History of 25 May
1911 – President of Mexico, Portfolio Diaz, resigned his office.
1925 – John Scopes was indicted for teaching the Darwinian theory in school.
1927 – Ford Motor Company announced that the Model A would replace the Model T.
1927 – The “Movietone News” was shown for the first time at the Sam Harris Theatre in New York City.
1935 – Babe Ruth hit his final home run, his 714th, and set a record that would stand for 39 years.
1935 – Jesse Owens tied the world record for the 100-yard dash. He ran it in 9.4 seconds. He also broke three other world track records.
1946 – Jordan gained independence from Britain.
1953 – In Nevada, the first atomic cannon was fired.
1961 – America was asked by U.S. President Kennedy to work toward putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
1963 – The Organization of African Unity was founded, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
1968 – The Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, MO, was dedicated.
1970 – Boeing Computer Services was founded.
1977 – “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” opened and became the largest grossing film to date.
1977 – An opinion piece by Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs appeared in “The Washington Post.” The article called for a national memorial to “remind an ungrateful nation of what it has done to its sons” that had served in the Vietnam War.
1979 – An American Airlines DC-10 crashed during takeoff at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. 275 people were killed.
1981 – Daredevil Daniel Goodwin scaled Chicago’s Sears Tower while wearing a “Spiderman” costume, in 7 1/2 hours.
1983 – “The Return of the Jedi” opened nationwide. It set a new record in opening day box office sales. The gross was $6,219,629.
1985 – Bangladesh was hit with a hurricane and tidal wave that killed more than 11,000 people.
1986 – Approximately 7 million Americans participated in “Hands Across America.”
1989 – The Calgary Flames won their first NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens.
1992 – Jay Leno debuted as the new permanent host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.”
1996 – In Nimes, France, Christina Sanchez became the first woman to achieve the rank of matadors in Europe.
1997 – In Sierra Leone, a military coup overthrew the popularly elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. He was replaced with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.
1997 – U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history (41 years and 10 months).
1997 – Poland adopted a constitution that removed all traces of communism.
1999 – A report by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China concluded that China had “stolen design information on the U.S. most-advanced thermonuclear weapons” and that China’s penetration of U.S. weapons laboratories “spans at least the past several decades and almost certainly continues today.”
2000 – The Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc. signed a long-term deal that ended a dispute over the airing policies of Time Warner. Time Warner had blacked out Disney programs for a 39 hour period the previous month due to the lack of an agreement.
2001 – Erik Weihenmayer, 32, of Golden, CO, became the first blind climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
2001 – Sherman Bull, 64, of New Canaan, CT, became the oldest climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
2006 – In Houston, former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted of conspiracy and fraud for the downfall of Enron.
2008 – NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander landed in the arctic plains of Mars.
2009 – North Korea announced that it had conducted a second successful nuclear test in the province of North Hamgyong. The United Nations Security Council condemned the reported test.
2011 – Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her twenty-five-year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
2012 – The SpaceX Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with the International Space Station.
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 – A gas cylinder explodes on a school bus in the Pakistani city of Gujrat, killing at least 18 people.
2018 – The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes enforceable.
2018 – Ireland votes to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, prohibiting abortion in all but a few cases, choosing to replace it with the Thirty-Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Michalis Pelekanos, Greek basketball player
- 1981 – Matt Utai, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1982 – Adam Boyd, English footballer
- 1982 – Daniel Braaten, Norwegian footballer
- 1982 – Ryan Gallant, American skateboarder
- 1982 – Roger Guerreiro, Polish footballer
- 1982 – Justin Hodges, Australian rugby league player
- 1982 – Ezekiel Kemboi, Kenyan runner
- 1982 – Jason Kubel, American baseball player
- 1982 – Stacey Pensgen, American figure skater and meteorologist
- 1982 – Luke Webster, Australian footballer
- 1984 – Luke Ball, Australian footballer
- 1984 – Kyle Brodziak, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1984 – A. J. Foyt IV, American race car driver
- 1984 – Shawne Merriman, American football player
- 1985 – Luciana Abreu, Portuguese singer, and actress
- 1985 – Demba Ba, French footballer
- 1985 – Gert Kams, Estonian footballer
- 1985 – Roman Reigns, American football player and wrestler
- 1986 – Edwin Fanini, Brazilian footballer
- 1986 – Yoan Gouffran, French footballer
- 1986 – Takahiro Hōjō, Japanese actor and musician
- 1986 – Geraint Thomas, Welsh cyclist
- 1987 – Timothy Derijck, Belgian footballer
- 1987 – Yves De Winter, Belgian footballer
- 1987 – Moritz Stehling, German footballer
- 1987 – Kamil Stoch, Polish ski jumper
- 1988 – Dávid Škutka, Slovak footballer
- 1990 – Bo Dallas, American wrestler
- 1990 – Nikita Filatov, Russian ice hockey player
- 1993 – James Porter, English cricketer
- 1994 – Matt Murray, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1994 – Aly Raisman, American gymnast
- 1995 – Kagiso Rabada, South African cricketer
- 1996 – David Pastrňák, Czech ice hockey player