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 Daniel Defoe is published.
1792 - Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine .
1792 - "La Marseillaise " (French national anthem ) is composed.
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 U.S. 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 commemorated 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 a 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 Hubble Space Telescope .
1993 - 300,000 homosexuals march on Washington, DC demanding freedom from discrimination .
1997 - Volcano Tommy Lee Jones .
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 )
1924 - Albert King , musician
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
1945 - Björn Ulvaeus , Swedish singer, songwriter, ABBA member
1946 - Talia Shire , actress
1947 - Johann Cruyff , Dutch footballer
1952 - Ketil Bjørnstad , Norwegian pianist
1964 - Hank Azaria , actor, voice actor
1969 - Joe Buck , baseball and American football broadcaster
1969 - Darren Woodson , American football player
1969 - Renée Zellweger , actress
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 )
1937 - Michał Drzymała , famous Polish peasant fighting with German bureaucracy (b.1857 )
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 )
1998 - Morris Wright , American writer (b. 1910 )
1999 - Lord Killanin , former IOC president (b. 1914 )
2000 - David Merrick , producer (b. 1911 )
2001 - Michele Alboreto , Italian racing driver (b. 1956 )
2002 - Indra Devi, yoga teacher to the stars
2002 - Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes , singer (b. 1971 )
2003 - Samson Kitur , Kenyan athlete (b. (1966 )
Holidays and observances
External links
April 24 - April 26 - March 25 - May 25 -- listing of all days
Top Encyclopedia Articles
