On This Day — 25 July

2019

National extreme heat records set this day in the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany during the July 2019 European heat wave.

2019 European heatwaves

2018

As-Suwayda attacks: Coordinated attacks occur in Syria.

2018 Suwayda attacks

2010

WikiLeaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history.

WikiLeaks

2007

Pratibha Patil is sworn in as India's first female president.

Pratibha Patil

2001

Phoolan Devi, a serving Member of Parliament, was assassinated by shooting in New Delhi, India.

Phoolan Devi

2000

Concorde Air France Flight 4590 crashes outside of Paris shortly after taking off at Charles de Gaulle Airport, killing 113 people.

Concorde

1996

In a military coup in Burundi, Pierre Buyoya deposes Sylvestre Ntibantunganya.

1996 Burundian coup d'état

1995

A gas bottle explodes in Saint Michel station of line B of the RER (Paris regional train network). Eight are killed and 80 wounded.

1995 France bombings

1994

Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, that formally ends the state of war that had existed between the nations since 1948.

Jordan

1993

Israel launches a massive attack against Lebanon in what the Israelis call Operation Accountability, and the Lebanese call the Seven-Day War.

Lebanon

1993

The Saint James Church massacre occurs in Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa.

Saint James Church massacre

1984

Salyut 7 cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.

Salyut 7

1983

Black July: Thirty-seven Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are massacred by the fellow Sinhalese prisoners.

Black July

1979

In accord with the Egypt–Israel peace treaty, Israel begins its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt–Israel peace treaty

1978

Puerto Rican police shoot two nationalists in the Cerro Maravilla murders.

Puerto Rico

1978

Birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation, or IVF.

Louise Brown

1976

Viking program: Viking 1 takes the famous Face on Mars photo.

Viking program

1973

Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.

Soviet Union

1971

The Sohagpur massacre is perpetrated by the Pakistan Army.

Sohagpur massacre

1969

Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This is the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.

Vietnam War

1965

Bob Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music.

Bob Dylan

1961

Cold War: In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.

Cold War

1958

The African Regroupment Party holds its first congress in Cotonou.

African Regroupment Party

1957

The Tunisian King Muhammad VIII al-Amin is replaced by President Habib Bourguiba.

Lamine Bey

1956

Forty-five miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51.

Nantucket

1946

The Crossroads Baker device is the first underwater nuclear weapon test.

Operation Crossroads

1944

World War II: Operation Spring near Caen is one of the bloodiest days for the First Canadian Army during the war.

Operation Spring

1943

World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by the King (encouraged by the Grand Council of Fascism) and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.

World War II

1943

World War II: 136 Greek civilians are murdered by soldiers of the German 1st Mountain Division in the village of Mousiotitsa, Greece.

Massacres of Mousiotitsa

1942

The Norwegian Manifesto calls for nonviolent resistance to the German occupation.

Norwegian resistance movement

1940

General Henri Guisan orders the Swiss Army to resist German invasion and makes surrender illegal.

Henri Guisan

1934

The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.

Nazi Germany

1925

Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.

TASS

1917

Sir Robert Borden introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).

Robert Borden

1915

RFC Captain Lanoe Hawker becomes the first British pursuit aviator to earn the Victoria Cross.

Royal Flying Corps

1909

Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine from Calais to Dover, England, United Kingdom in 37 minutes.

Louis Blériot

1908

Ajinomoto is founded. Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers that a key ingredient in kombu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG), and patents a process for manufacturing it.

Ajinomoto

1898

Spanish–American War: The American invasion of Spanish-held Puerto Rico begins, as United States Army troops under General Nelson A. Miles land and secure the port at Guánica.

Spanish–American War

1897

American author Jack London embarks on a sailing trip to take part in the Klondike's gold rush, from which he wrote his first successful stories.

Jack London

1894

The First Sino-Japanese War begins when the Japanese fire upon a Chinese warship.

First Sino-Japanese War

1869

The Japanese daimyōs begin returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese Date: June 17, 1869).

Daimyo

1868

The Wyoming Territory is established.

Wyoming Territory

1866

The United States Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to be promoted to this rank.

Military rank

1861

American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Crittenden–Johnson Resolution, stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery, in the wake of the defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.

American Civil War

1853

Joaquin Murrieta, the famous Californio bandit known as the "Robin Hood of El Dorado", is killed.

Joaquin Murrieta

1837

The first commercial use of an electrical telegraph is successfully demonstrated in London by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone.

Electrical telegraph

1835

James Bowman Lindsay demonstrates a constant electric light at a public meeting in Dundee, Scotland.

James Bowman Lindsay

1824

Costa Rica annexes Guanacaste from Nicaragua.

Costa Rica

1799

Napoleon Bonaparte defeats a numerically superior Ottoman army under Mustafa Pasha at the Battle of Abukir.

Napoleon

1797

Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife (Spain).

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson

1792

The Brunswick Manifesto is issued to the population of Paris promising vengeance if the French royal family is harmed.

Brunswick Manifesto

1788

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his Symphony No. 40 in G minor (K550).

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1783

American Revolutionary War: The war's last action, the Siege of Cuddalore, is ended by a preliminary peace agreement.

American Revolutionary War

1759

French and Indian War: In Western New York, British forces capture Fort Niagara from the French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.

French and Indian War

1755

British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council order the deportation of the Acadians.

British Empire

1722

Dummer's War begins along the Maine-Massachusetts border.

Dummer's War

1718

At the behest of Tsar Peter the Great, the construction of Kadriorg Palace, dedicated to his wife Catherine, begins in Tallinn.

Peter the Great

1693

Ignacio de Maya founds the Real Santiago de las Sabinas, now known as Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Mexico.

Sabinas Hidalgo

1668

A magnitude 8.5 earthquake strikes eastern China, killing over 43,000 people.

1668 Shandong earthquake

1609

The English ship Sea Venture, en route to Virginia, is deliberately driven ashore during a storm at Bermuda to prevent its sinking; the survivors go on to found a new colony there.

Sea Venture

1603

James VI and I and Anne of Denmark are crowned in Westminster Abbey.

James VI and I

1593

Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.

Henry IV of France

1591

The Duke of Parma is defeated near the Dutch city of Nijmegen by an Anglo-Dutch force led by Maurice of Orange.

Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma

1567

Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.

Caracas

1554

The royal wedding of Mary I and Philip II of Spain celebrated at Winchester Cathedral.

Wedding of Mary I of England and Philip of Spain

1547

Henry II of France is crowned.

Henry II of France

1538

The city of Guayaquil is founded by the Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana and given the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil.

Guayaquil

1536

Sebastián de Belalcázar on his search of El Dorado founds the city of Santiago de Cali.

Sebastián de Belalcázar

1467

The Battle of Molinella: The first battle in Italy in which firearms are used extensively.

Battle of Molinella

1278

The naval Battle of Algeciras takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista resulting in a victory for the Emirate of Granada and the Maranid Dynasty over the Kingdom of Castile.

Battle of Algeciras (1278)

1261

The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.

Constantinople

1139

Battle of Ourique: The Almoravids, led by Ali ibn Yusuf, are defeated by Prince Afonso Henriques who is proclaimed King of Portugal.

Battle of Ourique

1137

Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Prince Louis, later King Louis VII of France, at the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

918

Wang Geon becomes King of Goryeo after overthrowing Gung Ye in a coup the previous day

Taejo of Goryeo

864

The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings.

Edict of Pîtres

677

Climax of the Siege of Thessalonica by the Slavs in a three-day assault on the city walls.

Siege of Thessalonica (676–678)

315

The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum in Rome to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.

Arch of Constantine

306

Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.

Constantine the Great