TODAY HISTORY LESSON: FEBRUARY 25
1570 Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England for heresy and persecution of English Catholics during her reign. Also absolves her subjects from allegiance to the crown.
1601 Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex and former favorite of Elizabeth I, is beheaded in the Tower of London for high treason.
1642 Dutch settlers slaughter lower Hudson Valley Indians in New Netherland, North America, who sought refuge from Mohawk attackers.
1751 1st performing monkey exhibited in America, NYC (admission 1¢)
1791 President George Washington signs a bill creating the Bank of the United States.
1793 1st US cabinet meeting, held at George Washington’s home
1799 Congress passes 1st federal quarantine legislation
1815 Napoleon leaves his exile on the island of Elba, returning to France.
1836 Samuel Colt patents the first revolving cylinder multi-shot firearm.
1862 First Legal Tender Act 1862 is passed by the US Congress, authorizing the United States note (greenback) into circulation, the first fiat paper money that was legal tender in America
1870 Hiram Revels became the first black United States senator, taking over the term of Jefferson Davis.
1885 US Congress condemns barbed wire around government grounds
1901 J.P. Morgan formed U.S. Steel Corporation, the first billion-dollar corporation in the world.
1910 The 13th Dalai Lama flees from the Chinese and takes refuge in India.
1913 The 16th Amendment to the constitution is adopted, setting the legal basis for the income tax.
1919 Oregon introduces the first state tax on gasoline at one cent per gallon, to be used for road construction.
1947 The state of Prussia is dissolved. At its peak, the most important state of the German empire encompassed parts of modern-day Germany, Poland, and Russia.
1956 Stalin is secretly disavowed by Khrushchev at a party congress for promoting the “cult of the individual.”
1964 Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) became world heavyweight boxing champion for the first time by knocking out Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.
1972 Germany gave a $5 million ransom to Arab terrorists who had hijacked a jumbo jet.
1976 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states may ban the hiring of illegal aliens.
1982 Final episode of “The Lawrence Welk Show” airs
1991 The Warsaw Pact is disbanded. Following the end of the Cold War, the defense treaty between 8 communist states had lost its purpose. It had been signed in 1955 as an antagonist of NATO.
1994 An Israeli doctor kills 30 unarmed Palestinians in the Mosque of Abraham. The massacre by right-wing extremist Baruch Goldstein was widely condemned, also in Israel.
1999 William King was sentenced to death for the racial murder of James Byrd Jr in Jasper, TX. Two other men charged were later convicted for their involvement.
2005 Dennis Rader was arrested for the BTK serial killings in Wichita, KS. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 life prison terms.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
