On This Day in History for October 25

Events 1 - 100 of 139

• 625 Boniface V ends his reign as Catholic Pope
• 1131 Crowning of Louis VII the Young, King of France
• 1147 King Afonso I of Portugal occupiers Lisbon
• 1147 Seljuk Turks defeat German crusaders under Conrad III at the Battle of Dorylaeum
• 1241 Goffredo Castiglioni elected as Pope Coelestinus IV (-Nov 10 1241)
• 1315 Adam Banastre, Henry de Lea and William Bradshaw, led an attack on Liverpool Castle
• 1415 Battle of Agincourt: Henry V's forces defeat larger French army and the longbow defeats the armoured knight
• 1415 John IV van Bourgondy becomes Duke of Brabant and Limburg

• 1577 Pope Gregory XIII asks renewal of ecclesiastical hymns
• 1596 Spanish fleet sails from Lisbon to Ireland

• 1666 Brandenburg, Brunswick, Denmark and The Netherlands form anti-French Quadruple Alliance
• 1671 Giovanni Cassini discovers Iapetus, satellite of Saturn
• 1747 British fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke defeats the French at the second battle of Cape Finisterre


• 1760 George III becomes King of Great Britain

• 1812 US frigate United States captures British vessel Macedonian
• 1828 St Katharine Docks opens in London, England
• 1854 The infamous Charge of Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War; over 100 killed
• 1854 Prince Menshikov of Crimea occupies British base at Balaclava
• 1859 Merchant vessel Royal Charter runs aground at Liverpool, 459 die
• 1861 First Battle of Springfield [Zagonyi's Charge], fought in Springfield, Missouri, Union victory (US Civil War)
• 1861 Telegraph message sent from St Louis to San Francisco
• 1861 Toronto Stock Exchange created
• 1864 Battle of Marais Des Cygnes River, Kansas (Mine Creek)
• 1870 Pimlico Race Course opens in Baltimore
• 1870 Postcards first used in USA
• 1891 1st International 6 day bike race (NY Madison Square Garden) ends
• 1893 Battle of Shangani, Matabeleland: Dr Jameson beats Ndebeles
• 1900 Great Britain annexes the former Boer South African Republic, renaming it the Transvaal Colony
• 1901 Joseph Chamberlain, British Colonial Affairs Secretary, makes an anti-German speech in Edinburgh; when word reaches Germany leads to widespread agitation against the British and breakdown of negotiations for Anglo-German alliance

• 1902 Santa Maria, Guatemala hit by Earthquake, killing an estimated 6,000 people

• 1906 US inventor Lee de Forest patents "Audion", a 3-diode amplification valve which proved a pioneering development in radio & broadcasting
• 1907 Frederik of Oaths disbands mental home colony Walden
• 1911 London's last horse drawn omnibus made its way from London Bridge Station to Moorgate
• 1915 James L Curtis named US Minister for Liberia
• 1917 Pan-Russian Congress opens in Petrograd


• 1918 Canadian steamship "Princess Sophia" hits a reef off Alaska, 398 die
• 1923 Senate committee publishes 1st report on Teapot Dome scandal
• 1925 Rightist German ministers disavows Treaty of Locarno

• 1930 1st football game in Atlantic City Convention Center
• 1930 1st scheduled transcontinental air service began
• 1932 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts Company consultant

• 1935 Hurricane-produced floods kill 2,000 in Jeremie & Jacmel Haiti
• 1937 Belgian government of Zealand falls due to black money
• 1937 Casey Stengel signs to manage Boston Bees
• 1938 Japanese troops occupies Hankou & Wuhan
• 1939 William Saroyan's "Time of Your Life" premieres in NYC
• 1940 Benjamin O Davis Sr. becomes 1st African American general in US Army
• 1941 16,000 Jews massacred in Odessa Ukraine
• 1941 Germany attacks Moscow

• 1942 3rd day of battle at El Alamein: British offensive
• 1942 Battle of Henderson Field Guadalcanal begins

• 1943 Burma railroad completed & opens
• 1944 Battle at Cape Engano: 4 Japanese ships sink
• 1944 Battle at Samar-island
• 1944 Battle in Straits of Surigao: Japanese fleet destroyed
• 1944 Gas output stopped in Amsterdam

• 1946 1st trial against nazi war criminals in Nuremberg
• 1947 Sam Breadon sells Cards to Robert Hannegan & Fred Saigh for $4M
• 1948 Special Council of Annulment convicts F Weinreb for collaboration
• 1950 Dutch NSB leader C van Gelderen sentenced to life
• 1950 Jean Anouilh's "La Repetition, ou L'Amour Pani" premieres in Paris
• 1951 Peace talks aimed at ending Korean War resumed in Panmunjom
• 1952 First Dutch edition of children's magazine "Donald Duck"
• 1952 French president inaugurates Donzère-Mondragonstuw Dam
• 1952 Nazar Mohammad scores Pakistan's 1st Test century 124* v India
• 1953 Coal mine in Seraing Belgium explodes, 26 die
• 1955 Austria resumed its sovereignty after departure of last Allied occupation forces, for 1st time since German occupation of 1938
• 1955 Branch Rickey steps down as GM of the Pirates
• 1955 Tappan sells 1st microwave oven
• 1957 Russian minister of Defense Zjoekov deposed

• 1960 1st electronic wrist watch placed on sale, NYC
• 1960 Cuba nationalizes all remaining US businesses
• 1961 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
• 1962 110th member of UN admitted (Uganda)
• 1962 1st Belgian nuclear reactor begins operation

• 1963 Anti-Kennedy "WANTED FOR TREASON" pamphlets scattered in Dallas
• 1964 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
• 1966 6 youths sentenced in "Johnson murderer!" in Amsterdam
• 1968 Chicago recognizes Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable as its 1st settler
• 1971 Belgium & People's Republic of China establish diplomatic relations
• 1971 General Meeting of UN agrees to admit People's Republic of China
• 1971 United Nations votes to expel the Chinese Nationalist ruled Taiwan and admit the Communist People's Republic of China
• 1971 A man dies two days after being shot during an Irish Republican Army attack on the British Army in Belfast
• 1972 Eddy Merckx (Belgium) covers 30 miles, 1,258 yards in 1 hr
• 1972 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Kenneth J Arrow & John R Hicks
• 1973 Chris Wills wins 1st National hang-gliding championship

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• 1102 William Clito, Count of Flanders (1127-28), born in Rouen, France (d. 1128)
• 1330 Louis II, Count of Flanders, born in Male Castle, Flanders, France (d. 1384)
• 1360 Louis, founder of house of Anjou
• 1510 Renée of France, French princess and Duchess of Ferrara, born in Château de Blois, Touraine, France (d. 1574)
• 1528 Seerp Galama, Dutch nobleman, soldier and politician, born in Koudum, Netherlands (d. 1581)
• 1612 James Graham, Marquis of Montrose "the Great Montrose", Scottish general and poet, born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 1650)
• 1683 Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, British politician, born in London (d. 1757)
• 1692 Elisabeth Farnese, Princess of Parma and Queen of Spain (1714-24), born in Palazzo della Pilotta, Parma (d. 1766)
• 1709 John Wagenaar, Amsterdam merchant/historian, baptised
• 1735 James Beattie, Scottish poet and philosopher (Essay on Truth), born in Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, Scotland (d. 1803)

• 1759 Maria Feodorovna of Russia, second wife of Tsar Paul I of Russia, born in Stettin, Kingdom of Prussia (d. 1828)
• 1782 Levi Lincoln, Jr., American lawyer and 13th Governor of Massachusetts (1825-34), born in Worcester, Massachusetts (d. 1868)
• 1800 Thomas Babington Macaulay, English poet and historian (Ivry, Naaseby), born in Leicestershire, England (d. 1859)
• 1802 Joseph Montferrand, French-Canadian logger and strong man, born in St. Lawrence, Montreal (d. 1864)
• 1803 Maria van Ackere-Doolaeghe, Flemish poet (Daisies, Avondlamp), born in Diksmuide, Belgium (d. 1884)
• 1806 Max Stirner [Johann Kaspar Schmidt], German philosopher (Der Einzige), born in Bayreuth, Bavaria (d. 1856)
• 1811 Évariste Galois, French mathematician (Group theory), born in Bourg-la-Reine, France (d. 1832)
• 1814 Prince Louis, French Duke of Nemours, born in Palais Royal, Paris (d. 1896)
• 1818 Pavel Melnikov, Russian historian and author (In the Forests), born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire [NS=Nov 6]
• 1819 Zachariah C. Deas, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Camden, South Carolina (d. 1882)
• 1843 Gleb Uspensky, Russian author (Power of the Soil), born in Tula, Russian Empire (d. 1902)
• 1856 Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croatian paleontologist (discovery and descriptions of the Neandertal remains from the Huŝnjakova rock shelter at Krapina in northwestern Croatia), born in Zagreb, Croatia (d. 1936)
• 1859 Hélène Swarth, Dutch author (Lonely Flowers), born in Amsterdam (d. 1941)
• 1864 John Francis Dodge, American automobile pioneer (Co-Founder of Dodge Brothers Company), born in Niles, Michigan (d. 1920)
• 1867 Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, Polish general, serving with the Imperial Russian and then Polish armies, born in Stary Garbów, Poland (d. 1937)
• 1877 Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (Hertzsprung-Russell diagram), born in Oyster Bay, New York (d. 1957)
• 1878 Nico van Suchtelen, Dutch writer and publisher, born in Amsterdam (d. 1949)

• 1884 Eduardo Barrios, Chilean novelist (The Love-Crazed Boy), born in Valparaíso, Chile (d. 1963)
• 1887 Emma "Grandma" Gatewood, American ultra-light hiking pioneer and 1st woman to hike the Appalachian Trail alone, born in Mercerville, Ohio (d. 1973)
• 1888 François Pauwels, Dutch writer and attorney, born in Amsterdam (d. 1966)

• 1888 Nils Dardel, Swedish post-impressionist painter, born in Bettna, Södermanland, Sweden (d. 1943)
• 1891 Father Coughlin, Canadian-American Roman Catholic priest and pro-Fascist radio broadcaster, born in Hamilton, Canada (d. 1979)
• 1895 Levi Eshkol, [Sjkolnik], Israeli PM (MWP) (1963-69), born in Oratov, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1969)
• 1898 Sidney James van den Bergh, Dutch businessman and politician, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 1977)
• 1902 Henry Steele Commager, American historian (Atlas of Civil War), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• 1903 Katharine Byron, U.S. Congresswoman, born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 1976)
• 1903 Harry Shoulberg, American expressionist painter, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1995)
• 1908 Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (L'histoire de Jonas), born in Belgium (d. 2004)
• 1909 Philleo Nash, US Bureau of Indian Affairs (1961-67), born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin (1961-67)
• 1910 William Higinbotham, American physicist (member of team who developed first nuclear bomb), born in Bridgeport, Connecticut (d. 1994)
• 1912 Minnie Pearl [Sarah Ophelia Colley], American country comedienne (Grand Old Opry, Hee-Haw), born in Centerville, Tennessee (d. 1996)
• 1913 Klaus Barbie, Gestapo chief (Butcher of Lyon), born in Godesberg, German Empire (d. 1991)
• 1914 John Berryman, American poet (The Dream Songs), born in McAlester, Oklahoma (d. 1972)
• 1915 Ivan M. Niven, Canadian-American mathematician, born in Vancouver (d. 1999)

• 1921 Brian Malzard Foss, British psychologist, born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire (d. 1997)
• 1921 Michael I, King of Romania (1927-30, 1940-47), born in Peleș Castle, Sinaia, Romania (d. 2017)
• 1926 Ismail Gulgee, Pakistani painter, born in Peshawar, Pakistan (d. 2007)
• 1927 Jorge Batlle Ibáñez, Uruguayan politician, President of Uruguay (2000-2005), born in Montevideo (d. 2016)
• 1929 Peter Rohmkorf, German writer, born in Dortmund, Germany (d. 2008)
• 1929 Roger John Tayler, British astrophysicist (author of The Origin of the Chemical Elements), born in Birmingham, England (d. 1997)
• 1933 Larry J. Hopkins, American politician (Rep-R-KY, 1979-93), born in Detroit, Michigan
• 1935 Russell Luis Schweickart, astronaut (Apollo 9), born in Neptune Township, New Jersey
• 1936 Sir Martin Gilbert, British historian (Winston Churchill biography), born in London, England
• 1941 Anne Tyler, American writer (Accidental Tourist)
• 1943 Selly Fernandes, Curacao poetess (Winking with Selly)
• 1944 James Carville, American political stategist and commentator
• 1944 Haruhiko Kuroda, Governor of the Bank of Japan, born in Ōmuta, Fukuoka, Japan
• 1945 David Norman Schramm, physicist
• 1948 Daniel Mark Epstein, American poet and biographer
• 1956 Danny Gans, American entertainer, born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2009)
• 1960 Scott Anthony Haneline, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List), born in Indianapolis, Indiana
• 1960 June Brigman, American comic book artist, born in Atlantta, Georgia
• 1975 Zadie Smith, British novelist (White Teeth, On Beauty, Swing Time), born in Brent, London, England
• 1986 DJ Webstar, American disc jockey
• 1986 Eddie Gaven, American footballer
• 2001 Princess Elisabeth of Belgium

• 304 Marcellinus, bishop of Rome, dies
• 625 Boniface V, Italian Pope (619-25), dies
• 1047 Magnus I Godhi, king of Norway/Denmark (1035-47), dies
• 1154 Stefanus van Blois, king of England (1135-54), dies
• 1400 Geoffrey Chaucer, British author known as the "Father of English literature" (The Canterbury Tales), dies at 56 or 57
• 1415 Anton van Bourgondie, French son of Philip the Stout, dies at 31
• 1415 Eduard, duke of York, dies at 45
• 1415 Philip of Nevers, French earl, dies in battle
• 1415 Robert of Bar, French knight, dies in battle
• 1495 John II, the Perfect/Consummate, King of Portugal (1481-95), dies
• 1510 Il Giorgione, [Giorgio del Castelfranco], Italian painter, dies at 32
• 1604 Claude de la Tremoille, French duke of Thouars/huguenot, dies
• 1647 Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist (inventor of barometer), dies at 39
• 1676 Justus G Schottel [Schottelius], German linguistic/poet, dies at 64

• 1806 Henry Knox, American general (Continental Army and later the United States Army), dies at 56
• 1826 Philippe Pinel, French physician (the father of modern psychiatry), dies at 81
• 1833 Abbas Mirza, Persian governor/heir to the throne, dies at 44
• 1845 Carel H Verhuell, Dutch/French vice-admiral, dies at 81
• 1855 Willem Frederik van Bylandt, Dutch military officer, dies at 84
• 1861 Friedrich C von Savigny, German lawyer, dies at 82
• 1892 Caroline Harrison, 1st lady of the U.S. (1889-1892), wife of Benjamin Harrison, dies at 60
• 1902 Frank Norris, American journalist and writer (McTeague), dies at 32
• 1920 Alexander, King of Greece (1917-20), dies after ape bite at 27
• 1921 Bat Masterson, American gunfighter in the Wild West, dies of a heart attack at 67
• 1934 Frank Sprague, American inventor who installed the first U.S. electric trolley system, dies at 77
• 1936 Jaime de Magalhães Lima, Portuguese author and poet (Salmos do Prisoneiro), dies at 76
• 1939 Cornelis JK van Aalst, president Dutch Business Society, dies at 73
• 1943 H van Zanten, guerrilla leader on North Sumatra, executed
• 1944 Fake Krist, nazi collaborator, killed
• 1951 Amélie of Orléans, Queen of Portugal, wife of Carlos I, dies at 86
• 1956 Risto Ryti, Finnish minister/premier/president, dies at 67
• 1957 Henry Van de Velde, Flemish painter and architect (Art Nouveau), dies at 94
• 1957 Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany, Irish sci-fi writer (Time & Gods), dies at 79

• 1960 Henry George "Harry" Ferguson, Irish aviator, engineer and inventor (Modern tractor), dies at 75
• 1961 Peter Jensen, co-inventer (loud speaker), dies at 75
• 1968 Jean Schlumberger, French writer (Passions), dies at 91
• 1972 Norman Norell [Levinson], US fashion designer, dies at 72
• 1973 G Paul H Schuitema, graphically designer/photographer, dies
• 1976 Raymond Queneau, [M Presle], French writer (Last Days), dies at 73
• 1981 Ariel Durant, American author (Story of Civilization), dies at 83
• 1985 Elsa Moranet, writer, dies at 67
• 1989 Gerard Walschap, Flemish writer (Men of Goods), dies at 91
• 1989 Mary McCarthy, American novelist (Group), dies, at 77
• 1992 Adelino Da Palma Carlos, PM of Portugal (1974), dies
• 1993 Francisco Velis, El Salvador guerilla leader (FMLN), murdered
• 1993 Mary C Lawton, jurist (CIA's Agency Seal Medallion), dies at 58
• 1993 Philip P. Cohen, American medical researcher, dies at 85
• 1993 Vladimir Yevgenyevich Preobrazhensky, Russian cosmonaut, dies at 54
• 1994 Anthony David Machell Cox, medievalist, dies at 81
• 1995 Kenneth Kweku Sinaman Dadzie, diplomat, dies at 65
• 1995 Robert Grieve, Scottish civil servant and planner, dies at 84
• 2008 Anne Pressly, American news anchor (b. 1982)
• 2010 Vesna Parun, Croatian poet (b. 1922)
• 2012 Jacques Barzun, French author, dies at 104
• 2013 Hal Needham, American stuntman, dies from cancer at 82
• 2015 Lisa Jardine, British historian and writer, dies of cancer at 71

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