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July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in
the Gregorian Calendar, with 159 days remaining.
Events
- 306 - Constantine I proclaimed Roman
emperor by his troops.
- 1261 - Constantinople is
captured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus, allowing the re-creation of the
Byzantine Empire.
- 1593 - Henry IV of
France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.
- 1722 - Three Years War begins along Maine and Massachusetts border.
- 1758 - French and
Indian War: The island battery at Fortress Louisbourg is
silenced and all French warships are destroyed or taken.
- 1759 - French and Indian War: In Canada,
British forces capture Fort Niagara from French, who subsequently abandon
Fort Rouillé.
- 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 for General Riall's British
and Canadian force, and bloody, all-night battle with Jacob Brown's Americans commences at 18.00; Americans retreat to Fort
Erie.
- 1861 - American Civil
War: The Crittenden-Johnson
Resolution is passed by the United States Congress
stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end
slavery.
- 1866 - The United
States Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (now called "5-star general") Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank.
- 1868 - Wyoming becomes a United States
territory.
- 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 Guánica Bay.
- 1907 - Korea becomes a protectorate of Japan.
- 1909 - Louis Bleriot 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: first transatlantic two-way radio
broadcast.
- 1934 - Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a
failed coup attempt.
- 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 - Nuclear testing: In
the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus USS Saratoga is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean when the United States detonates the "Baker Day" device.
- 1946 - At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New
Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
- 1952 - Puerto Rico becomes a
self-governing commonwealth of the United States.
- 1956 - 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS
Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the SS Stockholm in heavy fog, killing 51.
- 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.
- 1977 - A supposed thunderbird is reported attacking a boy named Marlon Lowe.
- 1978 - The first so-called test-tube baby, Louise Brown, is born.
- 1984 - Salyut 7 Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
- 1994 - Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.
- 1997 - K.R. Narayanan is
sworn-in as India's 10th president and the first member of the Dalits caste to hold this office.
- 1998 - The United States
Navy commissions the aircraft carrier USS Harry S.
Truman and puts her into service.
- 2000 - An Air France Concorde supersonic passenger jet crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 5 on the ground.
Births
- 1109 - Afonso, first
king of Portugal
- 1799 - David Douglas, botanist,
plant collector, explorer (d. 1834)
- 1844 - Thomas Eakins,
artist
- 1848 - Arthur Balfour, Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom 1902-1907 (d. 1930)
- 1848 - Ottokar Kernstock, poet (d. 1928)
- 1867 - Max Dauthendey, writer (d. 1918)
- 1870 - Maxfield Parrish,
illustrator (d. 1966)
- 1883 - Alfredo Casella, composer (d. 1947)
- 1884 - Davidson Black, doctor
of anatomy and physical anthropologist (d. 1934)
- 1894 - Walter Brennan,
Academy Award winning actor (d. 1974)
- 1902 - Eric Hoffer, philosopher (d.
1983)
- 1905 - Elias Canetti, writer,
recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature
1981 (d. 1994)
- 1907 - Karl Höller, composer (d. 1987)
- 1920 - Rosalind
Franklin, scientist (d. 1958)
- 1924 - Estelle Getty, actress:
"The Golden Girls"
- 1929 - Somnath
Chatterjee, politician, India
- 1930 - Maureen Forrester, contralto, teacher
- 1937 - Colin Renfrew, archeology professor
- 1948 - Peggy Fleming, figure skater
- 1954 - Walter Payton, National Football League player (d. 1999)
- 1955 - Iman, model
- 1960 - Alain Robidoux,
Canadian snooker player
- 1967 - Matt LeBlanc, actor
- 1982 - Brad Renfro, actor
Deaths
- 306 - Constantius
Chlorus, Roman Emperor
- 1492 - Pope Innocent
VIII
- 1861 - Jonas Furrer, Swiss
Federal Councilor (b. 1805)
- 1834 - Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, poet
- 1853 - Joaquin Murietta, California outlaw
- 1899 - Theodore August Heintzman, piano manufacturer
- 1934 - Engelbert
Dollfuss, Austrian politician
- 1937 - Edward Saunders, agricultural scientist
- 1958 - Harold Warner, one of the Warner Brothers
- 1973 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent, twelfth Prime Minister of Canada
- 1980 - Vladimir
Vysotsky, Russian bard (poet, singer) and actor, (b. 1938)
- 1997 - Ben Hogan, one of the world's
best known golfers
- 2003 - John Schlesinger,
film director
Holidays and observances
July 24 - July 26 - June 25 - August 25 -- listing of all days
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