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Ray’s This Day in History: July 25

This is Ray Mossholder with This Day In History

July 25

1394 – Charles VI of France orders all Jews to leave his country.

July 25,1832 – The first recorded railroad accident in U.S. history occurs when four people are thrown off a vacant car on the Granite Railway near Quincy, Massachusetts. The victims had been invited to view the process of transporting large and weighty loads of stone when a cable on a vacant car snapped on the return trip, throwing them off the train and over a 34-foot cliff. One man was killed and the others were seriously injured.

The steam locomotive was first pioneered in England at the beginning of the 19th century by Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began operation in 1828 with horse-drawn cars, but after the successful run of the Tom Thumb, a steam train that nearly outraced a horse in a public demonstration in 1830, steam power was added. By 1831, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had completed a line from Baltimore to Frederick, Maryland.

The acceptance of railroads came quickly in the 1830s, and by 1840 the nation had almost 3,000 miles of railway, greater than the combined European total of only 1,800 miles. The railroad network expanded quickly in the years before the Civil War, and by 1860 the American railroad system had become a national network of some 30,000 miles. Nine years later, transcontinental railroad service became possible for the first time.

In 1471

July 25 1587

July 25 1802

Thomas A Kempis lived among The Brothers of the Common Life Sickened by corruption in the Catholicism of their day, they had developed a form of discipline known as the “new devotion.” Their goal was to live as much like the early Christians as possible. They exalted Christ, labored to meet their own needs, and contributed to a common fund. They took no vows, but willingly chose poverty, chastity and obedience. Some lived at home, while others lived in communities. It was among these humble and devout people that Thomas was trained.

Under their tutelage, Thomas became a priest. He showed an aptitude for copying manuscripts and that became his vocation. He transcribed the Bible four times—a huge undertaking when one considers there are over eight-hundred thousand words in it. At the same time, he created writings of his own, including biographies of saints and a chronicle of his community, Mount St Agnes. However, the book linked most closely with his name is his devotional classic The Imitation of Christ.

On July 25, 1471, Thomas A Kempis died at the age of 91 and was greatly mourned.

Emperor Hideyoshi bans Christianity in Japan and orders all Christians to leave Japan.

Alexandre Dumas, French author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers was born.

On July 25, 1850 – Gold is discovered in the Rogue River in Oregon, extending the gold rush from Sacramento far up the Pacific Coast

On this day in 1866, the United States Congress appointed Lieutenant General Ulysses S Grant to be the first ever promoted to the rank of General

July 25, 1867 – President Andrew Johnson signed an act creating the territory of Wyoming

July 25, 1853, in a macabre instance of rough frontier justice, California Rangers claim a $6,000 award by bringing in the severed head—preserved in whiskey—of outlaw Joaquin Murrieta.

July 25, 1898, During the Spanish-American War, U.S. forces launch their invasion of Puerto Rico, the 108-mile-long, 40-mile-wide island that was one of Spain’s two principal possessions in the Caribbean. With little resistance and only seven deaths, U.S. troops under General Nelson A. Miles were able to secure the island by mid-August. After the signing of an armistice with Spain, American troops raised the U.S. flag over the island, formalizing U.S. authority over its one million inhabitants. In December, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Spanish-American War and officially approving the cession of Puerto Rico to the United States.

In the first three decades of its rule, the U.S. government made efforts to Americanize its new possession, including granting full U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans in 1917 and considering a measure that would make English the island’s official language. However, during the 1930s, a nationalist movement led by the Popular Democratic Party won wide support across the island, and further U.S. assimilation was successfully opposed. Beginning in 1948, Puerto Ricans could elect their own governor, and in 1952 the U.S. Congress approved a new Puerto Rican constitution that made the island an autonomous U.S. commonwealth, with its citizens retaining American citizenship. The constitution was formally adopted by Puerto Rico on July 25, 1952, the 54th anniversary of the U.S. invasion.

Movements for Puerto Rican statehood, along with lesser movements for Puerto Rican independence, have won supporters on the island, but popular referendums in 1967 and 1993 demonstrated that the majority of Puerto Ricans still supported their special status as a U.S. commonwealth.

July 25, 1924 – Greece orders the deportation of 50,000 Armenians

On July 25, 1934, the Nazis shoot and kill the Chancellor of Austria Engelbert Dollfuss

On July 25, 1941 – the US government froze all Japanese and Chinese assets

On this day in 1943, Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy, is voted out of power by his own Grand Council and arrested upon leaving a meeting with King Vittorio Emanuele, who tells Il Duce that the war is lost. Mussolini responded to it all with an uncharacteristic meekness.

During the evening of July 24 and the early hours of the 25th, the Grand Council of the fascist government met to discuss the immediate future of Italy. While all in attendance were jittery about countermanding their leader, Mussolini was sick, tired, and overwhelmed by the military reverses suffered by the Italian military. He seemed to be looking for a way out of power. One of the more reasonable within the Council, Dino Grandi, argued that the dictatorship had brought Italy to the brink of military disaster, elevated incompetents to levels of power, and alienated large portions of the population. He proposed a vote to transfer some of the leader’s power to the king. The motion was passed, with Mussolini barely reacting. While some extremists balked, and would later try to convince Mussolini to have those who voted with Grandi arrested, Il Duce was simply paralyzed, unable to choose any course of action.

Shortly after the Grand Council vote, Mussolini, groggy and unshaven, kept his routine 20-minute meeting with the king, during which he normally updated Victor Emanuele on the current state of affairs. This morning, the king informed Mussolini that General Pietro Badoglio would assume the powers of prime minister and that the war was all but lost for the Italians. Mussolini offered no objection. Upon leaving the meeting, he was arrested by the police, who had been secretly planning a pretext to remove the leader for quite some time. They now had the Council vote of “no confidence” as their formal rationale. Assured of his personal safety, Mussolini acquiesced to this too, as he had to everything else leading up to this pitiful end.

On July 25, King Victor Emmanuel announced it would only be accepted the “resignations” of Premier Benito Mussolini and his entire cabinet. This led to the end of Italy’s alliance with Nazi Germany in World War II.

When news of Mussolini’s arrest was made public, relief seemed to be the prevailing mood. There was no attempt by fellow fascists to rescue him from the penal settlement on the island of Ponza to which he was committed.

During the last days of the war in Italy, Mussolini attempted to escape the advancing Allied Army by hiding in a German convoy headed toward the Alps. But on the way, Partisans stopped and searched the convoy.

They found their former dictator in the back of a truck wearing a privates overcoat over his striped general’s pants. The partisans took him prisoner as they also did with his mistress, Clara Petachi. The Council of partisan leaders, led by the Communists, secretly decided to execute Mussolini and 15 leading Fascists and his mistress for their war crimes. On April 29, 1945, they were hung at an Esso gas station in Milan.

July 25, 1944 – Allied forces begin the breakthrough of German lines in Normandy

On this day in 1945, President Harry S. Truman nonchalantly hints to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin that the United States has successfully developed a new weapon. In his diary, Truman privately referred to the new weapon, the atomic bomb, as the most terrible bomb in the history of the world.

The United States had successfully tested the world’s first atomic weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. Truman received the news while in Potsdam, Germany, conferring with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin on post-World War II policy in Europe. On July 17, Truman told Churchill of the test’s success and the two agreed to put off telling Stalin about what Truman called the dynamite news until later–Truman first wanted to get Stalin to agree to enter the Pacific war on the Allies’ side with no strings on it.

On July 25, after receiving Stalin’s pledge to join the U.S. in the war against Japan in the Pacific, Truman casually informed the Soviet leader that the United States had a new weapon of unusual destructive force. Although Stalin did not appear to be impressed by the news, Truman hoped the information would increase the pressure on Stalin to concede to the Allies’ demands regarding the post-war division of Europe.

In his diary entry for July 25, Truman wrote that the new weapon would be used against military targets in Japan before August 10. He specifically mentioned avoiding women and children and mused it is certainly a good thing for the world that Hitler’s crowd or Stalin’s did not discover this atomic bomb.

It turned out that Truman would not need the Soviets’ help in the Pacific after all. On August 6, 1945, one week before the Soviets were due to join combat operations, Truman ordered the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Two days later, he authorized a second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Although the total number of victims has been disputed, Japanese and U.S. government statisticians estimate that at least 140,000 men, women and children died immediately in the two blasts and an additional 74,000 died from the effects of bomb-related radiation by 1950.

July 25, 1909 – French aviator Louis Bleriot becomes the first person to fly across the English Channel in an airplane

On this day in 1946 – America detonated an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. It was the first underwater test of the device.

Also on January 25, 1946 – Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis staged their very first comedy show as a team at Club 500 in Atlantic City, NJ.

On this day in 1965, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan rocks the world of folk music when he performs at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island and abandons his acoustic guitar for an electric one. By going electric, Dylan eventually moved rock and folk music closer together. He also infused rock and roll, known then for its mostly lightweight lyrics, with a more intellectual, poetic sensibility.

In 1965, Dylan released “Bringing It All Back Home,” a half-acoustic, half-electric recording in which he was backed by a nine-piece band, a departure from his previous pared-down performances. That summer, he made his historic live performance with an electric guitar at the folk festival in Newport, where he played such songs as “Maggie’s Farm” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Some fans reportedly booed Dylan at the time, although it’s long been a topic of debate as to whether the crowd was unhappy with Dylan or the poor sound system. Regardless, after Newport, Dylan’s popularity continued to soar as his musical style continued to evolve and he became known for his innovative, poetic and sometimes cryptic lyrics.

Dylan, who has a reputation for being reclusive and mysterious, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Today, he is a music icon whose successful career has endured for over 40 years.

July 25, 1966 – The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” was released and galloped to the top of the charts faster than a speeding bullet.

July 25, 1969, President Richard Nixon announces that henceforth the United States will expect its Asian allies to tend to their own military defense. The Nixon Doctrine, as the president’s statement came to be known, clearly indicated his determination to “Vietnamize” the Vietnam War.

When Richard Nixon took office in early 1969, the United States had been at war in Vietnam for nearly four years. The bloody conflict had already claimed the lives of more than 25,000 American troops and countless Vietnamese. Despite its best efforts, the United States was no closer to victory than before. At home, antiwar protesters were a constant presence in American cities and on college campuses. Nixon campaigned in 1968 with the promise of “peace with honor” in Vietnam. In July 1969, an important part of his plan for Vietnam became evident. During a stopover in Guam during a multination tour, the president issued a statement. It was time, he declared, for the United States to be “quite emphatic on two points” in dealing with its Asian allies. First, he assured America’s friends in Asia that “We will keep our treaty commitments.” However, “as far as the problems of military defense, except for the threat of a major power involving nuclear weapons,” the United States would be adopting a different stance. In relation to military defense, America would now “encourage and has a right to expect that this problem will be increasingly handled by, and the responsibility for it taken by, the Asian nations themselves.” He concluded that his recent talks with several Asian leaders indicated, “They are going to be willing to undertake this responsibility.”

The Nixon Doctrine marked the formal announcement of the president’s “Vietnamization” plan, whereby American troops would be slowly withdrawn from the conflict in Southeast Asia and be replaced by South Vietnamese troops. Over the course of his first term in office, Nixon held true to this doctrine by withdrawing a substantial portion of America’s fighting forces from Vietnam. In 1973, the United States and North Vietnam signed a peace treaty formally bringing the Vietnam War to a conclusion. Two years later, North Vietnamese forces crushed the South Vietnamese army and succeeded in reuniting the divided country under a communist regime.

July 25, 1968 – In the encyclical Humanae Vitae, which means Of Human Life, Pope Paul VI restates the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to artificial birth control.

And on this date in 1978 – Pete Rose (Cincinnati Red) broke the National League record for consecutive base hits as he got a hit in 38 straight games.

Also on this day in 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world’s first baby to be conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF) is born at Oldham and District General Hospital in Manchester, England, to parents Lesley and Peter Brown. The healthy baby was delivered shortly before midnight by caesarean section and weighed in at five pounds, 12 ounces.

Before giving birth to Louise, Lesley Brown had suffered years of infertility due to blocked fallopian tubes.

The Browns had a second daughter, Natalie, several years later, also through IVF. In May 1999, Natalie became the first IVF baby to give birth to a child of her own. The child’s conception was natural, easing some concerns that female IVF babies would be unable to get pregnant naturally. In December 2006, Louise Brown, the original “test tube baby,” gave birth to a boy, Cameron John Mullinder, who also was conceived naturally.

Today, IVF is considered a mainstream medical treatment for infertility. Hundreds of thousands of children around the world have been conceived through the procedure, in some cases with donor eggs and sperm.

July 25, 1984 – Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to walk in space. She was aboard the orbiting space station Salyat 7.

On July 25, 1992, the opening ceremonies of the Games of the XXV Olympiad are held in Barcelona, Spain. The Barcelona Olympics were the first ever in which professional athletes were allowed to participate, and the first Games since 1972 in which every member nation of the International Olympic Committee competed. In all, 169 countries fielded teams, the most in the history of the Olympics.

The 1992 Summer Olympics came just one year after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Twelve former Soviet states fielded a united team, while others such as Estonia and Lithuania fielded their own teams for the first time since the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The former Yugoslavian territories Bosnia and Herzegovina; Croatia; and Slovenia participated under their own flags for the first time. In addition, South Africa participated in the Olympics for the first time since 1960, when it was banned in protest of its racist apartheid policy.

One of the most anticipated performances of the 1992 Games was that of the U.S. men’s basketball team, nicknamed “The Dream Team.” International stars Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Charles Barkley competed alongside 11 other NBA All-Stars and Duke University standout Christian Laettner. The team schooled their competition, players who in many cases were just excited to be on the same court with them. Before the U.S. game against Angola, for instance, the Angolan players posed for pictures with their American competition and asked for autographs. For their part, the Americans were relaxed, confident and, following the lead of the gregarious Barkley, often joked with the press, their opponents and each other. The Dream Team won the gold easily, beating their opponents by an average of 44 points.

Another historic performance was made by Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia, winner of the 10,000 meters, who became the first black African woman ever to win an Olympic medal. Afterward, she shared a victory lap with white South African competitor Elana Meyer in recognition and celebration of South Africa’s recent abolishment of apartheid and as a symbolic gesture of African unity.

Other memorable moments from the Barcelona Games included American Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s second consecutive heptathlon victory; Carl Lewis’ third consecutive gold in the long jump; and host country Spain’s gold-medal performance in men’s soccer.

1994 – Israel and Jordan formally ended the state of war that had existed between them since 1948.

An Air France Concorde jet crashes upon takeoff in Paris on this day in 2000, killing everyone onboard as well as four people on the ground. The Concorde, the world’s fastest commercial jet, had enjoyed an exemplary safety record up to that point, with no crashes in the plane’s 31-year history.

Air France Flight 4590 left DeGaulle Airport for New York carrying nine crew members and 96 German tourists who were planning to take a cruise to Ecuador. Almost immediately after takeoff, however, the plane plunged to the ground near a hotel in Gonesse, France. A huge fireball erupted and all 105 people on the plane were killed immediately.

The Concorde fleet was grounded in the wake of this disaster while the cause was investigated. The Concorde, powered by four Rolls Royce turbojets, was able to cross the Atlantic Ocean in less than three-and-a-half hours, reaching speeds of 1,350 miles per hour, which is more than twice the speed of sound. The July 25 incident, though, was not related to the Concorde’s engine construction or speed.

The investigation revealed that the plane that took off just prior to Flight 4590 had dropped a piece of metal onto the runway. When the Concorde jet ran over it, its tire was shredded and thrown into one of the engines and fuel tanks, causing a disabling fire.

Concorde jets went back into service in November 2001, but a series of minor problems prompted both Air France and British Airways to end Concorde service permanently in October 2003.

2010 – WikiLeaks leaked to the public more than 90,000 internal reports involving the U.S.-led War in Afghanistan from 2004-2010.

Finally, July 25, 2015…..

Pollsters have warned that early polls are not reliable indicators of real support that will translate into votes. Voters are still not tuned into to the election, and, at this point, candidates with high name recognition who can dominate the news cycle can see inflated support. Trump — a media sensation with decades of high-profile entertainment ventures, real-estate deals, and reality-television show experience — is perfectly positioned to take advantage of that.

Many pollsters have pointed to Trump’s unfavorability rating, which remains higher than other GOP candidates in most polls. The Economist/YouGov poll showed the real-estate magnate’s unfavorability ratings did rise slightly following his comments about McCain.

“The poll results with regard to candidate standing are ephemeral at this stage, primarily a function of name recognition,” University of Michigan political science professor Michael Tractor, a polling expert, told Business Insider last month, as Trump began his surge. “Trump has greater name recognition than many of the others, especially the governors. But name recognition is not the same as support.”

Some polls, however, have shown Trump’s favorability numbers climbing. And the real-estate mogul has bulldozed his way into the forefront of issues that are hugely important in the 2016 race — especially with Republican primary voters.

Trump was one of the first 2016 candidates to call attention to the death of Kathryn Steinle, a 32-year-old woman who was allegedly murdered by an immigrant living in the US without permission.

Trump got a shout-out during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week from one of the witnesses, who thanked him for bringing attention to the issue of violent crime committed by immigrants living in the US illegally.

And earlier this week, House Republicans passed an immigration bill that Democrats dubbed “The Donald Trump Act.”

Ray’s This Day in History: July 25

Ray"s This Day in History: July 25

Saturday, July 25, 2015