Today in History

Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 25, the 238th day of 2020. There are 128 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On August 25, 1944, during World War II, Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.

On this date:

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

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

In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure providing pensions for former U.S. presidents and their widows.

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

In 2012, Neil Armstrong, 82, who commanded the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing and was the first man to set foot on the moon in July 1969, died in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 2009, 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.

In 2014, a funeral was held in St. Louis for Michael Brown, the Black 18-year-old who was shot to death by a police officer in suburban Ferguson.

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.

In 2018, Sen. 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.

Ten years ago: North Korea welcomed Jimmy Carter back to Pyongyang as the former U.S. president arrived to bring home Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American jailed in the communist country since January 2010 for entering the country illegally from China.

Five years ago: French authorities formally opened a terrorism investigation into a foiled attack four days earlier; a prosecutor said minutes before he slung an assault rifle across his chest and walked through a high-speed train, suspect Ayoub El-Khazzani of Morocco had watched a jihadi video on his cellphone.

One year ago: Thousands turned out for a benefit hosted by comedian Dave Chappelle in Dayton, Ohio, for victims' families and survivors of a shooting rampage earlier in the month that killed nine people and left dozens injured. Joe Walsh, a former Illinois congressman and tea party favorite who'd become a radio talk show host, announced a challenge to President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in 2020, saying Trump was unfit for office. (Walsh ended his challenge six months later.) Opera star Placido Domingo received a standing ovation as he took to the stage at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, his first performance since nine women accused him of sexual harassment in a report by The Associated Press. A team from suburban New Orleans defeated Curacao 8-0 to claim the Little League World Series title.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Sean Connery is 90. Actor Tom Skerritt is 87. Jazz musician Wayne Shorter is 87. Movie director Hugh Hudson is 84. Author Frederick Forsyth is 82. Movie director John Badham is 81. Filmmaker Marshall Brickman is 81. Rhythm-and-blues singer Walter Williams (The O'Jays) is 77. Actor Anthony Heald (held) is 76. Rock singer-actor Gene Simmons is 71. Actor John Savage is 71. Author Martin Amis is 71. Country singer-musician Henry Paul (Outlaws; Blackhawk) is 71. Rock singer Rob Halford is 69. Rock musician Geoff Downes (Asia) is 68. Rock singer Elvis Costello is 66. Movie director Tim Burton is 62. Actor Christian LeBlanc is 62. Actor Ashley Crow is 60. Actor Ally Walker is 59. Country singer Cyrus (AKA Billy Ray Cyrus) is 59. Actor Joanne Whalley is 59. Rock musician Vivian Campbell (Def Leppard) is 58. Actor Blair Underwood is 56. Actor Robert Maschio is 54. Rap DJ Terminator X (Public Enemy) is 54. Alternative country singer Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) is 53. Actor David Alan Basche is 52. Television chef Rachael Ray is 52. Actor Cameron Mathison is 51. Country singer Jo Dee Messina is 50. Model Claudia Schiffer is 50. Country singer Brice Long is 49. Actor-writer-director Ben Falcone is 47. Actor Eric Millegan is 46. Actor Alexander Skarsgard is 44. Actor Jonathan Togo is 43. Actor Kel Mitchell is 42. Actor Rachel Bilson is 39. Actor Blake Lively is 33. Actor Josh Flitter is 26.