August 25Birthdays & History

On this day: August 25 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 383Roman Emperor Gratian is murdered at a banquet after having surrendered to the forces of rival emperor Magnus Maximus.Europe
2. 450Marcian is proclaimed Eastern Roman emperor at Hebdomon and marries empress Pulcheria.Europe
3. 766Emperor Constantine V humiliates nineteen high-ranking officials, after discovering a plot against him. He executes the leaders, Constantine Podopagouros and his brother Strategios.Europe
4. 1248The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, the Archbishop of Utrecht.Europe
5. 1258Regent George Mouzalon and his brothers are killed during a coup headed by the aristocratic faction under Michael VIII Palaiologos, paving the way for its leader to ultimately usurp the throne of the Empire of Nicaea.Europe
6. 1270Philip III, although suffering from dysentery, becomes King of France following the death of his father Louis IX, during the Eighth Crusade. His uncle, Charles I of Naples, is forced to begin peace negotiations with Muhammad I al-Mustansir, Hafsid Sultan of Tunis.EuropeAfrica
7. 1537The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.Europe
8. 1543António Mota and a few companions become the first Europeans to visit Japan.Asia
9. 1580War of the Portuguese Succession: Spanish victory at the Battle of Alcântara brings about the Iberian Union.Europe
10. 1609Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.Europe
11. 1630Portuguese forces are defeated by the Kingdom of Kandy at the Battle of Randeniwela in Sri Lanka.EuropeAsia
12. 1651A parliamentarian army defeats a royalist army under James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby, in the battle of Wigan Lane during the Third English Civial War.Europe
13. 1758Seven Years' War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.Europe
14. 1814War of 1812: On the second day of the Burning of Washington, British troops torch the Library of Congress, United States Treasury, Department of War, and other public buildings.North AmericaEurope
15. 1823American fur trapper Hugh Glass is mauled by a grizzly bear while on an expedition in South Dakota.North America
16. 1825The Thirty-Three Orientals declare the independence of Uruguay from Brazil.Latin America
17. 1830The Belgian Revolution begins.Europe
18. 1835The first Great Moon Hoax article is published in The New York Sun, announcing the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon.North America
19. 1875Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 21 hours and 45 minutes.Europe
20. 1883France and Viet Nam sign the Treaty of Huế, recognizing a French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin.EuropeAsia
21. 1894Kitasato Shibasaburō discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.Asia
22. 1904Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Liaoyang begins.Asia
23. 1912The Kuomintang is founded for the first time in Peking.Asia
24. 1914World War I: The library of the Catholic University of Leuven is deliberately destroyed by the German Army. Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts are lost.Europe
25. 1914World War I: Japan declares war on Austria-Hungary.AsiaEurope
26. 1916The United States National Park Service is created.North America
27. 1920Polish–Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, which began on August 13, ends with the Red Army's defeat.Europe
28. 1933Nazi Germany and the Zionist Federation of Germany signed the Haavara Agreement. The agreement was a major factor in breaking the anti-Nazi boycott of 1933 and facilitated Jewish emigration from Germany and into British Mandate of Palestine.EuropeMiddle East
29. 1933The Diexi earthquake strikes Mao County, Sichuan, China and kills 9,000 people.Asia
30. 1939As part of its S-Plan, the Irish Republican Army carries out the 1939 Coventry bombing in which five civilians were killed.Europe
31. 1939The United Kingdom and Poland form a military alliance in which the UK promises to defend Poland in case of invasion by a foreign power.Europe
32. 1940World War II: The first Bombing of Berlin by the British Royal Air Force.Europe
33. 1941World War II: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union jointly stage an invasion of the Imperial State of Iran.EuropeMiddle East
34. 1942World War II: Battle of Milne Bay: Japanese marines assault Allied airfields at Milne Bay, New Guinea, initiating the Battle of Milne Bay.AsiaOceania
35. 1942World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons; a Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned back by an Allied air attack.AsiaOceania
36. 1944World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.Europe
37. 1945Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.AsiaAsiaNorth America
38. 1945The August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty.Asia
39. 1948The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.North America
40. 1950To avert a threatened strike during the Korean War, President Truman orders Secretary of the Army Frank Pace to seize control of the nation's railroads.Asia
41. 1958The world's first publicly marketed instant noodles, Chikin Ramen, are introduced by Taiwanese-Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando.AsiaAsia
42. 1960The Games of the XVII Olympiad commence in Rome, Italy.Europe
43. 1961President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns after just seven months in power, initiating a political crisis that culminates in a military coup in 1964.Latin America
44. 1967George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, is assassinated by a former member of his group.North America
45. 1980Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.Africa
46. 1980The last performance of the Jahrhundertring at the Bayreuth Festival receives ovations of 45 minutes.Europe
47. 1981Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn.World
48. 1985Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 crashes near Auburn/Lewiston Municipal Airport in Auburn, Maine, killing all eight people on board including peace activist and child actress Samantha Smith.North America
49. 1989Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404, carrying 54 people, disappears over the Himalayas after takeoff from Gilgit Airport in Pakistan. The aircraft was never found.Asia
50. 1989Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the last planet in the Solar System at the time, due to Pluto being within Neptune's orbit from 1979 to 1999.World
51. 1991Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux.Europe
52. 1991Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union.Europe
53. 1991The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day siege of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serb paramilitary forces, between August and November 1991 (during the Croatian War of Independence).Europe
54. 1997Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall.Europe
55. 2001American singer Aaliyah and several members of her entourage are killed as their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas.North AmericaLatin America
56. 2003NASA successfully launches the Spitzer Space Telescope into space.North America
57. 2005Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Florida.North America
58. 2006Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko is sentenced to nine years imprisonment for money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion.Europe
59. 2010A Filair Let L-410 Turbolet crashes on approach to Bandundu Airport, killing 20.Africa
60. 2011Fifty-two people are killed during an arson attack caused by members of the drug cartel Los Zetas.Latin America
61. 2012Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space, becoming the first man-made object to do so.World
62. 2017Conflict in Rakhine State (2016–present): One hundred seventy people are killed in at least 26 separate attacks carried out by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, leading to the governments of Myanmar and Malaysia designating the group as a terrorist organisation.Asia
63. 2017Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004.North America

Source: Wikipedia "August 25" / CC BY-SA 4.0