August 25: Encyclopedia - August 25

August 25

August 25 is the 237th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (238th in leap years), with 128 days remaining.

August 25 - Events

• 1537 - The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
• 1580 - Battle of Alcantara. Spain defeats Portugal.
• 1609 - Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
• 1718 - New Orleans, Louisiana is founded.
• 1758 - Seven Years War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
• 1768 - James Cook begins his first voyage.
• 1825 - Uruguay declares its independence from Spain.
• 1830 - Belgium revolts from the Netherlands
• 1835 - The New York Sun perpetrates the Great Moon Hoax.
• 1875 - Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.
• 1894 - Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.
• 1910 - Yellow Cab is founded.
• 1912 - The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, is founded.
• 1916 - The United States National Park Service is created.
• 1920 - Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, started on August 13, now ends. The Red Army is defeated.
• 1942 - World War II: Battle of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea
• 1944 - World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.
• 1946 - Ben Hogan wins the PGA Championship.
• 1947 - India declares Independance from England.
• 1950 - President Harry Truman orders the US Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.
• 1960 - Games of the XVII Olympiad open in Rome.
• 1975 - Bruce Springsteen releases Born to Run, the album that would launch him to superstardom.
• 1980 - Microsoft announces their version of UNIX, Xenix.
• 1980 - The Broadway musical 42nd Street opens; the show's director, Gower Champion, had died earlier that day.
• 1988 - The historical center of Lisbon is destroyed by a fire.
• 1989 - Tadeusz Mazowiecki chosen as the first non-communist Prime Minister in Central and Eastern Europe.
• 1989 - Voyager 2 spacecraft flies by Neptune, the last major planet it could visit before leaving the Solar System.
• 1989 - Mayumi Moriyama becomes Japan's first female cabinet secretary.
• 1991 - Linus Torvalds first says in a post to the comp.os.minix newsgroup that he is working on a new free computer operating system.
• 1991 - Belarus declares independence from the Soviet Union
• 2003 - The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo, Northwest Territories.
• 2003 - Fifty-two are killed in two Islamic terrorist bomb blasts in Mumbai, India.
• 2005 - Tom Boonen wins the World Championship cycling in Madrid, Spain.
• 2005 - Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on the Miami-Dade/Broward county line, hours after reaching hurricane strength.

August 25 - Births

• 1530 - Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (d. 1584)
• 1561 - Philippe van Lansberge, Dutch astronomer (d. 1632)
• 1624 - François de la Chaise, French confessor of Louis XIV of France (d. 1709)
• 1635 - Sir Henry Morgan, Welsh privateer (d. 1688)
• 1662 - John Leverett the Younger, American President of Harvard (d. 1724)
• 1719 - Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo, French painter (d. 1795)
• 1744 - Johann Gottfried Herder, German writer (d. 1803)
• 1767 - Antoine Louis Léon de Richebourg de Saint-Just, French revolutionary and writer (d. 1794)
• 1772 - King William I of the Netherlands (d. 1843)
• 1786 - King Ludwig I of Bavaria (d. 1868)
• 1796 - James Lick, California land baron (d. 1876)
• 1802 - Nikolaus Lenau, Austrian poet (d. 1850)
• 1819 - Allan Pinkerton, American private detective (d. 1884)
• 1836 - Bret Harte, American writer (d. 1902)
• 1841 - Emil Kocher, Swiss medical researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1917)
• 1845 - King Ludwig II of Bavaria (d. 1886)
• 1850 - Charles Richet, French scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1935)
• 1882 - Sean O'Kelly, President of Ireland (d. 1966)
• 1898 - Helmut Hasse, German mathematican (d. 1975)
• 1900 - Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, German physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1981)
• 1902 - Stefan Wolpe, German-born composer (d. 1972)
• 1903 - Árpád Élő, Hungarian physicist (d. 1992)
• 1909 - Ruby Keeler, Canadian singer and actress (d. 1993)
• 1909 - Michael Rennie, English actor (d. 1971)
• 1912 - Erich Honecker, head of state of East Germany (d. 1994)
• 1913 - Walt Kelly, American cartoonist (d. 1973)
• 1916 - Van Johnson, American actor
• 1916 - Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2003)
• 1917 - Mel Ferrer, American actor
• 1918 - Leonard Bernstein, American conductor and composer (d. 1990)
• 1918 - Richard Greene, English actor (d. 1985)
• 1919 - George Wallace, Governor of Alabama (d. 1998)
• 1921 - Monty Hall, Canadian-born game show host
• 1921 - Brian Moore, Irish-born writer (d. 1999)
• 1927 - Althea Gibson, American tennis player (d. 2003)
• 1928 - Herbert Kroemer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1930 - Sir Sean Connery, Scottish actor
• 1931 - Regis Philbin, American television host
• 1933 - Wayne Shorter, American musician
• 1933 - Tom Skerritt, American actor
• 1935 - Charles Wright, American poet
• 1938 - David Canary, American actor
• 1938 - Frederick Forsyth, English author
• 1939 - John Badham, American film director
• 1940 - José Van Dam, Belgian baritone
• 1944 - Anthony Heald, American actor
• 1946 - Rollie Fingers, baseball player
• 1947 - Anne Archer, American actress
• 1949 - Martin Amis, English novelist
• 1949 - John Savage, American actor
• 1949 - Gene Simmons, Israeli-born bassist
• 1951 - Rob Halford, English singer (Judas Priest)
• 1952 - Peter Wolf, American singer and composer
• 1954 - Elvis Costello, English musician
• 1958 - Tim Burton, American film director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1961 - Billy Ray Cyrus, American singer
• 1962 - David Packer, American actor
• 1964 - Maxim Kontsevich, Russian mathematician
• 1964 - Blair Underwood, American actor
• 1968 - Rafet El Roman, Turkish singer and composer
• 1968 - Stuart Murdoch, Scottish musician (Belle & Sebastian)
• 1968 - Rachael Ray, American cook and television host
• 1969 - Cameron Mathison, Canadian actor
• 1970 - Claudia Schiffer, German model
• 1972 - Marvin Harrison, American football player
• 1981 - Rachel Bilson, American actress
• 1987 - Stacey Farber, Canadian actress

August 25 - Deaths

• 383 - Gratian, Roman Emperor (b. 359)
• 1192 - Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1142)
• 1270 - King Louis IX of France
• 1282 - Thomas Cantilupe, English saint
• 1330 - James Douglas, Scottish soldier (b. 1286)
• 1482 - Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry VI of England (b. 1429)
• 1554 - Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, English politician (b. 1473)
• 1632 - Thomas Dekker, English dramatist
• 1650 - Richard Crashaw, English poet
• 1688 - Henry Morgan, Welsh privateer
• 1699 - King Christian V of Denmark (b. 1646)
• 1711 - Edward Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey, English politician
• 1742 - Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (b. 1704)
• 1774 - Niccolò Jommelli, Italian composer (b. 1714)
• 1776 - David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian (b. 1711)
• 1792 - Jacques Cazotte, French writer (b. 1719)
• 1822 - William Herschel, German-born astronomer (b. 1738)
• 1867 - Michael Faraday, English scientist (b. 1791)
• 1900 - Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (b. 1844)
• 1900 - Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1840)
• 1904 - Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter (b. 1836)
• 1908 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
• 1925 - Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Austro-Hungarian field marshal (b. 1852)
• 1938 - Aleksandr Kuprin, Russian writer (b. 1870)
• 1942 - George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (b. 1902)
• 1945 - John Birch, American intelligence officer and missionary (b. 1918)
• 1967 - Stanley Bruce, eighth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1883)
• 1967 - Paul Muni, Polish actor (b. 1895)
• 1967 - George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi Party leader (b. 1918)
• 1971 - Ted Lewis, American musician and entertainer (b. 1890)
• 1976 - Eyvind Johnson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
• 1979 - Stan Kenton, American musician and bandleader (b. 1911)
• 1980 - Gower Champion, American dancer, actor, and choreographer (b. 1919)
• 1984 - Truman Capote, American author (b. 1924)
• 1984 - Waite Hoyt, baseball player (b. 1899)
• 1985 - Samantha Smith, American social activist and actress (plane crash) (b. 1972)
• 1990 - Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer (b. 1903)
• 2000 - Carl Barks, American cartoonist (b. 1901)
• 2001 - Aaliyah, American singer (plane crash) (b. 1979)
• 2002 - Dorothy Hewett, Australian writer (b. 1923)
• 2005 - Peter Glotz, German social democrat (b. 1939)

August 25 - Holidays and observances

• Roman festivals - Opiconsivia held in honor of Ops.
• RC Saints - Genesius of Arles, Saint Louis IX of France, Saint Joseph Calasanz
• Uruguay - National Day (independence from Brazil in 1825).
• Philippines - National Heroes' Day.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "August 25", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki