TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – AUG 25
357 Julian Caesar defeats the Alamanni at Strasbourg in Gaul.
1346 Edward III of England defeats Philip VI’s army at the Battle of Crecy in France.
1609 Galileo demonstrates his 1st telescope to Venetian lawmakers
1718 New Orleans was founded by French settlers and named after the Duke of Orleans.
1765 In protest over the stamp tax, American colonists sack and burn the home of Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson.
1830 The “Tom Thumb” steam locomotive runs its famous race with a horse-drawn car. The horse wins because the engine, which had been ahead, breaks down.
1835 The New York-based newspaper The Sun published a series of articles, starting on this day, that detailed the discovery of civilization on the Moon.
1894 Japanese scientist Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet
1902 “Al-Hoda” began publication in New York City making it the first Arabic daily newspaper in the U.S.
1916 The National Park Service is established as part of the Department of the Interior.
1921 The United States, which never ratified the Versailles Treaty ending World War I, finally signs a peace treaty with Germany.
1941 British and Soviet forces enter Iran, opening up a route to supply the Soviet Union.
1948 The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing.
1950 President Harry Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike.
1967 George Lincoln Rockwell, the leader of the American Nazi party has been shot and killed by a sniper at a shopping center in Arlington, Virginia. George Lincoln Rockwell founded the American Nazi Party in 1959 which was originally known as the World Union of Free Enterprise and National Socialists.
1972 In Great Britain, computerized axial tomography (CAT scan) was introduced.
1978 The Turin shroud believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ went on display for the first time in 45 years.
1980 Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.
1981 Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn.
1989 NASA scientists receive stunning photographs of Neptune and its moons from Voyager 2.
1991 Croatian War of Independence: Battle of Vukovar begins, an 87-day siege of a Croatian city by the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), supported by various Serbian paramilitary forces.
2004 The US Census Bureau has released new figures which indicate 15.6% of the population of the United States do not have health insurance (45 million). The reasons range from companies providing less health insurance and vastly increased premiums for health insurance. One additional interesting statistic is that estimates put the number of those who declare bankruptcy due to medical debts at more that 60% of all bankruptcies (this figure does include those with Health Insurance but who could not afford the co-pay payments which are dependent on quality and level of the health insurance cover).
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
