DAY IN HISTORY

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Today is the 207th day of 2020 and the 36th day of summer.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1952, Puerto Rico became a self-governing U.S. commonwealth.

In 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the first baby to be conceived via in vitro fertilization, was born in Greater Manchester, England.

In 2005, two major unions, the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union, withdrew from the AFL-CIO.

In 2010, the website Wikileaks released the “Afghan War Diary,” containing more than 75,000 secret documents from the United States’ war in Afghanistan.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Henry Knox (1750-1806), first U.S. secretary of war; Maxfield Parrish (18701966), painter/illustrator; Eric Hoffer (1902-1983), philosopher; Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), biophysicist; Estelle Getty (1923-2008), actress; Walter Payton (1954-1999), football player; Iman (1955- ), model/actress; Thurston Moore (1958- ), musician; Matt Leblanc (1967- ), actor; Lauren Faust (1974- ), animator.

TODAY’S FACT: The Viking Orbiter 1 spacecraft, while searching for potential landing sites for the Viking 2 Lander, snapped the famous “Face on Mars” photo of the planet’s surface on this day in 1976.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1976, American Edwin Moses ran in his first international track and field event at the Montreal Olympics -- the 400m hurdles -- and won a gold medal, with a recordsetting time of 47.64 seconds.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “You really have to save yourself because the critic within you will eat you up. It’s not the outside world — it’s your interior life, that critic within you, that you have to silence.” — Iman

TODAY’S NUMBER: 4.9 million — approximate combined membership of the Teamsters and the Service Employees International unions in 2019.

TODAY’S MOON: Between new moon (July 20) and first quarter moon (July 27).