25 July - Definition and Overview

July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 159 days remaining.

Events

• 306 - Constantine I proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.
• 1261 - Constantinople is captured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus, allowing the re-creation of the Byzantine Empire.
• 1567 - Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.
• 1593 - Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.
• 1722 - Three Years War begins along Maine and Massachusetts border.
• 1758 - French and Indian War: The island battery at Fortress Louisbourg is silenced and all French warships are destroyed or taken.
• 1759 - French and Indian War: In Canada, British forces capture Fort Niagara from French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
• 1799 - At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon I of France defeats 10,000 Ottomans under Mustafa Pasha.
• 1814 - War of 1812: Battle of Lundy's Lane - Reinforcements arrive near Niagara for General Riall's British and Canadian force, and bloody, all-night battle with Jacob Brown's Americans commences at 18.00; Americans retreat to Fort Erie.
• 1853 Joaquin Murietta famous Californio bandit, is killed
• 1861 - American Civil War: The Crittenden-Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
• 1866 - The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (now called "5-star general") Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank.
• 1868 - Wyoming becomes a United States territory.
• 1897 - Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories.
• 1898 - The United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with U.S. troops landing at Guánica Bay.
• 1907 - Korea becomes a protectorate of Japan.
• 1909 - Louis Bleriot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine (Calais to Dover in 37 minutes).
• 1917 - Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
• 1920 - Telecommunications: first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast.
• 1934 - Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.
• 1943 - World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
• 1944 - World War II: Operation Spring - One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war: 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.
• 1946 - Nuclear testing: In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus USS Saratoga is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean when the United States detonates the "Baker Day" device.
• 1946 - At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
• 1952 - Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.
• 1956 - 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the SS Stockholm in heavy fog, killing 51.
• 1969 - Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This was the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.
• 1973 - Soviet Mars 5 space probe launched.
• 1976 - The first performance of the Philip Glass opera Einstein on the Beach
• 1977 - A supposed thunderbird is reported attacking a boy named Marlon Lowe.
• 1978 - The first so-called test-tube baby, Louise Brown, is born.
• 1984 - Salyut 7 Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
• 1989 - Rock/Hip-hop trio The Beastie Boys release the classic Paul's Boutique.
• 1990 - Comedian Roseanne Barr grabs her crotch and spits on the ground when performing the U.S. national anthem at a San Diego Padres game.
• 1994 - Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.
• 1997 - K.R. Narayanan is sworn-in as India's 10th president and the first member of the Dalits caste to hold this office.
• 1998 - The United States Navy commissions the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and puts her into service.
• 2000 - An Air France Concorde supersonic passenger jet crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 5 on the ground.
• 2004 - Lance Armstrong makes history, winning his 6th (consecutive) Tour de France.
• 2004 - Over 100,000 opponents to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan participate in a human chain from Gush Katif (The Jewish communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip, Israel), to the Western Wall, Jerusalem (90 kilometers).

Births

• 1109 - Afonso, first king of Portugal
• 1562 - Kato Kiyomasa, Japanese daimyo and samurai (d. 1611)
• 1799 - David Douglas, botanist, plant collector, explorer (d. 1834)
• 1844 - Thomas Eakins, artist (d. 1916)
• 1848 - Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1902-1907 (d. 1930)
• 1848 - Ottokar Kernstock, poet (d. 1928)
• 1867 - Max Dauthendey, writer (d. 1918)
• 1870 - Maxfield Parrish, illustrator (d. 1966)
• 1883 - Alfredo Casella, Italian composer (d. 1947)
• 1884 - Davidson Black, doctor of anatomy and physical anthropologist (d. 1934)
• 1894 - Walter Brennan, Academy Award winning actor (d. 1974)
• 1902 - Eric Hoffer, philosopher (d. 1983)
• 1905 - Elias Canetti, writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1981 (d. 1994)
• 1906 - Johnny Hodges, saxophonist (d. 1970)
• 1907 - Karl Höller, composer (d. 1987)
• 1920 - Rosalind Franklin, scientist (d. 1958)
• 1924 - Estelle Getty, actress: "The Golden Girls"
• 1929 - Somnath Chatterjee, politician, India
• 1930 - Maureen Forrester, Canadian contralto, teacher
• 1937 - Colin Renfrew, archeology professor
• 1941 - Marco Lucioni, Italian painter
• 1946 - Rita Marley, Jamaican-Cuban singer, widow of Bob Marley
• 1948 - Peggy Fleming, figure skater
• 1954 - Walter Payton, National Football League player (d. 1999)
• 1955 - Iman, model
• 1960 - Alain Robidoux, Canadian snooker player
• 1967 - Matt LeBlanc, actor
• 1977 - Kenny Thomas, NBA basketball player
• 1978 - Louise Brown, first test tube baby
• 1978 - Gerard Warren, American football player
• 1979 - Amy Adams, American Idol 3 contestant
• 1982 - Brad Renfro, actor

Deaths

• 306 - Constantius Chlorus, Roman Emperor
• 1492 - Pope Innocent VIII
• 1861 - Jonas Furrer, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1805)
• 1834 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet
• 1853 - Joaquin Murieta, Californian outlaw
• 1887 - John Taylor, American religious leader (b. 1808)
• 1899 - Theodore August Heintzman, piano manufacturer
• 1934 - Engelbert Dollfuss, Austrian politician
• 1937 - Edward Saunders, agricultural scientist
• 1958 - Harold Warner, one of the Warner Brothers
• 1973 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent, twelfth Prime Minister of Canada
• 1980 - Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian bard (poet, singer) and actor, (b. 1938)
• 1997 - Ben Hogan, one of the world's best known golfers
• 2003 - Ludwig Bölkow, airplane engineer
• 2003 - John Schlesinger, film director

Holidays and observances

• Roman festivals - Furinalia
• Galiza - National Day (Dia da Patria Galega).
• Saint James the Great - patron saint of Spain.
• Costa Rica - Anniversary of the Annexation of Guanacaste Province
• Cuba - Eve of Revolution Day
• Puerto Rico - Constitution Day (1952)
• Tunisia - Republic Day (1957)
• Virgin Islands - Hurricane Supplication Day
• Inca - festival in honor of Ilyap'a

July 24 - July 26 - June 25 - August 25 -- listing of all days