Today in History for July 25, 2015

The famous "Face on Mars" photo.

July 25, 1536 – Sebastián de Belalcázar, on his search of El Dorado, founded the city of Santiago de Cali.

July 25, 1538 – The city of Guayaquil, in present-day Ecuador, was founded by the Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana and given the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil.

July 25, 1567 – Don Diego de Losada founded the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.

July 25, 1609 – The English ship Sea Venture, en route to Virginia, was deliberately driven ashore during a storm at Bermuda to prevent its sinking. The survivors went on to found a new colony there.

July 25, 1693 – Ignacio de Maya founded the Real Santiago de las Sabinas, now known as Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Mexico.

July 25, 1779 - An expedition from Massachusetts arrived at Castine on Penobscot Peninsula with the objective of capturing a 750-man British garrison. The attacked eventually ended with the Patriots losing 470 men and the British lost only 13.

July 25, 1780 - American General Horatio Gates took command of the southern army from Major General Johann DeKalb at Coxe’s Mill, N.C.. When Gates took command, the Patriots numbered about 1,200 regulars, who were severely debilitated by hunger and in need of equipment, as well as a large group of militia, whose exact number is unknown. DeKalb, a German-born soldier who had served in both the French and German armies before volunteering his services to the Patriots, remained with the force as part of Gates’ headquarters staff.

July 25, 1783 – During the American Revolutionary War's last action, the Siege of Cuddalore, was ended by a preliminary peace agreement.

July 25, 1788 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart entered into his catalog the completion of one of his most beloved works, Symphony Number 40 in G Minor (sometimes called “The Great G Minor Symphony”).

July 25, 1794 – Accused of being a spy, Prussian aristocrat and adventurer Friedrich von der Trenck, who had been sent to France by the Austrian government to observe the events of the French Revolution, was executed in Paris by the guillotine at the age of 67, two days before the fall of Robespierre and the end of The Terror.

July 25, 1805 - Aaron Burr visited New Orleans with plans to establish a new country, with New Orleans as the capital city.

July 25, 1813 – Colonel James Caller of Washington County crossed the Tombigbee River at St. Stephens with three small companies under Captains Bailey, Heard, Benjamin Smoot and David Cartwright. Patrick May was lieutenant of Capt. Smoot’s company. They passed through the town of Jackson, marked to Fort Glass and was reinforced by a company under Capt. Sam Dale, with Lt. Walter G. Creagh as second in command.

July 25, 1814 - George Stephenson made the first successful demonstration of the steam locomotive in Northern England. His engine pulled eight loaded wagons of 30 tons’ weight about four miles an hour up a hill.

July 25, 1825 – During his tour of the United States, the Marquis de Lafayette again visited Wilmington, Delaware^.

July 25, 1832 - The first recorded railroad accident in U.S. history occurred when four people were thrown off a vacant car on the Granite Railway near Quincy, Mass.

July 25, 1839 – French captain and explorer Francis Garnier was born at Saint-Étienne, Loire. He is best known for his exploration of the Mekong River in Southeast Asia.

July 25, 1861 – During the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, declaring that the Civil War was being waged for the reunion of the states and not to interfere with the institutions of the South, namely slavery. The measure was important in keeping the pivotal states of Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland in the Union. For the first year and a half of the war, reunification of the United States was the official goal of the North, and it was not until Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of September 1862 that slavery became a goal.

July 25, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Courtland and Trinity, Ala.

July 25, 1864 – During the Civil War, a Federal cavalry operation took place from Decatur to Courtland, Ala.

July 25, 1866 – The Burnt Corn post office was discontinued, but was reestablished on Aug. 5, 1867.

July 25, 1866 – The United States Congress passed legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army, and Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant became the first to be promoted to this rank.

July 25, 1868 - For the first time since 1861, Alabama's two U.S. senators took their seats in Congress, thus signifying Alabama's readmission to the Union. "Carpetbaggers" George E. Spencer and Willard Warner, both natives of northern states, served as Republicans.

July 25, 1868 - The U.S. Congress passed an act creating the Wyoming Territory.

July 25, 1897 – Jack London set out to join the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon, a remote and unforgiving region in northwest Canada and Alaska.

July 25, 1902 – Writer Eric Hoffer was born in New York City.

July 25, 1904 – Newspaper editor and humor columnist Earl Lee Tucker was born in Thomasville, Ala. For 30 years, Tucker wrote a popular humor column, "Rambling Roses and Flying Bricks," which originated in The Thomasville Times. Many of his columns were gathered in three books published in 1958, 1959, and 1960.

July 25, 1905 – Nobel Prize-winning novelist Elias Canetti was born in Ruse, Bulgaria. He is best known for his 1935 novel, “The Tower of Babel.”

July 25, 1906 – Saxophonist Johnny “Rabbit” Hodges was born in Cambridge, Mass.

July 25, 1910 – Prominent Conecuh County citizen and former Confederate officer Pinckney D. Bowles passed away at the age of 75 at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Cobb, in Tampa, Fla., where he’d been several weeks prior to his death.

July 25, 1914 – Monroeville’s baseball team suffered its first losses of the season, snapping a 23-game winning streak. They lost both games of a double header against Finchburg, 4-2 and 16-4, in Monroeville, Ala.

July 25, 1914 – A reunion of Capt. Thomas Mercer Riley’s Civil War company was held at Riley’s home with 10 members of the unit being present - Capt. T.M. Riley, John A. McCants, Robert W. McCants, Hugh E. Coutney, W.S. Wiggins, Bright Waters, Joseph F. Watson, Julius C. Finklea and W.G. Riley.

July 25, 1917 – Edward C. Barnes was appointed to a second term as Evergreen, Alabama’s postmaster.

July 25, 1920 - A movie version of Alabama author Mary McNeil Fenollosa's book “The Breath of the Gods” was released.

July 25, 1934 – The Nazis assassinated Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.

July 25, 1942 – The Norwegian Manifesto called for nonviolent resistance to the Nazis.

July 25, 1943 – The USS Eldridge was launched and was commissioned on Aug. 27, 1943 with Lieutenant C. R. Hamilton, USNR, in command.

July 25, 1944 – Staff Sgt. Donald E. Oliver of Conecuh County, Ala. was killed in France. Funeral services for Oliver were held on July 2, 1948 at London Church with the Rev. C.L. Weekly officiating.

July 25, 1946 – In Amateur League Baseball action, the Evergreen Greenies were scheduled to play their first home game of the season against Uriah at the Evergreen High School stadium at 3 p.m. in Evergreen, Ala.

July 25, 1946 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Lt. Ralph E. Boggs, the husband of Frances E. Boggs of Repton, had been awarded the Air Medal with a gold star in lieu of his second Air Medal by Navy Secretary James Forrestal on behald of the President. Boggs, who had been missing in action since July 24, 1945, earned the award for meritorious service in aerial flight as leader of a fighter bomber division in action against enemy forces in the Pacific.

July 25, 1946 - The Evergreen Courant reported that the U.S. Employment Service in Evergreen, Ala. had been notified by the State Highway Department that a work order had been released to the Scott Construction Co. for work on the highway from Evergreen to Excel.

July 25, 1950 – The “Hub Drive-In” theater opened at Ollie, Ala., between the present day Huddle House and Days Inn, and was managed by Ralph Mann.

July 25, 1952 – The archipelago of Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the U.S.

July 25, 1955 – The Evergreen, Ala. youth baseball league Giants beat the Red Sox, 14-12, in a game that was call at the end of the fifth inning due to darkness. Players for the Giants included winning pitcher Eddie Lambert, David Hyde, Leon Stinson and Terry Trawick. Players for the Red Sox included losing pitcher LeGrand Lynch, Conner Warren and Billy Melton.

July 25, 1966 – Marine Corps Maj. Clifton Bishop Andrews of Fulton in Clarke County, Ala. was killed in action in Vietnam.

July 25, 1970 – The Evergreen Jaycees were scheduled to hold their annual horse show at the Lenox Horse Arena in Lenox, Ala. Lawrence Gladwell was the show chairman and James Ansley was secretary. Harold Ryals was master of ceremonies, and Dr. Carl Wilson was the show veterinarian.

July 25, 1976 – The spacecraft Viking 1 took the famous “Face on Mars” photo.

July 25, 1977 – Jerry Willard Peacock, 18, drowned in boating accident on the Alabama River, north of Haines Island in Monroe County, Ala.

July 25, 1978 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Red broke the National League record for consecutive base hits as he got a hit in 38 straight games.

July 25, 1987 - The Salt Lake City Trappers set a professional baseball record as the team won its 29th game in a row.

July 25, 1990 - Rosanne Barr sang the National Anthem in San Diego before a Padres baseball game. She was booed for her performance.

July 25, 1995 - Author Robert Gibbons died in Chambers, Ala.

July 25, 2005 - The reward for Natalee Holloway's safe return was increased from $200,000 to $1,000,000, with a $100,000 reward for information leading to the location of her remains. Following Holloway's disappearance, a reward of $50,000 had been established for her return. In August 2005, the reward for information as to her remains was increased from $100,000 to $250,000.

July 25, 2007 – Right-handed pitcher Christopher Scottie Booker of Monroeville, Ala. made his final Major League Baseball appearance for the Washington Nationals.

July 25, 2007 - "The Simpsons Movie" opened in the U.S.

July 25, 2008 - In an interview with Fox News, former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell said that unnamed sources, since deceased, at Roswell confided to him that the Roswell incident did involve an alien craft. Mitchell also claimed to have subsequently received confirmation from an unnamed intelligence officer at the Pentagon.