August 25th is the 237th day of the year (238th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 128 days remaining in the year.

1609 • Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.

1718 • Hundreds of colonists from France arrived in Louisiana. Some settled in New Orleans.

1814 • The Library of Congress was destroyed by British forces.

1840 • Joseph Gibbons received a patent for the seeding machine.

1910 • Yellow Cab is founded.

1916 • The United States National Park Service is created.

1949 • NBC Radio debuted Father Knows Best. The show went to TV in 1954.

1950 • President Harry Truman orders the Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike.

1978 • The Turin shroud believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ went on display for the first time in 45 years.

1981 • Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn

1989 • Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the outermost planet in the Solar System.

2012 • Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man made object to do so.

Today in History