HISTORY FOR MAY 25

This Day in History, May 25
On May 25th, 1940, the Battle of Dunkirk began.


Other Notable Events, May 25
In 1787, the first regular session of the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

In 1935, winding up his legendary career with the Boston Braves, Babe Ruth hit his 714th and last home run in his final game. The home run record stood for 39 years until Hank Aaron, also with the Braves, broke it in 1974.

In 1949, Chinese communist forces entered Shanghai as Nationalist troops abandoned the city and prepared to move to the island of Formosa, now called Taiwan.

In 1979, 275 people were killed when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed on takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

In 1986, 5 million people formed a broken 4,000-mile human chain from Los Angeles to New York in Hands Across America, to benefit the nation's homeless. The event raised $24.5 million.

In 1991, the United States reversed its decision to allow HIV-infected people to enter the country.

Also in 1991, Cuban soldiers withdrew from Angola after 16 years of fighting South Africa and U.S.-backed rebels.

In 1993, the U.N. Security Council voted to establish a war-crimes tribunal to deal with atrocities in the civil war in Bosnia.

In 1994, after living 20 years in exile, mostly in the United States, Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to his homeland. He had been expelled after "The Gulag Archipelago," an expose of the Soviet prison camp system, was published in the West in 1974.

In 1995, the level of tension in war-torn Bosnia increased dramatically when the Serbs began taking U.N. peacekeepers hostage for use as human shields.

In 1997, mutinous soldiers seized power in Sierra Leone.

In 1999, a report by a U.S. House of Representatives committee on espionage said China stole information on the most advanced U.S. nuclear weapons.

In 2003, the Israeli Cabinet officially accepted the Palestinian claim to eventual statehood.

In 2004, a U.S. Army report said U.S. mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan was more widespread than previously known.

In 2005, Amnesty International accused the Bush administration of "atrocious" human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Also in 2005, some 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops mounted a surprise offensive in western Iraq, targeting insurgent hideouts and munitions caches.

In 2006, the U.S. Senate approved a compromise immigration reform bill that had few similarities to a House bill passed in December, setting the stage for a possible congressional showdown on the issue.

Also in 2006, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, former officers of Enron Corp., were convicted in Houston federal court of conspiracy and securities fraud.

In 2007, North Korea fired several missiles toward Japan in an apparent drill exercise, the Kyodo news agency reported. A government source said the missiles ''would not pose a threat to Japan-U.S. security.''

Also in 2007, the United States sent supplies to Lebanon to help government troops fighting al-Qaida-backed militants at a Palestinian refugee camp. At least 58 combatants were reported killed in what was described as the worst fighting since the country's 1975-90 civil war.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International


Notable Birthdays for May 25
Those born on this date include:
- Poet/philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1803
- Dancer Bill Bojangles Robinson in 1878
- Aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky in 1889
- Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito in 1892
- Heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney in 1897
- Humorist and publisher Bennett Cerf in 1898
- Actor Claude Akins in 1926
- Spy novelist Robert Ludlum in 1927
- Opera singer Beverly Sills (born Belle Miriam Silverman) in 1929 (age 79)
- Actress Dixie Carter in 1939 (age 69)
- Actor Ian McKellen in 1939 (age 69)
- Singer/actress Leslie Uggams in 1943 (age 65)
- Frank Oz (born Richard Frank Oznowicz) director, actor, puppeteer (Miss Piggy of The Muppets), in 1944 (age 64)
- Actress Karen Valentine in 1947 (age 61)
- Actress Connie Selleca in 1955 (age 53)
- Comedian Mike Myers in 1963 (age 45)
- Actress Anne Heche in 1969 (age 39)

Copyright 2008 by United Press International