Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Today is Thursday, Dec. 25, the 359th day of 2025. There are six days left in the year. This is Christmas Day. Today in history: On Dec. 25, 2009, passengers aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 foiled an attempt to blow up the plane as it was landing in Detroit by seizing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (OO'-mahr fah-ROOK' ahb-DOOL'-moo-TAH'-lahb), who tried to set off explosives in his underwear. (Abdulmutallab later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.)
Today is Friday, Dec. 19, the 353rd day of 2025. There are 12 days left in the year. Today in history: On Dec. 19, 2008, citing imminent danger to the national economy, President George W. Bush ordered a $17.4 billion emergency bailout of the U.S. auto industry. Also on this date: In 1777, during the American Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington led his army of more than 12,000 soldiers to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to camp for the winter.
Also on this date: In 1947, the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway. In 1967, a surgical team in Cape Town, South Africa, led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard, performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, who lived 18 days with the donated organ from a 25-year-old woman who had died in a traffic accident.
On Oct. 31, 1950, Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols became the first African-American to play in an NBA game; Lloyd would go on to play for nine seasons, winning an NBA championship in 1955 with the Syracuse Nationals. Also on this date: In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation making Nevada the 36th state, eight days before the presidential election.
On Oct. 23, 2001, Apple released the iPod. An estimated 450 million iPod devices were sold before the line was discontinued in 2022. Also on this date: In 1915, an estimated 25,000 women marched on Fifth Avenue in New York City in support of women's suffrage. In 1942, during World War II, Britain launched a major offensive against Axis forces at El Alamein (el ah-lah-MAYN') in Egypt, resulting in an Allied forces victory.
Today is Friday, Oct. 17, the 290th day of 2025. There are 75 days left in the year. Today in history: On Oct. 17,1933, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany. Also on this date: In 1777, British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, New York, in a turning point of the Revolutionary War.
Also on this date: In 1787, the Constitution of the United States was completed and signed by a majority of delegates attending the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. In 1862, more than 3,600 men were killed in the Civil War Battle of Antietam (an-TEE'-tum) in Maryland. In 1944, during World War II, Allied paratroopers launched Operation Market Garden, landing behind German lines in the Netherlands.