TODAY HISTORY LESSON: JANUARY 25
0844 Gregory IV begins & ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1533 Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn.
1846 The dreaded Corn Laws, which taxed imported oats, wheat and barley, are repealed by the British Parliament.
1858 Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” was presented for the first time at the wedding of the daughter of Queen Victoria and the Crown Prince of Prussia.
1877 Congress determines presidential election between Hayes-Tilden
1890 United Mine Workers of America was founded.
1915 Alexander Graham Bell in New York and Thomas Watson in San Francisco make a record telephone transmission.
1947 The first arcade game is patented. Thomas Goldsmith’s “Cathode ray tube amusement device” is considered the ancestor of video games.
1949 Axis Sally, who broadcasted Nazi propaganda to U.S. troops in Europe, stands trial in the United States for war crimes.
1955 Columbia University scientists develop an atomic clock that is accurate to within one second in 300 years.
1961 President John F. Kennedy held the first presidential news conference carried live on radio and television.
1964 Nike was founded. The company was originally named Blue Ribbon Sports.
1971 Idi Amin seizes power in Uganda
1972 Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to U.S. Congress, announces candidacy for president.
1972 Nixon airs the eight-point peace plan for Vietnam, asking for POW release in return for withdrawal.
1977 The world’s first solar power plant is opened. The solar furnace in Odeillo, France was the first power plant providing alternative energy.
1981 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived back in US
1983 Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia
1993 Sears announces it is closing its catalog sales department after 97 years
1999 In Louisville, KY, man received the first hand transplant in the United States.
2011 Egyptian Revolution of 2011 begins with a series of street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, labor strikes and violent clashes in Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
