February 25

February 25 in history:

• 1998: Kim Dae Jung was sworn in as president of South Korea; a veteran dissident, he was the first opposition-party candidate chosen to lead that country since its creation in 1948.

• 1994: A Jewish extremist called Baruch Goldstein opened fire on a crowd of Muslim worshippers at a mosque in Hebron, Israel, killing 29—an incident known as the "Hebron massacre"; Goldstein was a member of the Kach party, founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane of the Jewish Defense League.

• 1990: An opposition coalition unexpectedly defeated the Sandinistas in Nicaragua's election; Violeta Barrios de Chamorro won 55% of the vote for president against Daniel Ortega's 41%.

• 1964: The young Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, stunned the sports world by defeating world heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston.

• 1956: On the final day of the 20th Communist Party Congress, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered a six-hour "secret speech" denouncing the "crimes of the Stalin era."

• 1870: Hiram Revels, the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate, from Mississippi, was sworn in to office; Revels, who took the seat vacated by Jefferson Davis, served until 1871