Celebrations Today – April 25

Holidays and observances

Celebrations Today – USA: April 25

National DNA Day
National East Meets West Day
National Hug a Plumber Day
National Telephone Day
National Zucchini Bread Day
National Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day
National Pigs-in-a-Blanket Day
National Teach Your Children to Save Day
National New Kids on the Block Day
World Day for Laboratory Animals
World Meningitis Day

Today in US History: April 25

U.S. Declares War on Spain

U.S. Battleship Maine,
Samuel H. Gottscho, photographer, before February 15, 1898.
Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, 1935-1955

On April 25,1898, the United States formally declared war against Spain. The Monroe Doctrine, which since 1823 had viewed any European intervention in the Americas as a threat to U.S. security, coupled with the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor precipitated the U.S. engagement. Coverage by both the Hearst newspapers and the nascent film industry solidified public support for involvement in Cuba’s struggle for independence.

Within months, Spain’s overseas empire, which had begun with Columbus’ voyages of discovery, finally collapsed under the U.S.’ two-pronged war strategy. Commodore George Dewey sailed to the Pacific the day that war was declared. On May 1 the Spanish fleet was defeated in the Philippines. The U.S. Marines and other troops, including Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, helped defeat Spanish forces in the Americas.

Restos del U.S.S. Maine,
William Henry Jackson, photographer, ca. 1900.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920

The U.S. and Spain signed a peace treaty in December 1898. Spain gave up its claims to Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Guam and, for twenty million, transferred the Philippines to the U.S. The U.S. emerged from the war as a significant player on the world stage.

The Spanish-American War was the first U.S. war in which the motion picture camera played a role. See films made by the Edison Manufacturing Company and the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company in The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures. Two special presentations are also available: The Motion Picture Camera Goes to War: The Spanish-American War and the Philippine Revolution and The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War.
Search the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog for Cuba or Havana to find hundreds of still images related to Cuba and the Spanish-American War.
Search the Today in History Archive on the term Spanish-American War to learn more about events in the war including the mysterious destruction of the U.S.S. Maine.
Also, search on Spanish-American War in American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940 to find recollections by veterans of that war. Or, search on the term Cuban War to hear a tune by that name in Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941.
A search on Spanish-American War in History of the American West, 1860-1920: Photographs from the Collection of the Denver Public Library provides a variety of images relating to that war. A search on San Juan Hill includes images of reenactments of that battle by members of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
See the online exhibition 1492: An Ongoing Voyage to learn about the origins of Spanish expansion into the Americas and examine the first sustained contacts between American people and European explorers, conquerors and settlers.

El Parapeto de la Cabana

Palacio del Gobierno General

Castillo del Morro

Havana, Cuba, William Henry Jackson, photographer, copyright 1900.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920

Ella Fitzgerald

Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald,
Carl Van Vechten, photographer, January 19, 1940.
Creative Americans: Portraits by Van Vechten, 1932-1964

Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia. She was one of the leading jazz singers of all time. In her lifetime, she won thirteen Grammys—two from the first Grammy Awards in 1958 (best jazz individual and best female pop vocal performer). Her recordings have sold more than 40 million albums.

Fitzgerald’s career began at Amateur Night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. She soon went on to sing with the Chick Webb orchestra and made her first recordings in 1935. After Webb’s death in 1939, she led the band for about three years before launching out on her own.

From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s her career was managed by jazz impresario Norman Granz. During this time Fitzgerald recorded a series of nineteen albums and her inimitable style became nationally recognized. Granz also arranged for her to tour extensively and to work closely with the Oscar Peterson Trio.

Fitzgerald’s mastery of “scat,” in which the singer improvises nonsense syllables to imitate a musical instrument, is heard throughout her recordings. Although the history of scatting may date back to West Africa, trumpeter Louis Armstrong made it popular in the U.S. When he accompanied blues singer Bessie Smith, for example, Armstrong used his coronet to sound out vocalizations; conversely, Fitzgerald likened her voice to a musical instrument, a saxophone. Through recordings, concerts, and television appearances, both figures brought scat to a broad public audience.

Fitzgerald recorded hundreds of songs composed by great American lyricists such as Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, and Richard Rogers. She performed with many great musical talents of her day including Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Dizzy Gillespie.

To locate more photographs of famous singers and other persons prominent in the arts, browse the Occupational Index in Creative Americans: Portraits by Van Vechten, 1932-1964.
The William P. Gottlieb: Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz collection, comprising over 1,600 photographs of celebrated jazz artists, documents the jazz scene from 1938 to 1948, primarily in New York City and Washington, D.C. Search on the names of a favorite jazz artist to find portraits of such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Earl Hines, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Benny Carter. This online collection also presents Gottlieb’s 1946-47 articles from Down Beat magazine.
Search the Today in History Archive on the terms singer or jazz to find more American Memory material on musical legends like Jelly Roll Morton, W.C. Handy, George Gershwin and Frank Sinatra.
The Performing Arts Reading Room has custody of the Ella Fitzgerald Collection, donated to the Library of Congress by the Fitzgerald 1989 Trust in 1997. Contact the Performing Arts Reading Room for more information.
To learn more about the early history of the art form, or listen to sound recordings of jazz and ragtime search on these terms in California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell.

Today in History – April 25-External Links

Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia