission of a violent federal crime.
2006 – Capitol Hill massacre: A gunman kills six people before taking his own life at a party in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
2006 – Protesters demanding a new election in Belarus, following the rigged Belarusian presidential election, 2006, clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin is among several protesters arrested.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1982 – Danica Patrick, American race car driver
- 1982 – Álvaro Saborío, Costa Rican footballer
- 1982 – Jenny Slate, American comedian, actress, and author
- 1983 – Mickaël Hanany, French high jumper
- 1984 – Katharine McPhee, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1984 – Liam Messam, New Zealand rugby player
- 1985 – Carmen Rasmusen, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1985 – Diana Rennik, Estonian figure skater
- 1986 – Marco Belinelli, Italian basketball player
- 1986 – Megan Gibson, American softball player
- 1986 – Kyle Lowry, American basketball player
- 1986 – Mickey Paea, Australian rugby league player
- 1987 – Jacob Bagersted, Danish handball player
- 1987 – Victor Obinna, Nigerian footballer
- 1987 – Nobunari Oda, Japanese figure skater
- 1988 – Ryan Lewis, American DJ, musician, record producer, and hip hop recording artist
- 1988 – Mitchell Watt, Australian long jumper
- 1988 – Arthur Zeiler, German rugby player
- 1989 – Aly Michalka, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1989 – Scott Sinclair, English footballer
- 1990 – Mehmet Ekici, Turkish footballer
- 1990 – Alexander Esswein, German footballer
- 1993 – Jacob Gagan, Australian rugby league player
- 1993 – Sam Johnstone, English footballer
- 1994 – Justine Dufour-Lapointe, Canadian skier