On this day in History - Feb. 25

• 0138 - The Emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius, effectively making him his successor.
• 1553 - Hirate Masahide, dies, Japanese retainer and the tutor of Oda Nobunaga (d. 1492) .
• 1577- King Eric XIV of Sweden dies, (b. 1533) .
• 1554 - Lautaro, líder mapuche ataca Concepción (Chile).
• 1570 - Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England.
• 1682 - Giovanni Battista Morgagni was born (d. 5 Dec 1771). Italian anatomist and pathologist whose works helped make anatomy an exact science. His early studies of particularly the throat, and the sinus and hydatid of Morgagni in this region perpetuate his name .
• 1707- Carlo Goldoni, was born, lyricist (d. 1793).
• 1723 - Sir Christopher Wren dies (b. 20 Oct 1632). Architect, astronomer, and geometrician, born in East Knoyle, Wiltshire, who was the greatest English architect of his time.
• 1752 - John Graves Simcoe, was born, first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (d. 1806) .
• 1778 - José de San Martín, was born. Argentine general, liberator of Spanish South America along with Simón Bolívar.
• 1793 - George Washington holds the first Cabinet meeting as President of the United States.
• 1836 - Samuel Colt receives an American patent for the Colt revolver.
• 1837 - First US electric printing press patented by Thomas Davenport.
• 1841 - Pierre-Auguste Renoir, was born in Limoges. French impressionist painter, graphic artist and sculptor (d. 1919) .
• 1842 - Karl May, was born, writer (d. 1912) .
• 1845 - George Reid, was born, fourth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1918) .
• 1848 - Edward Harriman, was born, railroad entrepreneur.
• 1852 - Thomas Moore, dies, poet (b. 1779).
• 1855 - Cesário Verde, nascia em Loures, poeta português. Vítima de tuberculose aos 31 anos de idade, publicou poemas em jornais. A sua obra foi reunida pelo amigo Silva Pinto e publicada postumamente em 1887, com o título O Livro de Cesário Verde.
• 1860 - Chauncey Allen Goodrich, dies, American clergyman, educator and lexicographer (b. 1790).
• 1866 - Nace Benedetto Croce, humanista, historiador, filósofo italiano.
• 1869 - Phoebus Levene was born (d. 6 Sep 1940). Phoebus (Aaron Theodor) Levene was a Russian-born American chemist and pioneer in the study of nucleic acids.
• 1870 - Hiram Rhoades 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, was born, tenor italiano.
• 1877 - Erich von Hornbostel,was born, musicologist (d. 1935) .
• 1878 - Muere Juan María Gutiérrez, escritor, publicista, traductor, agrimensor y político argentino .
• 1888 - John Foster Dulles, was born, United States Secretary of State (d. 1959) .
• 1890 - Dame Myra Hess, was born, English pianist (d. 1965).
• 1890 - Vyacheslav Molotov, was born, Soviet politician (d. 1986).
• 1894 -Steele MacKaye dies, (b. 6 Jun 1842). (James Morrison) Steele MacKaye was a dramatist, playwright, actor, and inventor. He opened the Madison Square Theatre (1879), one of the earliest of American "intimate" playhouses.
• 1896 - Ida Noddack was born (d. 1979). German chemist who co-discovered (1925) element 75, rhenium, which they named after the Rhine River. They found trace amounts in the mineral columbite. She was working with Walter Noddack, her future husband (1926).
• 1898 - William Thomas Astbury was born (d. 4 June 1961). English physical biochemist who was the first to make use of X-ray diffraction patterns to study the structure of nucleic acids (1937). Astbury researched the method under Bragg for seven years, then investigated the structure of wool in both the stretched and unstretched forms.
• 1899 - Paul Julius Reuter, dies, founder of the Reuters News Agency (b. 1816).
• 1901 - J.P. Morgan incorporates the United States Steel Corporation.
• 1901 - Zeppo Marx, was born, actor (d. 1979) .
• 1904 - Adelle Davis, was born, nutritionist, writer (d. 1974) .
• 1904 - John Joseph Bittner was born (d. 14 Dec 1961). American geneticist who isolated a "Bittner milk factor" (1949) from the milk of certain mice, which strongly suggested that at least some viruses can cause cancer.
• 1909 - Lev Artsimovich was born (d. 1 Mar 1973). Russian physicist who provided the basis of the Tokamak, a device capable of confining ultra-high temperature plasma suitable for research into controlled nuclear fusion.
• 1912 - Marie-Adélaïde, the eldest of six daughters of William IV, becomes the first reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.
• 1913 - The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing a graduated income tax, is ratified.
• 1913- Jim Backus, was born, actor (d. 1989) .
• 1913 - Gert Fröbe, was born, actor (d. 1988) .
• 1915 - Charles Edwin Bessey dies (b. 21 May 1845). American botanist who introduced to the United States the systematic study of plant morphology and the experimental laboratory for botanical instruction on the college level.
• 1917 - Anthony Burgess, was born, author (d. 1993) .
• 1918 - Bobby Riggs, was born, tennis player (d. 1995) .
• 1918 - Barney Ewell, was born, American athlete (d. 1996) .
• 1919 - Oregon places a 1 cent per gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.
• 1920 - James Gayley dies (b. 11 Oct 1855) American metallurgist who invented a device to ensure uniform humidity in the air stream going into blast furnaces .
• 1920 - Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy dies (b. 3 Aug 1844). French archaeologist and civil engineer who excavated the palaces of the ancient Persian kings Darius I the Great and Artaxerxes II at Susa (modern Shush, Iran) in 1885.
• 1921 - The Democratic Republic of Georgia is occupied by the Soviet Russia.
• 1921 - Pierre Laporte, was born, statesman, murdered by FLQ terrorists (d. 1970).
• 1924 - Hugh Esmor Huxley, was born. English molecular biologist whose study (with Jean Hanson) of muscle ultrastructure using the techniques of X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy led him to propose the sliding-filament theory of muscle contraction.
• 1925 - Edward Gorey, was born, illustrator (d. 2000) .
• 1925 - Columbia Records (hoy Sony Music) hace la primera grabación musical eléctrica en Nueva York, Estados Unidos. Su intérprete fue el pianista y cantante estadounidense Art Gillham.
• 1926 - Francisco Franco es ascendido a general en España.
• 1928 - Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, DC becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.
• 1932 - Faron Young, was born, country music singer (d.1996) .
• 1933 - The USS Ranger is launched, becoming the first custom-built aircraft carrier.
• 1934 - Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton dies (b. 9 Jan 1858). American botanist known for her lasting contributions to bryology, the study of mosses.
• 1935 - Sally Jessy Raphael, was born, talk show host .
• 1937 -Ras Desta Demtu, Haile Selassie's son-in-law, is executed by the Italian administration in Abyssinia.
• 1937 - Tom Courtenay, was born, actor .
• 1938 - Herb Elliott, was born, Australian runner .
• 1940 - Ron Santo, was born, baseball player .
• 1943 - George Harrison, was born, musician (The Beatles) .
• 1943 - World War II: North AfricaGeneral Rommel's Afrika Corps are forced back through the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, only five days after they had broken through.
• 1946 - Franz Xaver Kroetz, was born, dramatist.
• 1947 - Lee Evans, was born, American athlete.
• 1948 - Communists took control of the government in Czechoslovakia.
• 1949 - Amin Maalouf, nace, escritor libanés.
• 1950 - George Richards Minot, dies (b. 2 Dec 1885). American physician who received (with George Whipple and William Murphy) the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1934 for the introduction of a raw-liver diet for to regenerate blood hemoglobin in the treatment of pernicious anemia, which was previously an invariably fatal disease.
• 1950 - Neil Jordan, was born, director, writer, producer .
• 1950 - Néstor Kirchner, was born, President of Argentina .
• 1951- Don Quarrie, was born, Jamaican sprinter .
• 1951 - The first Pan American Games are held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• 1953 - Sergey Nikolayevich Winogradsky dies (b. 1 Sep 1856). Russian microbiologist who helped to establish bacteriology as a major biological science. He was first to isolate the bacteria responsible for nitrification and nitrogen fixation by soil bacteria (1890).
• 1953 - José María Aznar, was born, former Prime Minister of Spain .
• 1954 - John Doe, was born, musician .
• 1954 - Gamal Abdul Nasser is made premier of Egypt.
• 1957 - George "Bugs" Moran, dies, Chicago gangster (b. 1893).
• 1961 -The United Arab Republic breaks of diplomatic relations with Belgium over the situation in the Congo.
• 1961 - Davey Allison, was born, NASCAR driver (d. 1993) .
• 1963 - Melville Jean Herskovits dies (b. 10 Sep 1895). American cultural anthropologist, born in Bellefontaine, Ohio, noted for having opened up the study of the New World Negro as a new field of research.
• 1964 - Grace Metalious, dies, writer (b. 1924) .
• 1964 - Maurice Farman dies (b. 21 Mar 1877). French aircraft designer and manufacturer who contributed greatly to early aviation. In 1908, with his brother Henri, he made the first circular flight of over 1-km, completing a 1.6-km (one-mile) flight near Paris.
• 1964 -Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) became world heavyweight boxing champion for the first time by knocking out Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.
• 1966 - Samson Kitur, was born, Kenyan athlete (d. 2003).
• 1970 - Pedido de aprovação pelo Presidente da República dos estatutos da Associação para o Desenvolvimento Económico e Social (SEDES), apresentada por 147 individualidades, vindas da ala liberal do regime, de sectores católicos progressistas, e de correntes republicanas e socialistas .
• 1971 - Sean Astin, was born, actor.
• 1971 - Theodor Svedberg, dies (b. 30 Aug 1884). Swedish chemist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1926 for his studies in the chemistry of colloids and for his invention of the ultracentrifuge which he introduced (1924) as a technique for investigating the molecular weights of very large molecules.
• 1972 - Terrorism: Germany gives $5 million to an Arab terrorist as ransom for the passengers and crew of a hijacked jumbo jet.
• 1975 - Elijah Muhammad, dies, Black Muslim leader .
• 1977 - 240 US citizens in Uganda are held hostage by Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada.
• 1977 - Josh Wolff,was born, Kansas City Wizards Striker .
• 1980 - Se crea la Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco".
• 1983 - Tennessee Williams, dies, playwright (b. 1911) .
• 1986 - EDSA Revolution: President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president.
• 1990 -Violeta Chamorro was elected president of Nicaragua, a victory for opponents of the Sandinistas.
• 1991 - Gulf War: An Iraqi Scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 US Marines.
• 1993 - Eric Clapton gana seis Premios Emmy.
• 1994 - Jersey Joe Walcott, dies, boxer (b. 1914).
• 1996 - Haing S. Ngor, dies, actor.
• 1998 - Brendon Baerg, was born, actor .
• 1999 - Glenn T. Seaborg, dies, American atomic scientist (b. 19 Apr 1912) .
• 2000 - Victoria Climbié, dies, murder victim (b. 1991) .
• 2001- Sir Donald Bradman, dies, cricketer (b. 1908) .
• 2003 - Tom O'Higgins, dies, Irish Chief Justice twice defeated as a presidential candidate .
• 2003 - Alberto Sordi, dies, Italian comedy film legend .
• 2004 - On Ash Wednesday, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is released in movie theaters across the United States, grossing approximately $370 million domestically.