Today in History

Today is Sunday, Aug. 25, the 237th day of 2019. There are 128 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Aug. 25, 1718, hundreds of French colonists arrived in Louisiana, with some settling in present-day New Orleans.

On this date:

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act establishing the National Park Service within the Department of the Interior.

In 1921, the United States signed a peace treaty with Germany.

In 1944, during World War II, Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.

In 1965, former baseball player-turned-doctor Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, who'd briefly played in only one major league game (for the New York Giants), died in Chisholm, Minnesota, at age 87.

In 1967, George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, was shot to death in the parking lot of a shopping center in Arlington, Virginia; former party member John Patler was later convicted of the killing.

In 1980, the Broadway musical "42nd Street" opened. (Producer David Merrick stunned the cast and audience during the curtain call by announcing that the show's director, Gower Champion, had died earlier that day.)

In 1981, the U.S. spacecraft Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending back pictures of and data about the ringed planet.

In 1984, author Truman Capote was found dead in a Los Angeles mansion; he was 59.

In 1993, Amy Biehl, a 26-year-old Fulbright scholar from Newport Beach, Calif., was slain by a mob near Cape Town, South Africa. (The four men convicted in Biehl's death claimed the attack was part of the war on apartheid; they were granted amnesty after confessing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.)

In 2001, rhythm-and-blues singer Aaliyah was killed with eight others in a plane crash in the Bahamas; she was 22.

In 2004, an Army investigation found that 27 people attached to an intelligence unit at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad either approved or participated in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey, the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade, made landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas, with 130 mph sustained winds; the storm would deliver five days of rain totaling close to 52 inches, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental U.S. The hurricane left at least 68 people dead and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas.

Ten years ago: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the U.S. Senate, died at age 77 in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after a battle with a brain tumor. President Barack Obama announced he wanted to keep Ben Bernanke on as Fed chairman. South Korea's first rocket, the Naro-1, blasted off into space but ended up falling back to Earth. A judge in Los Angeles sentenced Chris Brown to five years' probation and six months' community labor for beating his girlfriend Rihanna.

Five years ago: A funeral was held in St. Louis for Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old shot to death by a police officer in suburban Ferguson on August 9th. At the Emmy Awards, ABC's "Modern Family" won best comedy series for the fifth time, while the final season of AMC's "Breaking Bad" captured the top drama award and a trio of acting honors for its stars, including Bryan Cranston.

One year ago: Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, who had spent years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam before a 35-year political career that took him to the Republican presidential nomination, died at the age of 81 after battling brain cancer for more than a year. After initially threatening Hawaii as a Category 5 hurricane, Tropical Storm Lane began to break apart as it veered west into the open Pacific; rainfall totals from the storm on Hawaii's Big Island approached four feet.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Sean Connery is 89. Actor Page Johnson is 89. TV personality Regis Philbin is 88. Actor Tom Skerritt is 86. Jazz musician Wayne Shorter is 86. Movie director Hugh Hudson is 83. Author Frederick Forsyth is 81. Movie director John Badham is 80. Filmmaker Marshall Brickman is 80. Georgia Govenor Nathan Deal is 77. Rhythm-and-blues singer Walter Williams (The O'Jays) is 76. Actor Anthony Heald is 75. Rock singer-actor Gene Simmons is 70. Actor John Savage is 70. Author Martin Amis is 70. Country singer-musician Henry Paul (Outlaws; Blackhawk) is 70. Rock singer Rob Halford is 68. Rock musician Geoff Downes (Asia) is 67. Rock singer Elvis Costello is 65. Movie director Tim Burton is 61. Actor Christian LeBlanc is 61. Actress Ashley Crow is 59. Actress Ally Walker is 58. Country singer Cyrus (AKA Billy Ray Cyrus) is 58. Actress Joanne Whalley is 58. Rock musician Vivian Campbell (Def Leppard) is 57. Actor Blair Underwood is 55. Actor Robert Maschio is 53. Rap DJ Terminator X (Public Enemy) is 53. Alternative country singer Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) is 52. Actor David Alan Basche is 51. Television chef Rachael Ray is 51. Actor Cameron Mathison is 50. Country singer Jo Dee Messina is 49. Model Claudia Schiffer is 49. Country singer Brice Long is 48. Actor-writer-director Ben Falcone is 46. Actor Eric Millegan is 45. Actor Alexander Skarsgard is 43. Actor Jonathan Togo is 42. Actor Kel Mitchell is 41. Actress Rachel Bilson is 38. Actress Blake Lively is 32. Actor Josh Flitter is 25.

Thought for Today: "Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor." -- Truman Capote (1924-1984).

Copyright 2019, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.