August 25



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)

Days of the year