TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Sunday, Feb. 25, the 56th day of 2024. There are 310 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Feb. 25, 1964, Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) became world heavyweight boxing champion as he defeated Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.
On this date:
In 1901, United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.
In 1919, Oregon became the first state to tax gasoline, at one cent per gallon.
In 1986, President Ferdinand Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a tainted election; Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency.
In 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, 28 Americans were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
In 1997, a jury in Media, Pennsylvania, convicted chemical fortune heir John E. du Pont of third-degree murder, deciding he was mentally ill when he shot and killed world-class wrestler David Schultz. (Du Pont died in prison in December 2010 while serving a 13- to 30-year sentence; he was 72.)
In 2013, former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, 96, died in Hanover, New Hampshire.
In 2020, U.S. health officials warned that the coronavirus was certain to spread more widely in the United States; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans to be prepared. President Donald Trump, speaking in India, said the virus was “very well under control” in the U.S.
In 2022, President Joe Biden nominated federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman selected to serve on it.
Today’s birthdays: Former CBS newsman Bob Schieffer is 87. Actor Diane Baker is 86. Actor Karen Grassle and former talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael are 82. Former professional wrestler Ric Flair is 75. Humorist Jack Handey is 75. Rock singer-musician Mike Peters (The Alarm; Big Country) is 65. Comedian Carrot Top is 59. Actor Tea Leoni is 58. Actor Lesley Boone is 56. Actor Sean Astin is 53. Latin singer Julio Iglesias Jr. and R&B singer Justin Jeffre are 51. Comedian-actor Chelsea Handler is 49. Actor Rashida Jones is 48. Actor Justin Berfield is 38. Actors James and Oliver Phelps (“Harry Potter” movies) are 38.