March 25th: National & International Days, Celebrations and Observances

March 25 marks several events across the country.

• At downtown memorials, people stop to read Medal of Honor inscriptions. Veterans often leave flowers. The Society maintains detailed records of recipients' stories online.
• Near city centers, outreach programs support trafficking survivors. Research centers keep updating their records of transatlantic slave trade documents.
• Around the corner, Mrs. Stavros bakes spinach pies in her decades-old shop.
• Tuesday nights, the library hosts heated debates about Tolkien's early manuscripts. Last week, someone showed up with warm pecan waffles - now it's becoming a tradition.
• Deep in Maryland's state archives, faded papers reveal 1700s conservation methods. These days, field workers apply similar principles worldwide.
• In basement offices, local historians sort through boxes of old photographs, mapping out which buildings still exist on Main Street.

March 25 marked turning points across different fields of human progress.

• In 1655, Saturn revealed one of its secrets. Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens peered through his telescope and found a massive moon - Titan. At 3,200 miles wide, it dwarfs most others in our solar system. Its thick blanket of atmosphere and methane pools still puzzle researchers today.
• The science of tornado prediction took shape at Tinker Air Force Base. Two weather officers changed everything in 1948. Major Ernest Fawbush and Captain Robert Miller read the signs in the atmosphere and warned of an approaching tornado. Their success laid the groundwork for modern storm alerts.
• Civil rights history unfolded on the road to Montgomery in 1965. From Selma they came - 25,000 strong. The 54-mile march ended at Alabama's capital, each step advancing the cause of voting rights. That historic route, now a National Trail, bears witness to their resolve.

March 25th marks birthdays of several scientific pioneers.

• Norman Borlaug taught farmers his wheat methods across fields and labs from 1940 to 2009. His work feeding millions earned the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize.
• Gloria Steinem put Ms. Magazine on newsstands, her words sparked change. She wrote about women's rights when few others would. In 2013, she accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom for connecting women's equality to environmental action.
• Maurice and Katia Krafft got closer to volcanoes than anyone thought possible. Their cameras caught eruptions just yards from flowing lava. Mount Unzen took their lives in 1991 - a story now told in "Fire of Love."
• E.H.K. von Dechen walked every mile of Germany's Rhine Province. His maps showed mining sites and underground water no one had documented before. Scientists named a mineral after him - Dechenite - and still check his notes when studying the region.