May 25

Events
Up to 1950
567 BC - Servius Tullius, king of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victory over the Etruscans.
240 BC - First-recorded Perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo, Spain back from the Moors.
1420 - Henry the Navigator is appointed Governor of the Order of Christ.
1524 - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Edict of Worms, which declares Martin Luther an outlaw.
1644 - Ming Dynasty general Wu Sangui forms an alliance with the invading Manchus and opens the gates of the Great Wall of China at Shanhaiguan Pass, letting the Manchus through towards the capital, Beijing.
1659 - Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England.
1809 - The South American Wars of Independence begin.
1810 - May Revolution: The Argentine War of Independence begins.
1837 - Rebels in Lower Canada (Quebec) rebel against the British for freedom.
1865 - 300 people are killed in Mobile, Alabama when an ordnance depot explodes.
1878 - The Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London.
1895 - The Republic of Formosa is founded.
1895 - The playwright, novelist and poet Oscar Wilde is convicted of "Committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to two years in prison.
1914 - The United Kingdom House of Commons passes the Home Rule Act of 1914 for devolution to Ireland.
1923 - A magnitude 5.7 earthquake strikes Iran, killing around 2,200 people.
1925 - John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Evolution.
1935 - Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks three world records and ties one, in track and field athletics in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1938 - Spanish Civil War: 313 people are killed in Alicante.
1946 - Abdullah I of Jordan is declared Emir by the Parliament of Transjordan.
From 1951
1953 - The US conducts its only nuclear artillery test in Nevada.
1955 - A night-time Force 5 tornado strikes the small city in Udall, Kansas, killing 80 people; it is the deadliest tornado ever to strike Kansas.
1955 - First successful climb of Kanchenjunga (8,586 metres), the third-highest mountain in the world on the India-Nepal border, by a British expedition led by Joe Brown and George Band.
1961 - The Bukit Ho Swee Fire occurs in Singapore.
1961 - John F. Kennedy announces before the United States Congress that the United States should set the target of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s decade.
1962 - In England, the new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated. The original one had been badly damaged by German bombs in World War II.
1963 - The Organisation of African Unity is founded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
1966 - Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.
1967 - Celtic F.C. from Glasgow, Scotland, becomes the first football team from the UK to win the European cup.
1968 - The Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, Missouri is dedicated.
1969 - Thor Heyerdahl sets off from Morocco on his Papyrus boat Ra, in an attempt to prove that America was directly settled from Africa.
1977 - Star Wars is released in theatres.
1977 - The People's Republic of China's government removes its 10-year ban on the work of William Shakespeare.
1979 - American Airlines Flight 191, a McDonnell Douglas C-10, crashes during take-off from Chicago O'Hare International Airport, killing 273 people (271 on the plane and 2 on the ground).
1979 - 6-year-old Etan Patz disappears on his way to school near his home in New York City. This becomes one of the most notorious missing-child cases in US history and leads to Ronald Reagan declaring May 25 National Missing Children's Day in 1983.
1981 - In Riyadh the Guld Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
1982 - British ship HMS Coventry is sunk by Argentine forces during the Falklands War.
1985 - A cyclone in Bangladesh kills 10,000 people and many more are made homeless.
1997 - A coup in Sierra Leone removes Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and replaces him with Johnny Paul Koromah as leader.
2000 - Israel withdraws most of its army from Lebanon.
2001 - Erik Weihenmayer of Boulder, Colorado becomes the first person with a visual impairment to reach the top of Mount Everest.
2002 - China Airlines Flight 611, a Boeing 747-200, breaks apart in mid-flight and plunges into the Taiwan Strait, killing 225 people.
2002 - A train crash kills 197 people in Tenga, Mozambique.
2003 - Nestor Kirchner becomes President of Argentina.
2005 - Liverpool F.C. win the UEFA Champions League, defeating AC Milan in a penalty shoot-out.
2009 - North Korea is believed to have tested its second nuclear device.
2011 - The Oprah Winfrey Show airs for the last time.
2013 - Suspected Maoist rebels kill at least 28 people and injure 32 others in an attack on a convoy of Indian National Congress politicians in Chhattisgarh, India.
2013 - FC Bayern Munich defeat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in the first UEFA Champions League final to be contested by two German teams.
2014 - Elections are held to the European Parliament. Far-right parties make strong gains and finish in the lead in some countries, such as Nigel Farage's UKIP (UK), Marine Le Pen's National Front (France) and Danish People's Party (Denmark). In Greece, the left-wing SYRIZA Party finishes first.
2014 - Petro Poroshenko is elected President of Ukraine.
2018 - The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation enters into force.
2018 - A referendum in the Republic of Ireland results in an-almost two-thirds majority (66.4%) voting to change the country's strict abortion laws.
Births
Up to 1900
1048 - Emperor Shenzong of China (d. 1085)
1271 - Shah Jalal of Bengal (d. 1346)
1334 - Emperor Suko of Japan (d. 1398)
1458 - Mahmud Begada, Sultan of Gujarat (d. 1511)
1572 - Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1632)
1606 - Charles Garnier, French Jesuit missionary (d. 1649)
1661 - Claude Buffier, French philosopher and historian (d. 1737)
1677 - Francoise-Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Orleans (d. 1749)
1713 - John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1792)
1725 - Samuel Ward, American politician (d. 1776)
1762 - Walter Leake, Governor of Mississippi (d. 1825)
1783 - Philip Pendleton Barbour, American politician (d. 1841)
1791 - Ming Mang, Vietnamese Emperor (d. 1841)
1803 - Edward Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist and playwright (d. 1873)
1803 - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher (d. 1882)
1815 - Giovanni Caselli, Italian physicist (d. 1891)
1818 - Jacob Burckhardt, Swiss historian (d. 1897)
1820 - Anne Bronte, English writer (d. 1849)
1845 - Lip Pike, baseball player (d.1883)
1846 - Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (d. 1923)
1846 - Naim Frasheri, Albanian poet and writer (d. 1900)
1848 - Johann Baptist Singenberger, Swiss composer, education and publisher (d. 1924)
1860 - James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (d. 1944)
1863 - Camille Erlanger, French composer (d. 1919)
1865 - John Mott, American YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1955)
1865 - Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1943)
1868 - Charles Hitchcock Adams, American chemist and astronomer (d. 1961)
1877 - Billy Murray, American singer (d. 1954)
1878 - Bill Robinson, American tap dancer and actor (d. 1949)
1879 - Lord Beaverbrook, English publisher (d. 1964)
1880 - Jean Alexandre Barre, French neurologist (d. 1967)
1882 - Marie Doro, American actress (d. 1956)
1883 - Carl Johan Lind, Swedish hammer thrower (d. 1965)
1886 - Philip Murray, Scottish-American labor leader (d. 1952)
1886 - Rash Behari Bose, Indian revolutionary (d. 1945)
1887 - Francesco Forgione, better known as Padre Pio and also Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Italian Franciscan Capuchin friar, priest and Saint in the Catholic Church (d. 1968)
1888 - Miles Malleson, English actor (d. 1969)
1889 - Igor Sikorsky, Russian inventor (d. 1972)
1897 - Gene Tunney, American boxer (d. 1978)
1898 - Bennett Cerf, American publisher (d. 1971)
1901 1950
1903 - Binnie Barnes, English-American actress and singer (d. 1998)
1907 - U Nu, Burmese politician (d. 1995)
1909 - Marie Menken, American actress, director and painter (d. 1970)
1909 - Alfred Kubel, German politician (d. 1999)
1912 - Princess Dukhye of Korea (d. 1989)
1913 - Richard Dimbleby, British journalist and broadcaster (d. 1965)
1913 - Donald Maclean, British secret agent (d. 1983)
1916 - Brian Dickinson, Canadian politician (d. 1998)
1917 - Theodore Hesburgh, American priest (d. 2015)
1918 - Claude Akins, American actor (d. 1994)
1921 - Hal David, American lyricist and songwriter (d. 2012)
1921 - Jack Steinberger, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1921 - Giorgio Orelli, Swiss writer (d. 2013)
1922 - Enrico Berlinguer, Italian politician (d. 1984)
1922 - Kitty Kallen, American singer (d. 2016)
1924 - Istvan Nyers, Hungarian footballer (d. 2005)
1925 - Rosario Castellanos, Mexican poet (d. 1974)
1925 - Jeanne Crain, American actress (d. 2003)
1925 - Claude Pinoteau, French screenwriter and movie director (d. 2012)
1926 - Bill Sharman, American basketball player (d. 2013)
1926 - Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter (d. 1991)
1927 - Robert Ludlum, writer (d. 2001)
1927 - Norman Petty, American singer-songwriter, pianist and producer (d. 1984)
1929 - Beverly Sills, American soprano (d. 2007)
1931 - Aili Jogi, Estonian anti-Communist activist (d. 2007)
1931 - Georgi Grechko, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 2017)
1931 - Herb Gray, former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2014)
1932 - John Gregory Dunne, American writer (d. 2003)
1933 - Jogvan Sundstein, 7th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
1933 - Sarah Marshall, English-American actress (d. 2014)
1933 - Basdeo Panday, 5th Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
1935 - Cookie Gilchrist, American football player
1936 - Tom T. Hall, American singer and songwriter
1938 - Raymond Carver, American writer (d. 1988)
1939 - Dixie Carter, American actress (d. 2010)
1939 - Ian McKellen, English actor
1939 - Ferdinand Bracke, Belgian cyclist
1941 - Vladimir Voronin, former President of Moldova
1943 - Jessi Colter, American singer
1944 - Frank Oz, English-born puppeteer and director
1947 - Mitch Margo, American singer (The Tokens) (d. 2017)
1948 - Klaus Meine, German singer (Scorpions)
1949 - Jamaica Kincaid, Antiguan-born novelist
1951 1970
1951 - Francois Bayrou, French politician
1953 - Daniel Passarella, Argentine footballer
1953 - Gaetano Scirea, Italian footballer (d. 1989)
1953 - Eve Ensler, Jewish-American playwright and feminist activist
1954 - Murali, Indian actor (d. 2009)
1955 - Alistair Burt, British politician
1956 - Sugar Minott, Jamaican singer (d. 2010)
1957 - Alastair Campbell, British politician
1957 - Robert Picard, Canadian ice hockey player
1957 - Mark McGhee, Scottish footballer
1958 - Paul Weller, English musician
1959 - Julian Clary, English comedian
1959 - Vladimir Franz, Czech composer and painter
1960 - Amy Klobuchar, American politician, United States Senator from Minnesota
1960 - Anthea Turner, English television presenter
1961 - Robert Brylewski, Polish singer-songwriter (d. 2018)
1963 - Mike Myers, Canadian actor and comedian
1963 - Anne Consigny, French actress
1963 - Torsten Albig, German politician
1964 - Ivan Bella, Slovakian astronaut
1965 - Simon Fowler, English singer (Ocean Colour Scene)
1965 - Yahya Jammeh, former President of the Gambia
1966 - McLoud, Swiss composer, musician, and multimedia artist
1966 - Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands
1967 - Luc Nilis, Belgian footballer
1967 - Poppy Z. Brite, American writer
1968 - Kendall Gill, American basketball player
1969 - Anne Heche, American actress
1969 - Glen Drover, Canadian musician (Megadeth)
1970 - Jamie Kennedy, American actor
1970 - Octavia Spencer, American actress
From 1971
1971 - Sonya Smith, American actress
1972 - Karan Johar, Indian director, producer, writer and actor
1973 - Demetri Martin, American actor, comedian and musician
1973 - Molly Sims, American model and actress
1974 - Dougie Freedman, Scottish footballer and manager
1974 - Monica Keena, American actress
1974 - Frank Klepacki, American musician
1975 - Keiko Fujimori, Peruvian politician
1975 - Lauryn Hill, American singer
1975 - Blaise Nkufo, Swiss footballer
1976 - Miguel Tejada, Dominican Major League Baseball player
1976 - Cillian Murphy, Irish actor
1977 - Pat Burrell, baseball player
1978 - Brian Urlacher, American football player
1979 - Sayed Moawad, Egyptian footballer
1979 - Jonny Wilkinson, English rugby player
1979 - Carlos Bocanegra, American soccer player
1979 - Caroline Ouellette, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 - Alex Hofmann, German motorcycle racer
1980 - David Navarro, Spanish footballer
1982 - Adam Boyd, English footballer
1982 - Daniel Braaten, Norwegian footballer
1982 - Roger Guerreiro, Brazilian-Polish footballer
1984 - Emma Marrone, Italian singer
1984 - Marion Raven, Norwegian singer-songwriter, musician and actress
1984 - Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir, Icelandic model (Miss Iceland), former Miss World
1985 - Demba Ba, Senegalese footballer
1985 - Joe Anoa'i, American football player and wrestler
1986 - Lauren Crace, English actress
1986 - Yoan Gouffran, French footballer
1986 - Geraint Thomas, Welsh cyclist
1987 - Kamil Stoch, Polish ski jumper
1988 - Cameron van der Burgh, South African swimmer
1990 - Nikita Filatov, Russian ice hockey player
1991 - Jillian Wheeler, American singer-songwriter and actress
1992 - Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, Icelandic footballer
1994 - Aly Raisman, American gymnast
1999 - Brec Bassinger, American actress
Deaths
Up to 1950
615 - Pope Boniface IV (b. 550)
675 - Li Hong, Chinese prince (b. 550)
709 - Aldhelm, English Christian saint (b. 639)
967 - Emperor Murakami of Japan (b. 926)
992 - Mieszko I of Poland (b. 935)
1085 - Pope Gregory VII (b. 1020)
1261 - Pope Alexander IV
1452 - John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury
1555 - Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and mapmaker (b. 1508)
1555 - Henry II of Navarre (b. 1503)
1595 - Philip Neri, Italian priest and saint (b. 1515)
1632 - Adam Tanner, Austrian mathematician and philosopher (b. 1572)
1667 - Gustaf Bonde, Swedish statesman (b. 1620)
1681 - Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Spanish playwright (b. 1600)
1693 - Madame de la Fayette, French writer (b. 1634)
1786 - King Peter III of Portugal (b. 1717)
1789 - Anders Dahl, Swedish botanist (b. 1751)
1805 - William Paley, English philosopher (b. 1743)
1862 - Johann Nestroy, Austrian playwright, actor and opera singer (b. 1801)
1895 - Ahmed Cevdet Pasha, Ottoman soldier, intellectual, bureaucrat, administrator and historian (b. 1822)
1899 - Rosa Bonheur, French painter and sculptor (b. 1822)
1899 - Emilio Castelar y Ripoll, Spanish politician and writer (b. 1832)
1911 - Vasily Klyuchevsky, Russian historian (b. 1841)
1912 - Austin Lane Crothers, 46th Governor of Maryland (b. 1860)
1919 - Madam C. J. Walker, American philanthropist and tycoon (b. 1867)
1924 - Lyubov Popova, Russian painter (b. 1889)
1926 - Symon Petliura, Ukrainian politician and statesman (b. 1879)
1930 - Randall Thomas Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1848)
1934 - Gustav Holst, English composer (b. 1874)
1939 - Frank Watson Dyson, English astronomer (b. 1858)
1940 - Joe De Grasse, Canadian-American actor and director (b. 1873)
1951 2010
1954 - Robert Capa, Hungarian-born photojournalist (b. 1913)
1958 - Steinn Steinarr, Icelandic poet (b. 1908)
1965 - Sonny Boy Williamson II, American singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1912)
1970 - Tom Patey, Scottish mountaineer and writer (b. 1932)
1977 - Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian writer (b. 1904)
1981 - Ruby Payne-Scott, Australian physicist and astronomer (b. 1912)
1983 - King Idris I of Libya (b. 1890)
1986 - Chester Bowles, 78th Governor of Connecticut (b. 1901)
1988 - Ernst Ruska, German physicist (b. 1906)
1993 - Buddhadasa, Thai monk and philosopher (b. 1906)
1995 - Dany Robin, French actress (b. 1927)
1996 - Renzo De Felice, Italian historian and politician (b. 1929)
2002 - Pat Coombs, English actress (b. 1926)
2005 - Sunil Dutt, Indian actor and politician (b. 1929)
2006 - Desmond Dekker, Jamaican musician (b. 1941)
2009 - Haakon Lie, Norwegian politician (b. 1906)
2010 - Siphiwo Ntshebe, South African singer (b. 1975)
From 2011
2011 - Leonora Carrington, British-Mexican painter (b. 1917)
2012 - Edoardo Mangiarotti, Italian fencer (b. 1919)
2014 - Wojciech Jaruzelski, Polish general and politician, last Communist leader of Poland (b. 1923)
2014 - Bunny Yeager, American model and photographer (b. 1929)
2014 - Herb Jeffries, American jazz and pop singer (b. 1913)
2014 - David Allen, English cricketer (b. 1935)
2014 - Tommy Blom, Swedish radio host and singer (b. 1947)
2014 - Malcolm Simmons, English motorcycle speedway racer (b. 1946)
2015 - John M. Murphy, American politician (b. 1926)
2015 - Mary Ellen Mark, American photographer (b. 1940)
2015 - Bill O'Herlihy, Irish broadcaster (b. 1938)
2016 - Yang Jiang, Chinese playwright, author and translator (b. 1911)
2016 - Gyula Kosice, Czechoslovakian-Argentine poet and sculptor (b. 1924)
2016 - Nancy Dow, American actress and model (b. 1936)
2016 - John Webster, British theologian (b. 1955)
2017 - Alistair Horne, British historian, journalist and spy (b. 1925)
2017 - Eva Estrada Kalaw, Filipino politician (b. 1920)
2017 - Frederick Leboyer, French obstetrician and author (b. 1918)
2017 - Saucy Sylvia, Canadian-American radio personality and singer (b. 1920)
2018 - Piet Kee, Dutch composer and organist (b. 1927)
2018 - Sergio Graziani, Italian actor (b. 1930)
2018 - Naser Malek Motiei, Iranian actor (b. 1930)
2019 - Margaret-Ann Armour, Scottish-Canadian chemist (b. 1939)
2019 - Jean Burns, Australian aviatrix (b. 1919)
2019 - Anthony Graziano, American mobster (b. 1940)
2019 - Dmytro Kremin, Ukrainian poet, journalist and translator (b. 1953)
2019 - Thembinkosi Mbamba, South African footballer (b. 1995)
Observances
Africa Day
Geek Pride Day
Independence Day (Jordan)
Liberation Day (Lebanon)
National Day (Argentina)
National Missing Children's Day (United States), after the disappearance of Etan Patz on this day in 1979
Days of the year