This day in history

[August 25, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Thursday, Aug. 25, the 237th day of 2011. There are 128 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Aug. 25, 1944, Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.

On this date:

In 1718, hundreds of French colonists arrived in Louisiana, with some settling in present-day New Orleans.

In 1825, Uruguay declared independence from Brazil.

In 1916, the National Park Service was established within the Department of the Interior.

In 1921, the United States signed a peace treaty with Germany.

In 1943, U.S. forces liberated New Georgia in the Solomon Islands from the Japanese during World War II.

In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure providing pensions for former U.S. presidents and their widows.

In 1960, opening ceremonies were held for the Summer Olympics in Rome.

In 1981, the U.S. spacecraft Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending back pictures of and data about the ringed planet.

In 1985, Samantha Smith, 13, the schoolgirl whose letter to Yuri V. Andropov resulted in her famous peace tour of the Soviet Union, died with her father in an airliner crash in Auburn, Maine.

In 2009, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died at age 77 in Hyannis Port, Mass.

Ten years ago: Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby (meh-tay mar-it shes-em hoy-bee), a single mother and former waitress, married Norway's Crown Prince Haakon (hoh-uh-kahn) in Oslo. Rhythm-and-blues singer Aaliyah (ah-LEE'-yah) was killed with eight others in a plane crash in the Bahamas; she was 22.

Five years ago: A college student's checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight that had arrived in Houston from Buenos Aires, Argentina, was found to contain a stick of dynamite, one of six security incidents that day that caused U.S. flights to be diverted, evacuated or searched. Joseph Stefano, who wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," died in Thousand Oaks, Calif., at age 84.

One year ago: North Korea welcomed Jimmy Carter back to Pyongyang as the former U.S. president arrived to bring home Aijalon Mahli Gomes (EYE'-jah-lahn MAH'-lee gohms), an American jailed in the communist country since Jan. 2010 for entering the country illegally from China.

Today's birthdays: Game show host Monty Hall is 90. Actor Sean Connery is 81. Actor Page Johnson is 81. Talk show show host Regis Philbin is 80. Actor Tom Skerritt is 78. Jazz musician Wayne Shorter is 78. Movie director Hugh Hudson is 75. Author Frederick Forsyth is 73. Actor David Canary is 73. Movie director John Badham is 72. Filmmaker Marshall Brickman is 70. Rhythm-and-blues singer Walter Williams (The O'Jays) is 69. Actor Anthony Heald is 67. Rock musician Danny Smythe is 63. Rock singer-actor Gene Simmons is 62. Actor John Savage is 62. Country singer-musician Henry Paul (Outlaws; Blackhawk) is 62. Rock singer Rob Halford is 60. Rock musician Geoff Downes (Asia) is 59. Rock singer Elvis Costello is 57. Movie director Tim Burton is 53. Actor Christian LeBlanc is 53. Actress Ally Walker is 50. Country singer Billy Ray Cyrus is 50. Actress Joanne Whalley is 50. Rock musician Vivian Campbell (Def Leppard) is 49. Actor Blair Underwood is 47. Actor Robert Maschio is 45. Rap DJ Terminator X (Public Enemy) is 45. Alternative country singer Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) is 44. Actor David Alan Basche (BAYSH) is 43. Television chef Rachael Ray is 43. Actor Cameron Mathison is 42. Country singer Jo Dee Messina is 41. Model Claudia Schiffer is 41. Country singer Brice Long is 40. Actor Eric Millegan is 37. Actor Jonathan Togo is 34. Actor Kel Mitchell is 33. Actress Rachel Bilson ("The O.C.") is 30. Actress Blake Lively is 24. Actor Josh Flitter is 17.

Thought for today: "Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do it right." -- Kurt Herbert Adler, Austrian-born conductor (1905-1988)

[Associated Press]

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