Today in History: 273 people killed in American Airlines Flight 191 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport
Today in history:
On May 25, 1979, 273 people died when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed just after takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare Airport.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: American Airlines Flight 191 crashed near O'Hare airport 45 years ago. These are the 273 victims.Also on this date:
In 1787, the Constitutional Convention began at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia after enough delegates had shown up for a quorum.
In 1946, Transjordan (now Jordan) became a kingdom as it proclaimed its new monarch, Abdullah I.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy told Congress: 'I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.'
In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, ordered the Virginia county to reopen its public schools, which officials had closed in an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka desegregation ruling.
In 1977, 'Star Wars' was released by 20th Century Fox; it would become the highest-grossing film in history at the time.
In 2008, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on the Red Planet to begin searching for evidence of water; the spacecraft confirmed the presence of water ice at its landing site.
In 2012, the private company SpaceX made history as its Dragon capsule became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station.
In 2018, Harvey Weinstein was arrested and charged in New York with rape and another sex felony in the first prosecution to result from the wave of allegations against him. (Weinstein would be convicted of two felony counts in 2020, but an appeals court would overturn the conviction in 2024. A retrial on the charges began in April 2025.)
In 2020, George Floyd, a Black man, was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and pleading that he couldn't breathe; Floyd's death, captured on video by a bystander, would lead to worldwide protests, some of which turned violent, and a reexamination of racism and policing in the U.S.
Today's Birthdays: Actor Ian McKellen is 86. Country singer Jessi Colter is 82. Actor-singer Leslie Uggams is 82. Filmmaker and puppeteer Frank Oz is 81. Actor Karen Valentine is 78. Actor Jacki Weaver is 78. Rock singer Klaus Meine (Scorpions) is 77. Actor Patti D'Arbanville is 74. Playwright Eve Ensler is 72. Actor Connie Sellecca is 70. Musician Paul Weller is 67. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is 65. Actor-comedian Mike Myers is 62. Actor Octavia Spencer is 55. Actor Cillian Murphy is 49. Football Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher is 47. Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Aly Raisman is 31.
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