Your American History Reference Guide! - May 25
May 25
May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (146th in leap years ). There are 220 days remaining.
Events
1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo , Spain back from the Moors .
1420 - Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ .
1521 - The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Edict of Worms , declaring Martin Luther an outlaw .
1659 - Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament , beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth .
1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , delegates convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States . George Washington presides.
1810 - In the May Revolution , armed citizens of Buenos Aires , Argentina expel the Viceroy during the Semana de Mayo .
1865 - In Mobile, Alabama , 300 are killed when an ordnance depot explodes .
1895 - Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of sodomy and gross indecency and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
1895 - The Republic of Taiwan is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as the president.
1914 - The United Kingdom 's House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule .
1925 - Scopes Trial : John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin 's theory of evolution .
1925 - The National Forensics League of America is founded.
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.
1935 - Babe Ruth hits his 714th and last home run at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , setting a baseball record that will stand for 39 years.
1940 - World War II : The Battle of Dunkirk begins.
1946 - The parliament of Transjordan makes Abdullah I of Jordan their king.
1953 - Nuclear testing : At the Nevada Test Site , the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.
1955 - Kanchenjunga , third highest peak in the world is scaled successfully for the first time.
1961 - Apollo program : American president John F. 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.
1963 - In Addis Ababa , Ethiopia , the Organisation of African Unity is established.
1966 - Explorer program : Explorer 32 launches.
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 .
1973 - Mike Oldfield releases Tubular Bells .
1977 - Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope ) opens a limited run in theaters before expanding to become the highest grossing movie to date.
1979 - American Airlines Flight 191 : In Chicago , a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
1979 - The movie Alien opens in theaters, starring Tom Skerritt and Sigourney Weaver .
1981 - In Riyadh , the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain , Kuwait , Oman , Qatar , Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates .
1982 - HMS Coventry is sunk during the Falklands War .
1983 - Return of the Jedi (later retitled Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi ) opens in theaters
1985 - Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge , which kills approximately 10,000 people.
1990 - Back to the Future Part III opens in theaters.
1994 - Beverly Hills Cop III opens in theaters, starring Eddie Murphy .
1995 - The Bosnian Serb Army kills 72 youngsters in the Bosnian city of Tuzla .
1997 - A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah .
1997 - Strom Thurmond becomes the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Senate , at 41 years and 10 months.
2001 - 32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer , of Boulder, Colorado , becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest .
2001 - 64-year-old Sherman Bull , of New Canaan, Connecticut , becomes the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest .
2002 - A China Airlines Boeing 747 -200 breaks apart in mid-air and plunges into the Taiwan Strait killing 225 people.
2002 - In Tallinn , Estonia , Marie N wins the forty-seventh Eurovision Song Contest for Latvia singing "I Wanna".
2003 - Néstor Kirchner becomes President of Argentina after defeating Carlos Menem . He is the first elected President since the December 2001 economic crisis.
Births
1334 - Emperor Suko of Japan (d. 1398 )
1803 - Ralph Waldo Emerson , essayist, philosopher (d. 1882 )
1803 - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton , novelist and playwright (d. 1873 )
1845 - Lip Pike , baseball player
1860 - James McKeen Cattell , first professor of psychology in U.S. (d. 1944 )
1865 - Pieter Zeeman , Nobel Prize winner (d. 1943 )
1879 - Lord Beaverbrook , publisher (d. 1964 )
1880 - Jean Alexandre Barré , neurologist (d. 1967 )
1888 - Miles Malleson , actor (d. 1969 )
1889 - Igor Sikorsky developer of a working helicopter (d. 1972 )
1913 - Richard Dimbleby , journalist and broadcaster
1922 - Enrico Berlinguer , politician (d. 1984 )
1926 - Max von der Grün , author
1926 - Miles Davis , jazz musician and composer
1927 - Robert Ludlum , spy fiction writer (d. 2001 )
1929 - Beverly Sills , American soprano
1931 - Georgi Grechko , cosmonaut
1925 - Jeanne Crain , actress
1935 - Cookie Gilchrist , American football player
1938 - Raymond Carver , writer and poet (d. 1988 )
1939 - Ian McKellen , actor
1939 - Dixie Carter , actress
1943 - Jessi Colter , country singer
1944 - Frank Oz , puppeteer, director
1949 - Jamaica Kincaid , novelist
1958 - Paul Weller , British musician
1963 - Mike Myers , actor, comedian
1966 - Sugar Minott , singer
1967 - Poppy Z. Brite , author
1969 - Anne Heche , actress
1970 - Jamie Kennedy , actor
1971 - Sonya Smith , actress
1975 - Lauryn Hill , singer
1976 - Miguel Tejada , Major League Baseball All-Star
1979 - Monica Keena , American actress
1979 - Jonny Wilkinson , English Rugby Union player
1986 - Aidan Coughlan , Irish newspaper columnist
Deaths
709 - Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne (b. c. 639 )
735 - Bede , English Historian and monk (b. c. 672 )
992 - Mieszko I (b. c. 935 )
1085 - Pope Gregory VII
1261 - Pope Alexander IV (b. c. 1199 )
1452 - John Stafford , Archbishop of Canterbury
1555 - Henry II of Navarre (b. 1503 )
1681 - Pedro Calderón de la Barca (b. 1600 )
1693 - Madame De Lafayette , French writer (b. 1634 )
1786 - King Pedro III of Portugal (b. 1717 )
1789 - Anders Dahl , botanist after whom the dahlia was named (b. 1751 )
1805 - William Paley , philosopher (b. 1743 )
1848 - Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , German poet (b. 1797 )
1912 - Austin Lane Crothers , politician (b. 1860 )
1925 - Jeanne Crain , actress
1934 - Gustav Holst , composer (b. 1874 )
1935 - Sir Frank Watson Dyson , English Astronomer Royal (b. 1868 )
1940 - Joe De Grasse , pioneer Hollywood film director (b. 1873 )
1951 - Paula von Preradovic , Croat - Austrian writer (b. 1887 )
1965 - Sonny Boy Williamson
1986 - Chester Bowles , politician (b. 1901 )
1988 - Ernst Ruska , Nobel Prize in Physicist (b. 1906 )
1996 - Brad Nowell , lead singer and guitar player of Sublime
Holidays and observances
Commemoration of the Venerable Bede (Anglican )
Argentina - Day of May Revolution /National Day (1810)
Chad , Liberia , Mali , Mauritania , Namibia , Zambia and Zimbabwe - African Freedom/Unity Day
Jordan - National Day /Arab Renaissance Day (1946)
Libya , Sudan - Sudan National Day/May Revolution Day (1969)
United States - Memorial Day/Decoration Day, a legal holiday (1868)
Virginia - Confederate Memorial Day (1868)
Lebanon , Liberation Day(1999)
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Day of Youth
Ancient Latvia - Urbanas Diena observed
Towel Day , in memory of Douglas Adams , is observed
External links
May 24 - May 26 - April 25 - June 25 - listing of all days