January 25Birthdays & History

On this day: January 25 in history

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

1. 41After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman emperor by the Senate.Europe
2. 750In the Battle of the Zab, the Abbasid rebels defeat the Umayyad Caliphate, leading to the overthrow of the dynasty.Middle East
3. 1327Fourteen-year-old Edward III ascends the throne of England after his father the king is forced to abdicate by Queen Isabella and her lover, Roger Mortimer.Europe
4. 1348A strong earthquake strikes the South Alpine region of Friuli in modern Italy, causing considerable damage to buildings as far away as Rome.Europe
5. 1479The Treaty of Constantinople ends the 16-year-long First Ottoman–Venetian War.Middle EastEurope
6. 1494Alfonso II becomes King of Naples.Europe
7. 1515Coronation of Francis I of France takes place at Reims Cathedral, where the new monarch is anointed with the oil of Clovis and girt with the sword of Charlemagne.Europe
8. 1533Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.Europe
9. 1554São Paulo, Brazil, is founded by Jesuit priests.Latin America
10. 1573Battle of Mikatagahara: In Japan, Takeda Shingen defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu.Asia
11. 1575Luanda, the capital of Angola, is founded by the Portuguese navigator Paulo Dias de Novais.AfricaEurope
12. 1585Walter Raleigh is knighted, shortly after renaming a North American region as "Virginia", in honour of Elizabeth I, Queen of England, sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".North AmericaEurope
13. 1650As part of the purges following the Great Potosí Mint Fraud of 1649 Francisco Gómez de la Rocha, a rich former corregidor of Potosí, is executed.Latin America
14. 1704The Apalachee massacre: A combined British and Muscogee force from the Province of Carolina destroys the main fortified mission of Ayubale, breaking Spain's hold on Spanish Florida.EuropeNorth America
15. 1787Shays' Rebellion: The rebellion's largest confrontation, outside the Springfield Armory, results in the killing of four rebels and the wounding of twenty.North America
16. 1791The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791 and splits the old Province of Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada.EuropeNorth America
17. 1792The London Corresponding Society is founded.Europe
18. 1819University of Virginia chartered by Commonwealth of Virginia, with Thomas Jefferson one of its founders.North America
19. 1858The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn is played at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia, and becomes a popular wedding processional.Europe
20. 1879The Bulgarian National Bank is founded.Europe
21. 1881Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.Europe
22. 1890Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.North AmericaEuropeAsia
23. 1909Richard Strauss's opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.Europe
24. 1915Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service, speaking from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco.North America
25. 1917Sinking of the SS Laurentic after hitting two German mines off the coast of northwest Ireland.Europe
26. 1918The Ukrainian People's Republic declares independence from Soviet Russia.Europe
27. 1918The Finnish Defence Forces (The White Guards) are established as the official army of independent Finland, and Baron C. G. E. Mannerheim is appointed its Commander-in-Chief.Europe
28. 1924The 1924 Winter Olympics opens in Chamonix, in the French Alps, inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.Europe
29. 1932Alt Llobregat insurrection suppressed in Central Catalonia, Spain.Europe
30. 1932Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese National Revolutionary Army begins the defense of Harbin.AsiaAsia
31. 1937The Guiding Light debuts on NBC radio from Chicago. In 1952 it moves to CBS television, where it remains until September 18, 2009.North America
32. 1941Pope Pius XII elevates the Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It becomes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.Europe
33. 1942World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.AsiaNorth AmericaEurope
34. 1945World War II: The Battle of the Bulge ends.Europe
35. 1946The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor.North America
36. 1946United Nations Security Council Resolution 1 relating to Military Staff Committee is adopted.World
37. 1947Thomas Goldsmith Jr. files a patent for a "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device", the first ever electronic game.North America
38. 1949The first Emmy Awards are presented in the United States; the venue is the Hollywood Athletic Club.North America
39. 1960The National Association of Broadcasters in the United States reacts to the "payola" scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accept money for playing particular records.North America
40. 1961In Washington, D.C., US President John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.North America
41. 1961Walt Disney Productions released the animated feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians, based on Dodie Smith's 1956 children's novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians.North America
42. 1964Blue Ribbon Sports, which would later become Nike, is founded by University of Oregon track and field athletes.North America
43. 1967South Vietnamese junta leader and Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky fires rival, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Nguyen Huu Co, while the latter is overseas on a diplomatic visit.Asia
44. 1969Brazilian Army captain Carlos Lamarca deserts in order to fight against the military dictatorship, taking with him ten machine guns and 63 rifles.Latin America
45. 1971Charles Manson and four "Family" members (three of them female) are found guilty of the 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders.North America
46. 1971Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president.Africa
47. 1979Pope John Paul II starts his first official papal visits outside Italy to The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, and Mexico.EuropeLatin America
48. 1980Mother Teresa is honored with India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.Asia
49. 1986The National Resistance Movement topples the government of Tito Okello in Uganda.Africa
50. 1990Avianca Flight 052 crashes in Cove Neck, New York, killing 73.North America
51. 1993Five people are shot outside the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Two are killed and three wounded.North America
52. 1994The spacecraft Clementine by BMDO and NASA is launched.North America
53. 1995The Norwegian rocket incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after it mistakes Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile.EuropeNorth America
54. 1996Billy Bailey becomes the last person to be hanged in the United States.North America
55. 1998During a historic visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II demands political reforms and the release of political prisoners while condemning US attempts to isolate the country.Latin AmericaEuropeNorth America
56. 1998A suicide attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth kills eight and injures 25 others.Asia
57. 1999A 6.0 magnitude earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000.Latin America
58. 2003Invasion of Iraq: A group of people leave London, England, for Baghdad, Iraq, to serve as human shields, intending to prevent the U.S.-led coalition troops from bombing certain locations.Middle EastEuropeNorth America
59. 2005A stampede at the Mandhradevi temple in Maharashtra, India kills at least 258.Asia
60. 2006Mexican professional wrestler Juana Barraza is arrested in connection with the serial killing of at least ten elderly women.Latin America
61. 2010Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Na'ameh, Lebanon, killing 90.AfricaMiddle East
62. 2011The first wave of the Egyptian revolution begins throughout the country, marked by street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labour strikes, and violent clashes.Middle East
63. 2013At least 50 people are killed and 120 people are injured in a prison riot in Barquisimeto, Venezuela.Latin America
64. 2015A clash in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in the Philippines kills 44 members of Special Action Force (SAF), at least 18 from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and five from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.Asia
65. 2018An Ariane 5 rocket is launched carrying SES-14, Al Yah 3, and NASA's Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, but the satellites end up in the wrong orbit.North America
66. 2019A mining company's dam collapses in Brumadinho, Brazil, a south-eastern city, killing 270 people.Latin America

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