Lewis shatters sprint record
1991 - Carl Lewis shattered the world 100 metres record in the greatest performance of his career on the second day of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Lewis retained the world title in 9.86 seconds, 0.4 of a second under teammate Leroy Burrell’s old mark of 9.90 set at the US Championships in June. Astonishingly, the 30-year-old American, twice the world and Olympic champion, was last out of the blocks in the eight-man final. Through sheer strength and will-power Lewis pulled back the deficit, stepped up another gear at 70 metres and took the lead with five metres to run. Lewis knew he had won as soon as he crossed the finish line, throwing his arms in the air in jubilation. Burrell finished second in 9.88.
August 25
1580 - Spain invades Portugal, conquers it and keeps it for more than 80 years.
1825 - Uruguay declares independence from Brazil.
1875 - British swimmer Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel.
1883 - France obtains protectorate over Annam and Tonkin in Indochina.
1916 - The National Park Service is established in the United States.
1941 - British and Soviet troops invade pro-German Iran.
1944 - A Free French division, racing from Normandy, liberates Paris from the Germans.
1950 - American tennis player Althea Gibson becomes the first black player to compete internationally.
1961 - President Janio Quadros of Brazil resigns unexpectedly after seven months in office.
1965 - A massive avalanche roars down from a glacier in Swiss Alps, burying 108 people at a hydroelectric construction project.
1973 - UN Security Council condemns Israel for “premeditated air attack” on Lebanese villages.
1979 - Somalia adopts a constitution.
1980 - Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.
1984 - The 36-hour hijack drama of an Indian Airlines plane ends at Dubai International Airport.
1991 - German racing driver Michael Schumacher make his Formula One debut in the Belgian Grand Prix.
1995 - Hamid Buhaleeba is killed in an accident during the World Class 2 and 3 Powerboat Championships in Isle of Wight.
1997 - Egon Krenz, East Germany’s last hardline Communist leader, is sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail for the deaths of refugees trying to escape over the Berlin Wall.
2002 - The roof of a building under construction in Jebel Ali in Dubai collapses killing eight workers and injuring 19
2012 - The first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, dies at the age of 82.
2014 - At least 10 people are killed in a stampede at a Hindu temple in Chitrakoot, India.
