April 25

Events

• 1707 - An Allied Austrian army is defeated by Bourbon army at Almansa (Spain) in the War of the Spanish Succession.
• 1719 - Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is published
• 1792 - Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
• 1846 - Mexican-American War: Open conflict begins over border disputes of Texas' boundaries.
• 1859 - Ground is broken for the Suez Canal
• 1898 - Spanish-American War: The United States declares war on Spain; the United States Congress announces that a state of war has existed since April 21.
• 1901 - New York state becomes the first to require automobile license plates.
• 1915 - The Anzac tradition begins during World War I with a landing at Gallipoli on the Turkish coast.
• 1916 - Easter Rebellion[?]: The United Kingdom declares martial law in Ireland (lasts until April 29 - the end of the rebellion).
• 1926 - Reza Kahn is crowned Shah of Iran under the name "Pahlevi[?]."
• 1945 - World War II: United States and Russian troops link up at the Elbe River, cutting Germany in two
• 1945 - The United Nations is organized in San Francisco, California by 50 nations.
• 1953 - Francis Crick and James Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix[?] structure of DNA.
• 1959 - The St. Lawrence Seaway linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping.
• 1959 - The first person now known to have AIDS, enters a hospital.
• 1961 - Robert Noyce is granted the first patent for an integrated circuit.
• 1974 - Coup in Portugal restores democracy (see Carnation Revolution[?])
• 1975 - As North Vietnamese forces close in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy is closed and evacuated, almost ten years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.
• 1980 - A commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters. Eight United States troops were killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation.
• 1982 - Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai per the Camp David Accords.
• 1983 - American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
• 1983 - Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.
• 1988 - In Israel John Demjanuk[?] is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II. He was accused of being a notorious guard at the Treblinka extermination camp known as "Ivan the Terrible" by survivors.
• 1990 - The Hubble space telescope deployed.

Births

• 1284 - King Edward II of England (+ 1327)
• 1599 - Oliver Cromwell, statesman (+ 1658)
• 1840 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer (+ 1893)
• 1849 - Felix Klein, mathematician (+ 1925)
• 1874 - Guglielmo Marconi, inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1909 (+ 1937)
• 1900 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1945 (+ 1958)
• 1903 - Andrey Nikolayevich Kolmogorov[?], mathematician (+ 1987)
• 1908 - Edward R. Murrow, journalist (+ 1965)
• 1914 - Ross Lockridge Jr.[?], writer (+ 1948)
• 1918 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer (+ 1996)
• 1918 - Gerard Henri de Vaucouleurs[?], astronomer (+ 1995)
• 1925 - Sammy Drechsel[?], journalist, film director and cabaretist (+ 1986)
• 1930 - Paul Mazursky[?], director, writer
• 1932 - Meadlowlark Lemon[?], basketball star, member of the Harlem Globetrotters
• 1933 - Jerry Leiber[?], composer
• 1940 - Al Pacino, actor
• 1969 - Renée Zellweger, actress

Deaths

• 1472 - Leon Battista Alberti, artist (* 1404)
• 1566 - Diane de Poitiers, mistress of King Henry II of France (* 1499)
• 1744 - Anders Celsius, astronomer (* 1701)
• 1840 - Siméon-Denis Poisson[?], mathematician (* 1781)
• 1990 - Dexter Gordon, jazz musician (* 1923)
• 1995 - Ginger Rogers, actress, dancer (* 1911)
• 2000 - David Merrick, producer
• 2002 - Lisa Lopes, singer

Holidays and observances

• ANZAC Day (Australia, New Zealand)
• Carnation Revolution[?] commemorated in Portugal
• Roman Empire - Robigalia[?] in honor of Robigus
• Rastafarianism - Celebration of Haile Selassie's visit to Jamaica

April 24 - April 26 - March 25 - May 25 -- listing of all days

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