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

• 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.
• 1926 – Sholom Schwartzbard assassinates Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of Ukrainian People's Republic.
• 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, American essayist and philosopher (d. 1882)
• 1803  – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist and playwright (d. 1873)
• 1820 – Anne Brontë, English writer (d. 1849)
• 1845 – Lip Pike, baseball player
• 1860 – James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (d. 1944)
• 1865 – Pieter Zeeman, Nobel Prize winner (d. 1943)
• 1879 – Lord Beaverbrook, English publisher (d. 1964)
• 1880 – Jean Alexandre Barré, neurologist (d. 1967)
• 1887 – Francesco Forgione, Italian priest (d. 1968)
• 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, 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 music 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 player
• 1979 – Monica Keena, American actress
• 1979 – Jonny Wilkinson, English rugby player
• 1986 – Aidan Coughlan, Irish newspaper columnist

Deaths

• 709 – Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne
• 735 – Bede, English historian and monk
• 992 – Mieszko I
• 1085 – Pope Gregory VII
• 1261 – Pope Alexander IV
• 1452 – John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1555 – Henry II of Navarre (b. 1503)
• 1681 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spanish playwright (b. 1600)
• 1693 – Madame De Lafayette, French writer (b. 1634)
• 1786 – King Pedro III of Portugal (b. 1717)
• 1789 – Anders Dahl, botanist (b. 1751)
• 1805 – William Paley, philosopher (b. 1743)
• 1848 – Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, German writer (b. 1797)
• 1912 – Austin Lane Crothers, politician (b. 1860)
• 1925 – Jeanne Crain, actress
• 1934 – Gustav Holst, English composer (b. 1874)
• 1935 – Sir Frank Watson Dyson, English Astronomer Royal (b. 1868)
• 1940 – Joe De Grasse, American film director (b. 1873)
• 1951 – Paula von Preradovic, Croatian-born writer (b. 1887)
• 1965 – Sonny Boy Williamson
• 1986 – Chester Bowles, politician (b. 1901)
• 1988 – Ernst Ruska, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
• 1996 – Brad Nowell, singer and guitarist (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

• BBC: On This Day

May 24 – May 26 – April 25 – June 25 – listing of all days