March 25Birthdays & History

On this day: March 25 in history

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

1. 410The Southern Yan capital of Guanggu falls to the Jin dynasty general Liu Yu, ending the Southern Yan dynasty.Asia
2. 421Italian city Venice is founded with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo di Rialto on the islet of Rialto.Europe
3. 708Election of Pope Constantine following the death of Pope Sisinnius. He would be the last pope to visit Constantinople until 1967.EuropeMiddle East
4. 717Theodosius III resigns the throne to the Byzantine Empire to enter a monastery, allowing Leo III to take the throne and begin the Isaurian dynasty.Europe
5. 919Romanos Lekapenos seizes the Boukoleon Palace in Constantinople and becomes regent of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII.Middle EastEurope
6. 1000Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah assassinates the eunuch chief minister Barjawan and assumes control of the government.Middle East
7. 1065The Great German Pilgrimage is attacked on Good Friday by Beduin bandits, suffering heavy losses.Europe
8. 1221Coronation of Robert of Courtenay as Emperor of the Latin Empire.Europe
9. 1306Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scots (Scotland).Europe
10. 1409The Council of Pisa convenes, in an attempt to heal the Western Schism.Europe
11. 1410The Yongle Emperor of Ming China launches the first of his military campaigns against the Mongols, resulting in the fall of the Mongol khan Bunyashiri.Asia
12. 1519Hernán Cortés, entering province of Tabasco, defeats Tabascan Indians.Latin America
13. 1576Jerome Savage takes out a sub-lease to start the Newington Butts Theatre outside London.Europe
14. 1584Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia.North America
15. 1655Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.Europe
16. 1708A French fleet anchors nears Fife Ness as part of the planned French invasion of Britain.Europe
17. 1725Bach's chorale cantata "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1", is first performed on the Feast of the Annunciation, coinciding with Palm Sunday.Europe
18. 1770Daskalogiannis leads the people of Sfakia in the first Greek uprising against the Ottoman ruleEuropeMiddle East
19. 1776American Revolutionary War: American Patriots conduct a Raid on Tybee Island, primarily seeking to capture runaway slaves who sought refuge with British forces stationed there.North AmericaEurope
20. 1802The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and the United Kingdom.Europe
21. 1807The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger-carrying railway in the world.Europe
22. 1811Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for publishing the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism.Europe
23. 1821Greek War of Independence: Traditional date of the start of the Greek War of Independence. The war had actually begun on 23 February 1821 (Julian calendar).Europe
24. 1845New Zealand Legislative Council pass the first Militia Act constituting the New Zealand Army.Oceania
25. 1865American Civil War: In Virginia during the Siege of Petersburg, Confederate forces temporarily capture Fort Stedman from the Union before being repulsed.North America
26. 1878Last issue of the Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, the first or one of the first anarchist newspapers.Europe
27. 1894Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, Ohio for Washington, D.C.North America
28. 1905The Greek football club P.A.E. G.S. Diagoras is founded in the city of Rhodes.Europe
29. 1911In New York City, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 garment workers.North America
30. 1911Andrey Yushchinsky is murdered in Kiev, leading to the Beilis affair.Europe
31. 1914The Greek multi-sport club Aris Thessaloniki is founded in Thessaloniki.Europe
32. 1917The Georgian Orthodox Church restores its autocephaly abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811.Europe
33. 1918The Belarusian People's Republic is established.Europe
34. 1919The Tetiev pogrom occurs in Ukraine, becoming the prototype of mass murder during the Holocaust.Europe
35. 1924On the anniversary of Greek Independence, Alexandros Papanastasiou proclaims the Second Hellenic Republic.Europe
36. 1931The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.North America
37. 1932The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is unveiled in Athens.Europe
38. 1941The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers with the signing of the Tripartite Pact.Europe
39. 1947An explosion in a coal mine in Centralia, Illinois kills 111.North America
40. 1948The first successful tornado forecast predicts that a tornado will strike Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.North America
41. 1949More than 92,000 kulaks are suddenly deported from the Baltic states to Siberia.Europe
42. 1957The European Economic Community is established with West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg as the first members.Europe
43. 1957United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" on obscenity grounds.North America
44. 1959Chain Island is sold by the State of California to Russell Gallaway III, a Sacramento businessman who plans to use it as a "hunting and fishing retreat", for $5,258.20 ($58,072 in 2025).North America
45. 1965Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. successfully complete their four-day 50-mile (80 km) march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.North America
46. 1971The Army of the Republic of Vietnam abandon an attempt to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos.Asia
47. 1975Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by his nephew.Middle East
48. 1979The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.North America
49. 1988The Candle demonstration in Bratislava is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.Europe
50. 1995WikiWikiWeb, the world's first wiki, and part of the Portland Pattern Repository, is made public by Ward Cunningham.North America
51. 1996The European Union's Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy).Europe
52. 2006Protesters demanding a new election in Belarus, following the rigged 2006 Belarusian presidential election, clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin is among several protesters arrested.Europe
53. 2006Capitol Hill massacre: A gunman kills six people before taking his own life at a party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.North America
54. 2018Syrian civil war: Following the completion of the Afrin offensive, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) initiate an insurgency against the Turkish occupation of the Afrin District.Middle East

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