On February 25, 1862, Congress passes the Legal Tender Act, authorizing the use of paper notes to pay the government’s bills. The Legal Tender Act allows the government to print $150 million in paper money that is not backed by a similar amount of gold and silver. (Paper money is already in use in the Confederacy) Many bankers and financial experts predict doom for the economy, as they believed there would be little confidence in the scheme. There are also misgivings in Congress, but the worries prove to be unfounded. The public accepts the paper notes, called greenbacks, and the economy continues to function. A second legal tender act is passed in 1863, and by the end of the war, nearly half a billion dollars in greenbacks are in circulation.
February 25, 1948 - Under pressure from the Czechoslovakian Communist Party, President Edvard Benes allows a communist-dominated government to be organized. Western observers decried the virtually bloodless communist coup as an example of Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe, although the USSR will not actually move on Czechoslovakia until 1968.
On February 25, 1964, 22-year-old Cassius Clay shocks the odds-makers by dethroning world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh-round technical knockout. The dreaded Liston, who had twice demolished former champ Floyd Patterson in one round, was an 8-to-1 favorite. However, Clay predicted victory, boasting that he would “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” and knock out Liston in the eighth round.
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