Aug. 25 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1609, Galileo Galilei exhibited his first telescope in Venice.
In 1718, the city of New Orleans was founded.
In 1944, allied forces and the French resistance freed the city of Paris from German occupation during World War II. United Press reporter James McGlincy was the first foreign correspondent in the capital amid the fighting. He reported the Parisians welcomed the Allies with kisses: “Lord, how they kissed us!“
In 1967, a sniper assassinated American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell in Arlington, Va.
France’s Division Leclerc work to liberate the city of Paris from German occupation on August 25, 1944, during World War II. File Photo courtesy of the National Museum of the U.S. Navy
In 1982, U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered the deployment of the Marines to Beirut amid the Lebanese Civil War. The troops were part of a multinational force that ultimately stayed in Lebanon until March 1984. More than 260 U.S. service members died during the deployment, most during a barracks bombing in 1983.
In 1985, Samantha Smith, 13, was killed with her father and six other people in a plane crash in Maine. Samantha’s 1983 letter to Soviet President Yuri Andropov about her fear of nuclear war earned her a visit to the Soviet Union.
Rescue workers bring in a family through rising flood waters in the Cypress Station neighborhood as waters rise during Hurricane Harvey in Houston on August 28. The storm made landfall August 25, 2017. File Photo by Jerome Hicks/UPI
Photo courtesy RIA Novosti archive
In 1989, Voyager 2, after a 4 billion-mile journey, made its closest pass over Neptune, sending back images of southern lights and its moon, Triton, to Earth.
On August 25, 1989, Voyager 2, after a 4 billion-mile journey, made its closest pass over Neptune, sending back images of southern lights and its moon, Triton, to Earth. File Photo courtesy of NASA
In 2009, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., a liberal fixture in the Senate for 46 years, died of brain cancer at the age of 77.
File Photo by CJ Gunther/UPI
Neil Armstrong speaks during a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington on November 16, 2011. On August 25, 2012, Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died in Cincinnati. He was 82. File Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI
In 2012, former astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died in Cincinnati. He was 82.
In 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall on San Jose Island, Texas, as a Category 4 storm. Harvey killed more than 100 people and caused $125 billion in damage.
Float riders in the Rex parade toss beads to the crowd on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans on February 28. On August 25, 1718, the city of New Orleans was founded. File Photo by AJ Sisco/UPI
In 2020, the Africa Regional Certification Commission declared Africa free of wild polio after four years without a case. It returned less than two years later.
File Photo by Marshall Wolfe/EPA
A student peers through a telescope at a star party held at Madras High School the night before crowds come to watch the total solar eclipse in Madras, Ore., on August 20. On August 25, 1609, Galileo Galilei exhibited his first telescope in Venice. Photo by Aubrey Gemignani/UPI