Today in History - History - June 25th

1929President Hoover authorizes building of Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam)

1940Adolf Hitler views Eiffel tower & grave of Napoleon in France

1988Cal Ripken Jr plays in his 1,000th consecutive game

1989Betsy King wins LPGA McDonald's Golf Championship

1978Pat Bradley wins LPGA Lady Keystone Golf Open

1935Joe Louis defeats Primo Carnera at Yankee Stadium

1948Harry Truman signs Displaced Persons Bill (205,000 Europeans to US)

19471st version of Anne Frank's diary "Het Achterhuis" published in The Netherlands

1990African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela meets with President George Bush at the White House

1941FDR issues Executive Order 8802 forbidding discrimination

1942Willis Reed, Hico Louisiana, NBA hall of fame MVP center/coach (NY Knicks)

1961Ricky Gervais, Reading England, actor and comedian (The Office)

1903George Orwell, [Eric A Blair], Bihar, British India, British writer (Animal Farm, 1984), (d. 1950)

1963George Michael [Panos], London, British rock vocalist (Wham-I Want Your Sex)

2006Actress Nicole Kidman (45) weds country music singer-songwriter Keith Urban (44) at Cardinal Ceretti Memorial Chapel in Manly, Australia

1960NBA player Oscar Robertson (21) weds teacher Yvonne Crittenden in Cincinnati, Ohio

1999Business magnate Rupert Murdoch (68) weds businesswoman Wendi Deng (30) at the yacht Morning Glory in New York harbor

1987Actress and comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus (26) weds actor Brad Hall (29)

1999"Sudden Death" action star Jean-Claude Van Damme (38) weds Gladys Portugues in Knokke-Heist, Belgium

1927Pediatrician Benjamin Spock (24) weds civil liberties advocate Jane Cheney

1967MLB pitcher Nolan Ryan (20) weds his high school sweetheart Ruth Holdorff (18)

1983Actor Denzel Washington (28) weds actress Pauletta Pearson (33)

2009Michael Jackson, American recording artist, entertainer and King of Pop music (The Jackson 5, Thriller, Dangerous) dies of cardiac arrest at 50

2009Farrah Fawcett, American actress and pop culture figure (b.1947)

1976Johnny Mercer, US songwriter (That old Black Magic), dies at 66

1968Tony Hancock, actor/writer (Call Me Genius, Rebel), dies at 43

1997Jacques Cousteau, French oceanographer, dies of heart attack at 87

1876George Armstrong Custer, US General, dies at the Battle of Little Bighorn aged 36