Today in History for July 25, 2016

The famous 'Face on Mars' photo from 1976.

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, 1759 – During the French and Indian War, in Western New York, British forces captured Fort Niagara from the French, who subsequently abandoned Fort Rouillé.

July 25, 1779 - An expedition from Massachusettes arrived at Castine on Penobscot Peninsula with the objective of capturing a 750-man British garrison. The attack 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, marched 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, 1814 – During the War of 1812, at the Battle of Lundy's Lane, reinforcements arrived near Niagara Falls for General Riall's British and Canadian forces and a bloody, all-night battle with Jacob Brown's Americans commenced at 6 p.m.; the Americans retreated to Fort Erie.

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 occured when four people were thrown off a vacant car on the Granite Railway near Quincy, Mass.

July 25, 1837 – The first commercial use of an electrical telegraph was successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone between Euston and Camden Town in London.

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, 1861 – During the Civil War, with his troops’ enlistment expiring, Robert Patterson was relieved of duty in the Shenandoah Valley. He had failed to hold Joseph Johnston in Winchester to prevent Johnston from moving east to support Beauregard at Manassas.

July 25, 1861 – During the Civil War, the U. S. Congress approved the use of volunteers to put down the rebellion.

July 25, 1861 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Mesilla, New Mexico and at Dug Springs and Harrisonville, Missouri.

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

July 25, 1862 – During the Civil War, a two-day Federal operation began in the vicinity of Mountain Store, Missouri. An eight-day Federal operation also began around Lake Ponchartrain, Pas Manchac, Louisiana, and up the Peal River in Mississippi.

July 25, 1862 – During the Civil War, a Federal operation began at Holly Springs, Mississippi and proceeded through Bolivar, Tennessee, and ended at Jackson, Tennessee.

July 25, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Clinton Ferry, Tennessee and at Summerville, West Virginia.

July 25, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Brownsville, Arkansas; at Barbee's Cross Roads and at Gloucester Court House, in Virginia; near Springfield and Steubenville, Ohio; and at Williamsburg and near New Hope Church, Kentucky.

July 25, 1863 – During the Civil war, the Department of East Tennessee, comprised of 17,800 men under Simon Bolivar Buckner, was merged into Braxton Bragg's Department of Tennessee. Major General Buckner was assigned command of a corps.

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

July 25, 1864 – During the Civil War, a Federal operation began against Sioux Indians in the Dakota Territory.

July 25, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought near Benton’s Ferry, on the Amite River, in Louisiana; at Williamsport, Maryland; at Pleasant Hill, Missouri, and another at Benton, Arkansas; and at Bunker Hill and Martinsburg, in West Virginia

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, 1896 - A basket picnic was scheduled to be held at the Wiggins school house near Tekoa on this Saturday.

July 25-26, 1896 - Miss Sophie Neville, who was teaching at Pleasant Ridge, spent this Saturday and Sunday in Monroeville, Ala.

July 25, 1896 - Prof. C.C. Sellers, principal of the Finchburgh Academy, was in Monroeville, Ala. on this Saturday. He reports that 60 pupils were enrolled at his school and more were still coming.

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, 1906 - After a painful illness extending over many months, John F. Deer died at his home in Monroeville, Ala. at noon on this Wednesday. The interment was to take place at the Baptist cemetery the following day with Masonic honors. Deer was twice elected to the office of County Treasurer, but was forced by ill health to resign just before the close of his second term. On the advice of his physician, he moved to New Mexico where he remained several months but the fatal malady with which he was afflicted had gained too firm a hold upon him, and he returned home without material improvement, resigned to die with his family.

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, 1923 – Jack M. Williams passed away at the age of 80 and was buried at the Awin Community Cemetery in Wilcox County, Ala. Born on July 11, 1843, Williams was the first postmaster at Awin in Wilcox County. The local explanation for the name “Awin” is tat Williams, after asking for suggestions for a name for the post office, wrote “A win” beside the one the majority of residents favored, and post office officials took his comment to be the chosen name. The post office was established here in 1881.

July 25, 1929 – Grove Hill, Ala. was officially incorporated as a municipality.

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, Ala., 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, 1953 – Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton was born in Columbia, Miss. He went on to play for Jackson State and the Chicago Bears. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993.

July 25, 1955 – The Evergreen 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, 1964 - Following a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the deteriorating situation in Saigon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up a memo proposing air strikes against North Vietnam. These missions were to be conducted in unmarked planes flown by South Vietnamese and Thai crews. There was no action taken on this recommendation.

July 25, 1965 - A seminal event in rock and roll history took place when Bob Dylan "went electric" during his infamous performance at the Newport Folk Festival.  A hero to the folk music community, Dylan's switch to electric guitar was seen as the ultimate act of betrayal by many in the audience, who booed the performance. Urban legend has it that event organizer Pete Seeger was so upset by the act that he threatened to cut the wires to the stage with an axe.

July 25, 1965 – Tom Clausell, 72, went missing after he apparently walked off from his home in Monroeville, Alabama’s Clausell community on this Sunday night. He was reported missing the following Monday afternoon, and an intensive two-day search involving 40 volunteers, members of the Monroe County Rescue Squad and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department ensued. Sheriff Charlie Sizemore called off the search on Wednesday afternoon after all possible leads had been exhausted.

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

July 25, 1968 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the Boy Scouts of Evergreen’s Troop 40 racked up an impressive record at Camp Euchee during the previous week. The 22 boys returned home on Sat., July 20, after a highly productive camping experience. With 50 percent of the registered Scouts attending, the Evergreen troop was the largest in the camp near DeFuniak Springs, Fla. During the week, the Scouts earned a total of 22 merit badges and 11 of them won the coveted Mile Swim Award. In the Water Carnival, Evergreen Scouts won first place in the canoe race, second place in relay swimming and third place in the Tee Shirt Relay. They were second in overall points. Troop 40’s original skit was one of the three chosen for presentation at the Order of the Arrow campfire on visitors’ night. In addition to these honors, the Evergreen Scouts pulled off what has been called the greatest practical joke in the history of Camp Euchee, “The One-Eyed Euchee.” Adult helpers in this camping experience in addition to Scoutmaster Jimmy Murphy were Reuben Hyde, Ralph Garrett, Bob Bozeman, Mitchell Stevens, Odeil Pugh, Edwin Brown, Emmitt McKenzie, Mrs. Cecil Price, Fred Stevens and Dr. Cecil Price, who generously gave the boys their pre-camp physical exams.

July 25, 1968 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the schedule for Conecuh County schools for the 1968-69 school year had been approved by the Conecuh County Board of Education, according to Harvey G. Pate, superintendent of education. The opening of the Fall Term was set for Fri., Aug. 30, with a half-day session scheduled. Prior to that, teachers were to meet in their respective schools on Aug. 28 and 29.

July 25, 1968 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Private Sterling W. Lett, 19, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Elbert Lett Jr. of Evergreen, had been awarded a plaque for scoring highest in his basic combat training battalion on the physical combat proficiency test at Fort Benning, Ga. Lett was a 1967 graduate of Marshall High School. He had been assigned to Ft. Sill, Okla. for advanced training. Lett, Co. E, 2^nd Brigade, U.S. Training Center, Infantry, earned the award by scoring the maximum 500 points on the test. His perfect score admitted him to the Training Center’s exclusive “500 Club.”

July 25, 1969 – During the Vietnam War, U.S. President Richard Nixon declared the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expected its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This was the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.

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, 1976 – Major League Baseball pitcher Javier Vázquez was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He went on to play for the Montreal Expos, the New York Yankees, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Chicago White Sox, the Atlanta Braves and the Florida Marlins.

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

July 25, 1978 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds 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.