Today in History

Today is Thursday, May 25, the 146th day of 2024. There are 220 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a Black man, was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and pleading that he couldn’t breathe; Floyd’s death, captured on video by a bystander, would lead to worldwide protests, some of which turned violent, and a reexamination of racism and policing in the U.S.

On this date:

In 1787, the Constitutional Convention began at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia after enough delegates had shown up for a quorum.

In 1946, Transjordan (now Jordan) became a kingdom as it proclaimed its new monarch, Abdullah I.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy told Congress: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, ordered the Virginia county to reopen its public schools, which officials had closed in an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka desegregation ruling.

In 1968, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis was dedicated by Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall.

In 1977, the first “Star Wars” film was released by 20th Century Fox.

In 1979, 273 people died when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed just after takeoff from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

In 2008, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on the Red Planet to begin searching for evidence of water; the spacecraft confirmed the presence of water ice at its landing site.

In 2011, a judge in Salt Lake City sentenced street preacher Brian David Mitchell to life in prison for kidnapping and raping Elizabeth Smart, who was 14 at the time of her abduction in 2002.

In 2012, the private company SpaceX made history as its Dragon capsule docked with the International Space Station.

In 2016, actor Johnny Depp’s wife, Amber Heard, filed for divorce in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences after 15 months of marriage.

In 2018, Harvey Weinstein was charged in New York with rape and another sex felony in the first prosecution to result from the wave of allegations against him. (Weinstein would be convicted of two felony counts in 2020, but an appeals court would overturn the conviction in 2024.)

In 2022, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, the gunman who massacred 19 children and two teachers at an Uvalde elementary school a day earlier, warned in online messages sent minutes before the attack that he had shot his grandmother and was going to shoot up a school.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Ann Robinson is 95. Former White House news secretary Ron Nessen is 90. Actor Sir Ian McKellen is 85. Country singer Jessi Colter is 81. Actor-singer Leslie Uggams is 81. Movie director and Muppeteer Frank Oz is 80. Actor Karen Valentine is 77. Actor Jacki Weaver is 77. Rock singer Klaus Meine (The Scorpions) is 76. Actor Patti D’Arbanville is 73. Playwright Eve Ensler is 71. Musician Cindy Cashdollar is 69. Actor Connie Sellecca is 69. Rock singer-musician Paul Weller is 66. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is 64. Actor-comedian Mike Myers is 61. Actor Matt Borlenghi is 57. Actor Joseph Reitman is 56. Rock musician Glen Drover is 55. Actors Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush (TV: “Little House on the Prairie”) are 54. Actor-comedian Jamie Kennedy is 54. Actor Octavia Spencer is 54. Actor Justin Henry is 53. Rapper Daz Dillinger is 51. Actor Molly Sims is 51. Actor Erinn Hayes is 48. Actor Cillian Murphy is 48. Actor Ethan Suplee (soo-PLEE’) is 48. Rock musician Todd Whitener is 46. Actor Corbin Allred is 45. Actor-singer Lauren Frost is 39. Actor Ebonee Noel is 34. Musician Guy Lawrence (Disclosure) is 33. Olympic gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman is 30.