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Today in History, February 25th

On February 25, 1964, Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title. Plus Hiram Revels joins the Senate and Khrushchev's secret speech.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 2 min read Sources checked

Published February 25, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

February 25 is best known for 1964, when 22-year-old Cassius Clay, soon to be known as Muhammad Ali, upset Sonny Liston in Miami Beach to win the world heavyweight title. The date also saw Hiram Revels become the first Black member of Congress in 1870 and Nikita Khrushchev denounce Stalin in his “secret speech” in 1956.

The big story: Cassius Clay Shocks Sonny Liston (1964)

Sonny Liston was the reigning heavyweight champion, and the oddsmakers made him an 8-to-1 favorite. His challenger was a 22-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, named Cassius Clay, and few experts gave him much of a chance. On February 25, 1964, in front of 8,300 fans at the Convention Hall in Miami Beach, Florida, it went the other way. Clay held his own through six rounds. After the sixth, Liston stayed on his stool, complaining of a hurt shoulder, and did not answer the bell for the seventh. Clay was the new champion by technical knockout. Two days later he announced that he had joined the Nation of Islam, and later that year he took the name Muhammad Ali. He went on to become one of the best-known athletes in the world.

More events on February 25

Year	What happened
1779	After a grueling winter march through flooded country, George Rogers Clark forced the British to surrender Fort Sackville at Vincennes, in present-day Indiana.
1828	John Adams II, son of President John Quincy Adams, married his first cousin Mary Catherine Hellen in a private ceremony at the White House.
1870	Hiram Revels of Mississippi was sworn in to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American to serve in Congress.
1940	NBC’s experimental New York station W2XBS aired the first televised NHL game. The Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens 6–2 in front of a TV audience of perhaps 300 set owners.
1948	Under Communist pressure, Czechoslovakia’s President Edvard Beneš accepted a Communist-dominated government, a nearly bloodless takeover that lasted until 1989.
1956	In a closed session of the Soviet Communist Party congress, Nikita Khrushchev denounced Joseph Stalin’s purges and personality cult.
1956	American poet Sylvia Plath met English poet Ted Hughes at a party in Cambridge, England. They married about four months later.
2004	Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ opened in U.S. theaters on Ash Wednesday and became a surprise box-office hit.