TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: MAY 25
0585 Thales of Greece makes the first known prediction of a solar eclipse.
1720 The Ship “Le Grand St Antoine” reaches Marseille, bringing Europe’s last major plague outbreak. Kills around 100,000
1721 John Copson becomes America’s 1st insurance agent
1787 The Constitutional convention opens at Philadelphia with George Washington presiding.
1810 Argentina declares independence from Napoleonic Spain.
1895 Oscar Wilde sentenced to 2 years hard labor for being a sodomite
1914 The British House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule.
1925 John Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwinian theory in school.
1927 Henry Ford stops producing Model T car (begins Model A)
1946 Jordan gains independence from Britain.
1953 In Nevada, the first atomic cannon was fired.
1961 JFK announces US goal of putting a man on the Moon before the end of decade
1964 Supreme Court rules closing schools to avoid desegregation unconstitutional
1965 Muhammad Ali knocked Sonny Liston out cold in the first round, after 1 minute and 56 seconds, for the world heavyweight title.
1966 Peru & Argentina soccer fans fight in Lima; 248 die
1968 The Gateway Arch was dedicated in St. Louis.
1977 An opinion piece by Vietnam verteran Jan Scruggs appeared in “The Washington Post.” The article called for a national memorial to “remind an ungrateful nation of what it has done to its sons” that had served in the Vietnam War.
1977 The first Star Wars film is released
1979 The worst air disaster in U.S. history (excluding the Sept. 11 attacks) occurred when a DC-10 / American Airlines flight 191 crashed at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, killing over 270 people.
1979 Israel begins to return Sinai to Egypt
1979 Etan Patz disappears. The disappearance and murder of the 6-year-old boy from New York City and the extensive publicity it received helped spark the missing children’s movement.
1986 Approximately 7 million Americans participated in “Hands Across America.”
1997 In Sierra Leone a military coup overthrew the popularly elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. He was replaced with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.
1999 A report by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China concluded that China had “stolen design information on the U.S. most-advanced thermonuclear weapons” and that China’s penetration of U.S. weapons laboratories “spans at least the past several decades and almost certainly continues today.”
2006 In Houston, former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skillinng were convicted of conspiracy and fraud for the downfall of Enron.
2009 North Korea announced that it had conducted a second successful nuclear test in the province of North Hamgyong. The United Nations Security Council condemned the reported test.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
