This Day in History – October 25, 2011

1671 Giovanni Cassini discovers Iapetus, satellite of Saturn 1764 John Adams marries Abigail Smith (marriage lasts 54 years) 1812 War of 1812: The American heavy frigate, USS United States, commanded by Stephen Decatur, captures the British frigate HMS Macedonian. 1813 War of 1812: Canadians and Mohawks defeat the Americans in the Battle of Chateauguay. 1870 Postcards 1st used in US 1938 The Archbishop of Dubuque, Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces swing music as “a degenerated musical system… turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people”, warning that it leads down a “primrose path to hell”. 1944 Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich. 1944 The USS Tang under Richard O’Kane (the top American submarine captain of World War II) is sunk by the ship’s own malfunctioning torpedo. 1960 1st electronic wrist watch placed on sale, NYC 1962 Cuban missile crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows photos at the UN proving Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba. 1962 Uganda joins the United Nations. 1962 Nelson Mandela is sentenced to five years in prison. 1962 American author John Steinbeck awarded Nobel Prize in literature 1964 Viking Jim Marshall runs 66 yards in the wrong direction for a safety 1971 The United Nations seated the People’s Republic of China and expelled the Republic of China 1977 Digital Equipment Corporation releases OpenVMS V1.0. 1983 Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters are executed in a coup d’état. 1986 International Red Cross ousted from South Africa 1986 Michael Sergio parachutes into Shea Stadium during game 6 of WS 1990 Evander Hollyfield KOs James “Buster” Douglas for HW boxing title 1990 NY Daily News goes on strike (lasts through March, 1991) 2004 Fidel Castro, Cuba’s President, announces that transactions using the American Dollar will be banned. 2009 The 25 October 2009 Baghdad bombings kills 155 and wounds at least 721.]]]]> ]]>