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Young Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston for first world title

Born on This Day

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

1841 - 1919

French Impressionist painter know for use of vibrant color and light in works like "Luncheon of the Boating Party."

George Harrison

1943 - 2001

Lead guitarist of the The Beatles and singer-songwriter who penned "Something," "Here Comes the Sun" and "My Sweet Lord."

Chelsea Handler

1975 -

Comedian and actress known for her sharp wit and her late-night talk show "Chelsea Lately."

Pierre-Auguste RenoirGetty Images

George HarrisonRedferns

Chelsea HandlerWireImage

1837

FEB25

Vermont blacksmith Thomas Davenport receives the first US patent for an electric motor. He insulated the wires with strips of fabric cut from his wife's wedding dress.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on February 25th

British surrender Fort Sackville

On February 25, 1779, Fort Sackville is surrendered, marking the beginning of the end of British domination in America’s western frontier. Eighteen days earlier, George Rogers Clark departed Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River with a force of approximately 170 men, including Kentucky militia and French volunteers. The party traveled over 200 miles of land covered […]

John Quincy Adams’ son marries relative at the White House

On February 25, 1828, John Adams, son of President John Quincy Adams, marries his first cousin and inadvertently follows a pattern of keeping marriages within the family. John Adams’ grandfather, President John Adams, had married his third cousin, Abigail Smith. Intermarriage skipped a generation with John Quincy Adams, who married a non-relative. But, at 25 […]

Legal Tender Act passed to help finance the Civil War

On February 25, 1862, the U.S. Congress passes the Legal Tender Act, authorizing the use of paper notes to pay the government’s bills. This ended the long-standing policy of using only gold or silver in transactions, and it allowed the government to finance the enormously costly Civil War long after its gold and silver reserves […]

First African American congressman sworn in

Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Natchez, Mississippi, is sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress. During the Civil War, Revels, a college-educated minister, helped form African American army regiments for the Union cause, started a school for freed men, and served as a chaplain for the […]

NHL game televised in US for first time

On February 25, 1940, the first telecast of a National Hockey League game is transmitted over New York’s W2XBS—the National Broadcasting Company’s experimental station used to test TV technology. A viewing audience estimated at 300 subscribers watches the New York Rangers defeat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-2, at Madison Square Garden. During the first, crude telecast, winger […]

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Communists take power in Czechoslovakia

Under pressure from the Czechoslovakian Communist Party, President Edvard Benes allows a communist-dominated government to be organized. Although the Soviet Union did not physically intervene (as it would in 1968), Western observers decried the virtually bloodless communist coup as an example of Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe. The political scene in Czechoslovakia following World War […]

Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes meet

On February 25, 1956, Sylvia Plath meets her future husband, Ted Hughes, at a party in Cambridge, UK. The two poets fell in love at first sight and married four months later. Plath was born in 1932, the daughter of an autocratic German father who taught biology and was a leading expert on bumblebees. Plath’s father […]

NCAA suspends SMU football program for 1987 season

On February 25, 1987, the NCAA suspends the Southern Methodist University football program for 1987 season for repeated rules violations but stops short of imposing the so-called “death penalty.” Still, the sanctions are the most severe levied by the NCAA against a major college football program. The NCAA also significantly reduced the number of football […]

“The Passion of the Christ” opens in the United States

The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s controversial film about the last 44 hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life, opens in theaters across the United States on February 25, 2004. Not coincidentally, the day was Ash Wednesday, the start of the Catholic season of Lent. The star of action-packed blockbusters like the Lethal Weapon series […]

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