On This Day — 25 October

2023

A mass shooting occurs in two locations in Lewiston, Maine. 18 people are killed and 13 more injured.

2023 Lewiston shootings

2010

Mount Merapi in Indonesia begins a month-long series of violent eruptions that kill 353 people and cause the evacuation of another 350,000 people.

Mount Merapi

2010

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes off Indonesia's Mentawai Islands, triggering a tsunami that kills at least 400 people.

2010 Mentawai earthquake and tsunami

2009

The October 2009 Baghdad bombings kill 155 and wound at least 721.

October 2009 Baghdad bombings

2001

Microsoft releases Windows XP, which becomes one of Microsoft's most successful operating systems.

Microsoft

1999

A Learjet 35 crashes in Mina near Aberdeen, South Dakota, killing all six people on board, including PGA golfer Payne Stewart and golf course designer Bruce Borland.

Learjet 35

1997

After a civil war, Denis Sassou Nguesso proclaims himself President of the Republic of the Congo.

Republic of the Congo Civil War (1997–1999)

1995

A commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.

1995 Fox River Grove bus–train collision

1990

The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic declares its sovereignty from the Soviet Union.

Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic

1989

The first leg of the 1989 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira is held at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal.

1989 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira

1983

The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters are executed in a coup d'état.

United States invasion of Grenada

1980

Proceedings on the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction conclude.

Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction

1973

Egypt and Israel accept United Nations Security Council Resolution 339.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 339

1971

The People's Republic of China replaces the Republic of China at the United Nations.

China

1968

A Fairchild F-27 crashes into Moose Mountain while on approach to Lebanon Municipal Airport in Lebanon, New Hampshire, killing 32 people.

Fairchild F-27

1968

Soyuz 2 is launched.

Soyuz 2

1962

Cuban Missile Crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows the United Nations Security Council reconnaissance photographs of Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba.

Cuban Missile Crisis

1949

The Battle of Guningtou in the Taiwan Strait begins.

Battle of Guningtou

1945

Fifty years of Japanese administration of Taiwan formally ends when the Republic of China assumes control.

Geography of Taiwan

1944

World War II: Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich.

World War II

1944

World War II: The USS Tang under Richard O'Kane (the top American submarine ace of the war) is sunk by the ship's own malfunctioning torpedo.

USS Tang (SS-306)

1944

World War II: The final attempt of the Imperial Japanese Navy to win the war climaxes at the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Battle of Leyte Gulf

1940

Benjamin O. Davis Sr. is named the first African American general in the United States Army.

Benjamin O. Davis Sr.

1932

George Lansbury became the leader of the opposition British Labour Party.

George Lansbury

1927

The Italian luxury liner SS Principessa Mafalda sinks off the coast of Brazil, killing 314.

SS Principessa Mafalda

1924

The Zinoviev letter, which Zinoviev himself denied writing, is published in the Daily Mail; the Labour party would later blame this letter for the Conservatives' landslide election win four days later.

Zinoviev letter

1920

After 74 days on hunger strike in Brixton Prison, England, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney dies.

Terence MacSwiney

1917

Old Style date of the October Revolution in Russia.

Old Style and New Style dates

1911

The Xinhai Revolution spreads to Guangzhou, where the Qing general Fengshan is assassinated by the Chinese Assassination Corps.

1911 Revolution

1875

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B♭ minor, Op. 23 premieres in Boston, Massachusetts, with Benjamin Johnson Lang as conductor and Hans von Bülow as soloist.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1868

The Uspenski Cathedral, designed by Aleksey Gornostayev, is inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.

Uspenski Cathedral

1861

The Toronto Stock Exchange is created.

Toronto Stock Exchange

1854

The Battle of Balaclava takes place during the Crimean War. It is soon memorialized in verse as The Charge of the Light Brigade.

Battle of Balaclava

1822

Greek War of Independence: The First Siege of Missolonghi begins.

First siege of Missolonghi

1812

War of 1812: The American frigate, USS United States, commanded by Stephen Decatur, captures the British frigate HMS Macedonian.

USS United States (1797)

1809

Golden Jubilee of George III is celebrated in Britain as he begins the fiftieth year of his reign.

Golden Jubilee of George III

1760

King George III succeeds to the British throne on the death of his grandfather George II.

George III

1747

War of the Austrian Succession: A British fleet under Admiral Edward Hawke defeats the French at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre.

Second Battle of Cape Finisterre

1616

Dutch sea-captain Dirk Hartog makes the second recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil, at the later-named Dirk Hartog Island off the West Australian coast.

Dirk Hartog

1415

Hundred Years' War: Henry V of England, with his lightly armoured infantry and archers, defeats the heavily armoured French cavalry in the Battle of Agincourt.

Battle of Agincourt

1147

Seljuk Turks defeat German crusaders under Conrad III at the Battle of Dorylaeum.

Battle of Dorylaeum (1147)

1147

Reconquista: After a siege of four months, crusader knights conquer Lisbon.

Siege of Lisbon

473

Emperor Leo I acclaims his grandson Leo II as Caesar of the East Roman Empire.

Leo I (emperor)