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Truman hands the railroads to the Army to stop a strike from stalling the Korean War buildup

Secretary of the Army Frank Pace gets the order to take control of the lines before a walkout can start.

Five weeks after American troops entered the fighting in Korea, a nationwide rail strike threatened to choke off the flow of troops and supplies just as the war effort was ramping up. In August 1950, President Truman ordered Secretary of the Army Frank Pace to seize control of the nation's railroads and keep them running under federal operation. The takeover kept trains moving through the crisis, with the Army rather than union leadership or the rail companies now running the lines…

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More from August 25

Paris is free; von Choltitz signs away the city he was ordered to burn

Hours later de Gaulle stands at the Hôtel de Ville and tells Paris it liberated itself.

Voyager 1 leaves the Sun's bubble; no craft has gone farther

Thirty-five years after launch, its instruments detect the plasma signature of true interstellar space.

A second day of fire in Washington: the Library of Congress and Treasury burn

A well-timed thunderstorm, not American resistance, would end the occupation by morning.

The Organic Act puts Yellowstone, Yosemite, and dozens of other holdings under one roof for the first time.

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More from Cold War America

Jackie Robinson becomes first Black player elected to the Hall of Fame

Five years after his last game, the writers vote him in on the first ballot.

Apollo 11 splashes down in the Pacific; Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins are home

Eight days after leaving Kennedy Space Center, the crew that walked on the Moon returns to Earth's ocean.

Supreme Court rules 8-0: Nixon must hand over the tapes

Executive privilege has limits, Chief Justice Burger writes, and the special prosecutor gets his subpoena.

A geyser of radioactive water rises 6,000 feet over Bikini Lagoon

Ninety feet down, the Baker device throws a column of sea into the sky and drenches the target fleet in fallout no one had planned for.

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