By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Thursday, Feb. 25, the 56th day of 2021. There are 309 days left in the year.

Todayís Highlight in History:

On Feb. 25, 1986, President Ferdinand Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a tainted election; Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency.

On this date:

In 1793, President George Washington held the first Cabinet meeting on record at his Mount Vernon home; attending were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.

In 1901, United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.

In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Philander Chase Knox.

In 1919, Oregon became the first state to tax gasoline, at one cent per gallon.

In 1950, ìYour Show of Shows,î starring Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris, debuted on NBC-TV.

In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser became Egyptís prime minister after the countryís president, Mohammed Naguib, was effectively ousted in a coup.

In 1964, Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) became world heavyweight boxing champion as he defeated Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.

In 1983, playwright Tennessee Williams was found dead in his New York hotel suite; he was 71.

In 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, 28 Americans were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

In 1994, American-born Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire with an automatic rifle inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank, killing 29 Muslims before he was beaten to death by worshippers.

In 2010, in Vancouver, the Canadian women beat the United States 2-0 for their third straight Olympic hockey title.

In 2018, Chinaís official news agency said the countryís ruling Communist Party had proposed scrapping term limits for Chinaís president, appearing to lay the groundwork for Xi Jinping to rule as president beyond 2023. (Chinaís rubber-stamp lawmakers approved that change on March 11.)

Ten years ago: The Obama White House broke decades of tradition, naming Jeremy Bernard the first man to ever serve as social secretary in the female-dominated East Wing. Suze Rotolo, artist and girlfriend of singer Bob Dylan, who was his lyrical muse when he came to prominence in the early 1960s, died in New York at age 67.