January 25

Events

* 41 - After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate.
*1327 - Edward III becomes King of England.
*1494 - Alfonso II becomes King of Naples.
*1533 - Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.
*1554 - Founding of São Paulo city, Brazil.
*1573 - Battle of Mikatagahara, in Japan; Takeda Shingen defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu.
*1755 - Moscow University established on Tatiana Day.
*1787 - American Daniel Shays leads rebellion to seize Federal arsenal to protest debtor's prisons.
*1791 - The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791 and splits the old province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada.
*1792 - The London Corresponding Society is founded.
*1858 - The "Wedding March" by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia.
*1879 - The Bulgarian National Bank is founded.
*1881 - Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
*1890 - Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.
*1909 - Richard Strauss' opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.
*1915 - Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service.
*1917 - The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million.
*1919 - The League of Nations is founded.
*1924 - The 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, France (in the French Alps), inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
*1937 - The Guiding Light airs on radio for the first time. Also went to television making this show the longest running broadcast program in United States radio and television history.
*1941 - Pope Pius XII elevates the Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It becomes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.
*1942 - World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.
*1945 - World War II: Battle of the Bulge ends.
*1946 - The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor.
*1949 - At the Hollywood Athletic Club the first Emmy Awards are presented.
* 1949 - The first Israeli election -- David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.
*1955 - Soviet Union ends state of war with Germany.
*1959 - Pope John XXIII proclaims upcoming Second Vatican Council.
*1960 - The National Association of Broadcasters reacts to the Payola scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accepted money for playing particular records.
*1961 - In Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.
*1971 - Charles Manson and three female "Family" members are found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.
* 1971 - Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president.
* 1971 - Himachal Pradesh becomes the 18th Indian state.
*1981 - Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, is sentenced to death.
*1986 - The National Resistance Movement topple the government of Tito Okello in Uganda.
*1990 - The Burns' Day storm hits northwestern Europe.
* 1990 - Honduras becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
* 1990 - Avianca Flight 52 crashes, killing 73 passengers.
*1993 - Five people were shot outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia resulting in two murders.
*1994 - The Clementine space probe launches.
*1995 - The Norwegian Rocket Incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after it mistakes Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile.
*1998 - During a historic visit to Cuba Pope John Paul II demands the release of political prisoners and political reforms while condemning US attempts to isolate the country.
* 1998 - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide attack on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth, killing 8 people injuring 25 others.
*1999 - A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000.
*2001 - A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.
*2002 - Wikipedia switches to the new version of its software ("Phase II") aka .
*2004 - Opportunity rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.
*2005 - A stampede at the Mandher Devi temple in Mandhradevi in India kills at least 258.
*2006 - Three independent observing campaigns announce the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star.

Births

* 750 - Leo IV the Khazar, Byzantine Emperor
*1477 - Anna, Duchess of Brittany, wife of Charles VIII of France (d. 1514)
*1509 - Giovanni Morone, Italian cardinal (d. 1580)
*1615 - Govert Flinck, Dutch painter (d. 1660)
*1627 - Robert Boyle, Irish chemist (d. 1691)
*1634 - Gaspar Fagel, Dutch statesman (d. 1688)
*1640 - William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, English soldier and statesman (d. 1707)
*1688 - Juraj Jánošík, famous Slovak outlaw (d. 1713)
*1736 - Joseph Louis Lagrange, Italian-born mathematician (d. 1813)
*1741 - Benedict Arnold, American general notorious for treason (d. 1801)
*1739 - Charles François Dumouriez, French general (d. 1823)
*1759 - Robert Burns, Scottish poet (d. 1796)
*1794 - François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist (d. 1878)
*1796 - William MacGillivray, Scottish naturalist and ornithologist (d. 1852)
*1825 - George Pickett, American Confederate General (d. 1875)
*1841 - Jackie Fisher, British First Sea Lord (d. 1920)
*1858 - Kokichi Mikimoto, Japanese pearl farm pioneer (d. 1954)
*1860 - Charles Curtis, 31st Vice President of the United States (d. 1936)
*1864 - Julije Kempf, Croatian historian and writer (d. 1934)
*1874 - W. Somerset Maugham, English writer (d. 1965)
*1878 - Ernst Alexanderson, Swedish-born television pioneer (d. 1975)
*1882 - Virginia Woolf, English writer (d. 1941)
*1885 - Kitahara Hakushū, Japanese poets and children's writers (d. 1942)
*1886 - Wilhelm Furtwängler, German conductor (d. 1954)
*1899 - Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian politician (d. 1972)
*1900 - Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ukrainian-American geneticist and biologist (d. 1975)
* 1900 - Yojiro Ishizaka, Japanese writer (d. 1986)
*1901 - Martin De Alzaga, Argentine racing driver (d. 1982)
*1902 - Pablo Antonio, Filipino modernist architect (d. 1975)
*1905 - Maurice Roy, French Canadian Roman Catholic cardinal, archbishop of Quebec (d. 1985)
*1913 - Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer (d. 1994)
* 1913 - Luis Marden, American photojournalist (d. 2003)
*1916 - Frank "Pop" Ivy, American and Canadian football coach (d. 2003)
*1917 - Ilya Prigogine, Russian scientist Nobel Laureate (d. 2003)
* 1917 - Jânio Quadros, Brazilian politician (d. 1992)
*1918 - Ernie Harwell, American baseball sportscaster
*1919 - Edwin Newman, American journalist and writer
*1923 - Rusty Draper, American country and pop singer (d. 2003)
* 1923 - Shirley Mason, American psychiatric patient (Commonly known as "Sybil") (d. 1998)
*1924 - Lou Groza, American football player (d. 2000)
* 1924 - Speedy West, Country Hall of Fame steel guitar player (d. 2003)
*1925 - Giorgos Zampetas, Greek musician and songwriter (d. 1992)
*1927 - Antonio Carlos Jobim, Brazilian musician (d. 1994)
*1928 - Eduard Shevardnadze, President of Georgia
* 1928 - Jérôme Choquette, Quebec lawyer and politician
*1929 - Benny Golson, American jazz musician
*1930 - Tanya Savicheva, Russian diarist (d. 1944)
*1931 - Dean Jones, American actor
*1933 - Corazon Aquino, 11^th President of the Philippines
*1935 - António Ramalho Eanes, 17^th President of Portugal
*1936 - Diana Hyland, American actress (d. 1977)
*1937 - Ange-Félix Patassé, President of the Central African Republic
*1937 - Judith Ann Mayotte, American humanitarian, author.
*1938 - Shotaro Ishinomori, Japanese manga author (d. 1998)
* 1938 - Leiji Matsumoto, Japanese creator of anime.
* 1938 - Etta James, American singer
* 1938 - Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian poet (d. 1980)
*1939 - Gabriel Romanus, Swedish politician
*1941 - Buddy Baker, American race car driver
* 1941 - Gregory Sierra, American actor
*1942 - Carl Eller, American football player
* 1942 - Eusébio, Portuguese footballer
* 1942 - Shinobu Tsukasa, Japanese kumicho (supreme Godfather) of the largest yakuza organization.
*1943 - Tobe Hooper, American film director
*1944 - Anita Pallenberg, Italian model
*1945 - Leigh Taylor-Young, American actress
*1947 - Tostão, Brazilian footballer
* 1947 - Ángel Nieto, Spanish motorcycle racer
*1948 - Gueorgui Chichkine, Russian painter
* 1948 - Ros Kelly, Australian politician
*1949 - John Cooper Clarke, English punk-poet
* 1949 - Paul Nurse, English biochemist, Nobel Laureate
*1951 - Steve Prefontaine, American runner (d. 1975)
*1952 - Sara Mandiano, French singer and songwriter
* 1952 - Timothy White, American journalist (d. 2002)
*1953 - The Honky Tonk Man, American professional wrestler
* 1953 - Mark Weil, Uzbek theatre director (d. 2007)
*1954 - Ricardo Bochini, Argentinian footballer
* 1954 - Richard Finch, American bass player (KC and the Sunshine Band)
* 1954 - Kim Gandy, American feminist
*1955 - Terry Chimes, English musician (The Clash)
*1956 - Andy Cox, English musician (The Beat, Fine Young Cannibals)
*1957 - Jenifer Lewis, American actress
* 1957 - Eskil Erlandsson, Swedish politician
* 1957 - Andrew P. Harris, American politician
*1958 - Dinah Manoff, American actress
*1961 - Vivian Balakrishnan, Singaporean politician
* 1961 - Willie Revillame, Filipino game show host and comedian
*1962 - Chris Chelios, American ice hockey player
*1965 - Esa Tikkanen, Finnish ice hockey player
*1966 - Chet Culver, American politician, governor of Iowa
*1967 - Randy McKay, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1967 - Mark Bamford, American writer/director
*1969 - Kina, American singer
*1971 - Luca Badoer, Italian race car driver
* 1971 - China Kantner, American actress
* 1971 - Ana Ortiz, American actress and singer
*1973 - Geoff Johns, American comic book writer
* 1973 - Chris Guy, American professional wrestler
*1974 - Robert Budreau, Canadian film director
*1975 - Mia Kirshner, Canadian actress
* 1975 - Tim Montgomery, American athlete
* 1975 - Dat Phan, Vietnamese stand-up comedian
*1976 - Mario Haberfeld, Brazilian racing car driver
*1978 - Denis Menchov, Russian cyclist
* 1978 - Jason Roberts, English-born footballer
* 1978 - Derrick Turnbow, Major League Baseball Player
*1979 - Pi Hongyan, French badminton player
* 1979 - Gabe Jennings, American distance runner
* 1979 - Rodrigo Ribeiro, Brazilian racing driver
* 1979 - Christine Lakin, American actress
*1980 - Michelle McCool, American professional wrestler
* 1980 - Xavi, Catalan Spanish footballer
* 1980 - Efstathios Tavlaridis, Greek footballer
* 1981 - Tose Proeski, Macedonian Singer (d. 2007)
*1981 - Francis Jeffers, English footballer
* 1981 - Alicia Keys, American singer
*1982 - Sho Sakurai, Japanese singer and actor
* 1982 - The-Dream, singer
* 1982 - Shawna Waldron, American actress
*1983 - Andrée Watters, Canadian singer
*1984 - Robinho, Brazilian footballer
*1985 - Tina Karol, Ukrainian singer
* 1985 - Acie Law IV, National Basketball Association player
*1986 - Chris O'Grady, English footballer
* 1986 - Shahriar Nafees, Bangladeshi cricketer
*1987 - Maria Kirilenko, Russian tennis player
*1988 - Tatiana Golovin, French tennis player
*1989 - Sheryfa Luna, French singer

Deaths

* 389 - Gregory Nazianzus, theologian and Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 329)
* 477 - Geiseric, King of the Vandals and Alans
* 844 - Pope Gregory IV
*1067 - Emperor Yingzong of China (b. 1032)
*1366 - Henry Suso, German mystic
*1431 - Charles II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1364)
*1494 - King Ferdinand I of Naples (b. 1423)
*1559 - King Christian II of Denmark, Sweden and Norway (b. 1481)
*1573 - Hirate Hirohide, Japanese samurai (b. 1553)
*1586 - Lucas Cranach the Younger, German painter (b. 1515)
*1640 - Robert Burton, English scholar (b. 1577)
*1670 - Nicholas II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1612)
*1726 - Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (b. 1675)
*1733 - Gilbert Heathcote, Mayor of London (b. 1652)
*1751 - Paul Dudley, Attorney-General of Massachusetts (b. 1675)
*1852 - Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian explorer (b. 1778)
*1881 - Konstantin Thon, Russian architect (b. 1794)
*1907 - René Pottier, French cyclist (b. 1879)
*1908 - Mikhail Chigorin, Russian chess player (b. 1850)
* 1908 - Ouida, English writer (b. 1839)
*1912 - Dmitry Milyutin, Russian Field Marshal (b. 1816)
*1925 - Ivan Vucetic, Croatian anthropologist (b. 1858)
*1940 - Elias Simojoki, Finnish clergyman and politician (b. 1899)
*1947 - Al Capone, American gangster (b. 1899)
*1949 - Makino Nobuaki, Japanese statesman　(b. 1861)
*1957 - Kiyoshi Shiga, Japanese physician and bacteriologist (b. 1871)
* 1957 - Ichizo Kobayashi, Japanese industrialist and Minister of Commerce and Industry (b. 1873)
*1963 - Wilson Kettle, Guinness World Record holder for most living descendants (b. 1860)
*1969 - Irene Castle, English dancer (b. 1887)
*1970 - Jane Bathori, French mezzo-soprano (b. 1877)
* 1970 - Eiji Tsuburaya, Japanese television writer and producer ("Ultraman") (b. 1901)
*1972 - Erhard Milch, German field marshal (b. 1892)
*1975 - Charlotte Whitton, Canadian politician, mayor of Ottawa (b. 1896)
*1976 - Chris Kenner, American singer and songwriter (b. 1929)
*1980 - Queenie Watts, English actress (b. 1926)
*1981 - Adele Astaire, American dancer (b. 1897)
*1982 - Mikhail Suslov, Soviet politician (b. 1902)
*1990 - Ava Gardner, American actress (b. 1922)
*1994 - Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician (b. 1909)
*1996 - Jonathan Larson, American composer (b. 1960)
*1999 - Sarah "Sadie" Delany, American author (b. 1889)
* 1999 - Ted Mallie, American radio and television announcer (b. 1924)
* 1999 - Robert Shaw, American conductor (b. 1916)
*2003 - Samuel Weems, Arkansas judge (b. 1936)
*2004 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (b. 1918)
* 2004 - Miklós Fehér, Hungarian footballer (b. 1979)
*2005 - Stanisław Albinowski, Polish economist and journalist (b. 1923)
* 2005 - William Augustus Bootle, American judge (b. 1902)
* 2005 - Philip Johnson, American architect (b. 1906)
* 2005 - Manuel Lopes, Cape Verdean writer and poet (b. 1907)
* 2005 - Ray Peterson, American singer (b. 1935)
* 2005 - Nettie Witziers-Timmer, Dutch athlete (b. 1923)
*2006 - Anna Malle, adult film star (b. 1967)
*2008 - Christopher Allport, American actor (b. 1947)
* 2008 - Evelyn Barbirolli,English musician (b. 1911)

Holidays and observances

* Burns Night—Burns suppers are held in many parts of the world around this date. (Originated in Scotland)
* Christian ecumenism—Week of Prayer for Christian Unity ends.
* Criminon Day—Commemorates the 1970 founding of Criminon, a program which seeks to rehabilitate prisoners by disseminating free copies of Scientology-related materials such as The Way to Happiness.
* Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, which concludes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity,
* Feast of Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople—Eastern (Byzantine) Catholic Church
* Roman Empire—second day of the Sementivae in honour of Ceres and Terra
* Russia—Tatiana Day, celebrated as the Day of Russian Students since 1755, when Moscow University was founded.
* Wales—St. Dwynwen's Day - celebration of love Diwrnod Santes Dwynwen.

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/25 BBC: On This Day]
*
* [http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jan&day=25 On this day in Canada] ----