On This Day: January 25

This is the 25th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: Macintosh

In 1984, Apple's Macintosh computer went on sale for $2,495. It was not until mid-1985 that sales began to take off and this computer began to replace the Apple II model. Steven Jobs himself took over the project, insisting that the computer should be not merely great but "insanely great." The Macintosh was introduced during the broadcast of the 1984 Super Bowl.

Holidays

Feast day of Saints Juventinus and Maximinimus, the Conversion of St. Paul, St. Apollo, St. Artemas, St. Publius, St. Dwynwen, St. Poppo, and Saint Praejectus or Prix.

Events

1533 - Henry VIII secretly married Anne Boleyn.

1579 - The Treaty of Utrecht was signed, marking the beginning of the Dutch Republic.

1890 - Reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) of the "New York World" completed a round-the-world journey in 72 days, six hours, 11 minutes.

1890 - The United Mine Workers of America was founded.

1915 - Alexander Graham Bell inaugurated U.S. transcontinental telephone service.

1917 - The United States of America purchased the Danish West Indies (now the Virgin Islands) for $25 million.

1925 - The first Winter Olympics opened at Chamonix in the French Alps.

1946 - The United Mine Workers rejoined the American Federation of Labor.

1959 - American Airlines flew the first scheduled transcontinental Boeing 707 flight.

1961 - President John F. Kennedy held the first presidential news conference carried live on radio and television.

1971 - Charles Manson and three women followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate.

1971 - Idi Amin led a coup that deposed Milton Obote and became president of Uganda.

1981 - Jiang Qing, Mao Tse-tung's widow, was tried for treason and received a death sentence, which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.

1995 - The defense presented its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson trial in Los Angeles.

1999 - An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter Scale hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000.

2004 - Opportunity rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.

2006 - Three independent observing campaigns announce the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star.

Births

1759 - Robert Burns, Scottish poet.

1874 - W. (William) Somerset Maugham, British author.

1882 - Virginia Woolf, English author.

1919 - Edwin Newman, American journalist, author.

1941 - Buddy Baker, American race car driver.

1956 - Andy Cox, British musician.

1981 - Alicia Keys (born Alicia J. Augello-Cook), an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and musician.

Deaths

1947 - Al Capone, American gangster.

1999 - Robert Shaw, American conductor.

2005 - Philip Johnson, American architect, museum curator, and historian.