October 25

October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 67 days remaining.

Events

• 732 – Battle of Tours: Near Poitiers, France, leader of the Franks Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. The governor of Cordoba, Abd-ar-Rahman, is killed during the battle.
• 1415 – The army of Henry V of England defeats the French army at the Battle of Agincourt
• 1662 – King Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France
• 1747 – British fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke defeats French at second battle of Cape Finisterre.
• 1760 – George III becomes King of Great Britain
• 1813 – War of 1812: Canadians and Mohawks beat the Americans in the Battle of Chateauguay
• 1828 – St Katharine Docks opened in London
• 1854 – Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade)
• 1861 – The Toronto Stock Exchange was created.
• 1900 – United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal
• 1922 – The Dail of the Irish Free State approves the constitution of the new state, formally bringing it into being.
• 1923 – United States Senate begins investigating the Teapot Dome Scandal
• 1924 – The forged Zinoviev Letter is published in the Daily Mail, wrecking the British Labour Party's hopes of re-election.
• 1936 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini create the Rome-Berlin Axis
• 1938 – The Archbishop of Dubuque, Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces Swing music as "a degenerated musical system... turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people", warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell".
• 1944 – Japan launches first kamikaze attacks, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf
• 1944 – 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
• 1945 – The Republic of China takes over administration of Taiwan following Japan's surrender to the Allies.
• 1950 – The People's Republic of China joins the Korean War, sending thousands of "volunteers" across the Yalu river border to attack United Nations forces
• 1962 – Cuban missile crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows photos at the UN proving Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba
• 1971 – United Nations seats the People's Republic of China and expels the Republic of China (see China and the United Nations)
• 1983 – Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters were executed in a coup d'état.
• 1986 – The New York Mets defeat the Boston Red Sox due to Bill Buckner's famous error in Game 6 of the World Series and go on to win the championship two days later
• 1991 – Rock band Steely Dan reunites
• 1992 – Latvia establishes its first post-Soviet constitution
• 1993 – Jean Chrétien becomes prime minister of Canada with a massive majority for his Liberal Party in a general election in which the governing Progressive Conservatives lost 149 of 151 seats in the parliament.
• 1994 – Susan Smith of Union, South Carolina claims that a black carjacker had driven off with her two sons (Smith later confessed to drowning the children in John D. Long Lake, and was convicted of murder)
• 1994 – Kara Spears Hultgreen is killed when on final approach to the USS Abraham Lincoln in her F-14 Tomcat.
• 1995 – A commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
• 1997 – After a brief civil war which has driven President Pascal Lissouba out of Brazzaville, Denis Sassou-Nguesso proclaims himself the President of the Republic of the Congo.
• 2001 – Microsoft releases Windows XP
• 2003 – The Cedar Fire is reported at 5:37 pm. It becomes the largest wildfire in California history.
• 2004 – Fidel Castro, Cuba's President, announces that transactions using the American Dollar will be banned by November 8th.
• 2004 – Official Guided by Voices Day in Bloomington, Indiana.

Births

• 1692 – Elizabeth Farnese, wife of King Philip V of Spain (d. 1766)
• 1767 – Benjamin Constant, Swiss writer (d. 1830)
• 1811 – Evariste Galois, mathematician (d. 1832)
• 1825 – Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer (d. 1899)
• 1838 – Georges Bizet, French composer (d. 1875)
• 1856 – Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croatian paleontologist (d. 1936)
• 1864 – Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (d. 1956)
• 1867 – Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, Polish general (d.1937)
• 1869 – John Heisman, American football coach (d. 1936)
• 1881 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor (d. 1973)
• 1888 – Richard E. Byrd, explorer (d. 1957)
• 1889 – Abel Gance, film writer (d. 1981)
• 1892 – Leo G. Carroll, actor (d. 1972)
• 1895 – Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1969)
• 1902 – Eddie Lang, jazz musician (d. 1933)
• 1910 – William Higinbotham, physicist (d. 1994)
• 1912 – Minnie Pearl, comedian and singer (d. 1996)
• 1913 – Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal
• 1914 – John Berryman, American poet (d. 1972)
• 1915 – Ivan M. Niven, Canadian mathematician
• 1924 – Billy Barty, actor (d. 2000)
• 1926 – Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano
• 1927 – Barbara Cook, singer, actress
• 1928 – Marion Ross, actress
• 1933 – Jack Haley Jr., film producer and director (d. 2001)
• 1935 – Russell Schweickart, astronaut
• 1940 – Bobby Knight, basketball coach
• 1941 – Anne Tyler, novelist
• 1942 – Helen Reddy, singer
• 1944 – Jon Anderson, singer (Yes)
• 1944 – James Carville, Jr., political operative
• 1948 – Glenn Tipton, guitarist
• 1948 – Dan Gable, wrestler and coach
• 1949 – Brian Kerwin, actor
• 1951 – Richard Lloyd, musician
• 1954 – Mike Eruzione, American hockey player
• 1956 – Mathias Jabs, guitarist
• 1959 – Nancy Cartwright, voice actress
• 1963 – Tracy Nelson, actress
• 1970 – Ed Robertson, guitarist and singer (Barenaked Ladies)
• 1971 – Pedro Martínez, Dominican baseball player
• 1971 – Midori, Japanese violinist
• 1984 – Sara Helena Lumholdt, Swedish musician (A-Teens)
• 1985 – Ciara Harris, singer

Deaths

• 304 – Pope Marcellinus (martyred)
• 625 – Pope Boniface V
• 1154 – Stephen of England
• 1400 – Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet
• 1495 – King John II of Portugal
• 1895 – Charles Hallé, pianist and conductor
• 1910 – Willie Anderson, golfer
• 1920 – Alexander I, King of the Hellenes (bitten by a pet monkey)
• 1921 – Bat Masterson, American journalist and lawman
• 1953 – Holger Pedersen, Danish linguist (b. 1867)
• 1955 – Sadako Sasaki
• 1957 – Lord Dunsany, writer
• 1957 – Albert Anastasia, Mafia don
• 1974 – Nick Drake, musician
• 1986 – Forrest Tucker, actor
• 1987 – Louis Guttman, sociologist
• 1991 – Bill Graham, rock promoter
• 1992 – Roger Miller, American musician and composer
• 1993 – Danny Chan, Hong Kong singer, actor, and songwriter
• 1993 – Vincent Price, actor
• 1995 – Bobby Riggs, tennis player
• 1999 – Payne Stewart, golfer
• 2002 – Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota
• 2002 – Richard Harris, actor
• 2004 – John Peel, British disc jockey (b. 1939)

Holidays

• Feast day of Saint Crispin

External links

• BBC: On This Day

October 24 – October 26 – November 25 – September 25 – more historical anniversaries