On May 25, 1787, the Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia after enough delegates had shown up for a quorum.
In 1803 American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston.
In 1810 Argentina began its revolt against Spain.
In 1844 a Washington correspondent for the Baltimore Patriot became the first newsman to send a story by telegraph.
In 1878 stage and screen dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was born in Richmond, Va.
In 1895 playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted on a morals charge in London and was sentenced to prison.
In 1897 boxer Gene Tunney was born in New York.
In 1925 John Scopes was indicted in Tennessee for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
In 1927 novelist Robert Ludlum was born in New York.
In 1929 opera star Beverly Sills was born in New York.
In 1935 Babe Ruth hit the 714th and final home run of his career for the Boston Braves, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In 1946 Transjordan (now Jordan) became a kingdom as it proclaimed its new monarch, King Abdullah Ibn Ul-Hussein.
In 1961 President John Kennedy asked the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
In 1963 the Organization of African Unity was founded, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In 1968 the Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, was dedicated.
In 1976 U.S. Rep. Wayne Hays (D-Ohio) admitted a “personal relationship” with Elizabeth Ray, a committee staff member who claimed she had received her job in order to be Hays’ mistress.
In 1979 275 people died when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed on takeoff from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
In 1981 Daniel Goodwin, 25, dressed in a Spider-Man suit, was arrested after scaling the 110-story Sears Tower in 7 1/2 hours.
In 1985 more than 11,000 people were killed as a hurricane and tidal wave devastated Bangladesh.
In 1986 an estimated 7 million Americans participated in ”Hands Across America,” forming a line across the country to bring attention to and raise money for the nation’s hungry and homeless.
In 1989 the Calgary Flames won their first Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens in Game 6 of the NHL championship series.
In 1991 Israel completed Operation Solomon, which had evacuated 15,000 Ethiopian Jews from the African nation to Israel.
In 1992 career U.S. diplomat Philip Habib died in Puligny-Montrachet, France; he was 72. Also in 1992 Jay Leno made his debut as permanent host of NBC’s “Tonight Show,” succeeding Johnny Carson.
In 1993 the White House announced it was putting five fired employees of its travel office on paid leave as it investigated accusations of financial mismanagement.
In 1994 the UN Security Council lifted a 10-year-old ban on weapons exports from South Africa, scrapping the last of its apartheid-era embargoes.
In 1995 NATO warplanes struck Bosnian Serb headquarters. (Serbs answered with swift defiance, storming UN weapons depots, attacking safe areas and taking peacekeepers as hostages.)
In 1997 Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, marking 41 years and 10 months of service. Also in 1997 Polish voters adopted a constitution that removed the last traces of communism.
In 1998 Indonesia’s new president, B.J. Habibie, promised to hold elections.
In 1999 Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr decided against reprosecuting Whitewater figure Susan McDougal and Julie Hiatt Steele, a witness in the Monica Lewinsky investigation, after both their trials ended with hung juries.
In 2000 the government proposed a rating system telling consumers how prone vehicles are to rolling over. Also in 2000 Iranian state radio announced that former President Hashemi Rafsanjani had resigned from the incoming parliament, depriving hard-liners of a leading figure in the power struggle between conservatives and reformists.
In 2001 a federal appeals court lifted an injunction on publication of “The Wind Done Gone,” Alice Randall’s satirical retelling of “Gone With The Wind” from a black viewpoint.
In 2002 a China Airlines jumbo jet flying to Hong Kong crashed in the Taiwan Strait, killing all 225 people on board. Also in 2002 a passenger train and a freight train collided in southern Mozambique, killing 195 people.
In 2003, in a historic vote cast under intense U.S. pressure, Israel’s government conditionally approved by a narrow margin an internationally backed “road map” to peace.
In 2004 the Boston Archdiocese said it would close 65 of 357 parishes, an offshoot of the clergy sex abuse scandal. Also in 2004 peace activist David Dellinger, one of the Chicago 7 defendants, died in Montpelier, Vt.; he was 88.
In 2005 the defense rested in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial without calling the pop star, who ended up being acquitted. Also in 2005 Ismail Merchant, half of the prestigious Merchant-Ivory filmmaking team, died in London; he was 68.
In 2006 former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted in Houston of conspiracy and fraud for the company’s downfall. (Lay died in July from heart disease and his convictions were vacated; Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison.)
