Today in History

Published 9:52 pm Friday, February 24, 2012

Today is Saturday, Feb. 25, the 56th day of 2012. There are 310 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight:

On Feb. 25, 1862, Nashville, Tennessee was occupied by federal forces during the Civil War; it was the first Confederate capital to fall to the Union.

On this date:

In 1779, a militia led by George Rogers Clark routed the British from Fort Sackville in the Revolutionary War Battle of Vincennes in present-day Indiana.

In 1836, inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver.

In 1901, United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.

In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Philander Chase Knox.

In 1919, Oregon became the first state to tax gasoline, at one cent per gallon.

In 1922, French serial killer Henri Landru, convicted of murdering 10 women and the son of one of them, was executed in Versailles.

In 1948, Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia.

In 1950, “Your Show of Shows,” starring Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris, debuted on NBC-TV.

In 1964, Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) became world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.

In 1970, Russian-born American painter Mark Rothko died in New York, a suicide, at age 66.

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.

In 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, 28 Americans were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

Associated Press