TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, MAY 25, the 145th day of 2019. There are 220 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1935, Babe Ruth hit his last three career home runs — Nos. 712, 713 and 714 — for the Boston Braves in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates won, 11-7. In 1787, the Constitutional Convention began at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia after enough delegates had shown up for a quorum.
In 1895, playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted of a morals charge in London; he was sentenced to two years in prison.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy told Congress: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”
In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, ordered the Virginia county to reopen its public schools, which officials had closed in an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka desegregation ruling.
In 1965, Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston in the first round of their world heavyweight title rematch in Lewiston, Maine. Ali’s victory generated controversy over whether he’d truly connected when he sent Liston crashing to the canvas with a right to the head, or whether it was a “phantom punch,” implying that the fight
had been fixed.
In 1979, 273 people died when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed just after takeoff from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
In 1986, an estimated 7 million Americans participated in “Hands Across America” to raise money for the nation’s hungry and homeless.
In 2008, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on the Red Planet to begin searching for evidence of water; the spacecraft confirmed the presence of water ice at its landing site.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actress Ann Robinson is 90. Former White House news secretary Ron Nessen is 85. Country singer-songwriter Tom T. Hall is 83. Actor Sir Ian McKellen is 80. Country singer Jessi Colter and actress-singer Leslie Uggams are 76. Movie director and Muppeteer Frank Oz is 75. Actresses Karen Valentine and Jacki Weaver are 72. Rock singer Klaus Meine (The Scorpions) is 71. Actress Patti D’Arbanville is 68. Actor-comedian Mike Myers is 56. Actor Matt Borlenghi is 52. Actor Joseph Reitman is 51. Rock musician Glen Drover and actress Anne Heche are 50. Actresses Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush (TV: “Little House on the Prairie”), and Octavia Spencer, and actor-comedian Jamie Kennedy are 49. Actor Justin Henry is 48. Actress Molly Sims is 46. Rock musician Todd Whitener is 41. Actress Ebonee Noel is 29. Olympic gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman is 25.