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Today July 25th 2009 this day in history Read more below to view events, deaths, births, Holidays observances and video clips. Last database updated: Jan 17th, 2009
Events
285 – Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar, co-ruler.
306 – Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.
864 – The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings.
1139 – Battle of Ourique: the independence of Portugal from the Kingdom of León and Castile is declared after the battle against the Almoravids.
1261 – The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.
1536 – Sebastián de Belalcázar on his search of El Dorado founds the City of Santiago de Cali.
1538 – The city of Guayaquil is founded by the Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana and given the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil.
1547 – Henry II of France is crowned.
1567 – Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.
1593 – Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.
1603 – James VI of Scotland is crowned the first king of Great Britain.
1693 – Ignacio de Maya founds the Real Santiago de las Sabinas, now known as Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, México.
1722 – The Three Years War begins along the Maine and Massachusetts border.
1755 – British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council order the deportation of the Acadians. Thousands of Acadians are sent to the British Colonies in America, France and England. Some later move to Louisiana, while others resettle in New Brunswick.
1758 – Seven Years War: the island battery at Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia is silenced and all French warships are destroyed or taken.
1759 – French and Indian War: in Western New York, British forces capture Fort Niagara from the French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
1792 – The Brunswick Manifesto is issued to the population of Paris promising vengeance if the French Royal Family is harmed.
1795 – The first stone of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is laid.
1797 – Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife (Spain).
1799 – At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon I of France defeats 10,000 Ottomans under Mustafa Pasha.
1814 – War of 1812: Battle of Lundy s Lane – reinforcements arrive near Niagara Falls for General Riall s British and Canadian forces and a bloody, all-night battle with Jacob Brown s Americans commences at 18.00; the Americans retreat to Fort Erie.
1824 – Costa Rica annexes Guanacaste from Nicaragua.
1837 – The first commercial use of an electric telegraph was successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone on 25 July 1837 between Euston and Camden Town in London.
1853 – Joaquin Murietta, the famous Californio bandit known as Robin Hood of El Dorado, is killed.
1861 – American Civil War: the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
1866 – The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (commonly called 5-star general). Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to be promoted to this rank.
1868 – Wyoming becomes a United States territory.
1869 – The Japanese daimyo begin returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese Date: June 17, 1869).
1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War begins when the Japanese fire upon a Chinese warship.
1897 – Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories.
1898 – The United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with U.S. troops landing at harbor of Guánica, Puerto Rico (The land invasion, proper, began that day: Sea-based bombardment and shelling of the capital city of San Juan had been occurring since May 1898).
1907 – Korea becomes a protectorate of Japan.
1908 – Ajinomoto is founded. Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers that a key ingredient in Konbu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG), and patents a process for manufacturing it.
1909 – Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine (Calais to Dover) in 37 minutes.
1917 – Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a temporary measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
1920 – Telecommunications: the first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast takes place.
1925 – Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.
1934 – The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.
1940 – General Guisan orders the Swiss Army to resist German invasion and makes surrender illegal.
1943 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
1944 – World War II: Operation Spring – one of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war: 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.
1946 – Operation Crossroads: an atomic bomb is detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini atoll.
1946 – At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
1952 – The U.S. non-incorporated colonial territory of Puerto Rico adopts a constitution of local-limited powers, approved by the United States Congress in contravention of then-current International Law.
1956 – 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51.
1958 – The African Regroupment Party (PRA) holds its first congress in Cotonou.
1959 – SR-N1 hovercraft crosses the English Channel from Calais to Dover in just over 2 hours.
1961 – In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.
1969 – Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This was the start of the Vietnamization of the war.
1973 – Soviet Mars 5 space probe launched.
1978 – The Cerro Maravilla Incident occurs.
1978 – Louise Brown, the world s first test tube baby is born.
1983 – Black July: 37 Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are massacred by the fellow Sinhalese prisoners.
1984 – Salyut 7 Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
1993 – Israel launches a massive attack against Lebanon in what the Israelis call Operation Accountability, and the Lebanese call Seven-Day War.
1993 – The St James Church massacre occurs in Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa.
1994 – Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.
1995 – A gas bottle explodes in Saint Michel station of line B of the RER (Paris regional train network). Eight are killed and 80 wounded.
1997 – K.R. Narayanan is sworn-in as India s 10th president and the first Dalit— formerly called untouchable— to hold this office.
2000 – Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde supersonic passenger jet, F-BTSC, crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 4 on the ground.
2007 – Pratibha Patil is sworn in as India s first woman president
Births
1016 – Casimir I, Duke of Poland (d. c. 1058)
1109 – Afonso I of Portugal (d. 1185)
1336 – Albert, Count of Holland (d. 1404)
1404 – Philip I, Duke of Brabant (d. 1430)
1421 – Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, English politician (d. 1461)
1562 – Kiyomasa Kato, Japanese warlord (d. 1611)
1653 – Agostino Steffani, Italian diplomat (d. 1728)
1658 – Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, Scottish privy councillor (d. 1703)
1750 – Henry Knox, American general (d. 1806)
1797 – Princess Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge (d. 1889)
1799 – David Douglas, Scottish botanist (d. 1834)
1839 – Francis Garnier, French explorer (d. 1873)
1844 – Thomas Eakins, American artist (d. 1916)
1848 – Arthur Balfour, 33rd Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1930)
1860 – Princess Louise Margaret, Duchess of Connaught (d. 1917)
1867 – Max Dauthendey, German writer (d. 1918)
1867 – Alexander Rummler, American painter (d. 1959)
1870 – Maxfield Parrish, American illustrator (d. 1966)
1882 – George S. Rentz, Navy Chaplain, Navy Cross (d. 1942)
1883 – Alfredo Casella, Italian composer (d. 1947)
1886 – Bror von Blixen-Finecke, Swedish big-game hunter (d. 1946)
1894 – Walter Brennan, American actor (d. 1974)
1894 – Gavrilo Princip, Serbian assassin (d. 1918)
1895 – Yvonne Printemps, French actress and singer (d. 1977)
1896 – Jack Perrin, American actor (d. 1967)
1901 – Lila Lee, American actress (d. 1973)
1902 – Eric Hoffer, American philosopher (d. 1983)
1905 – Elias Canetti, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1994)
1905 – Denys Watkins-Pitchford, writer and illustrator (d. 1990)
1907 – Johnny Hodges, American saxophonist (d. 1970)
1908 – Bill Bowes, English cricketer (d. 1987)
1908 – Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Indian musician (d. 2003)
1908 – Jack Gilford, American actor (d. 1990)
1914 – Woody Strode, American actor and decathlete (d. 1994)
1916 – Lucien Saulnier, Quebec politician (d. 1989)
1917 – Whipper Billy Watson, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1990)
1918 – Jane Frank, American artist (d. 1986)
1920 – Jean Carmet, French actor (d. 1994)
1920 – Rosalind Franklin, English scientist (d. 1958)
1923 – Estelle Getty, American actress (d. 2008)
1923 – Maria Gripe, Swedish writer (d. 2007)
1924 – Frank Church, American politician (d. 1984)
1924 – Scotch Taylor, Former South African cricketer (d. 2004)
1925 – Jerry Paris, American actor (d. 1986)
1926 – Whitey Lockman, American baseball player
1927 – Daniel Ceccaldi, French actor (d. 2003)
1927 – Sadiq Hussain Qureshi, Pakistani politician (d. 2000)
1928 – Keter Betts, American jazz bassist (d. 2005)
1928 – Mario Montenegro, Filipino actor (d. 1988)
1929 – Somnath Chatterjee, Indian communist leader
1929 – Eddie Mazur, Canadian hockey player (d. 1995)
1930 – Maureen Forrester, Canadian contralto
1930 – Alice Parizeau, Polish-born Quebec writer and essayist (d. 1990)
1930 – Annie Ross, British jazz singer
1930 – Murray Chapple, Former New Zealand cricketer (d. 1985)
1934 – Don Ellis, American jazz trumpeter (d. 1978)
1934 – Claude Zidi, French film director and screenwriter
1935 – Barbara Harris, American actress
1935 – Larry Sherry, American baseball player (d. 2006)
1935 – Lars Werner, Swedish communist leader
1935 – Adnan Khashoggi, Saudi arms merchant
1936 – Gerry Ashmore, British racing driver
1936 – Glenn Murcutt, Australian architect
1937 – Colin Renfrew, English archeologist
1941 – Peter Suschitzky, Polish-British cinematographer
1941 – Emmett Till, American murder victim (d. 1955)
1942 – Bruce Woodley, Australian musician (The Seekers)
1943 – Jim McCarty, English musician (The Yardbirds)
1946 – Rita Marley, Jamaican-Cuban singer (I Threes)
1946 – John Gibson, American media host
1951 – Verdine White, American musician (Earth, Wind & Fire)
1954 – Walter Payton, American football player (d. 1999)
1955 – Iman Abdulmajid, Somali model
1955 – Kike Elomaa, Finnish bodybuilder
1958 – Thurston Moore, American musician (Sonic Youth)
1959 – Anatoly Onoprienko, a Ukrainian serial Killer
1960 – Alain Robidoux, Canadian snooker player
1961 – Bobbie Eakes, American actress
1961 – Katherine Kelly Lang, American actress
1963 – Denis Coderre, French Canadian politician
1963 – Julian Hodgson, English chess player
1965 – Illeana Douglas, American actress
1966 – Maureen Herman, American bassist
1966 – Lynda Lemay, French Canadian singer
1966 – Christine C. Quinn, American politician
1967 – Matt LeBlanc, American actor
1967 – Wendy Raquel Robinson, American actress
1967 – Tommy Skjerven, Norwegian football referee
1968 – Rudi Bryson, Former South African cricketer
1969 – Jon Barry, American basketball player
1971 – Roger Creager, American country music singer-songwriter
1971 – Billy Wagner, American baseball player
1973 – Dani Filth, British singer (Cradle of Filth)
1973 – David Denman, American actor
1973 – Kevin Phillips, English footballer
1973 – Mur Lafferty, American podcaster and writer
1973 – Michael C. Williams, American actor
1974 – Kenzo Suzuki, Japanese professional wrestler
1974 – Jay R. Ferguson, American actor
1975 – Jean-Claude Darcheville, French footballer
1976 – Tera Patrick, American pornographic actress
1976 – Jovica Tasevski-Eternijan, Macedonian poet
1976 – Javier Vázquez, Puerto Rican baseball player
1977 – Kenny Thomas, American basketball player
1978 – Louise Brown, World s first test tube baby
1978 – Gerard Warren, American football player
1979 – Amy Adams, American singer
1979 – Allister Carter, English professional snooker player
1980 – Diam s, French rapper
1980 – Shawn Riggans, American baseball player
1980 – Toni Vilander, Finnish racing driver
1981 – Conor Casey, American soccer player
1981 – Jani Rita, Finnish ice hockey player
1982 – Brad Renfro, American actor (d. 2008)
1982 – Monde Zondeki, South African cricketer
1983 – Nenad Krstic, Serbian basketball player
1984 – Loukas Mavrokefalidis, Greek basketball player
1985 – James Lafferty, American actor
1985 – Jasmine Lennard, English model
1985 – Nelson Piquet Jr., Brazilian race car driver
1987 – Michael Welch, American actor
1988 – Heather Marks, Canadian model
1988 – Anthony Stokes, Irish footballer
1989 – Noel Callahan, Canadian actor
Deaths
306 – Constantius Chlorus, Roman Emperor (b. 250)
1409 – King Martin I of Sicily
1471 – Thomas à Kempis, German priest and mystic (b. 1380)
1492 – Pope Innocent VIII (b. 1432)
1616 – Andreas Libavius, German physician and chemist (b. 1550)
1643 – Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull, English statesman (b. 1584)
1676 – François Hédelin, abbé d Aubignac, French writer (b. 1604)
1681 – Urian Oakes, English-born President of Harvard University (b. 1631)
1790 – Johann Bernhard Basedow, German education reformer (b. 1723)
1790 – William Livingston, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1723)
1791 – Isaac Low, American Continental Congressman (b. 1735)
1794 – André Chénier, French writer (b. 1762)
1826 – Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleyev, Russian poet and revolutionary (b. 1795)
1834 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet (b. 1772)
1842 – Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon (b. 1766)
1843 – Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist and inventor (b. 1766)
1853 – Joaquin Murieta, California outlaw
1861 – Jonas Furrer, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1805)
1865 – James Barry, military surgeon, first female Briton to become a qualified medical doctor
1887 – John Taylor, American religious leader (b. 1808)
1934 – François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (b. 1874)
1934 – Engelbert Dollfuss, Chancellor of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1892)
1934 – Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist (b. 1889)
1952 – Herbert Murrill, English composer (b. 1909)
1962 – Thibaudeau Rinfret, Canadian jurist and Chief Justice (b. 1879)
1963 – Ugo Cerletti, Italian neurologist (b. 1877)
1971 – Leroy Robertson, American composer (b. 1896)
1973 – Louis Stephen St. Laurent, 12th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1882)
1980 – Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian poet, singer, and actor (b. 1938)
1982 – Hal Foster, Canadian-American cartoonist (Prince Valiant) (b. 1892)
1984 – Bryan Hextall, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1913)
1984 – Big Mama Thornton, American singer (b. 1926)
1986 – Vincente Minnelli, American film director (b. 1903)
1988 – Judith Barsi, American actress (b. 1978)
1989 – Steve Rubell, American night club owner (b. 1943)
1992 – Alfred Drake, American actor and singer (b. 1914)
1995 – Charlie Rich, American rock/soul/country musician (b. 1932)
1996 – Howard Vernon, Swiss actor (b. 1914)
1997 – Ben Hogan, American golfer (b. 1912)
1998 – Tal Farlow, American jazz guitarist (b. 1921)
2002 – Abdur Rahman Badawi, Egyptian existentialist philosopher (b. 1917)
2003 – Ludwig Bölkow, German aeronautical engineer (b. 1912)
2003 – Erik Brann, American musician (Iron Butterfly) (b. 1950)
2003 – John Schlesinger, British film director (b. 1926)
2005 – Albert Mangelsdorff, German jazz trombonist (b. 1928)
2006 – Carl Brashear, first African-American U.S Navy Master Diver (b. 1931)
2007 – Bernd Jakubowski, German goalkeeper (b. 1952)
2007 – Jesse Marunde, American strongman competitor (b. 1979)
2008 – Randy Pausch, American professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, known for his Last Lecture (b. 1960)
2008 – Tracy Hall, American inventor (b. 1919)
2008 – Jeff Fehring, Australian rules footballer (b. 1955)
Holidays and observances
Inca festival in honor of the thunder god Ilyap a
Roman festivals – Furinalia
Galicia (Spain) – National Day (Día da Pátria Galega).
Puerto Rico – Constitution Day (1952). Formerly Occupation Day (1898).
Ebernoe Horn Fair in Sussex, southern England
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