This day in history
Today is Sunday, Feb. 25, the 56th day of 2024. There are 310 days left in the year. ➤ Birthdays: Actor Ann McCrea is 93. Actor Tom Courtenay is
87. Former CBS newsman Bob Schieffer is 87. Actor Diane Baker is 86. Actor Karen Grassle is
82. Former talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael is 82. Former professional wrestler Ric Flair is
75. Humorist Jack Handey is
75. Movie director Neil Jordan is 74. Rock singer-musician/actor John Doe (X) is 71. Rock musician Dennis Diken (the Smithereens) is 67. Rock singermusician Mike Peters (the Alarm; Big Country) is 65. Comedian Carrot Top is 59. Model and actor Veronica Webb is 59. Actor Alexis Denisof is 58. Actor Tea Leoni is 58. Actor Lesley Boone is 56. Actor Sean Astin is 53. Singer Daniel Powter is 53. Latin singer Julio Iglesias Jr. is
51. R&B singer Justin Jeffre is
51. Actor Anson Mount is 51. Comedian-actor Chelsea Handler is 49. Actor Rashida Jones is 48. Country singer Shawna Thompson (Thompson Square) is 46.
➤ In 1901, United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.
➤ In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Philander Chase Knox.
➤ In 1919, Oregon became the first state to tax gasoline at one cent per gallon.
➤ In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser became Egypt’s prime minister after the country’s president, Mohammed Naguib, was effectively ousted in a coup.
➤ In 1957, the Supreme Court, in Butler v. Michigan, overturned a Michigan statute making it a misdemeanor to sell books containing obscene language that would tend to corrupt “the morals of youth.”
➤ In 1964, Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) became the world heavyweight boxing champion as he defeated Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.
➤ 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 US barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
➤ In 1994, American-born Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire with an automatic rifle inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank, killing 29 Muslims before he was beaten to death by worshippers.
➤ In 2020, US 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 US.
➤ 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.