Today in history...
Monday, May 25, 2009
* 1085 – Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo, Spain back from the Moors.
* 1420 – Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ.
* 1521 – The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.
* 1659 – Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth of England.
* 1738 – A treaty between Pennsylvania and Maryland ends the Conojocular War with settlement of a boundary dispute and exchange of prisoners.
* 1787 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States. George Washington presides.
* 1810 – In the May Revolution, citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Viceroy during the Semana de Mayo.
* 1837 – The Patriots of Lower Canada (Quebec) rebel against the British for freedom.
* 1865 – In Mobile, Alabama, 300 are killed when an ordnance depot explodes.
* 1878 – Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London.
* 1895 – Playwright, poet, and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
* 1895 – The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as the president.
* 1914 – The United Kingdom's House of Commons passes the Home Rule Act for devolution in Ireland.
* 1925 – Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
* 1926 – Sholom Schwartzbard assassinates Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of Ukrainian People's Republic.
* 1935 – Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks five world records and ties a sixth at the Big Ten Conference Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
* 1936 – The Remington Rand strike, led by the American Federation of Labor, begins.
* 1938 – Spanish Civil War: The bombing of Alicante takes place, with 313 deaths.
* 1940 – World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk begins.
* 1946 – The parliament of Transjordan makes Abdullah I of Jordan their king.
* 1953 – Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.
* 1953 – The first public television station in the United States officially begins broadcasting as KUHT from the campus of the University of Houston.
* 1955 – In the United States, a night time F5 tornado strikes the small city of Udall, Kansas, killing 80 and injuring 273. It is the deadliest tornado to ever occur in the state and the 23rd deadliest in the U.S.
* 1955 – First ascent of Kangchenjunga (8,586 m.), the third highest mountain in the world, by a British expedition.
* 1961 – Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the moon" before the end of the decade.
* 1963 – In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Organisation of African Unity is established.
* 1966 – Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.
* 1966 – The first prominent DaZiBao during the Cultural Revolution in China is posted at Peking University.
* 1977 – Star Wars is released. It rapidly becomes a cult classic and is the start of a six-movie franchise.
* 1979 – American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
* 1981 – In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
* 1982 – HMS Coventry is sunk during the Falklands War.
* 1985 – Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.
* 1997 – A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.
* 1999 – The United States House of Representatives releases the Cox Report which details the People's Republic of China's nuclear espionage against the U.S. over the prior two decades.
* 2000 – Liberation Day of Lebanon. Israel withdraws its army from most of the Lebanese territory after 22 years of its first invasion in 1978.
* 2001 – 32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
* 2002 – China Airlines Flight 611: A Boeing 747-200 breaks apart in mid-air and plunges into the Taiwan Strait killing 225 people.
* 2002 – A train crash in Tenga, Mozambique kills 197 people.
Birthdays today...
* 1048 – Emperor Shenzong of China (d. 1085)
* 1334 – Emperor Sukō (d. 1398)
* 1458 – Mahmud Begada, Sultan of Gujarat (d. 1511)
* 1606 – Charles Garnier, French Jesuit missionary (d. 1649)
* 1661 – Claude Buffier, French philosopher and historian (d. 1737)
* 1713 – John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1792)
* 1725 – Samuel Ward, American politician (d. 1776)
* 1783 – Philip Pendleton Barbour, 12th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1841)
* 1803 – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist and playwright (d. 1873)
* 1803 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher (d. 1882)
* 1818 – Jacob Burckhardt, Swiss historian (d. 1897)
* 1845 – Lip Pike, American baseball player (d. 1883)
* 1846 – Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, daughter of Queen Victoria (d. 1923)
* 1846 – Naim Frashëri, Albanian poet and writer(d. 1900)
* 1848 – Johann Baptist Singenberger, Swiss composer, music teacher, editor and publisher (d. 1924)
* 1852 – William Muldoon, wrestler (d. 1933)
* 1856 – Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, French general (d. 1942)
* 1860 – James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (d. 1944)
* 1865 – John Mott, American YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1955)
* 1865 – Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1943)
* 1877 – Billy Murray, American singer (d. 1954)
* 1878 – Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, American entertainer (d. 1949)
* 1879 – Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-born publisher (d. 1964)
* 1880 – Jean Alexandre Barré, French neurologist (d. 1967)
* 1882 – Marie Doro, American actress (d. 1956)
* 1886 – Philip Murray, U.S. (Scottish-born) labor leader (d. 1952)
* 1886 – Rash Behari Bose, leader against the British Raj in India (d. 1945)
* 1887 – Pio of Pietrelcina, Catholic saint (d. 1968)
* 1888 – Miles Malleson, English actor (d. 1969)
* 1889 – Igor Sikorsky, Russian inventor (d. 1972)
* 1892 – Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav resistance leader and later president (d. 1980)
* 1897 – Gene Tunney, American heavyweight champion (d. 1978)
* 1898 – Bennett Cerf, American publisher, TV personality (d. 1971)
* 1899 – Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bengali poet, musician, revolutionary and philosopher (d. 1976)
* 1900 – Alain Grandbois, French Canadian poet (d. 1975)
* 1903 – Binnie Barnes, British actress (d. 1998)
* 1907 – U Nu, Burmese politician (d. 1995)
* 1908 – Theodore Roethke, American poet (d. 1963)
* 1909 – Alfred Kubel, German politician (d. 1999)
* 1909 – Marie Menken, American experimental filmmaker and socialite (d. 1970)
* 1912 – Princess Dukhye of Korea (d. 1989)
* 1913 – Richard Dimbleby, British journalist and broadcaster (d. 1965)
* 1917 – Theodore Hesburgh, American educator and theologian
* 1917 – Steve Cochran, American actor (d. 1965)
* 1918 – Claude Akins, American actor (d. 1994)
* 1921 – Jack Steinberger, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
* 1921 – Hal David, American lyricist and songwriter
* 1922 – Enrico Berlinguer, Italian politician (d. 1984)
* 1922 – Kitty Kallen, American big band singer
* 1924 – István Nyers, Hungarian footballer (d. 2005)
* 1925 – Rosario Castellanos, Mexican poet (d. 1974)
* 1925 – Jeanne Crain, American actress (d. 2003)
* 1925 – Don Liddle, baseball player (d. 2000)
* 1926 – Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter (d. 1991)
* 1927 – Robert Ludlum, American writer (d. 2001)
* 1929 – Beverly Sills, American soprano (d. 2007)
* 1929 – Warren Frost, American actor
* 1931 – Georgi Grechko, Russian cosmonaut
* 1931 – Aili Jõgi, Estonian freedom fighter
* 1931 – Irwin Winkler, American film producer and director
* 1932 – John Gregory Dunne, American writer (d. 2003)
* 1932 – K.C. Jones, Former professional basketball player and coach
* 1932 – W. P. Kinsella, Canadian writer
* 1933 – Ray Spencer, English footballer
* 1933 – Basdeo Panday, 5th Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago
* 1935 – Cookie Gilchrist, American football player
* 1935 – Victoria Shaw, Australian-born American actress (d. 1988)
* 1936 – Tom T. Hall, American singer and songwriter
* 1938 – Raymond Carver, American writer (d. 1988)
* 1939 – Dixie Carter, American actress
* 1939 – Ian McKellen, English actor
* 1941 – Vladimir Voronin, President of Moldova
* 1943 – Jessi Colter, American singer
* 1943 – John "Poli" Palmer, British rock musician (Family)
* 1944 – Frank Oz, English-born puppeteer and director
* 1944 – Pierre Bachelet, French singer and songwriter (d. 2005)
* 1944 – John Bunnell, former Sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon and TV personality
* 1944 – Robert MacPherson, American mathematician
* 1946 – David A. Hargrave, RPG designer
* 1948 – Sgt. Slaughter, American professional wrestler
* 1948 – Klaus Meine, German musician (Scorpions)
* 1949 – Jamaica Kincaid, Antiguan-born novelist
* 1951 – Bob Gale, American screenwriter
* 1952 – Al Sarrantonio, American writer
* 1952 – Gordon Smith, American politician and U.S Senator from Oregon
* 1952 – Jeffrey Bewkes, American media executive
* 1953 – Eve Ensler, American playwright
* 1953 – Daniel Passarella, Argentine footballer
* 1953 – Stan Sakai, Japanese-American cartoonist (Usagi Yojimbo)
* 1955 – Alistair Burt, British politician
* 1956 – Sugar Minott, Jamaican singer
* 1956 – David P. Sartor, American music composer
* 1956 – Tatsutoshi Goto, Japanese professional wrestler
* 1957 – Edward Lee, American writer
* 1957 – Robert Picard, French Canadian ice hockey player
* 1958 – Carrie Newcomer, American folksinger
* 1958 – Paul Weller, British musician
* 1959 – Manolis Kefalogiannis, Greek politician
* 1959 – Rick Wamsley, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1959 – Julian Clary, British television personality
* 1960 – Amy Klobuchar, American politician and U.S Senator from Minnesota
* 1960 – Anthea Turner, British television personality
* 1962 – Rick Nattress, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1963 – Mike Myers, Canadian actor and comedian
* 1963 – Eha Rünne, Estonian shot putter and discus thrower
* 1964 – Ivan Bella, Slovak cosmonaut
* 1964 – David Shaw, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1965 – George Hickenlooper, American documentary film-maker
* 1966 – Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands
* 1967 – Poppy Z. Brite, American author
* 1968 – Kendall Gill, American basketball player
* 1969 – Anne Heche, American actress
* 1969 – Stacy London, American fashion consultant
* 1969 – Glen Drover, Canadian guitar player (Megadeth)
* 1970 – Joey Eischen, American baseball player
* 1970 – Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush, American actresses
* 1970 – Jamie Kennedy, American actor
* 1970 – Satsuki Yukino, Seiyuu
* 1971 – Marco Cappato, Italian politician
* 1971 – Justin Henry, American actor
* 1972 – Octavia Spencer, American actress
* 1973 – Demetri Martin, American comedian
* 1973 – Molly Sims, American model and actress
* 1973 – Daz Dillinger, American hip-hop performer
* 1974 – Frank Klepacki, American musician
* 1974 – Miguel Tejada, Dominican baseball player
* 1975 – Lauryn Hill, American singer
* 1976 – Tarik Glenn, American football player
* 1976 – Cillian Murphy, Irish actor
* 1976 – Ethan Suplee, American actor
* 1976 – Sandra Nasic, German singer (Guano Apes)
* 1977 – Giel Beelen, Dutch radio DJ
* 1978 – Brian Urlacher, American football player
* 1979 – Carlos Bocanegra, American footballer
* 1979 – Jonny Wilkinson, English rugby player
* 1979 – Caroline Ouellette, French Canadian ice-hockey player
* 1979 – Sam Sodje, Nigerian footballer
* 1980 – Jae Hee, South Korean actor
* 1980 – David Navarro, Spanish footballer
* 1980 – Joe King Co-founder and guitarist for The Fray
* 1982 – Luke Webster, Australian rules footballer
* 1982 – Adam Boyd, English footballer
* 1982 – Daniel Braaten, Norwegian footballer
* 1982 – Ryan Gallant, American skateboarder
* 1983 – Kunal Khemu, Indian actor
* 1984 – Marion Raven, Norwegian singer-songwriter (M2M)
* 1984 – Luke Ball, Australian rules footballer
* 1984 – Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir, 2005 Miss World
* 1984 – Kyle Brodziak, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1984 – Shawne Merriman, American football player
* 1984 – Kostas Martakis, Greek singer
* 1985 – Luciana Abreu, Portuguese singer and actress
* 1986 – Yoan Gouffran, French footballer
* 1986 – Geraint Thomas, Welsh cyclist
* 1986 – Lauren Crace, English Actress
* 1986 – Juri Ueno, Japanese actress
* 1987 – Timothy Derijck, Belgian footballer
* 1987 – Yves De Winter, Belgian goalkeeper
* 1990 – Nikita Filatov, Russian ice hockey player
* 1993 – Dilley sextuplets, American sextuplets
Famous deaths...
* 615 – Pope Boniface IV
* 709 – Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne (b. c. 639)
* 735 – Bede, English historian and monk
* 967 – Murakami, Emperor of Japan (b. 926)
* 992 – Mieszko I first lord and knight of Poland, duke of Polans (b. c. 935)
* 1085 – Pope Gregory VII
* 1261 – Pope Alexander IV
* 1452 – John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury
* 1555 – Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (b. 1508)
* 1555 – Henry II of Navarre (b. 1503)
* 1595 – Valens Acidalius, German critic and poet (b. 1567)
* 1632 – Adam Tanner, Austrian mathematician and philosopher (b. 1572)
* 1667 – Gustaf Bonde, Swedish statesman (b. 1620)
* 1681 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spanish playwright (b. 1600)
* 1693 – Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, comtesse de la Fayette, French writer (b. 1634)
* 1741 – Daniel Ernst Jablonski, German theologian (b. 1660)
* 1786 – Peter III of Portugal, consort of Queen Maria I of Portugal (b. 1717)
* 1789 – Anders Dahl, Swedish botanist (b. 1751)
* 1797 – John Griffin Whitwell, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, British field marshal (b. 1719)
* 1805 – William Paley, English philosopher (b. 1743)
* 1848 – Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, German writer (b. 1797)
* 1849 – Benjamin d'Urban, British general and colonial administrator (b. 1777)
* 1899 – Rosa Bonheur, French realist painter and sculptor (d. 1822)
* 1912 – Austin Lane Crothers, American politician (b. 1860)
* 1917 – Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet (b. 1891)
* 1919 – Madame C. J. Walker, American philanthropist and tycoon (b. 1867)
* 1924 – Lyubov Popova, Russian painter (b. 1889)
* 1926 – Symon Petlura, Ukrainian politician and statesman (b. 1879)
* 1927 – Payne Whitney, American businessman (b. 1876)
* 1930 – Randall Thomas Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1848)
* 1934 – Gustav Holst, English composer (b. 1874)
* 1935 – Sir Frank Watson Dyson, English astronomer (b. 1868)
* 1940 – Joe De Grasse, American film director (b. 1873)
* 1942 – Emanuel Feuermann, Austrian-American Cellist (b. 1902)
* 1943 – Nils von Dardel, Swedish post-impressionist painter (b. 1888)
* 1951 – Paula von Preradović, Croatian-born writer (b. 1887)
* 1954 – Robert Capa, Hungarian-born photojournalist (b. 1913)
* 1965 – Sonny Boy Williamson, (Alec "Rice" Miller) American Blues singer, songwriter, and musician (b. 1899)
* 1968 – Georg von Küchler, German field marshal (b. 1881)
* 1977 – Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian writer (b. 1904)
* 1979 – John Arthur Spenkelink, American murderer (b. 1949)
* 1981 – Fredric Warburg, British publisher and author (b. 1898)
* 1983 – Idris I, Libyan King (b. 1889)
* 1983 – Jean Rougeau, French Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1925)
* 1983 – Black Jack Stewart, Canadian NHL hockey player (b. 1917)
* 1986 – Chester Bowles, American politician (b. 1901)
* 1988 – Ernst Ruska, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
* 1994 – Sonny Sharrock, American jazz guitarist (b. 1940)
* 1995 – Dany Robin, French actress (b. 1927)
* 1996 – Renzo De Felice, Italian historian (b. 1929)
* 1996 – Bradley Nowell, American singer and guitarist (Sublime) (b. 1968)
* 2000 – Nicholas Clay, British actor (b. 1946)
* 2002 – Pat Coombs, English actress (b. 1926)
* 2003 – Jeremy Michael Ward, American musician (The Mars Volta) (b. 1976)
* 2004 – Roger W. Straus, Jr., American publisher (b. 1917)
* 2005 – Sunil Dutt, Indian actor and politician (b. 1929)
* 2005 – Robert Jankel, British coachbuilder (b. 1938)
* 2005 – Graham Kennedy, Australian television personality (b. 1934)
* 2005 – Ruth Laredo, American pianist (b. 1937)
* 2005 – Gregory Scott Johnson, American murderer (b. 1965)
* 2006 – Desmond Dekker, Jamaican ska musician (b. 1941)
* 2007 – Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor and host (b. 1931)
* 2008 – J. R. Simplot, American potato farmer (b. 1909)
Holidays and observances...
* African Union: Africa Day
* Various African countries: African Liberation Day
* Argentina: May Revolution Day/National Day
* Jordan: Independence Day
* Lebanon: Liberation Day
* Palmerston Island: Palmerston Gospel Day
* United States: National Missing Children's Day
* Geek Pride Day (Randy is partying like a mofo!!!)
* Douglas Adams fans: Towel Day
* Scientology: Integrity Day
