LEVIATHAN
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.
WAR!
1779 American forces led by George Rogers Clark routed the British from Fort Sackville in the Revolutionary War Battle of Vincennes in present-day Indiana.
1991 During the Persian Gulf War, 28 Americans were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
2003 Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Iraq was showing new signs of real cooperation, but President Bush was dismissive, predicting Saddam Hussein would try to "fool the world one more time."
TERRORISM
1995 Bomb attack on train in Assam India (27 soldiers killed).
1995 Moslem fundamentalists shoot 20 Shiite mosque goers dead.
2007 A female suicide bomber triggered a ball bearing-packed charge, killing at least 41 people at a mostly Shiite college in Baghdad.
DISASTERS
1977 Oil tanker explosion west of Honolulu spills 31 million gallons.
1984 Oil fire in Cubatao Brazil kills 500.
1994 Peruvian Yak-40 crashes into mountain near Tingo Maria, kills 31.
MONKEYS
1751 1st performing monkey exhibited in America, NYC (admission 1¢).
RECORDS
1838 London pedestrian walks 20 miles backward then forward in 8 hours.
CONDEMNED
1885 US Congress condemns barbed wire around government grounds.
PATENTS
1836 inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver.
TV BREAKDOWNS
1990 On a BBC taped interview, rock star Stevie Nicks breaks down, saying that she will never have children & no man can stand her for long.
DALI LAMA
1910 Dali Lama flees Tibet from Chinese troop to British-Indies.
WHEN HE'S DOWN
1995 British heavyweight Nigel Benn hits Gerard McClellan in hospital.
HOOKERS
1998 Switzerland's 1st legal brothel opens in Zurich.
INFLATION
1923 Bread in Berlin rises to 2,000 mark.
AH ONE AND AH TWO
1982 Final episode of "The Lawrence Welk Show" airs.
GUILLOTINED
1922 Henri-Désiré Landru French sex murderer, guillotined at 52.
TAXES
1919 Oregon is 1st state to tax gasoline (1¢ per gallon).
GREENBACKS
1862 Paper currency (greenbacks) introduced in US by President Abraham Lincoln.
EXCOMMUNICATION
1570 Pius V excommunicates Elizabeth, absolves her subjects from allegiance.
NAZIS
1932 Immigrant Adolf Hitler gets German citizenship.
CHOKED
1983 Tennessee Williams writer (Streetcar Named Desire), reportedly chokes to death on a bottle cap at 71.
SERIAL KILLERS
1973 Juan Corona sentenced to 25 life sentences for 25 murders.
E PLURIBUS PLURIBUS
1803 1,800 sovereign German states unite into 60 states.
LYNCHED
1994 Baruch Goldstein physician/murderer (53 in mosque), lynched at 42.
BICYCLES
1974 Veronica & Colin Scargill (England) begin tandem bicycle ride a record 18,020 miles around the world, completed on August 27, 1975.
FAST
1982 Record speed for a snowmobile (239 kph).
BUSINESS
1901 U.S. Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.
JEWS
1941 February strike against persecution of Jews, in Amsterdam.
MOONIES
1968 430 Unification Church couples wed in Korea.
COMMIES
1948 Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia.
ACTIVIST COURT
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."
SPEECH
2007 In Detroit, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan stressed religious unity during what was billed as his final major speech, saying the world was at war because Christians and Muslims were divided.
EXECUTED
1601 Robert Devereux Earl of Essex, executed for treason against Elizabeth.
SPORTS
1964 Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali), a 7-1 underdog, became world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Fla.
1989 Dallas Cowboys fire coach Tom Landry after a 29-year career.
RUN!
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.
BORN
1841 Pierre Auguste Renoir Limoges France, Impressionist painter/sculptor.
1901 [Herbert] Zeppo Marx New York NY, comedian/actor (Marx Brothers).
1906 Domingo Ortega Spanish bullfighter.
BIRTHDAYS
Country singer Ralph Stanley is 81. TV writer-producer Larry Gelbart is 80. Actor Tom Courtenay is 71. CBS newsman Bob Schieffer is 71. Actress Diane Baker is 70. Actress Karen Grassle is 64. Movie director Neil Jordan is 58. Rock musician Dennis Diken (The Smithereens) is 51. Rock singer-musician Mike Peters (The Alarm) is 49. Actress Veronica Webb is 43. Actor Alexis Denisof is 42. Actress Tea Leoni is 42. Comedian Carrot Top is 41. Actress Lesley Boone is 40. Actor Sean Astin is 37. Singer Daniel Powter is 37. Latin singer Julio Iglesias Jr. is 35. Rhythm-and-blues singer Justin Jeffre is 35. Rock musician Richard Liles is 35. Actor Anson Mount is 35. Actress Rashida Jones is 32. Actor Justin Berfield is 22. Actors Oliver and James Phelps ("Harry Potter" movies) are 22.
DEATH
1994 Jersey Joe Walcott boxer, dies at 80.
February 25, the 56th day of 2008. There are 310 days left in the year.
compiled by Mondoreb
image: history
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.