TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Monday, July 25, the 207th day of 2016. There are 159 days left in the year.

In 1866, Ulysses S. Grant was named General of the Army of the United States, the first officer to hold the rank.

In 1909, French aviator Louis Bleriot became the first person to fly an airplane across the English Channel, traveling from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes.

In 1918, the musical revue “The Passing Show of 1918” opened on Broadway, featuring a cast that included Fred Astaire and his sister, Adele, and the song “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.”

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for Japan’s occupation of southern Indochina.

IIn 1952, Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.

In 1956, the Italian liner SS Andrea Doria collided with the Swedish passenger ship Stockholm off the New

Englandand began coast sinking;late at 51 night people — 46 from the Andrea Doria, five from the Stockholm — were killed. (The Andrea Doria capsized and sank the following morning.)

In 1965, Bob Dylan drew boos from some spectators at the Newport Folk Festival as he performed with a rock band.

In 1986, movie director Vincente Minnelli, known for such musicals as “Gigi,” ‘’An American in Paris” and “Meet Me in St. Louis,” died in Los Angeles at age 83.

In 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan’s King Hussein signed a declaration at the White House ending their countries’ 46-year-old formal state of war.

In 2000, a New York-bound Air France Concorde crashed outside Paris shortly after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and four people on the ground; it was the firstever crash of the supersonic jet.