TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, May 25, the 145th day of 2022. There are 220 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed when Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed.
On this date
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 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 1968, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis was dedicated by Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall.
In 1977, the first “Star Wars” film (later retitled “Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope”) was released by 20th Century Fox.
In 1979, 273 people died when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed just after takeoff from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
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.
In 2011, a judge in Salt Lake City sentenced street preacher Brian David Mitchell to life in prison for kidnapping and raping Elizabeth Smart, who was 14 at the time of her abduction in 2002. A judge in Tucson ruled that Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of wounding U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six in a shooting rampage, was mentally incompetent to stand trial. (Loughner would later plead guilty; he was sentenced to seven life terms in prison.)
In 2016, actor Johnny Depp’s wife, Amber Heard, filed for divorce in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences after 15 months of marriage. In 2018, Harvey Weinstein was charged in New York with rape and another sex felony in the first prosecution to result from the wave of allegations against him. (Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault; he is serving a 23year prison sentence.)
Today’s birthdays
Former White House news secretary Ron Nessen is 88. Actor Sir Ian McKellen is 83. Country singer Jessi Colter is 79. Actor-singer Leslie Uggams is 79. Movie director and Muppeteer Frank Oz is 78. Actor Karen Valentine is 75. Rock singer Klaus Meine (The Scorpions) is 74. Actor Patti D’Arbanville is 71. Actor Connie Sellecca is 67. Musician Paul Weller is 64. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is 62. Actor Mike Myers is 59. Actor Anne Heche is 53. Actors Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush (TV: “Little House on the Prairie”) are 52. Actor Octavia Spencer is 52. Actor Justin Henry is 51. Actor Molly Sims is 49. Actor Ethan Suplee is 46. Olympic gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman is 28.