October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 67 days remaining.

Events

• 732 - Battle of Tours: Near Poitiers, France, leader of the Franks Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. The governor of Cordoba, Abd-ar-Rahman, is killed during the battle.
• 1415 - The army of Henry V of England defeats the French army at the Battle of Agincourt
• 1662 - King Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France
• 1747 - British fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke defeats French at second battle of Cape Finisterre.
• 1760 - George III becomes King of Great Britain
• 1813 - War of 1812: Canadians and Mohawks beat the Americans in the Battle of Chateauguay
• 1828 - St Katharine Docks opened in London
• 1854 - Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade)
• 1861 - The Toronto Stock Exchange was created.
• 1900 - United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal
• 1922 - The Dail of the Irish Free State approves the constitution of the new state, formally bringing it into being.
• 1923 - United States Senate begins investigating the Teapot Dome Scandal
• 1924 - The forged Zinoviev Letter is published in the Daily Mail, wrecking the British Labour Party's hopes of re-election.
• 1936 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini create the Rome-Berlin Axis
• 1938 - The Archbishop of Dubuque, Francis J. L. Beckman , denounces Swing music as "a degenerated musical system... turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people", warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell".
• 1944 - Japan launches first kamikaze attacks, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf
• 1944 - Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich
• 1945 - The Republic of China takes over administration of Taiwan following Japan's surrender to the Allies.
• 1950 - The People's Republic of China joins the Korean War, sending thousands of "volunteers" across the Yalu river border to attack United Nations forces
• 1962 - Cuban missile crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows photos at the UN proving Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba
• 1971 - United Nations seats the People's Republic of China and expels the Republic of China (see China and the United Nations)
• 1983 - Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters were executed in a coup d'état.
• 1986 - The New York Mets defeat the Boston Red Sox due to Bill Buckner's famous error in Game 6 of the World Series and go on to win the championship two days later
• 1992 - Latvia establishes its first post-Soviet constitution
• 1993 - Jean Chrétien becomes prime minister of Canada with a massive majority for his Liberal Party in a general election in which the governing Progressive Conservatives lost 149 of 151 seats in the parliament.
• 1991 - Rock band Steely Dan reunites
• 1994 - Susan Smith of Union, South Carolina claims that a black carjacker had driven off with her two sons (Smith later confessed to drowning the children in John D. Long Lake, and was convicted of murder)
• 1994 - Kara Spears Hultgreen is killed when on final approach to the USS Abraham Lincoln in her F-14 Tomcat.
• 1995 - A commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
• 1997 - After a brief civil war which has driven President Pascal Lissouba out of Brazzaville, Denis Sassou-Nguesso proclaims himself the President of the Republic of the Congo.
• 2001 - Microsoft releases Windows XP
• 2003 - The Cedar Fire is reported at 5:37 pm. It becomes the largest wildfire in California history.
• 2004 - Fidel Castro, Cuba's President, announces that transactions using the American Dollar will be banned by November 8th.
• 2004 - Official Guided by Voices Day in Bloomington, Indiana.

Births

• 1692 - Elizabeth Farnese, wife of King Philip V of Spain (d. 1766)
• 1811 - Evariste Galois, mathematician (d. 1832)
• 1825 - Johann Strauss II, composer (d. 1899)
• 1838 - Georges Bizet, French composer (d. 1875)
• 1856 - Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croat paleontologist (d. 1936)
• 1864 - Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (d. 1956)
• 1867 - Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, Polish general, commander of Greater Poland Uprising in 1919 (d.1937)
• 1869 - John Heisman, American football coach (d. 1936)
• 1881 - Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, sculptor (d. 1973)
• 1888 - Richard E. Byrd, explorer (d. 1957)
• 1889 - Abel Gance, film writer (d. 1981)
• 1892 - Leo G. Carroll, actor (d. 1972)
• 1895 - Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1969)
• 1902 - Eddie Lang, jazz musician (d. 1933)
• 1910 - William Higinbotham, physicist (d. 1994)
• 1912 - Minnie Pearl, comedian, singer (d. 1996)
• 1913 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal
• 1914 - John Berryman, American poet (d. 1972)
• 1924 - Billy Barty, actor (d. 2000)
• 1926 - Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano
• 1927 - Barbara Cook, singer, actress
• 1928 - Marion Ross, actress
• 1933 - Jack Haley Jr. , film producer, director (d. 2001)
• 1935 - Russell Schweickart, astronaut
• 1940 - Bobby Knight, basketball coach
• 1941 - Anne Tyler, novelist
• 1942 - Helen Reddy, singer
• 1944 - Jon Anderson, singer (Yes)
• 1944 - James Carville, Jr. , political operative
• 1948 - Glenn Tipton, guitarist
• 1948 - Dan Gable, amateur wrestling champion, coach
• 1949 - Brian Kerwin , actor
• 1951 - Richard Lloyd, musician
• 1954 - Mike Eruzione, captain of the 1980 United States Olympic gold medal-winning ice hockey team
• 1956 - Mathias Jabs , guitarist
• 1959 - Nancy Cartwright, voice actress
• 1963 - Tracy Nelson, actress
• 1970 - Ed Robertson , guitarist and singer for Barenaked Ladies
• 1971 - Pedro Martínez, baseball pitcher, three-time Cy Young Award winner
• 1971 - Midori, violinist
• 1984 - Sara Helena Lumholdt, youngest member of the A-Teens
• 1985 - Ciara Harris, singer
• 1986 - Conor Smith, Irish actor

Deaths

• 304 - Pope Marcellinus (martyred)
• 625 - Pope Boniface V
• 1154 - Stephen of England
• 1400 - Geoffrey Chaucer, poet
• 1495 - King John II of Portugal
• 1895 - Charles Hallé, pianist and conductor
• 1910 - Willie_Anderson, golfer
• 1920 - Alexander I, King of the Hellenes, of sepsis (after being bitten by a pet monkey)
• 1921 - Bat Masterson, journalist, lawman
• 1953 - Holger Pedersen, Danish linguist (b. 1867)
• 1955 - Sadako Sasaki
• 1957 - Lord Dunsany, writer
• 1957 - Albert Anastasia, mafia don
• 1974 - Nick Drake, musician
• 1986 - Forrest Tucker, actor
• 1987 - Louis Guttman , sociologist
• 1991 - Bill Graham, rock promoter
• 1992 - Roger Miller, musician, composer
• 1993 - Danny Chan, singer, actor & songwriter of HK
• 1993 - Vincent Price, actor
• 1995 - Bobby Riggs, tennis player
• 1999 - Payne Stewart, golfer
• 2002 - Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator: A Democrat from Minnesota
• 2002 - Richard Harris, actor
• 2004 - John Peel, British DJ (b. 1939)

Holidays

• Feast day of Saint Crispin

External links

• BBC: On This Day

October 24 - October 26 - November 25 - September 25 - more historical anniversaries