May 25
May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar (146th in
leap years). There are 220 days remaining.
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Events
\n*1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo, Spain back from the Moors. \n*1420 - Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ. \n*1521 - The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw. \n*1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States (George Washington is presiding). \n*1810 - Armed citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Viceroy from Spain and establish a provincial government for Argentina. \n*1865 - Mobile magazine explosion: 300 are killed in Mobile, Alabama when an ordnance depot explodes.\n*1895 - Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "sodomy and gross indecency" and sentenced to serve two years in a London prison. \n* 1895 - The Republic of Taiwan forms, with Tang Ching-sung as the president.\n*1914 - The United Kingdom's House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule. \n*1925 - Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. \n* 1925 - The National Forensics League is founded. \n*1935 - In a span of 45 minutes at the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jesse Owens sets or ties four track and field world records. \n* 1935 - At Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Babe Ruth hits his 714th and last home run setting a baseball record that will stand for 39 years. \n*1940 - World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk begins. \n*1946 - The parliament of Transjordan makes emir Abdullah their king. \n*1953 - Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test. \n*1961 - Apollo program: President Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the moon" before the end of the decade. \n*1963 - In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Organisation of African Unity is established. \n*1966 - Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches. \n*1968 - In St. Louis, Missouri, US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and US Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicate the Gateway Arch as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. \n*1973 - Mike Oldfield releases Tubular Bells. \n*1977 - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope opens in theaters and becomes the highest grossing movie to date. \n*1979 - American Airlines flight 191: In Chicago, Illinois, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground. \n*1981 - In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.\n*1982 - HMS Coventry (D118) was sunk during the Falklands War.\n*1983 - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi opens in theaters\n*1985 - Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge which kills approximately 10,000 people. \n*1997 - A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah. \n*1997 - Strom Thurmond becomes the longest serving member in the history of the United States Senate (41 years and 10 months). \n*2000 - Lebanon celebrates the liberation of south after 22 years of Israeli occupation.\n*2001 - Mountain climbing: 32-year old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. \n*2001 - Mountain climbing: 64-year old Sherman Bull, of New Canaan, Connecticut, becomes the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.\n*2002 - A China Airlines Boeing 747-200 breaks apart in mid-air and plunges into the Taiwan Strait killing 225.\n*2003 - Néstor Kirchner becomes President of Argentina after defeating Carlos Menem. He was the first elected President since the December 2001 economic crisis.
Births
\n*1803 - Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher (d. 1882)\n* 1803 - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, novelist and playwright (d. 1873)\n*1845 - Lip Pike, baseball player\n*1860 - James McKeen Cattell, first professor of psychology in U.S. (d. 1944)\n*1865 - Pieter Zeeman, Nobel Prize winner (d. 1943)\n*1879 - Lord Beaverbrook, publisher (d. 1964)\n*1880 - Jean Alexandre Barré, neurologist (d. 1967)\n*1888 - Miles Malleson, actor (d. 1969)\n*1889 - Igor Sikorsky developer of a working helicopter (d. 1972)\n*1913 - Richard Dimbleby, journalist and broadcaster\n*1922 - Enrico Berlinguer, politician (d. 1984)\n*1926 - Miles Davis, composer (d. 1991)\n* 1926 - Max von der Grün, author\n*1927 - Robert Ludlum, science fiction writer (d. 2001)\n*1929 - Beverly Sills, soprano\n*1931 - Georgi Grechko, cosmonaut\n*1932 - Jeanne Crain, actress\n*1936 - Vladimir (Walter,Wally) Fekula, raconteur\n*1939 - Ian McKellen, actor\n* 1939 - Dixie Carter, actress\n*1943 - Jessi Colter, country singer\n*1944 - Frank Oz, puppeteer, director\n*1963 - Mike Myers, actor, comedian\n*1966 - Sugar Minott, singer\n*1967 - Poppy Z. Brite, author\n*1969 - Anne Heche, actress\n*1970 - Jamie Kennedy, actor\n*1971 - Sonya Smith, actress\n*1975 - Lauryn Hill, singer\n*1976 - Miguel Tejada, Major League Baseball All-Star
Deaths
\n*709 - Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne (b. c. 639)\n*735 - Bede, English Historian and monk (b. c. 672)\n*992 - Mieszko I (b. c. 935)\n*1085 - Pope Gregory VII\n*1261 - Pope Alexander IV (b. c. 1199)\n*1555 - Henry II of Navarre (b. 1503)\n*1681 - Pedro Calderón de la Barca (b. 1600)\n*1786 - King Pedro III of Portugal (b. 1717)\n*1789 - Anders Dahl, botanist after whom the dahlia was named (b. 1751)\n*1805 - William Paley, philosopher (b. 1743)\n*1912 - Austin Lane Crothers, politician (b. 1860)\n*1934 - Gustav Holst, composer (b. 1874)\n*1935 - Sir Frank Watson Dyson, English Astronomer Royal (b. 1868)\n*1940 - Joe De Grasse, pioneer Hollywood film director (b. 1873)\n*1951 - Paula von Preradovic, Croatian - Austrian writer (b. 1887)\n*1965 - Sonny Boy Williamson\n*1986 - Chester Bowles, politician (b. 1901)\n*1988 - Ernst Ruska, Nobel Prize in Physicist (b. 1906)
Holidays and observances
\n*Commemoration of the Venerable Bede (Anglican)\n*Argentina - Day of May Revolution/National Day (1810)\n*Chad, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Zambia - African Freedom/Unity Day\n*Jordan - Independence Day/Arab Renaissance Day (1946)\n*Libya, Sudan - Sudan National Day/May Revolution Day (1969)\n*United States - Memorial Day/Decoration Day, a legal holiday (1868)\n*Virginia - Confederate Memorial Day (1868)\n*Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Day of Youth\n*Ancient Latvia - Urbanas Diena observed\n*Towel Day, in memory of Douglas Adams, is observed
May 24 -
May 26 -
April 25 -
June 25 -
listing of all days
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