TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS TUESDAY, APRIL 25, the 115th day of 2017. There are 250 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1507, a world map produced by German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller contained the first recorded use of the term “America,” in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

In 404 B.C., the Peloponnesian War ended as Athens surrendered to Sparta.

In 1792, French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person to be executed by the guillotine.

In 1862, during the Civil War, a Union fleet commanded by Flag Officer David G. Farragut captured the city of New Orleans.

In 1915, during World War I, Allied soldiers invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula in an unsuccessful attempt to take the Ottoman Empire out of the war.

In 1917, legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Va.

In 1945, Delegates from some 50 countries gathered in San Francisco to organize the United Nations. In 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping.

In 1964, vandals sawed off the head of the “Little Mermaid” statue in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1974, the “Carnation Revolution”

took place in Portugal as a bloodless military coup toppled the Estado Novo regime.

In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was deployed in orbit from the space shuttle Discovery.

In 2002, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of the Grammy-winning trio TLC died in an SUV crash in Honduras; she was 30.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Al Pacino is 77. Ballroom dance judge Len Goodman (TV: “Dancing with the Stars”) is 73. Rock musician Stu Cook (Creedence Clearwater Revival), singer Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA) and actress Talia Shire are 72. Actor Jeffrey DeMunn is 70. Country singersongwriter Rob Crosby is 63. Rock musician Eric Avery and country musician Rory Feek (Joey + Rory) are 52. Actresses Renee Zellweger and Gina Torres are 48.