25 February

1522       William Lily (died), English scholar (born 1468)

1570       Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England.

1643       Marco da Gagliano (died), Italian composer (born 1582)

1651       Johann Philipp Krieger (born), German organist and composer (died 1725)

1682       Giovanni Battista Morgagni (born), Italian anatomist (died 1771)

1692       Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz (born), German author and adventurer (died 1775)

1714       René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou (born), French politician, Lord Chancellor of France (died 1792)

1714       Sir Hyde Parker (born), 5th Baronet, English admiral (died 1782)

1723       Christopher Wren (died), English architect, designed St Paul’s Cathedral (born 1632)

1725       Karl Wilhelm Ramler (born), German poet (died 1798)

1727       Armand-Louis Couperin (born), French organist and composer (died 1789)

1728       John Wood, the Younger (born), English architect, designed the Royal Crescent (died 1782)

1778       José de San Martín (born), Argentinian general and politician, 1st President of Peru (died 1850)

1797       Colonel William Tate and his force of 1000-1500 soldiers surrender after the Last Invasion of Britain.

1816       Giovanni Morelli (born), Italian critic and historian (died 1891)

1822       William Pinkney (died), American politician and diplomat, 7th United States Attorney General (born 1764)

1836       Samuel Colt is granted a United States patent for the Colt revolver.

1841       Philip Pendleton Barbour (died), American politician, 12th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (born 1783)

1841       Pierre-Auguste Renoir (born), French painter and sculptor (died 1919)

1843       Provisional Cession of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands established by Lord George Paulet.

1848      Provisional government in revolutionary France, by Louis Blanc’s motion, guarantees workers right.

1852       Thomas Moore (died), Irish poet (born 1779)

1860      William Ashley (born), English historian (died 1927)

1861       Rudolf Steiner (born), Austrian philosopher and educator (died 1925)

1865       Otto Ludwig (died), German author, playwright, and critic (born 1813)

1866       Miners in Calaveras County, California, discover what is now called the Calaveras Skull, human remains that supposedly indicated that man, mastodons, and elephants had co-existed.

1870      Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress.

1873       Enrico Caruso (born), Italian tenor (died 1921)

1888      John Foster Dulles (born), American politician, 52nd United States Secretary of State (died 1959)

1888      Josif Pančić (died), Croatian-Serbian botanist (born 1814)

1894       Meher Baba (born), Indian mystic (died 1969)

1900      Richard Indreko (born), Estonian historian and archeologist (died 1961)

1901       J. P. Morgan incorporates the United States Steel Corporation.

1901       Zeppo Marx (born), American actor and agent (died 1979)

1906       Domingo Ortega (born), Spanish bullfighter (died 1988)

1908      Frank G. Slaughter (born), American author (died 2001)

1910       Millicent Fenwick (born), American journalist and politician (died 1992)

1913       Gert Fröbe (born), German actor (died 1988)

1913       Jim Backus (born), American actor (died 1989)

1916       Reinhard Bendix (born), German sociologist (died 1991)

1917       Anthony Burgess (born), English author (died 1993)

1918       Bobby Riggs (born), American tennis player (died 1995)

1919       Karl H. Pribram (born), Austrian-American psychologist

1919       Oregon places a 1 cent per U.S. gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.

1920       Gérard Bessette (born), Canadian author (died 2005)

1920       Sun Myung Moon (born), South Korean religious leader, founder of the Unification Church (died 2012)

1921       Tbilisi, capital of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, is occupied by Bolshevist Russia.

1923       Takeo Kajiwara (born), Japanese Go player (died 2009)

1924       Hugh Huxley (born), English-American biologist and educator

1928       Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C. becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.

1928       Richard G. Stern (born), American author and educator (died 2013)

1928       William O’Brien (died), Irish author, journalist, and politician (born 1852)

1929       Tommy Newsom (born), American saxophonist (died 2007)

1932       Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship by naturalization, which allows him to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident.

1932       Faron Young (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (died 1996)

1933       The USS Ranger is launched. It is the first US Navy ship to be built solely as an aircraft carrier.

1935       Sally Jessy Raphael (born), American talk show host

1937       Bob Schieffer (born), American journalist

1943       George Harrison (born), English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (The Beatles, The Quarrymen, Traveling Wilburys, and Plastic Ono Band) (died 2001)

1944       François Cevert (born), French Formula One racer (died 1973)

1945       World War II: Turkey declares war on Germany.

1946       Jean Todt (born), French businessman

1947       The State of Prussia ceases to exist.

1948       The Communist Party takes control of government in Czechoslovakia and the period of the Third Republic ends.

1951       The first Pan American Games are held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1953       Sergei Winogradsky (died), Ukrainian-Russian microbiologist and ecologist (born 1856)

1954       Auguste Perret (died), French architect, designed the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (born 1874)

1954       Gamal Abdul Nasser is made premier of Egypt.

1956       In his speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union denounces the cult of personalityof Joseph Stalin.

1957       Bugs Moran (died), American gangster (born 1893)

1961       Davey Allison (born), American race car driver (died 1993)

1963       Melville J. Herskovits (died), American anthropologist (born 1895)

1964       Alexander Archipenko (died), Ukrainian sculptor, and illustrator (born 1887)

1964       U.S. Air Force launches a satellite employing a US Air Force Atlas/Agena combination from Point Arguello (LC-2-3) in California and fromCape Kennedy in Florida.

1968       Vietnam War: 135 unarmed citizens of Ha My village in South Vietnam’s Quảng Nam Province are killed and buried en masse by South Korean troops in what would come to be known as the Ha My massacre.

1971       The first unit of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, the first commercial nuclear power station in Canada, goes online.

1973       Julio Iglesias, Jr. (born), Spanish model and singer

1983       Tennessee Williams (died), American playwright (born 1911)

1986       People Power Revolution: President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes thePhilippines’ first woman president.

1987       James Coco (died), American actor (born 1930)

1987       Southern Methodist University’s football program is the first college football program to receive the Death Penalty by the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions. It was revealed that athletic officials and school administrators had knowledge of a “slush fund” used to make illegal payments to the school’s football players as far back as 1981.

1991       André Turp (died), Canadian tenor (born 1925)

1991       Gulf War: An Iraqi scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 U.S. Army Reservists fromPennsylvania.

1994       Jersey Joe Walcott (died), American boxer (born 1914)

1994       Mosque of Abraham massacre: In the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, Baruch Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring 125 more before being subdued and beaten to death by survivors.

2005      Edward Patten (died), American singer-songwriter and producer (Gladys Knight & the Pips) (born 1939)

2005      Peter Benenson (died), English lawyer, founded Amnesty International (born 1921)

2006      Darren McGavin (died), American actor (born 1922)

2008      Charles Chan (died), Chinese actor (born 1914)

2009      Philip José Farmer (died), American author (born 1918)

2013       C. Everett Koop (died), American surgeon and admiral, 13th Surgeon General of the United States (born 1916)

2013       Dan Toler (died), American guitarist (The Allman Brothers Band and Gregg Allman Band) (born 1948)

2013       Willy Rizzo, (died) Italian photographer (born 1928)

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EO Smith

Interests include biological anthropology, evolution, social behavior, and human behavior. Conducted field research in the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya and on Angaur, Palau, Micronesia, as well as research with captive nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Institute for Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya.
EO Smith
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