Todayâs Highlight in History: On July 25, 2000, a New York-bound Air France Concorde crashed outside Paris shortly after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and four people on the ground; it was the first-ever crash of the supersonic jet. On this date: In 1866, Ulysses S. Grant was named General of the Army of the United States, the first officer to hold the rank. In 1898, the United States invaded Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War. In 1946, the United States detonated an atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in the first underwater test of the device. In 1952, Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.