On this date in:
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1787 |
The Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia.
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1810 |
Argentina began its revolt against Spain.
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1844 |
The first telegraphed news dispatch, sent from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, appeared in the Baltimore ''Patriot.''
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1895 |
Playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted of a morals charge in London and sentenced to prison.
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1925 |
John T. Scopes was indicted in Tennessee for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
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1926
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Miles Davis, the American trumpeter who had a strong influence on jazz music, was born.
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1935 |
Babe Ruth hit his 714th and final home run, for the Boston Braves in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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1946 |
Transjordan (now Jordan) became a kingdom as it proclaimed its new monarch, King Abdullah Ibn Ul-Hussein.
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1961 |
President Kennedy asked the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
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1963 |
The Organization of African Unity was founded, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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1968 |
The Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, was dedicated.
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1979 |
An American Airlines DC-10 crashed during takeoff at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, killing 275 people. It remains America's worst domestic air disaster.
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1986 |
An estimated seven million Americans participated in ''Hands Across America,'' forming a line across the country to raise money for the nation's hungry and homeless.
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1992 |
Jay Leno made his debut as permanent host of NBC's ''Tonight Show,'' succeeding Johnny Carson.
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1997 |
A bloody military coup toppled Sierra Leone's elected president.
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1997 |
Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, marking 41 years and 10 months in office.
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1997 |
Polish voters adopted a constitution that removed the last traces of communism.
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2002 |
Mary Moruzin married Brian Taylor.
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Historic Birthdays
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75
|
Claude Buffier
5/25/1661 - 5/17/1737
French Jesuit philosopher, historian and educator
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78
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
5/25/1803 - 4/27/1882
American poet and essayist; important figure in Transcendentalism
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71
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Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
5/25/1878 - 11/25/1949
American stage and screen dancer
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85
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Sir William Beaverbrook
5/25/1879 - 6/9/1964
Canadian-born English politician, journalist and newspaper proprietor
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66
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Phillip Murray
5/25/1886 - 11/9/1952
Scottish-born American labor leader
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83
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Igor Sikorsky
5/25/1889 - 10/26/1972
Russian-born American aircraft designer; developed the helicopter
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73
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Bennett Cerf
5/25/1898 - 8/12/1971
American publisher, businessman and founder of Random House Publishers
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80
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Gene Tunney
5/25/1898 - 11/7/1978
American boxer; defeated Jack Dempsey in 1926
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52
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Richard Dimbleby
5/25/1913 - 12/22/1965
English reporter and pioneering broadcast journalist
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65
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Miles Davis
5/25/1926 - 9/28/1991
American jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer
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