Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

July 25

1991
First discovery of a planet outside our solar system.

1984
First woman to walk in space: Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya.

1974
U.S. Legal Services Corp. is established, provides financial aid to programs providing legal assistance to qualified clients.

1973
Watergate: Pres. Nixon refuses to release the tapes to the Watergate Special Prosecutor as ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1968
Birth control: Pope Paul VI issues an encyclical banning all forms of artificial contraception. It stated that the "direct interruption of the generative process already begun" is unlawful and that abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, is absolutely forbidden, as is sterilization.

1956
Italian liner Andrea Doria collides with the Swedish liner Stockholm shortly before midnight, sinking 12 hours later. 52 of the more 1,600 people aboard killed. One of its lifeboats was found on a New York beach in 1981.

1946
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis: The legendary comedy duo makes their official debut together. Their act at the Atlantic City's 500 Club consisted or Martin trying to sing with Lewis constantly interrupting him.

1944
First jet-fighter used in combat: A German jet fires at a British plane, which manages to escape.

1943
Benito Mussolini is deposed and imprisoned by the Italian people. He was rescued in September by the Germans.

1909
First airplane flight across the English Channel, by Louis Bleriot.

1978
Louise Joy Brown, British, the world's first test-tube baby.

1957
Ray Billingsley, cartoonist, creator of Curtis.

1956
RogerClinton, Jr, half-brother of President Clinton.

1951
Verdine White, American singer, with Earth, Wind & Fire. Music: Shining Star (1975, #1, Grammy), Best of My Love (1977, #1), and After the Love has Gone (1979, #2, Grammy).

1924
Estelle Getty, American actress. TV: The Golden Girls (Sophia).

1907     d. 1990
Jack Gilford (Jacob Gellman), American actor. TV: The Crackerjack commercials of the late 1960s and Taxi (Alex's father).

1894     d. 1974
Walter Brennan, American Oscar-winning actor. TV: The Real McCoys (Amos McCoy). He was the first actor to win three Oscars (1936, 38, 40).

1884     d. 1934
Davidson Black, Canadian anthropologist. He discovered the race Homo erectus (1927) when he identified a single hominid tooth as the "Peking Man."

1750     d. 1806
Henry Knox, American Revolutionary War hero. He established the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (1779) and was the first U.S. Secretary of War (1785-94).

2003     b. 1926
John Schlesinger, English Oscar-winning director. Film: Midnight Cowboy (1969, Oscar), Marathon Man (1976), and Pacific Heights (1990).

1982     b. 1892
Hal Foster (Harold Rudolf Foster), cartoonist, creator of Prince Valiant and artist for Tarzan.

1934     b. 1874
Francois Coty, French perfume maker and newspaper publisher.

1865     b. 1795
James Barry, British surgeon, served in the British armed forces, the first woman doctor of the British Isles, although it wasn't discovered that she was a woman until after her death.

1843     b. 1766
Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist, invented waterproof fabrics used for raincoats (1823).

1842     b. 1766
Dominique-Jean Larrey, French surgeon in Napoleon's army. He initiated the use of field hospitals (the forerunner of MASH units), army ambulance corps, and triages. He also published the first description of trench foot.

1564     b. 1503
Ferdinand, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1558-64).

1492     b. 1432
Innocent VIII, Italian religious leader, 213th Pope (1484-92).

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