Today in history
On August 25, 1944, during World War II, Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.
In 1718, hundreds of French colonists arrived in Louisiana, with some settling in present-day New Orleans.
In 1875, Capt. Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, getting from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours.
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 1928, an expedition led by Richard E. Byrd set sail from Hoboken, N.J., on its journey to Antarctica.
In 1967, George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, was shot to death in the parking lot of a shopping center in Arlington, Virginia; former party member John Patler was later convicted of the killing.
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 1985, Samantha Smith, 13, the schoolgirl whose letter to Yuri V. Andropov resulted in her famous peace tour of the Soviet Union, died with her father in an airliner crash in Auburn, Maine.
In 2001, rhythm-and-blues singer Aaliyah was killed with eight others in a plane crash in the Bahamas; she was 22.
In 2004, an Army investigation found that 27 people attached to an intelligence unit at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad either approved or participated in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
In 2009, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died at age 77 in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after a battle with a brain tumor.
Ten years ago: Democrats opened their national convention in Denver, where they prepared to nominate Barack Obama for president; in the first major address of the gathering, Michelle Obama declared, “I love this country” as she described herself as a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother, no different from many women. Israel freed nearly 200 jailed Palestinians in a goodwill gesture hours before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began her peace mission to the region.
Five years ago: Syria agreed to a U.N. investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack outside Damascus — a deal a senior White House official dismissed as “too late to be credible,” saying the United States had “very little doubt” President Bashar Assad’s forces used such weapons. Tokyo beat Chula Vista, California, 6-4 to win the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Sixteen-year-old New Zealander Lydia Ko succeeded in defending her title at the Canadian Women’s Open with a five-stroke victory over Karine Icher.
One year ago: Hurricane Harvey, the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade, made landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas, with
130 mph sustained winds; the storm would deliver five days of rain totaling close to 52 inches, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental U.S. The hurricane left at least 68 people dead and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas. President Donald Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of a misdemeanor contemptof-court charge for defying a judge’s orders that he stop conducting immigration patrols; the
85-year-old retired lawman had faced the prospect of jail time at his sentencing in October. The Trump administration slapped sweeping financial sanctions on Venezuela, making it harder for embattled President Nicolas Maduro to raise cash needed to prevent a debt default.