August 25th

Today's Highlight in History:
On August 25th, 1944 Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.

On this date:
In 1825, Uruguay declared independence from Brazil.

In 1875, Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, getting from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours.

In 1900, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (died in Weimar, Germany.

In 1916, the National Park Service was established within the Department of the Interior.

In 1921, the United States signed a peace treaty with Germany.

In 1944, Romania declared war on Germany.

In 1950, President Truman ordered the Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.

In 1980, the Broadway musical "42nd Street" opened. (Producer David Merrick stunned both cast and audience during the curtain call by announcing that the show's director, Gower Champion, had died earlier that day.)

In 1985, Samantha Smith, the schoolgirl whose letter to Yuri V. Andropov resulted in her famous peace tour of the Soviet Union, died with her father in a plane crash in Maine.

In 1998, retired Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell died in Richmond, Virginia, at age 90.

Ten years ago: The United Nations gave the world's navies the right to use force to stop vessels trading with Iraq.

Five years ago: Chinese-American human rights activist Harry Wu, safely back on US soil after two months in Chinese detention, said the spying case against him was "all lies," and vowed to seek compensation from China.

One year ago: The FBI, reversing itself after six years, admitted that its agents might have fired some potentially flammable tear gas canisters on the final day of the 1993 standoff with the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas, but said it continued to believe law enforcement agents did not start the fire which engulfed the cult's compound.

"The final lesson of history: `Let's never go back there again!"'

-- Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844-1900).