August 25

Historic Events

2017

Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004. ›

2017

Conflict in Rakhine State (2016–present): One hundred seventy people are killed in at least 26 separate attacks carried out by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, leading to the governments of Myanmar and Malaysia designating the group as a terrorist organisation. ›

2012

Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space, becoming the first man-made object to do so. ›

2011

Fifty-two people are killed during an arson attack caused by members of the drug cartel Los Zetas. ›

2010

A Filair Let L-410 Turbolet crashes on approach to Bandundu Airport, killing 20. ›

2006

Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko is sentenced to nine years imprisonment for money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion. ›

2005

Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Florida. ›

2003

NASA successfully launches the Spitzer Space Telescope into space. ›

2001

American singer Aaliyah and several members of her entourage are killed as their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas. ›

1997

Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall. ›

1991

Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union. ›

1991

The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day siege of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serb paramilitary forces, between August and November 1991 (during the Croatian War of Independence). ›

1991

Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux. ›

1989

Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the last planet in the Solar System at the time, due to Pluto being within Neptune's orbit from 1979 to 1999. ›

1989

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404, carrying 54 people, disappears over the Himalayas after takeoff from Gilgit Airport in Pakistan. The aircraft was never found. ›

1985

Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 crashes near Auburn/Lewiston Municipal Airport in Auburn, Maine, killing all eight people on board including peace activist and child actress Samantha Smith. ›

1981

Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn. ›

1980

Zimbabwe joins the United Nations. ›

1980

The last performance of the Jahrhundertring at the Bayreuth Festival receives ovations of 45 minutes. ›

1967

George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, is assassinated by a former member of his group. ›

1961

President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns after just seven months in power, initiating a political crisis that culminates in a military coup in 1964. ›

1960

The Games of the XVII Olympiad commence in Rome, Italy. ›

1958

The world's first publicly marketed instant noodles, Chikin Ramen, are introduced by Taiwanese-Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando. ›

1950

To avert a threatened strike during the Korean War, President Truman orders Secretary of the Army Frank Pace to seize control of the nation's railroads. ›

1948

The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss. ›

1945

Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War. ›

1945

The August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty. ›

1944

World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies. ›

1942

World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons; a Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned back by an Allied air attack. ›

1942

World War II: Battle of Milne Bay: Japanese marines assault Allied airfields at Milne Bay, New Guinea, initiating the Battle of Milne Bay. ›

1941

World War II: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union jointly stage an invasion of the Imperial State of Iran. ›

1940

World War II: The first Bombing of Berlin by the British Royal Air Force. ›

1939

As part of its S-Plan, the Irish Republican Army carries out the 1939 Coventry bombing in which five civilians were killed. ›

1939

The United Kingdom and Poland form a military alliance in which the UK promises to defend Poland in case of invasion by a foreign power. ›

1933

The Diexi earthquake strikes Mao County, Sichuan, China and kills 9,000 people. ›

1933

Nazi Germany and the Zionist Federation of Germany signed the Haavara Agreement. The agreement was a major factor in breaking the anti-Nazi boycott of 1933 and facilitated Jewish emigration from Germany and into British Mandate of Palestine. ›

1920

Polish–Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, which began on August 13, ends with the Red Army's defeat. ›

1916

The United States National Park Service is created. ›

1914

World War I: Japan declares war on Austria-Hungary. ›

1914

World War I: The library of the Catholic University of Leuven is deliberately destroyed by the German Army. Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts are lost. ›

1912

The Kuomintang is founded for the first time in Peking. ›

1904

Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Liaoyang begins. ›

1894

Kitasato Shibasaburō discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet. ›

1883

France and Viet Nam sign the Treaty of Huế, recognizing a French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin. ›

1875

Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 21 hours and 45 minutes. ›

1835

The first Great Moon Hoax article is published in The New York Sun, announcing the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon. ›

1830

The Belgian Revolution begins. ›

1825

The Thirty-Three Orientals declare the independence of Uruguay from Brazil. ›

1823

American fur trapper Hugh Glass is mauled by a grizzly bear while on an expedition in South Dakota. ›

1814

War of 1812: On the second day of the Burning of Washington, British troops torch the Library of Congress, United States Treasury, Department of War, and other public buildings. ›

1758

Seven Years' War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf. ›

1651

A parliamentarian army defeats a royalist army under James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby, in the battle of Wigan Lane during the Third English Civial War. ›

1630

Portuguese forces are defeated by the Kingdom of Kandy at the Battle of Randeniwela in Sri Lanka. ›

1609

Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers. ›

1580

War of the Portuguese Succession: Spanish victory at the Battle of Alcântara brings about the Iberian Union. ›

1543

António Mota and a few companions become the first Europeans to visit Japan. ›

1537

The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed. ›

1270

Philip III, although suffering from dysentery, becomes King of France following the death of his father Louis IX, during the Eighth Crusade. His uncle, Charles I of Naples, is forced to begin peace negotiations with Muhammad I al-Mustansir, Hafsid Sultan of Tunis. ›

1258

Regent George Mouzalon and his brothers are killed during a coup headed by the aristocratic faction under Michael VIII Palaiologos, paving the way for its leader to ultimately usurp the throne of the Empire of Nicaea. ›

1248

The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, the Archbishop of Utrecht. ›

766

Emperor Constantine V humiliates nineteen high-ranking officials, after discovering a plot against him. He executes the leaders, Constantine Podopagouros and his brother Strategios. ›

450

Marcian is proclaimed Eastern Roman emperor at Hebdomon and marries empress Pulcheria. ›

383

Roman Emperor Gratian is murdered at a banquet after having surrendered to the forces of rival emperor Magnus Maximus. ›