Today in history
Today is Friday, Aug. 25, the 237th day of 2017. There are 128 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History
On August 25, 1967, the Beatles boarded a train in London bound for Bangor, Wales, to attend a conference on transcendental meditation led by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; the visit was cut short two days later when the group got word of the death of their manager, Brian Epstein. George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, was shot to death at a shopping center in Arlington, Virginia; former party member John Patler was convicted of the killing. Actor Paul Muni, 71, died in Montecito, California.
On this date
In 1718, hundreds of French colonists arrived in Louisiana, with some settling in presentday New Orleans.
In 1825, Uruguay declared independence from Brazil.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act establishing the National Park Service within the Department of the Interior.
In 1921, the United States signed a peace treaty with Germany.
In 1944, during World War II, Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation. Romania declared war on former ally Germany.
In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure providing pensions for former U.S. presidents and their widows.
In 1960, opening ceremonies were held for the Summer Olympics in Rome.
In 1975, the Bruce Springsteen album “Born to Run” was released by Columbia Records.
In 1981, the U.S. spacecraft Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of Saturn’s cloud cover, sending back pictures of and data about the ringed planet.
In 1989, Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Neptune, its final planetary target.
In 1997, former East German leader Egon Krenz was convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of citizens trying to flee to the West during Cold War; he was sentenced to 6 1/2 years’ imprisonment. (Krenz was released in 2003 after serving less than four years.)
In 2009, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died at age 77 in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after a battle with a brain tumor.
Ten years ago: The government of Greece declared a nationwide state of emergency as the death toll from wildfires rose to at least 49. Bombs blamed on Islamic extremists killed at least 43 people at a park and a street-side food stall in Hyderabad, India.
Five years ago: Neil Armstrong, 82, who commanded the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing and was the first man to set foot on the moon in July 1969, died in Cincinnati, Ohio. A huge explosion rocked Venezuela’s biggest oil refinery and unleashed a ferocious fire, killing at least 42 people. Alpha and long-shot Golden Ticket finished in a historic dead heat in the $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
One year ago: Hillary Clinton said that Donald Trump had unleashed the “radical fringe” within the Republican Party, dubbing the billionaire businessman’s campaign as one that will “make America hate again”; Trump rejected Clinton’s allegations, defending his hard-line approach to immigration while trying to make the case to minority voters that Democrats had abandoned them. The bodies of two nuns, Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill, both 68, were found in their home in Durant, Mississippi; a suspect has been charged with capital murder.