August 25 Birthday
On August 25, 1944, Paris was liberated. General Philippe Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division entered the city through the Porte d'Orléans. German General Dietrich von Choltitz had been ordered to destroy Paris — he had planted charges under bridges and monuments. He refused to carry out the order, later claiming he had decided that Paris was too beautiful to destroy. Hitler asked: "Is Paris burning?" It was not. The liberation was a moment of national rebirth, but the political aftermath was messy — de Gaulle claimed credit and excluded Communist resistance fighters from the narrative. Leonard Bernstein, born this day in 1918, conducted the New York Philharmonic from 1958 to 1969. He composed West Side Story, Candide, and the Chichester Psalms. He was the first American-born conductor to lead a major American orchestra. He was flamboyant, brilliant, and bisexual. He held a "radical chic" party for the Black Panthers at his Park Avenue apartment, which Tom Wolfe satirized. People born on August 25 fall under the zodiac sign of Virgo. The birthstone is Peridot and the birth flower is Gladiolus. Historical events on August 25 include 1944: Paris liberated from German occupation by Free French and American forces, 1916: National Park Service created by Congress, 1835: New York Sun publishes "Great Moon Hoax" claiming life on the Moon. Famous people born on August 25 include Leonard Bernstein (1918), Sean Connery (1930), George Wallace (1919).