DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Saturday, Feb. 25, the 56th day of 2023. There are 309 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1901: United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.
1913: The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Philander Chase Knox.
1919: Oregon became the first state to tax gasoline, at one cent per gallon.
1954: Gamal Abdel Nasser became Egypt’s prime minister after the country’s president, Mohammed Naguib, was effectively ousted in a coup.
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.”
1964: Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) became world heavyweight boxing champion as he defeated Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.
1973: The Stephen Sondheim musical “A Little Night Music” opened at Broadway’s Shubert Theater.
1986: President Ferdinand Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a tainted election; Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency.
1991: During the Persian Gulf War, 28 Americans were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
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.
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 30year sentence; he was 72.)
2010: In Vancouver, the Canadian women beat the United States 2-0 for their third straight Olympic hockey title.
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.
Actor Ann Mccrea (“The Donna Reed Show”) is 92. Actor Tom Courtenay (“Dr. Zhivago”) is 86. CBS newsman Bob Schieffer is 86. Actor Diane Baker is 85. Actor Karen Grassle (“Little House on the Prairie”) is 81. Talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael is 81. Writer Jack Handey (“Saturday Night Live”) is 74. Musician-actor John Doe of X (“Roswell”) is 70. Singer-guitarist Mike Peters of The Alarm is 64. Comedian Carrot Top is 58. Actor and model Veronica Webb is 58. Actor Alexis Denisof (“Angel,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is 57. Actor Tea Leoni is 57. Actor Lesley Boone (“Agent Carter,” “Ed”) is 55. Actor Sean Astin is 52. Singer Daniel Powter is 52.