25th August, on this day

1537 The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
1580 Battle of Alcantara, Spain defeats Portugal
1609 Galileo demonstrates his 1st telescope to Venetian lawmakers
1689 Montreal taken by Iroquois
1718 Hundreds of French colonists arrive in Louisiana; New Orleans, founded
1758 Seven Years' War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
1768 James Cook begins his first voyage.
1804 Alice Meynell becomes 1st woman jockey (England)
1814 War of 1812 : British capture Washington DC
1825 Uruguay declares independence from Brazil (National Day)
1830 Belgium revolts against Netherlands
1835 NY Sun publishes Moon hoax story about John Herschel
1862 Secretary of War authorises Gen Rufus Saxton to arm 5,000 slaves
1864 Petersburg Campaign-Battle of Ream's Station
1875 Matthew Webb becomes 1st to swim English Channel (21h 45m)
1886 1st international polo meet (US vs England)
1894 Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.
1904 Jim Jefferies KOs Jack Munroe and retains boxing heavyweight title
1910 Yellow Cab is founded.
1912 The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, is founded.
1912 1st time an aircraft recovers from a spin
1915 Hurricane kills 275 in Galveston, Texas with $50 million damage
1919 The start of the world's first scheduled flights, between London and Paris
1920 1st US woman to win in Olympics (Ethelda Bleibtrey)
1920 Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, started on August 13, now ends. The Red Army is defeated.
1921 The first skirmishes of the Battle of Blair Mountain occur.
1921 US signs peace treaty with Germany
1928 Opening of the famous Kop End at Liverpool Football Club's ground at Anfield. Most likely named after the Battle of Spion Kop during the Boer War, the word 'Kopje' meaning 'small hill'.
1929 In US, Graf Zeppelin passes over SF for LA after trans-Pacific voyage
1932 Amelia Earhart completes transcontinental flight
1933 Diexi earthquake shook Mao County, Sichuan, China and killed 9,000 people
1940 1st parachute wedding
1942 Battle of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
1942 Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned-back by Allied air attack, losing one destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged
1943 US forces overran New Georgia in Solomon Islands during WW II
1944 Paris liberated from Nazi occupation
1945 Jewish immigrants are permitted to leave Mauritius for Palestine
1945 Ten days after World War II ended with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China killed Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by a portion of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
1948 House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss
1950 President Harry Truman orders the US Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.
1950 Sugar Ray Robinson KOs Jose Basora to win middleweight boxing title
1960 Start of the 17th Olympic Games in Rome, at which a young American boxer - Cassius Clay - wins the light-heavyweight gold medal
1963 Paul McCartney is fined and 1 yr suspended license for speeding
1967 Paraguay accepts its constitution
1981 Jeff Schwartz, sets solo record for trampoline bouncing (266:09)
1981 Mark Chapman, John Lennon's murderer, is sentenced to 20 years
1981 Voyager 2's closest approach to Saturn (63,000 miles/100,000 km)
1985 American singer Michael Jackson pays $25 million for the rights to a catalogue of music which includes copyright of more than 5,000 songs, including many by the British group, The Beatles
1986 Britain stages its first street motor race - along roads around the centre of Birmingham
1989 US spacecraft Voyager, completing its' 12-year voyage to Neptune, sends pictures to Earth of the planet Triton, its' moon, and pictures of two additional moons previously unknown to scientists
1989 Tadeusz Mazowiecki chosen as the first non-communist Prime Minister in Central and Eastern Europe.
1990 Li Hui Rong of China sets the triple jump women's record (47'8")
1990 UN security council authorises military action against Iraq
1991 Belarus declares independence from the Soviet Union
1991 Carl Lewis runs 100m in 9.86 seconds
1997 Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, was convicted of a shoot-to-kill Berlin Wall policy.
1998 Sheryl Gascoigne, the wife for former England internatiuonal footballer Paul Gasgoine, is granted a divorce on the grounds of his unreasonable behaviour
2003 The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo (now called Behchoko).

25th August 2006

EU to supply half Lebanon force

Nigeria troops 'burn Delta slums'

UK-US plane diverted over 'scare'

25th August 2007

Death toll mounts in Greek fires

Deadly explosions hit Indian city

China to act on gender imbalance

25th August 2008

Sudan 'kills refugees in Darfur'

Afghans demand 'new troops deal'

Russian MPs back Georgia's rebels

25th August 2009

Dozens killed in Afghan explosion

US soldiers killed in Afghanistan

Tanzania buries school fire dead

25th August 2010

Wave of deadly bombings in Iraq

DR Congo plane crash 'kills 20'

South Africa bus collides with train killing children

Birthdates which occurred on 25th August :

1530 Ivan IV (the Terrible) 1st tsar of Russia (1533-84)
1724 George Stubbs England, animal painter (House Frightened by Lion)
1819 Allan Pinkerton founded Chicago detective agency
1836 Bret Harte US, author (Outcasts of Poker Flat)
1841 Theodor Kocher Swiss surgeon, thyroid specialist (Nobel 1909)
1845 Ludwig II mad king of Bavaria (1864-86)
19-- Morgan Englund actor (Dylan Lewis-Guiding Light)
1902 Stefan Wolpe Berlin Germany, composer (Zeus & Elidco)
1905 Clara Bow silent movie actress (Wings, Down to the Sea in Ships)
1906 William J Brennan Newark NJ, US supreme court justice (1957-90)
1909 Michael Rennie actor (The Robe, Klatuu-Day the Earth Stood Still)
1909 Ruby Keeler Halifax NS, dancer (Dames)
1910 Pierre Musy Switzerland, 4-man bobsled (Olympic-gold-1936)
1912 Erich Honecker Germany, East German political leader
1913 Walt Kelly cartoonist, creator of "Pogo"
1914 Alexei Haieff Blagovestchensk Siberia, composer (Princess Zondilda)
1915 Walter Trampler Munich Germany, violist (Beaux Arts Trio)
1916 Van Johnson Newport RI, actor (Brigadoon) always wore red socks
1917 Don Defore Cedar Rapids Iowa, actor (George-Hazel, Ozzie & Harriet)
1917 Mel Ferrer Elberon NJ, actor (Longest Day, Eaten Alive, 5th Floor)
1918 Leonard Bernstein conductor/composer/pianist/egotist
1918 Richard Greene Plymouth England, actor (Adv of Robin Hood)
1919 George C Wallace (D-gov-Ala) pres candidate
1921 Brian Moore Ireland, novelist (Catholics, Doctor's Wife)
1923 Monty Hall Winnipeg Canada, TV game show host (Let's Make a Deal)
1927 Althea Gibson 1st black tennis champion in a major event
1930 Graham Javis Toronto Ontario, actor (Charlie-Mary Hartman)
1930 Page Johnson WV, actress (Passages from Finnegan's Wake)
1930 Sean Connery actor (James Bond, Man Who Would Be King)
1931 Regis Philbin host (Joey Bishop Show, Live with Regis & Kathie Lee)
1933 Tom Skerritt Detroit Mich, actor (Ryan's Four, Alien, Big Bad Mama)
1934 Valery F Bykovsky USSR, cosmonaut (Vostok V Soyuz 22 31/39)
1935 David Canary Elwood Ind, actor (Peyton Place, Candy-Bonanza)
1940 Jos‚ Van Dam Brussels Belgium, bass-baritone (Fran‡ois d'Assisif)
1942 Margaret Murdock US, small bore rifle (Olympic-silver-1976)
1946 Rollie Fingers relief pitcher (Oakland Athletics)
1947 Anne Archer LA Cal, actress (Too Scared to Scream, Fatal Attraction)
1949 Gene Simmons Queens, NY, rocker (KISS-Beth)
1949 John Savage Long Island NY, actor (Deer Hunter, Maria's Lovers)
1951 Rob Halford heavy metal rocker (Judas Priest-Got Another Thing)
1954 Elvis Costello [Declan Patrick McManus], rocker (Allison)
1954 John Savage Old Bethpage NY, actor (Jim Malloy-Gibbsville)
1954 Martin Jourard keyboardist/vocalist (Motels-Only the Lonely)
1956 Matt Aitken rocker (Stock Aitken & Waterman-Road Block)
1962 Mazzi Rawd heavy metal rocker
1962 Vivian Campbell heavy metal rocker (White Snake-Here I Go Again)
1964 Blair Underwood Tacoma Wash, actor (Jonathan-LA Law)
1970 Claudia Schiffer Rheinbach Germany, super model (Elle, Rolling Stone)

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Deaths which occurred on August 25th:
1789 Mary Ball Washington mother of George, dies
1822 William Herschel discovered Uranus, dies at 85
1835 Ann Rutledge said to be Lincoln's true love, dies in Ill at 22
1900 Friedrich Nietzsche philosopher, dies in Weimar, Germany
1901 Clara Maass army nurse sacrificied her life at 25 to prove that
the mosquito carries yellow fever
1967 George Lincoln Rockwell head of American Nazi Party, assassinated
1968 John George actor (Kolb-Adventures of Fu Manchu), dies at 70
1979 Stan Kenton orch leader (Music 55), dies at 67
1980 Gower Champion dancer (Marge & Gower Champion Show), dies at 60
1984 Truman Capote author (In Cold Blood), dies
1985 Samantha Smith actress (Elizabeth-Lime Street), dies at 13
1986 Allen Case actor (Deputy, Legend of Jesse James), dies at 51
1988 Price Daniel (Gov/Sen-D-Texas), dies at 77