TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – FEB 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.
1791 President George Washington signs a bill creating the Bank of the United States.
1799 Congress passes 1st federal quarantine legislation
1836 Samuel Colt patents the first revolving cylinder multi-shot firearm.
1837 Thomas Davenport patented the first commercial electrical motor. There was no practical electical distribution system available and Davenport went bankrupt.
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.
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 (Muhammad Ali) became world heavyweight boxing champion for the first time by knocking out Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.
1976 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states may ban the hiring of illegal aliens.
1994 Israeli extremist Baruch Goldstein massacres 30 Palestinians in Hebron
1995 Moslem fundamentalists shoot 20 Shiite mosque goers dead
2000 In Albany, NY, a jury acquitted four New York City police officers of second-degree murder and lesser charges in the February 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo.
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.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
