Today is Monday, August 25, the 237th day of 2014. There are 128 days left in the year.
Today's Highlights in History:
On August 25, 1944, during World War II, Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation. Romania declared war on former ally Germany.
On this date:
In 1921, the United States signed a peace treaty with Germany.
In 1943, U.S.-led Allied troops liberated New Georgia in the Solomon Islands from Japanese forces during World War II.
In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure providing pensions for former U.S. presidents and their widows.
In 1960, opening ceremonies were held for the Summer Olympics in Rome.
In 1967, George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, was shot to death in the parking lot of a shopping center in Arlington, Virginia; former party member John Patler was later convicted of the killing.
In 1980, the Broadway musical "42nd Street" opened. (Producer David Merrick stunned the cast and audience during the curtain call by announcing that the show's director, Gower Champion, had died earlier that day.)
In 1981, the U.S. spacecraft Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending back pictures of and data about the ringed planet.
In 1984, author Truman Capote was found dead in a Los Angeles mansion; he was 59.
In 1989, Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Neptune, its final planetary target.
Ten years ago: An Army investigation found that 27 people attached to an intelligence unit at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad either approved or participated in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. David Hicks, an Australian cowboy who'd converted to Islam and allegedly fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan, went before a U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and pleaded not guilty to war crimes charges. (Hicks pleaded guilty in March 2007 to providing material support for terrorism, a deal which got him out of the U.S. base in Cuba, and he was freed by the end of that year.)
Thought for Today: "Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor." -- Truman Capote (1924-1984).
Five years ago: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the U.S. Senate, died at age 77 in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after a battle with a brain tumor. President Barack Obama announced he wanted to keep Ben Bernanke on as Fed chairman. South Korea's first rocket, the Naro-1, blasted off into space but ended up falling back to Earth. A judge in Los Angeles sentenced Chris Brown to five years' probation and six months' community labor for beating his girlfriend Rihanna.
One year ago: Syria agreed to a U.N. investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack outside Damascus -- a deal a senior White House official dismissed as "too late to be credible," saying the United States had "very little doubt" President Bashar Assad's forces used such weapons. Tokyo beat Chula Vista, California, 6-4 to win the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Sixteen-year-old New Zealander Lydia Ko succeeded in defending her title at the Canadian Women's Open with a five-stroke victory over Karine Icher.