History for February 25

History for February 25 - On-This-Day.com

Bobby Riggs 1918 - Tennis player

• 1570 - England's Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V.
• 1791 - First Bank of the United States (The President, Directors and Company, of the Bank of the United States) was chartered by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Washington.
• 1836 - Samuel Colt received U.S. Patent No. 138 (later 9430X) for a "revolving-cylinder pistol." It was his first patent.
• 1901 - The United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.
• 1913 - The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized a graduated income tax.
• 1919 - The state of Oregon became the first state to place a tax on gasoline. The tax was 1 cent per gallon.
• 1837 - Thomas Davenport patented the first commercial electrical motor. There was no practical electical distribution system available and Davenport went bankrupt.
• 1948 - Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia.