TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – FEB 25 2018
1570 Pope Pius V issues the bull Regnans in Excelsis which excommunicates Queen Elizabeth of England.
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.
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
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 Paper currency (greenbacks) introduced in US by President Abraham Lincoln
1870 Hiram Revels became the first black United States senator, taking over the term of Jefferson Davis.
1901 J.P. Morgan formed U.S. Steel Corporation, the first billion-dollar corporation in the world.
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.
1956 Stalin is secretly disavowed by Khrushchev at a party congress for promoting the “cult of the individual.”
1964 Cassius Clay, defeated Sonny Liston when Liston retired at the end of the sixth round in Miami to become Heavyweight Champion of the World.
1976 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states may ban the hiring of illegal aliens.
1984 A huge explosion caused by a Gas Pipeline close to the Shanty Town destroys the shanty town in Brazil, killing at least 500 people, mostly young children.
1991 An Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran killing 28 Americans during the Persian Gulf War.
1992 Armenian forces slaughtered more than 600 Azerbaijani citizens, including nearly 200 women and children near Khojaly, Azerbaijan.
1994 A Jewish settler kills 29 Palestinian worshipers and injures 125 more before being subdued and beaten to death by survivors at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, West Bank after opening fire as people gathered for Friday morning prayers.
2005 Dennis Rader is arrested for the BTK ( Bind, Torture and Kill, ) serial killings that terrorized Wichita, Kan. (He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 life prison terms.)
2013 Cardinal Keith O’Brien, leader of the Scottish Roman Catholic church in the United Kingdom, resigned over allegations of inappropriate behavior with priests during the 1980s.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
