May 25 - Definition and Overview

May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (146th in leap years). There are 220 days remaining.

Events

1000-1899

• 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 begin to 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 - Mobile magazine explosion: 300 are killed in Mobile, Alabama 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.

1900-1999

• 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 - At Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Babe Ruth hits his 714th and last home run 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 emir Abdullah 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 Episode IV: A New Hope opens in theaters and becomes the highest grossing movie to date.
• 1979 - American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, Illinois, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
• 1979 - 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 (D118) is sunk during the Falklands War.
• 1983 - 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 (41 years and 10 months).

2000-2099

• 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.
• 2001 - Pearl Harbor opens in theaters.
• 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

1800-1899

• 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)

1900-1999

• 1913 - Richard Dimbleby, journalist and broadcaster
• 1922 - Enrico Berlinguer, politician (d. 1984)
• 1926 - Max von der Grün, author
• 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
• 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

Deaths

700-1899

• 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)
• 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)

1900-1999

• 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, Zambia - 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

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