Today's 25 October Major Events in History

Photo for the article Today's 25 October Major Events

625 Boniface V ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1131 Louis VI,I the Younger, crowned King of France
1147 King Afonso I of Portugal occupies Lisbon

1147 Seljuk Turks defeat German crusaders under Conrad III at the Battle of Dorylaeum
1241 Goffredo Castiglioni elected as Pope Coelestinus IV, lasts 17 days
1315 Adam Banastre, Henry de Lea and William Bradshaw, led an attack on Liverpool Castle

Battle of Agincourt

1415 Battle of Agincourt: Henry V's forces defeat a larger French army as the longbow overcomes the armored knight at Azincourt, France

1415 John IV of Burgundy becomes Duke of Brabant and Limburg, upon his father's death

Great Wood Ban of Amsterdam

1521 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V bans wooden buildings in Amsterdam and decrees new building have to be built from stone

1555 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V publicly abdicates his roles as Lord of the Netherlands and Duke of Burgundy in favor of his son Philip II of Spain

Reform of the Chant

1577 Pope Gregory XIII gives a brief to Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Annibale Zoilo to reform ecclesiastical hymns

1596 Spanish fleet sails from Lisbon to Ireland

1616 Dutch East India Company ship Eendracht makes landfall on Dirk Hartog Island, the second European ship to visit the continent of Australia

1666 Brandenburg, Brunswick, Denmark and The Netherlands form anti-French Quadruple Alliance
1671 Giovanni Cassini discovers Iapetus, satellite of Saturn
1747 British fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke defeats the French at the second battle of Cape Finisterre

King George III

1760 George III succeeds to the throne as King of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector/King of Hanover upon the death of George II

Hancock Elected Governor

1780 John Hancock elected the first Governor of Massachusetts in a landslide with over 90% of the vote

1812 US frigate United States captures British vessel Macedonian
1828 St Katharine Docks opens in London, England
1829 Eastern State Penitentiary opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the world's 1st prison to entirely use solitary confinement system intended for rehabilitation; designed by Robert Strickland, it closed in 1971, and is now a museum [1]

1854 Infamous "Charge of the Light Brigade" during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War results in over 100 deaths

1854 Prince Menshikov of Crimea occupies British base at Balaclava
1861 First Battle of Springfield [Zagonyi's Charge], fought in Springfield, Missouri, Union victory (US Civil War)
1861 Telegraph message sent from St Louis to San Francisco
1861 Toronto Stock Exchange created
1864 Battle of Marais Des Cygnes River, Kansas (Mine Creek)
1870 Pimlico Race Course opens in Baltimore
1870 Postcards are used for the first time in the US

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1

1875 The first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is given in Boston, Massachusetts with Hans von Bülow as soloist

1884 1st "World Championship" Baseball Series, Polo Grounds, NYC: Providence Grays (NL) beat NY Mets (American Association) 12-2 in 6 innings for a 3-game sweep; game abandoned because of bitter cold

Brahms' 4th Symphony

1885 Johannes Brahms conducts the premiere of his 4th Symphony in e, Op. 98, in Meiningen, Germany

1891 First International Six-Day Bike Race at Madison Square Garden in New York ends
1893 Battle of Shangani, Matabeleland: Dr Jameson beats Ndebeles
1900 Great Britain annexes the former Boer South African Republic, renaming it the Transvaal Colony
1901 Joseph Chamberlain, British Colonial Affairs Secretary, makes an anti-German speech in Edinburgh; when word reaches Germany leads to widespread agitation against the British and breakdown of negotiations for Anglo-German alliance

The Lower Depths

1902 Maxim Gorky's play "The Lower Depths" premieres in Moscow

1902 Santa Maria, Guatemala hit by Earthquake, killing an estimated 6,000 people

1906 US inventor Lee de Forest patents "Audion", a 3-diode amplification valve which proved a pioneering development in radio & broadcasting
1907 Frederik of Oaths disbands mental home colony Walden
1911 London's last horse drawn omnibus made its way from London Bridge Station to Moorgate
1915 James L Curtis named US Minister for Liberia
1917 Pan-Russian Congress opens in Petrograd
1918 Canadian steamship "Princess Sophia" hits a reef off Alaska, 398 die

Teapot Dome Scandal

1923 Senate committee publishes 1st report on Teapot Dome scandal

1925 Rightist German ministers disavows Treaty of Locarno
1926 Future Hockey HOFer Lester Patrick becomes first coach & GM of NY Rangers

Albert B. Fall Convicted

1929 Former Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall convicted of accepting $100,000 bribe in the Teapot scandal - 1st US Cabinet member to go to jail

1930 1st indoor American football game Convention Hall in Atlantic City; a 7–0 victory by Washington & Jefferson over Lafayette, two Pennsylvania college teams
1930 Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) begins 1st scheduled US transcontinental air service between NYC and Los Angeles, California; 30 hour trip includes overnight stop in Kansas City, Missouri

1935 Hurricane-produced floods kill 2,000 in Jeremie & Jacmel Haiti
1937 Belgian government of Zealand falls due to black money
1937 Casey Stengel signs to manage Boston Bees
1938 American Archbishop of Dubuque (Iowa), Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces swing music as "a degenerated musical system... turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people," warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell"
1938 Japanese troops occupies Hankou & Wuhan
1939 William Saroyan's "Time of Your Life" premieres in NYC
1940 Benjamin O Davis Sr. becomes 1st African American general in US Army
1941 16,000 Jews massacred in Odessa, Ukraine
1941 Germany attacks Moscow
1942 3rd day of battle at El Alamein: British offensive
1942 Battle of Henderson Field Guadalcanal begins

The Desert Fox Returns

1942 Field Marshal Rommel back in North Africa

1943 Burma railroad completed & opens
1944 Battle at Cape Engano: 4 Japanese ships sink
1944 Battle at Samar-island
1944 Battle in Straits of Surigao: Japanese fleet destroyed
1944 Gas output stopped in Amsterdam

1947 Sam Breadon sells the Cardinals to Robert Hannegan and Fred Saigh for $4 million
1948 Special Council of Annulment convicts writer Friedrich Weinreb for collaboration with the Nazis
1950 Dutch NSB leader C van Gelderen sentenced to life

La Répétition

1950 Jean Anouilh's play "La Répétition ou l'Amour puni" premieres in Paris at the Théâtre Marigny

1951 Peace talks aimed at ending Korean War resumed in Panmunjom
1952 First Dutch edition of children's magazine "Donald Duck"
1952 French president inaugurates Donzère-Mondragonstuw Dam
1952 Nazar Mohammad scores Pakistan's first ever Test cricket century (124no) in 2nd Test v India in Lucknow
1953 Cleveland Browns' QB Otto Graham sets club record with 4 fumbles
1953 Coal mine in Seraing Belgium explodes, 26 die

1953 KIEM TV channel 3 in Eureka, CA (NBC/CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting

1955 Austria resumes its sovereignty for the first time since German occupation of 1938 after departure of last Allied occupation forces
1955 Branch Rickey steps down as GM of the Pirates
1955 Tappan sells the first microwave oven
1956 White Sox manager Marty Marion resigns and is replaced by Al López

Murder of Albert Anastasia

1957 Cosa Nostra crime boss Albert Anastasia is murdered in a barber's chair in New York City, probably by fellow mobster Joe Gallo

1957 Russian minister of Defense Zjoekov deposed
1960 1st electronic wrist watch placed on sale, NYC
1960 Cuba nationalizes all remaining US businesses
1961 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1962 110th member of UN admitted (Uganda)
1962 1st Belgian nuclear reactor begins operation

Nobel Prize in Literature

1962 American author John Steinbeck awarded Nobel Prize for Literature

I Am Prepared to Wait

1962 US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson demands USSR UN representative Valerian Zorin answer concerns about Cuban missile bases, saying, "I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over"

1963 Anti-Kennedy "WANTED FOR TREASON" pamphlets scattered in Dallas
1963 The Beatles begin their 1st full foreign tour in Karlstad, Sweden, performing twice at a secondary school auditorium

1964 English driver John Surtees finishes 2nd behind American Dan Gurney in season ending Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez to clinch his first F1 World Drivers Championship; edges Graham Hill by 1 point

1964 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1964 Viking Jim Marshall runs 66 yards in the wrong direction for a safety (NFL's No. 1 blooper)
1965 The Rolling Stones release music single "Get Off of My Cloud"
1966 6 youths sentenced in "Johnson murderer!" in Amsterdam

Jimi Hendrix Experience

1966 Jimi Hendrix Experience play their first UK gig as a private showcase at The Scotch of St. James in London

1968 American swimmer Claudia Kolb wraps up the women's individual medley double in Mexico City, winning the 400m I/M in Olympic record 5:08.5; she also won the 200m I/M in OR 2:24.7
1968 Chicago recognizes Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable as its 1st settler
1968 Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská wins the uneven bars and vault gold medals at the Mexico City Olympics; her 6th & 7th career gold medals and her 4th at these Games
1968 East German swimmer Roland Matthes wins the 200m backstroke gold medal in Olympic record 2:09.6 at the Mexico City Games; wraps up backstroke double
1968 Longest Olympic field hockey game: Netherlands beats Spain 1-0 in 2 hours 25 minutes (6 overtimes)
1968 US men's basketball team beats Yugoslavia 65-50 to win the gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics; 7th straight basketball title for the Americans

1969 American ocean liner SS United States, still holding record for fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing, completes 400th voyage; new owners announce ship's retirement shortly thereafter [1]
1970 Austrian driver Jochen Rindt wins F1 World Drivers Championship by 5 points from Jacky Ickx after Mexican GP; only season World Championship awarded posthumously, after Rindt's death in Italian GP practice at Monza
1971 A man dies two days after being shot during an Irish Republican Army attack on the British Army in Belfast, Northern Ireland
1971 Belgium and People's Republic of China establish diplomatic relations
1971 United Nations votes to expel the Chinese Nationalist-ruled Taiwan and admit the Communist People's Republic of China

Cycling Hour Record

1972 Eddy Merckx (Belgium) sets a world hour record by riding 30.7 miles (49.431 km) in one hour

1972 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Kenneth J Arrow & John R Hicks
1973 Chris Wills wins 1st National hang-gliding championship
1973 Cubs trade Ferguson Jenkins to Rangers for Bill Madlock & Vic Harris
1973 SF Giants trade future HOF first baseman Willie McCovey to San Diego Padres for pitcher Mike Caldwell
1974 Dmitri Shostakovich' 15th String Quartet premieres in Leningrad, USSR
1974 US Air Force fires 1st ICBM successfully from a plane, over the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast
1974 Wings release single "Junior's Farm"

Still Crazy After All These Years

1975 Columbia Records releases "Still Crazy After All These Years", the fourth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon; it features the title track and the hits "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" and "My Little Town", and wins 2 Grammy Awards

1975 Denver Nuggets 1st game at McNichols Sports Arena beat St Louis Spirits
1975 USSR's Venera 10 makes day-side Venus landing
1976 5th Enterprise, approach & lands test (ALT) flight
1976 Governor Wallace grants full pardon to Clarence Norris, last known survivor of 9 Scottsboro Boys who were convicted in 1931 rape
1977 Digital Equipment Corporation releases OpenVMS V1.0.

1978 Israeli government approves "in principle", a draft compromise peace

1st to Win NL and AL Cy Young Awards

1978 San Diego Padres pitcher Gaylord Perry wins NL Cy Young, 1st to do so in both leagues (AL, 1972)

1979 USSR performs underground nuclear test

Weaver KOs Coetzee

1980 American Mike Weaver KOs local favorite Gerrie Coetzee in 13 rounds in Sun City, South Africa for WBA heavyweight boxing title

1980 Barbra Streisand's "Guilty" album goes #1 for 3 weeks & her single "Woman In Love," goes #1 for 3 weeks
1981 200,000 demonstrate in Brussels against cruise missile
1981 New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner scuffles with 2 fans in a hotel elevator

Newhart

1982 "Newhart" sitcom (the Vermont one) debuts on CBS-TV

1983 US invades Grenada, a country 1/2,000 its population (US Wins!)
1984 "Give My Regards to Broad Street" premieres (Gotham Theater-NYC)
1984 King Boudouin opens Museum for Modern Art in Brussels
1984 Rangers beat Devils 11-2
1984 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1984 West German Chancellor Rainer Barzel resigns due to corruption
1985 Angels announce that they will not offer Rod Carew a new contract
1985 Kosmos 1700 communications satellite placed in geostationary orbit
1986 International Red Cross ousted from South Africa
1988 "Devil Worship: Exposing Satan's Underground" TV special hosted by Geraldo Rivera airs on NBC [1]
1988 ABC News reports on potbellied pygmy pigs' popularity as pets
1988 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll
1990 "40-Hour Week" 9th studio album by Alabama is re-released (original release 1985)

1990 NY Daily News goes on strike (lasts through March, 1991)
1991 Aaqib Javed takes 7-37 in 10 overs v India in cricket 1-dayer at Sharjah
1992 Lithuania holds a referendum on its first post-Soviet constitution.
1992 Rene Lachemann hired as Fla Marlins 1st manager
1993 Airbus A310 of Air Nigeria hijacked, 1 dead
1993 Canada Liberal Party and Bloc Québécois wins parliamentary election
1993 Daryll Cullinan hits unbeaten 337 for Transvaal against Northern Transvaal, South African 1st-class cricket record score

Turbulent Indigo

1994 Reprise Records releases "Turbulent Indigo", Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell's 15th studio album; wins Grammy Award for Best Pop Album

1994 Susan Smith claims her 2 kids were carjacked (she actually killed them)

1996 Frank, brother of Yank manager Joe Torre, receives a heart transplant
1997 After a brief civil war which has driven President Pascal Lissouba out of Brazzaville, Denis Sassou-Nguesso proclaims himself the President of the Republic of the Congo.
2000 A team led by Brigitte Senut and Martin Pickford discover Orrorin tugenensis, one of the earliest species on the human family tree that lived about 6 million years ago, in the Tugen Hills, Kenya
2001 Microsoft releases Windows XP for retail sale

Castro Bans US Dollar Transactions

2004 Fidel Castro, Cuba's President, announces that transactions using the American Dollar will be banned by November 8

2007 David Lang's "The Little Match Girl Passion" premieres at Carnegie Hall, New York City (Pulitzer Prize for Music 2008) [1]
2007 The first Airbus A380 passenger flight, operating for Singapore Airlines, with flight number SQ 380, flying scheduled service between Singapore and Sydney, Australia.
2009 The 25 October 2009 Baghdad bombings kills 155 and wounds at least 721.

Speak Now

2010 "Speak Now" 3rd studio album by Taylor Swift is released (Billboard Album of the Year 2011)

2012 Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in Cuba and Haiti killing 65 people and causing over $80 million in damage
2012 The double dip recession in the UK economy ends with growth of 1.0% in GDP in the third quarter of 2012, with help from the London Olympic Games
2013 74 Boko Harem members killed in a coordinated assault in Borno State, Nigeria

2015 British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton wins US F1 Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas to clinch his second consecutive World Drivers Championship

2016 4 killed on a theme park ride at Dreamworld, in Queensland, Australia
2016 Paul Beatty becomes the 1st American to win the Man Booker Prize for his novel "The Sellout"

Xi Consolidates Power

2017 Chinese Premier Xi Jinping unveils his new ruling council in the Great Hall of the People; none of the five members are young enough to succeed him

2017 The first fossil of an ichthyosaur (a marine reptile, 152 million years old) is found in India, according to a report published in the PLOS ONE science journal
2018 First work of art produced by artificial intelligence, "Edmond de Belamy," conceived by Obvious, sells for $432,500 at Christie's in New York
2018 Flash floods near the Red Sea in Jordan kill 17 as a school bus is washed away
2018 Google says it has fired 48 people for sexual harassment after New York Times reveals Android software creator Andy Rubin got $90M package when let go for sexual harassment
2018 Sahle-Work Zewde becomes Ethiopia's first female President and Africa's only female head of state after being elected by parliament
2018 Super Typhoon Yutu strikes the Northern Mariana Islands of Saipan and Tinian with winds of 180mph (290km/h)
2019 Leicester City rout Southampton, 9-0 at St. Mary's to record biggest ever win by an away side in an English top-flight league match in the history of the Football League
2020 British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton wins Portuguese Grand Prix at Autódromo Internacional Do Algarve for his 92nd career victory; moves 1 win clear of Michael Schumacher in all-time F1 victories list

Chile Scraps Pinochet's Constitution

2020 Chile overwhelmingly votes to scrap their constitution, drafted during dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet

First African American Cardinal

2020 Pope Francis announces appointment of 13 new cardinals including 1st African American Wilton Daniel Gregory

2021 Afghanistan to become world's worst humanitarian crisis as nearly 23 million people face acute hunger over winter according to the World Food Program [1]

Richest Person Ever

2021 Elon Musk makes a record $25 billion in one day pushing his estimated worth to $255.2 billion, likely making him the richest person ever according to Forbes [1]

2021 NASA scientists announce they may have detected the first planet outside our galaxy in the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), 28 million light-years away [1]
2021 Sudan's military takes control of the country, dissolving the power-sharing government and declaring a state of emergency
2022 German sportswear manufacturer Adidas cuts ties with American rapper and fashion designer Kenye West over anti-Semitic remarks he made in interviews and on his social media [1]
2022 New Zealand Parliament membership becomes majority female for the first time [1]
2023 At least 18 people killed and 13 injured in a massed shooting in Lewiston, Maine sending the area into lockdown with the suspect still at large [1]
2023 Hurricane Otis makes landfall near Acapulco as a category 5 storm with 65-mph winds, the strongest to hit Mexico's Pacific coast, killing at least 52 people [1]

2023 US Republicans elect Mike Johnson of Louisiana Speaker of the House of Representatives after three weeks of infighting [1]
2024 NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenki return to earth after 235 days in space [1]