April 25
April 25 is the 115th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (116th in leap years). There are 250 days remaining.
Events
- 1607 - Dutch fleet destroys anchored Spanish fleet
- 1707 - An Allied Austrian army is defeated by Bourbon army at Almansa (Spain) in the War of the Spanish Succession.
- 1719 - Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is published.
- 1792 - Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
- 1831 - The Lion of the West, a play celebrating Davy Crockett, opens in New York City.
- 1846 - Mexican-American War: Open conflict begins over border disputes of Texas' boundaries.
- 1849 - The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
- 1859 - Ground is broken for the Suez Canal.
- 1862 - American Civil War: Forces under Union Admiral David Farragut capture the Confederate city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Mark's Mills - Confederate forces seize a Union wagon supply train on its way to Camden, Arkansas forcing Union General Frederick Steele to withdraw his troops to Little Rock, Arkansas.
- 1898 - Spanish-American War: The United States declares war on Spain; the United States Congress announces that a state of war has existed since April 21.
- 1901 - New York state becomes the first to require automobile license plates.
- 1915 - The ANZAC tradition begins during World War I with a landing at Gallipoli on the Turkish coast.
- 1916 - Easter Rebellion: The United Kingdom declares martial law in Ireland (lasts until April 29 - the end of the rebellion).
- 1916 - ANZAC Day celebrated for the first time.
- 1926 - Reza Khan is crowned Shah of Iran under the name "Reza Pahlavi".
- 1945 - World War II: United States and Russian troops link up at the Elbe River, cutting Germany in two.
- 1945 - The United Nations is organized in San Francisco, California, by 50 nations.
- 1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix structure of DNA.
- 1959 - The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.
- 1959 - The first person now known to have AIDS enters a hospital.
- 1961 - Robert Noyce is granted the first patent for an integrated circuit.
- 1972 - Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive - The North Vietnamese 320th Division forces 5,000 South Vietnamese troops to retreat and traps about 2,500 others northwest of Kontum.
- 1974 - Carnation Revolution: A coup in Portugal restores democracy.
- 1975 - As North Vietnamese forces close in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy is closed and evacuated, almost ten years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.
- 1980 - A commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters. Eight United States troops were killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation.
- 1981 - More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.
- 1982 - Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula per the Camp David Accords.
- 1983 - American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
- 1983 - Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.
- 1988 - In Israel, John Demjanuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II. He was accused of being a notorious guard at the Treblinka extermination camp known as "Ivan the Terrible" by survivors.
- 1989 - James Richardson is freed from a Florida prison 21 years after being wrongfully convicted of the murder of his seven children.
- 1990 - Space Shuttle program: STS-31 - Astronauts aboard the Discovery deploy the Hubble Space Telescope.
- 1993 - 300,000 homosexuals march on Washington, DC demanding freedom from discrimination.
Births
- 32 - Marcus Salvius Otho, Roman Emperor (d. 69)
- 1284 - King Edward II of England (d. 1327)
- 1599 - Oliver Cromwell, statesman (d. 1658)
- 1840 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer (d. 1893)
- 1849 - Felix Klein, mathematician (d. 1925)
- 1874 - Guglielmo Marconi, inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1909 (d. 1937)
- 1900 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1945 (d. 1958)
- 1903 - Andrey Nikolayevich Kolmogorov, mathematician (d. 1987)
- 1906 - William J. Brennan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1997)
- 1908 - Edward R. Murrow, journalist (d. 1965)
- 1914 - Ross Lockridge Jr., writer (d. 1948)
- 1917 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer (d. 1996)
- 1918 - Gerard Henri de Vaucouleurs, astronomer (d. 1995)
- 1925 - Sammy Drechsel, journalist, film director and cabaretist (d. 1986)
- 1930 - Paul Mazursky, director, writer
- 1932 - Meadlowlark Lemon, basketball star, member of the Harlem Globetrotters
- 1933 - Jerry Leiber, composer
- 1940 - Al Pacino, actor (The Godfather, Scarface, Scent of a Woman)
- 1946 - Talia Shire, actress
- 1947 - Johann Cruyff, Dutch footballer
- 1964 - Hank Azaria, actor, voice actor (The Simpsons)
- 1969 - Renée Zellweger, actress (Bridget Jones's Diary, Chicago)
- 1976 - Tim Duncan, basketball star, two-time NBA MVP
- 1976 - Rainer Schuettler, German professional tennis player
Deaths
- 1472 - Leon Battista Alberti, artist (b. 1404)
- 1566 - Diane de Poitiers, mistress of King Henry II of France (b. 1499)
- 1595 - Torquato Tasso, Italian poet (b. 1544)
- 1744 - Anders Celsius, astronomer (b. 1701)
- 1840 - Siméon-Denis Poisson, mathematician (b. 1781)
- 1878 - Anna Sewell, author (b. 1820)
- 1911 - Emilio Salgari, Italian novelist (b. 1862)
- 1968 - John Tewksbury, American athlete (b. 1876)
- 1972 - George Sanders, actor (b. 1906)
- 1990 - Dexter Gordon, jazz musician (b. 1923)
- 1995 - Ginger Rogers, actress, dancer (b. 1911)
- 1999 - Lord Killanin, former IOC president (b. 1914)
- 2000 - David Merrick, producer (b. 1911)
- 2002 - Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, singer (b. 1971)
- 2003 - Samson Kitur, Kenyan athlete (b. (1966)
Holidays and observances
April 24 - April 26 - March 25 - May 25 -- listing of all days
