Today in History.....January 25

On this day in …

* 1787: Shays' Rebellion suffered a setback when debt-ridden farmers led by Captain Daniel Shays failed to capture an arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts

* 1890: reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) of the New York World completed a round-the-world journey in 72 days, six hours and
11 minutes.

* 1915: the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated U.S. transcontinental telephone service

* 1959: American Airlines opened the jet age in the United States with the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707

* 1961: President Kennedy held the first presidential news conference carried live on radio and television

* 1971: Charles Manson and three women followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate

* 1981: the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived in the United States

* 2000: a jury in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., found 13-year-old Lionel Tate guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a 6-year-old family friend (Tate had said he accidentally killed the girl while imitating moves by pro wrestlers).

* 2004: a videotape showed Roy Hallums, an American kidnapped in Baghdad the previous November by practitioners of that "religion of peace", pleading for his life. (Hallums was rescued by coalition troops on Sept. 7, 2005.)