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On Feb. 25, 1793, the department heads of the U.S. government met with President Washington at his home for the first Cabinet meeting on record. 

On this date: 

In 1570, Pope Pius V excommunicated England’s Queen Elizabeth I. 

In 1836, inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver. 

In 1901, United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan. 

In 1919, Oregon became the first state to tax gasoline. 

In 1948, Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia. 

In 1950, “Your Show of Shows,” starring Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris, debuted on NBC TV. 

In 1986, President Ferdinand E. Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a tainted election; Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency. 

In 1990, Nicaraguans went to the polls in an election that resulted in an upset victory for the alliance opposed to the ruling Sandinistas. 

In 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, 28 Americans were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. 

In 1994, American-born Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank, killing 29 Muslims before he was beaten to death by worshippers.