August 25

2025 Calendar

August 25 is the 237th day of the year (238th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 128 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

450 – Pulcheria becomes Empress of the Byzantine Empire after her brother Theodosius II is killed during a hunting accident.
1248 – The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, Archbishop of Utrecht.
1537 – The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and second most senior, is founded.
1580 – Battle of Alcantara: Spain defeats Portugal.
1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1718 – New Orleans is founded by French settlers.
1758 – Seven Years' War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian Army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
1768 – James Cook begins his first voyage.
1778 – Triglav in the Julian Alps, which is Slovenia's highest peak, is successfully climbed for the first time, by Lovrenc Willomitzer.
1810 – Briton Paul Durand receives a patent for the tin can.
1825 – Uruguay declares independence from Brazil.
1830 – The Belgian Revolution begins.
1835 – The New York Sun carries out the Great Moon Hoax.
1844 – Australia's first synagogue is started in Melbourne.
1856 – The Teatro Solis theatre opens in Montevideo, Uruguay.
1861 – The Clayton Tunnel train crash in the UK kills 23 people and injures 176.
1875 – Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to successfully swim across the English Channel, from Dover, England, UK to Calais, France.
1894 – Kitasato Shibasaburo discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague.
1898 – 700 Greek civilians, 17 British guards and the British consul of Crete are killed by a Turkish mon in Heraklion, Crete, Greece.

1901 – 2000

1912 – The Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) is founded.
1914 – World War I: The library of the Catholic University of Leuven is deliberately destroyed by the German Army.
1916 – The United States National Park Service is created.
1920 – Polish-Soviet War: The Battle of Warsaw, which began on August 13, ends as the Red Army is defeated.
1927 – Japanese destroyer Warabi sinks after a collision with the light cruiser Jintsu, killing 102 people.
1933 – The Diexi earthquake strikes Mao County, Sichuan, China, killing 9,000 people.
1938 – Inauguration of the Obelisk of Montevideo on Uruguayan Independence Day.
1939 – The United Kingdom and Poland form a military alliance in which the United Kingdom promises to defend Poland in the case of invasion by a foreign power. Nazi Germany invades Poland just a week later, after which the United Kingdom and France both declare war on Germany on September 3.
1941 – World War II: British and Soviet troops enter Iran.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Milne Bay.
1944 – World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.
1945 – Ten days after the Japanese surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China kill American Baptist missionary John Birch. Some people on the American political right regard this as the start of the Cold War.
1945 – Emperor Bao Dai of Vietnam resigns, leaving Ho Chi Minh in power.
1950 – US President Harry Truman gets the army to take over the railways to stop a strike.
1956 – Off Stockholm, Sweden, the wreck of the ship Vasa is found. It had sunk at the start of its first voyage in 1628.
1960 – The 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, begin.
1961 – President of Brazil Janio Quadros resigns after just seven months in power.
1975 – Australian band, the Little River Band puts out its first recording, Curiosity Killed the Cat.
1980 – Zimbabwe joins the UN.
1981 – Voyager 2 approaches Saturn.
1988 – Most of the old town of Lisbon, Portugal, is destroyed by fire.
1989 – Mayumi Moriyama becomes Japan's first female cabinet secretary.
1989 – Voyager 2 approaches Neptune.
1991 – Belarus declares independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 – Croatian War of Independence: The Battle of Vukovar begins, as an 87–day siege in the city of Vukovar begins, by the Yugoslav People's Army, supported by various Serbian paramilitary forces.
1991 – Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what would become Linux.
1991 – First flight of an Airbus A340.
1992 – Siege of Sarajevo: The National Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina is deliberately set on fire, with thousands of irreplaceable works being destroyed.
1995 – First flight of an Airbus A319.
1997 – Former leader of East Germany Egon Krenz is convicted of ordering a shoot–to–kill policy at the Berlin Wall.

From 2001

2001 – Marriage of Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway and Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway.
2002 – For the first time, in election for Chancellor of Germany, the main candidates face each other in a television debate. The election is mainly between then–incumbent Gerhard Schröder and his challenger Edmund Stoiber.
2003 – The Delta II rocket launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, sending the Spitzer space telescope into space.
2006 – Because of difficult situation in East Timor, the UN sends an integrated mission there.
2012 – The Voyager 1 spacecraft becomes the first man–made object to enter interstellar space. This occurs on the same day as the death of astronaut Neil Armstrong.
2013 – At least 42 people are killed in bomb attacks in Iraq. On the same day, neighboring Syria announces it will allow UN weapons inspectors into the country, during its civil war.
2017 – Riots in Northern India result in at least 36 deaths, after the rape conviction of religious leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
2017 – Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas, causing several days of heavy rain and flooding. The city of Houston is among the places heavily flooded.
2018 – Pope Francis visits the Republic of Ireland.

Births

Up to 1800

1530 – Ivan IV of Russia ("Ivan the Terrible") (d. 1584)
1561 – Philippe van Landsberge, Dutch astronomer and mathematician (d. 1632)
1635 – Sir Henry Morgan, privateer (d. 1688)
1662 – John Leverett the Younger, American lawyer, politician and academic (d. 1724)
1691 – Alessandro Galilei, Italian architect (d. 1737)
1707 – King Louis I of Spain (d. 1724)
1724 – George Stubbs, English painter (d. 1806)
1744 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German writer (d. 1803)
1767 – Antoine Louis Léon de Richebourg de Saint-Just, French revolutionary and writer (d. 1794)
1785 – Adam Wilhelm Moltke, 1st Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 1864)
1786 – King Ludwig I of Bavaria (d. 1868)
1789 – John Miers, English botanist and engineer (d. 1879)
1796 – James Lick, California land baron (d. 1876)

1801 – 1900

1802 – Nikolaus Lenau, Austrian poet (d. 1850)
1803 – Luis Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias, Brazilian army officer, politician and monarchist (d. 1880)
1817 – Marie-Eugenie de Jesus, French nun and saint (d. 1898)
1819 – Allan Pinkerton, American private detective (d. 1884)
1822 – Gardiner Greene Hubbard, American lawyer, philanthropist and 1st President of the National Geographic Society (d. 1897)
1829 – Carlo Acton, Italian composer and concert pianist (d. 1909)
1836 – Bret Harte, American writer (d. 1902)
1841 – Emil Theodor Kocher, Swiss doctor, won the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1917)
1845 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria (d. 1886)
1850 – Charles Robert Richet, French physiologist (d. 1935)
1850 – Pavel Axelrod, Russian revolutionary (d. 1928)
1862 – Louis Barthou, Prime Minister of France (d. 1934)
1865 – Arthur Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminster (d. 1943)
1869 – Tom Kiely, Irish athlete (d. 1951)
1871 – Nils Edén, 15th Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1945)
1879 – John Randolph Bray, American animator (d. 1978)
1882 – Seán T. O'Kelly, President of Ireland (d. 1966)
1889 – Alexander Mair, Australian politician, 16th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1969)
1891 – David Shimoni, Russian–Israeli poet and writer (d. 1956)
1894 – Nick Winter, Australian triple jumper (d. 1955)
1895 – Robert A. Hurley, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1968)
1898 – Helmut Hasse, German mathematician (d. 1975)
1899 – Guy Butler, British athlete (d. 1981)
1900 – Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, German scientist (d. 1981)

1901 – 1950

1902 – Stefan Wolpe, composer (d. 1972)
1903 – Arpad Elo, Hungarian–American chess player (d. 1992)
1905 – Mary Faustina Kowalska, Polish nun, mystic and saint (d. 1938)
1909 – Eileen Hiscock, British athlete (d. 1958)
1909 – Ruby Keeler, Canadian singer and actress (d. 1993)
1909 – Michael Rennie, British actor (d. 1971)
1910 – Dorothea Tanning, American painter (d. 2012)
1911 – Vo Nguyen Giap, Vietnamese general and statesman (d. 2013)
1911 – Vivi-Anne Hultén, Swedish figure skater (d. 2003)
1912 – Erich Honecker, head of state of East Germany (d. 1994)
1913 – Walt Kelly, American cartoonist (d. 1973)
1916 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist (d. 2003)
1916 – Van Johnson, American actor (d. 2008)
1917 – Mel Ferrer, American actor (d. 2008)
1918 – Leonard Bernstein, American conductor and composer (d. 1990)
1919 – Ernst Barkmann, German tank commander (d. 2009)
1919 – George Wallace, Governor of Alabama (d. 1998)
1921 – Monty Hall, Canadian game show host (d. 2017)
1921 – Brian Moore, Irish–born Canadian writer (d. 1999)
1923 – Alvaro Mutis, Colombian writer (d. 2013)
1924 – Allan Edwall, Swedish actor, director, composer and singer (d. 1997)
1924 – Yasuzo Masumura, Japanese film director (d. 1986)
1925 – Hilmar Hoffmann, German stage and film director, politician and academic (d. 2018)
1927 – Althea Gibson, American tennis player (d. 2003)
1928 – Herbert Kroemer, German physicist
1929 – Gordon Sherwood, American composer
1930 – Sir Sean Connery, Scottish actor
1931 – Regis Philbin, American television host (d. 2020)
1931 – Peter Gilmore, British actor (d. 2013)
1931 – Cecil D. Andrus, 26th and 28th Governor of Idaho (d. 2017)
1932 – Tomohiko Ikoma, Japanese footballer (d. 2009)
1933 – Wayne Shorter, American jazz musician
1933 – Tom Skerritt, American actor
1934 – Zilda Arns, Brazilian pediatrician and aid worker (d. 2010)
1934 – Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former President of Iran (d. 2017)
1935 – Charles Wright, American poet
1936 – Hugh Hudson, British movie director
1938 – David Canary, American actor
1938 – Frederick Forsyth, English writer
1939 – John Bardon, English actor (d. 2014)
1939 – John Badham, English–American movie director
1940 – José Van Dam, Belgian baritone
1941 – Marshall Brickman, screenwriter
1941 – Mario Corso, Italian footballer
1941 – Angelo Dominghini, Italian footballer
1942 – Nathan Deal, 82nd Governor of Georgia, US
1942 – Ivan Koloff, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2017)
1942 – Howard Jacobson, English journalist, writer and broadcaster
1944 – Anthony Heald, actor
1944 – Pat Martino, American musician
1944 – Conrad Black, Canadian newspaper magnate
1946 – Rollie Fingers, American baseball player
1946 – Charlie Sanders, American football player (d. 2015)
1949 – Salif Keita, Malian singer-songwriter
1949 – Martin Amis, British novelist
1949 – John Savage, actor
1949 – Gene Simmons, Israeli–born American bassist (Kiss)

1951 – 1975

1951 – Rob Halford, English singer
1951 – Robert Joseph Glass, artist
1952 – Geoff Downes, English keyboardist, songwriter and producer
1952 – Peter Wolf, singer and composer
1952 – Vijayakanth, Indian actor and politician
1953 – Maurizio Malvestiti, Italian bishop
1954 – Jim Wallace, Scottish politician
1954 – Elvis Costello, English musician
1956 – Takeshi Okada, Japanese football manager
1956 – Stig Strand, Swedish skier
1956 – Henri Toivonen, Finnish rally driver (d. 1986)
1957 – Sikander Bakht, Pakistani cricketer
1958 – Tim Burton, American movie director, producer, and screenwriter
1959 – Sönke Wortmann, German movie director
1960 – Jonas Gahr Store, Norwegian politician
1961 – Yutaka Ikeuchi, Japanese footballer
1961 – Billy Ray Cyrus, American singer
1961 – Joanne Whalley, British actress
1962 – Viv Campbell, American guitarist (Def Leppard)
1962 – Maris Bruziks, Latvian triple jumper
1963 – Roberto Mussi, Italian footballer
1963 – Miro Cerar, Slovenian politician, former Prime Minister of Slovenia
1964 – Maxim Kontsevich, Russian mathematician
1964 – Blair Underwood, actor
1964 – Clive Myrie, British television news journalist
1965 – Mia Zapata, American singer (d. 1993)
1965 – Sanjeev Sharma, Indian cricketer
1966 – Tracy-Ann Oberman, British actress
1966 – Derek Sherinian, American keyboardist, composer and producer
1967 – Tom Hollander, British actor
1968 – Rafet El Roman, singer, composer
1968 – Rachael Ray, American cook and television host
1968 – Stuart Murdoch, Scottish singer and songwriter
1969 – Catriona Matthew, Scottish golfer
1969 – Cameron Mathison, Canadian actor
1970 – Claudia Schiffer, German model
1971 – Felix da Housecat, American DJ
1972 – Marvin Harrison, American football player
1973 – Ryuji Michiki, Japanese footballer
1973 – Kang We-suck, South Korean activist
1973 – Fatih Akin, German movie director
1974 – Mario Jeckle, German computer scientist (d. 2004)

From 1976

1976 – Alexander Skarsgaard, Swedish actor
1977 – Jonathan Togo, American actor
1977 – Andy McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 – Ramil Safarov, Azrebaijani convicted murderer
1979 – Marlon Harewood, English footballer
1979 – Philipp Missfelder, German politician (d. 2015)
1980 – Ryan Horn, writer and commentator
1981 – Rachel Bilson, American actress
1985 – Hendra Setiawan, Indonesian badminton player
1987 – Velimir Jovanovic, Serbian footballer
1987 – Liu Yifei, Chinese actress and singer
1987 – Rona Nishliu, Kosovo–Albanian singer
1987 – Blake Lively, American actress and model
1987 – Amy MacDonald, Scottish singer
1988 – Alexandra Burke, English singer
1989 – Keegan Joyce, Australian actor
1989 – Amber Le Bon, English model
1992 – Miyabi Natsuyaki, Japanese actress and singer
1998 – China Anne McClain, American actress and singer
1998 – Abraham Mateo, Spanish actor and pop music singer

Deaths

Up to 1900

79 – Pliny the Elder, Roman writer, naturalist, philosopher and military commander (b. 23)
383 – Gratian, Roman Emperor (b. 359)
471 – Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople
1192 – Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1142)
1270 – King Louis IX of France (b. 1214)
1482 – Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI of England (b. 1429)
1632 – Thomas Dekker, English playwright (b. 1572)
1688 – Henry Morgan, Welsh privateer (b. 1635)
1699 – King Christian V of Denmark (b. 1646)
1740 – Prince Jean, Duke of Guise (b. 1874)
1742 – Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (b. 1704)
1776 – David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian (b. 1711)
1779 – Thomas Chittenden, 1st Governor of Vermont (b. 1730)
1792 – Jacques Cazotte, French writer (b. 1719)
1819 – James Watt, Scottish engineer and inventor (b. 1736)
1822 – William Herschel, German–born astronomer (b. 1738)
1846 – Giuseppe Acerbi, Italian traveler and naturalist (b. 1773)
1867 – Michael Faraday, English scientist (b. 1791)
1886 – Zinovios Valvis, Greek politician and Prime Minister (b. 1791)
1900 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (b. 1844)
1900 – Kiroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1840)

1901 – 2000

1904 – Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter (b. 1836)
1908 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist (b. 1852)
1938 – Aleksandr Kuprin, Russian writer (b. 1870)
1939 – Babe Siebert, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1904)
1942 – George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (b. 1902)
1945 – John Birch, American Baptist missionary and intelligence officer (b. 1918)
1956 – Alfred Kinsey, American research biologist (b. 1894)
1957 – Leo Perutz, Austrian writer (b. 1882)
1967 – Stanley Bruce, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1883)
1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, head of the American Nazi Party (b. 1918)
1970 – Tachii Naito, Japanese architect and engineer (b. 1886)
1971 – Ted Lewis, American singer and bandleader (b. 1890)
1976 – Eyvind Johnson, Swedish writer (b. 1900)
1979 – Stan Kenton, American musician and bandleader (b. 1911)
1980 – Gower Champion, American actor, director and choreographer (b. 1919)
1984 – Truman Capote, American writer (b. 1924)
1984 – Waite Hoyt, American baseball player (b. 1899)
1984 – Viktor Chukarin, Soviet gymnast (b. 1921)
1985 – Samantha Smith, American activist (b. 1972)
1988 – Price Daniel, American politician, Governor of Texas (b. 1910)
1988 – Art Rooney, American businessman (b. 1901)
1996 – Reinhard Libuda, German footballer (b. 1943)
2000 – Carl Barks, American cartoonist (b. 1901)

From 2001

2001 – Philippe Léotard, French actor and singer (b. 1940)
2001 – Aaliyah, American singer (b. 1979)
2006 – Noor Hassanali, 2nd President of Trinidad and Tobago (b. 1918)
2007 – Raymond Barre, French politician (b. 1924)
2009 – Mandé Sidibé, Malian politician (b. 1940)
2009 – Edward Kennedy, American politician (b. 1932)
2012 – Neil Armstrong, American astronaut and first person to walk on the Moon (b. 1930)
2013 – Gylmar dos Santos Neves, Brazilian footballer (b. 1930)
2013 – William Froug, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1922)
2014 – Alfredo Martini, Italian cyclist (b. 1921)
2014 – Jason Curley, Australian musician (b. 1972)
2014 – Marcel Masse, Canadian politician (b. 1936)
2015 – Francis Sejersted, Norwegian history professor (b. 1936)
2016 – Margaret Anstee, British diplomat (b. 1926)
2016 – James Cronin, American physicist (b. 1931)
2016 – Maria Eugénia, Portuguese actress (b. 1927)
2016 – Justin du Fresne, New Zealand radio broadcaster (b. 1942)
2016 – Warren Hinckle, American political journalist (b. 1938)
2016 – Rodolfo Illanes, Bolivian politician (b. 1958)
2016 – Marvin Kaplan, American actor (b. 1927)
2016 – Sonia Rykiel, French fashion designer (b. 1930)
2016 – Eddy Silitonga, Indonesian singer (b. 1949)
2017 – Margaret Moser, American journalist (b. 1954)
2017 – Rich Piana, American bodybuilder and internet personality (b. 1971)
2018 – Lindsay Kemp, English choreographer and actor (b. 1938)
2018 – John McCain, American politician, United States Senator for Arizona and former presidential candidate (b. 1936)
2018 – Noam Sheriff, Israeli composer and conductor (b. 1935)
2019 – Timothy Bell, Baron Bell, British advertising and public relations executive (b. 1941)
2019 – Ferdinand Piëch, Austrian businessman and engineer (b. 1937)
2019 – Mona Lisa, Filipina actress (b. 1922)
2019 – Vince Naimoli, American businessman (b. 1937)
2019 – Anne Grete Preus, Norwegian rock singer and musician (b. 1957)
2019 – Jerry Rook, American basketball player (b. 1943)
2019 – Jafar Umar Thalib, Indonesian Islamic militant (b. 1961)

Observances

Independence Day (Uruguay)
Liberation Day (Paris)
Soldier's Day (Brazil)