Today in history

On Nov. 25, 1758, in the French and Indian War, the British captured Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh.

In 1783 the English evacuated New York, their last military position in the United States during the Revolutionary War.

In 1947 movie studio executives meeting in New York agreed to blacklist the socalled Hollywood 10, who had been cited for contempt of Congress the previous day.

In 1963 the body of President John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1980 Sugar Ray Leonard regained the World Boxing Council welterweight championship when Roberto Duran abruptly quit late in the eighth round of their fight at the Superdome in New Orleans.

In 1984 William Schroeder of Jasper, Ind., became the second human recipient of an artificial heart. (He lived 620 days on the device.)

In 1986 the Iran-contra affair erupted when President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese disclosed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.

In 1994 Sony Corp. cofounder Akio Morita retired as chairman of the electronics giant for health reasons.

In 2001 CIA officer Johnny “Mike” Spann was killed during a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, becoming America’s first combat casualty of the conflict in Afghanistan.

In 2002 President George W. Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security, and appointed Tom Ridge to be its head. In 2003 the Senate gave final congressional approval to historic Medicare legislation combining a new prescription-drug benefit with measures to control costs before the baby boom generation reaches retirement age.

In 2004 leading Sunni Muslim politicians in Iraq urged postponement of national elections scheduled for Jan. 30, 2005. (However, the elections ended up taking place as scheduled.)

In 2014 federal judges in Arkansas and Mississippi ruled that those states’ bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. Also in 2014 the Food and Drug Administration unveiled rules governing calories displayed on retail menus, as required by the Affordable Care Act. The rules would take effect in late 2015.

In 2016 former President Fidel Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, died; he was 90.