Today in History....January 25

* 1776, the first national memorial is ordered by Congress. It was built in in honor of Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, who had been killed during an assault on Quebec on December 31, 1775

* 1905, at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond is discovered during a routine inspection by the mine's superintendent. Weighing 1.33 pounds, and christened the "Cullinan," it was the largest diamond ever found

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

* 1919, in Paris, delegates to the peace conference formally approve the establishment of a commission on the League of Nations

* 1956, in a long interview with visiting American attorney Marshall MacDuffie, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev adopts a friendly attitude toward the United States and indicates that he believes President Dwight Eisenhower is sincere in his desire for peace

* 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

* 1968, the Israeli submarine Dakar, carrying 69 sailors, passes the island of Crete and radios its position --- then disappears. The exact fate of this vessel remains a mystery to this day

* 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

* 1997, responding to recent cases of deadly food poisoning, President Clinton said in his weekly radio address that he would seek $43 million dollars to implement a state-of-the-art early warning system for food contamination

* 2002, J. Clifford Baxter, a former Enron Corp. executive who'd reportedly complained about the company's questionable accounting practices, was found shot to death in a car, a suicide

* 2006, Hamas won a large majority of seats in Palestinian parliamentary elections

* 2007, Ford Motor Co. said it had lost a staggering $12.7 billion in 2006, the worst loss in the company's 103-year history