Events of the day 25 March

Events of day 25 March

708:

Pope Constantine succeeds Pope Sisinnius as the 88th pope.

717:

Theodosius III resigns the throne to the Byzantine Empire to enter the clergy.

919:

Romanos Lekapenos seizes the Boukoleon Palace in Constantinople and becomes regent of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII.

1000:

Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah assassinates the eunuch chief minister Barjawan and assumes control of the government.

1199:

Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France, leading to his death on April 6.

1306:

Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scots (Scotland).

1409:

The Council of Pisa opens.

1555:

The city of Valencia is founded in present-day Venezuela.

1576:

Jerome Savage takes out a sub-lease to start the Newington Butts Theatre outside London.

1584:

Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia.

1655:

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.

1802:

The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and the United Kingdom.

1807:

The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire.

1807:

The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger-carrying railway in the world.

1811:

Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for publishing the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism.

1821:

Traditional date of the start of the Greek War of Independence. The war had actually begun on 23 February 1821 (Julian calendar).

1845:

New Zealand Legislative Council pass the first Militia Act constituting the New Zealand Army

1865:

American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces temporarily capture Fort Stedman from the Union.

1894:

Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, Ohio for Washington, D.C.

1911:

In New York City, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 garment workers.

1917:

The Georgian Orthodox Church restores its autocephaly abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811.

1918:

The Belarusian People's Republic is established.

1924:

On the anniversary of Greek Independence, Alexandros Papanastasiou proclaims the Second Hellenic Republic.

1931:

The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.

1941:

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers with the signing of the Tripartite Pact.

1947:

An explosion in a coal mine in Centralia, Illinois kills 111.

1948:

The first successful tornado forecast predicts that a tornado will strike Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.

1949:

More than 92,000 kulaks are suddenly deported from the Baltic states to Siberia.

1957:

United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" on obscenity grounds.

1957:

The European Economic Community is established with West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg as the first members.

1965:

Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.

1969:

During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel (until March 31).

1971:

Bangladesh Liberation War: Beginning of Operation Searchlight by the Pakistan Armed Forces against East Pakistani civilians.

1971:

The Army of the Republic of Vietnam abandon an attempt to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos.

1975:

Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by a mentally ill nephew.

1979:

The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.

1988:

The Candle demonstration in Bratislava is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

1995:

WikiWikiWeb, the world's first wiki, and part of the Portland Pattern Repository, is made public by Ward Cunningham.

1996:

The European Union's Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy).

2006:

Capitol Hill massacre: A gunman kills six people before taking his own life at a party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

2006:

Protesters demanding a new election in Belarus, following the rigged Belarusian presidential election, 2006, clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin is among several protesters arrested.


Celebrations 25 March

Sarah Jessica Parker1965:

Was born Sarah Jessica Parker.

Ana Blandiana1942:

Was born Ana Blandiana.

Elton John1947:

Was born Elton John.

Mateiu Caragiale1885:

Was born Mateiu Caragiale.

1953:

Was born Marius Iosif.

Basarab Nicolescu1942:

Was born Basarab Nicolescu.

Toni Cade Bambara1939:

Was born Toni Cade Bambara.


Commemorations 25 March

Inigo Lopez de Mendoza1458:

Has died Inigo Lopez de Mendoza.

Giambattista Marino1625:

Has died Giambattista Marino.

James Wright1980:

Has died James Wright.

Claude Debussy1918:

Has died Claude Debussy.

Emil Isac1954:

Has died Emil Isac.

1989:

Has died Earl Nightingale.

1909:

Has died W. M. L. Jay.

1871:

Has died John Forbes Watson.