Today is Monday, February 25th, the 56th day of the year.There are 309 days until the end of the year.
On this day:
In 1836, Samuel Colt received a U.S. patent for his Colt 45 pistol.
In 1870, Hiram R. Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, became the first black member of the U.S. Senate as he was sworn in to serve out the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis.
In 1928, the Federal Radio Commission issued the first U.S. television license to Charles Jenkins Laboratories.
In 1964, seven-to-one underdog Cassius Clay knocked out Sonny Liston to win the world heavyweight boxing title.The next day he changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
In 1983, playwright Tennessee Williams died at the age of 71.
In 1986, Robert Penn Warren was named the first poet laureate of the United States.
In 1986, following a tainted election, President Ferdinand E. Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule.Corazon Aquino became the country's next president.
In 1989, Tom Landry was fired after 29 years as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
In 1991, 28 Americans were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile slammed into a barracks in Saudi Arabia.The incident produced the largest number of American fatalities during the Persian Gulf War.
In 1994, Boxing Hall-of-Famer Jersey Joe Walcott died at the age of 80.
In 1999, in a move that threatened to revive a strain on U.S.-Israeli relations, Israel's Supreme Court blocked the extradition of American teenager Samuel Sheinbein to the U.S. to face charges related to a grisly murder in Maryland.
In 1999, a jury in Jasper, Texas sentenced white supremacist John William King to death for chaining James Byrd Junior, a black man, to a pickup truck and dragging him to pieces.
In 2000, a jury in Albany, New York, acquitted four white New York City police officers of all charges in the shooting death of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo.
In 2005, police in Wichita, Kansas announced they had made an arrest in the notorious BTK serial killer case.Fifty nine-year-old city employee, Dennis Rader was accused of terrorizing the city with a series of murders dating back to the 1970s.
In 2006, Mardi Gras revelers packed New Orleans' French Quarters, celebrating the first Mardi Gras since the city was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Madonna received a Lifetime Achievement Award at M-T-V's fourth annual T-R-L Awards.
In 2007, The Departed wins Best Picture, Martin Scorsese Best Director, and Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren won the top acting honors at the Academy Awards.
In 2008, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood played the first of three collaborative shows at New York's Madison Square Garden.
In 2010, Bob Dylan was among those honored by President Barack Obama with the National Medal of Arts. The White House called Dylan "an icon of youthful rebellion and poetic sensitivity" whose career has "marked the landscape of American culture for decades."
In 2011, Suze Rotolo, the artist, teacher and author whose photograph with then-boyfriend Bob Dylan appeared on the cover of his Freewheelin' album, died of cancer in New York at the age of 67.