On October 25th...

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1400 Author Geoffrey Chaucer died.

1415 Henry V of England defeated the French at Agincourt.

1495 King João II of Portugal died.

1647 Scientist Christiaan Huygens died.
1647 Mathematician Evangelista Torricelli died.

1760 King George II of Great Britain died.

1800 Author Thomas B. Macaulay was born.

1806 Henry Knox, U. S. Secretary of War, died.

1812 The U. S. frigate United States captured the British vessel Macedonian.

1825 Waltz composer Johann Strauss, Jr., was born.

1838 Composer Georges Bizet was born.

1854 The Battle of Balaklava, aka Charge of the Light Brigade, was fought.

1859 The merchant vessel Royal Charter ran aground at Liverpool, England, killing 459 persons.

1861 The Toronto Stock Exchange was created.

1864 The Battle of Mine Creek was fought near Trading Post, Kansas.

1870 Pimlico Race Course opened in Baltimore, Maryland.

1881 Painter Pablo Picasso was born.

1888 Richard Evelyn Byrd, Antarctic and Arctic explorer, was born.

1895 Levi Eshkol, third Prime Minister of Israel, was born.

1900 Great Britain annexed the former Boer South African Republic and renamed it the Transvaal Colony.

1912 Singer Minnie Pearl was born.

1913 Klaus Barbie, aka "Butcher of Lyons," was born.

1918 The Canadian steamship Princess Sofia hit a reef off Alaska and sank, killing 398 persons.

1920 King Alexander of Greece died.

1921 King Michael of Romania was born.
1921 "Wild West" lawman Bat Masterson died.

1924 The comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" debuted.
1924 Actor Billy Barty was born.

1928 Actress Marion Ross was born.

1929 Former U. S. Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall was convicted of accepting a $100,000 bribe in the Teapot Dome Scandal.

1930 The first scheduled transcontinental air service began.

1931 The George Washington Bridge, connecting Upper Manhattan, New York, with Fort Lee, New Jersey, opened to traffic.

1935 Hurricane-produced floods killed about 2,000 people in Haiti.
1935 Astronaut Russell Louis Schweickart was born.

1940 Benjamin Oliver Davis became the first black to attain the rank of General in the U. S. Army.
1940 Basketball coach Bobby Knight was born.

1941 Singer Helen Reddy was born.

1944 Singer Jon Anderson was born.
1944 Political commentator and author James Carville was born.

1945 The Japanese surrendered Taiwan to Chinese General Chiang Kai-shek.

1953 A coal mine explosion in Seraing, Belgium, killed 26 miners.

1955 Austria regained its sovereignty.

1960 The first electronic wristwatch went on sale in New York City, New York.

1962 Uganda became the 110th member of the United Nations.

1964 Anton Geesing became the first non-Japanese winner of an Olympic judo gold medal.
1964 The Rolling Stones appeared on "Ed Sullivan" for the first time.
1964 John Surtees won the Formula One World Driver Championship.

1971 The United Nations General Assembly voted to expel Nationalist China and admit the People's Republic of China.
1971 Roy Disney dedicated Walt Disney World.

1974 The U. S. Air Force fired its first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).

1975 Venera 10 landed on Venus.

1980 Mike Weaver KO'd Gerrie Coetzee in the 13th round to win the heavyweight boxing title.

1981 Historian Ariel Durant died.

1983 The United States invaded Grenada.

1986 The International Red Cross was ousted from South Africa.
1986 Actor Forrest Tucker died.

1988 The U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs was created by act of Congress.
1990 Evander Holyfield KO'd Buster Douglas in the 3rd round to win the heavyweight boxing title.
1990 The New York Daily News went on strike.

1991 Rock and roll promoter Bill Graham died.

1992 Singer Roger Miller died.

1993 Actor Vincent Price died.

1995 "Victor/Victoria"opened at the Marquis Theater in New York City, New York.
1995 Cliff Richard became the first rock singer/musician to be knighted.
1995 Tennis player Bobby Riggs died.

1997 Denis Sassou-Nguesso proclaimed himself President of the Republic of the Congo.

2002 U. S. Senator Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash while campaigning for re-election.

2012 Hurricane Sandy made landfall in Cuba and Haiti, causing over $80 million in damage and killing 65 persons.

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This page was last updated on October 25, 2018.