25th July — World Drowning Prevention Day
Welcome to 25th July! It's World Drowning Prevention Day. Explore 79 historical events, birthdays, deaths, and milestones that shaped this day. From remarkable moments in local and world history to the people who left their mark — find out what makes today special. Tonight's moon is in its waxing gibbous phase, and the zodiac sign of the day is Leo. If you're curious about the history of a day — this page brings together everything worth knowing about this 25th July.
Friday, 25 July falls under the zodiac sign of Leo, the fifth astrological sign associated with confidence and leadership. The moon is in its waxing gibbous phase, indicating it is approaching fullness and continuing to grow in illumination.
On this day
On 25 July 2010, WikiLeaks released approximately 75,000 classified documents detailing the War in Afghanistan, marking one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history. The publication revealed operational details, casualty figures and diplomatic assessments that intensified public debate surrounding American military operations in the region and demonstrated the vulnerability of government information systems.
In the realm of constitutional history, Pratibha Patil was sworn in as the first female President of India on 25 July 2007, breaking a significant barrier in the nation's political leadership. Meanwhile, the date carries darker historical weight as the day in 1943 when the Grand Council of Fascism voted to remove Benito Mussolini from power, leading to his arrest by order of King Victor Emmanuel III and his replacement by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, a pivotal moment in Italy's path away from fascism.
World Drowning Prevention Day
World Drowning Prevention Day is observed on 25 July each year to raise awareness about drowning, one of the leading causes of unintentional injury deaths globally. The date was designated by the United Nations in 2021 to highlight the public health crisis of drowning and promote prevention strategies across communities. The day encourages governments, organisations and individuals to implement water safety measures, swimming education programmes and rescue training. Since its establishment, it has become a focal point for coordinating international efforts to reduce drowning-related deaths and injuries.
DayAtlas provides comprehensive information for any date and location, displaying weather conditions, historical events, and notable births and deaths to give users a complete picture of what happened on their chosen day.
Explore everything about today 4th June.
Still water reflects what noise drowns out.
Fortune of the Day
25th July in the Stars – Star Sign Leo
Personality Profile
Personality People born on July 25th blend Leo's natural confidence with a Mars-driven edge that makes them notably action-oriented. They radiate commanding presence and pursue goals with impressive directness. An underlying hunger for freedom and change shapes them as dynamic architects of their own lives.
Strengths & Weaknesses Their greatest strengths lie in courage, persuasive power, and infectious creativity. They inspire others through sheer vitality and generous spirit. However, impatience and constant need for stimulation can push them toward hasty decisions without forethought.
Love In relationships, these individuals are passionate and loyal, yet fiercely protective of personal independence. Partners must respect their autonomy and share their appetite for adventure. Routine dulls their spark—they thrive on emotional intensity and mutual admiration.
Caree & Finance Professionally, they gravitate toward leadership roles where entrepreneurial instinct shines. Mars energy makes them valuable pioneers in creative or strategic positions. Financially, they should curb impulsive spending habits and embrace longer-term planning to build lasting wealth.
Health These natives are naturally active and require regular vigorous exercise to channel their energy productively. Their vitality is high, yet nervous tension demands intentional downtime and recovery. Creative outlets and consistent physical activity best support their holistic wellbeing.
That night, the moon was in its waxing gibbous phase.
Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).
Fun Facts About 25th July
Name Days in Your Language: Coby, Colby, Diego, Israel, Jack, Jackie, Jackson, Jaclyn, Jacob, Jacoby, Jacqueline, Jacquelyn, Jacques, Jaime, Jake, Jakob, James, Jameson, Jamie, Jaquan, Jaqueline, Jaxon, Jaxson, Jim, Jimena, Jimmie, Jimmy, Kobe, Koby, Kolby, Santiago
Someone born on this day would be just 314 days old today — roughly 7,536 hours, 452,193 minutes, or 27,131,602 seconds spent on Earth so far.
It's the 206. day of the year. In 2025, 25th July falls on a Friday.
There are 159 days still to come.
We’re currently in Week 30 — the year marches on.
Famous Birthdays on 25th July
On this day, 242 notable people were born on 25th July — spanning from 975 to 2002. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.
25/07/2002
Alperen Şengün, Turkish basketball player
Alperen Şengün is a Turkish professional basketball player for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also represents the senior Turkish national team. Known for his post skills and creative playmaking abilities, Şengün was selected with the 16th overall pick in the first round of the 2021 NBA draft. He was named to his first NBA All-Star Game in 2025.
Adam Hložek, Czech footballer
Adam Hložek is a Czech professional footballer who plays as a forward for Bundesliga club TSG Hoffenheim and the Czech Republic national team.
25/07/2001
Bryce Young, American football player
Bryce Christopher Young is an American professional football quarterback for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide, setting the school record for most passing yards in a single game (559) and winning several player of the year awards in 2021, including the Heisman Trophy. Young was selected first overall by the Panthers in the 2023 NFL draft. In the 2025 season, he helped lead the Panthers to their first playoff appearance since 2017 and first division title since 2015.
25/07/2000
Meg Donnelly, American actress
Meg Elizabeth Donnelly is an American actress, singer, songwriter, dancer, and model. She played Taylor Otto in the ABC sitcom American Housewife (2016–2021), Addison Wells in the Disney Channel film series Zombies (2018–present), and Mary Campbell in the CW television series The Winchesters (2022–2023).
Zhang Hao, Chinese singer
Zhang Hao is a Chinese singer based in South Korea and signed under YH Entertainment. He was a member of the South Korean boy band Zerobaseone from its debut in July 2023 until his contract expired in March 2026. He re-debuted as a member of the boy group And2ble under YH Entertainment in 2026.
25/07/1997
Nat Butcher, Australian rugby league player
Nathaniel Zane Butcher is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a second-rower and lock for the Sydney Roosters in the National Rugby League (NRL). He won an NRL premiership with the Roosters in 2019.
25/07/1995
Alvin Kamara, American football player
Alvin Mentian Kamara is an American professional football running back for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Tennessee Volunteers after transferring from Hutchinson Community College and was selected by the Saints in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft. Kamara was named the NFL Rookie of the Year in 2017, was named a Pro Bowler in his first five NFL seasons, and is a two-time second-team All-Pro. In 2020, Kamara became the second player in NFL history to score six rushing touchdowns and 36 points in a single game. Four years later, he became the Saints' all-time rushing leader.
Maria Sakkari, Greek tennis player
Maria Sakkari is a Greek professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 3 by the WTA, which she first achieved on 21 March 2022, making her the highest-ranked Greek women's tennis player. Her career-best doubles ranking is world No. 169, achieved on 9 September 2019.
25/07/1994
Natalija Stevanović, Serbian tennis player
Natalija Stevanović is a Serbian inactive tennis player. She reached her best singles ranking of world No. 145 on 17 July 2023. On 6 May 2024, she peaked at No. 152 in the WTA doubles rankings.
Andrei Vasilevskiy, Russian ice hockey player
Andrei Andreyevich Vasilevskiy is a Russian professional ice hockey player who is a goaltender for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted in the first round, 19th overall, by the Lightning at the 2012 NHL entry draft.
25/07/1992
Sergei Simonov, Russian ice hockey player (died 2016)
Sergei Sergeevich Simonov was a Russian professional ice hockey player. He played with HC Lipetsk of the Russian Hockey League.
25/07/1991
Toni Duggan, English footballer
Toni Duggan is an English former footballer who played as a winger or forward. During her career, she played in England for Everton and Manchester City, and in Spain for Barcelona and Atlético Madrid.
Hasan Piker, American Twitch streamer
Hasan Doğan Piker, known online by the name HasanAbi, is an American Twitch streamer, influencer, and left-wing political commentator. His content primarily consists of political and social commentary and media consumption. As of 2026, Piker's Twitch channel ranks among the platform's most-subscribed. Piker has been called one of the biggest voices on the American Left. He began streaming on Twitch in March 2018, while working at The Young Turks (TYT). In January 2020, Piker left TYT to focus on his career as a Twitch streamer. He has regularly spoken about the Gaza war, advocating for Palestinians and criticizing the Israeli government.
25/07/1990
Thodoris Karapetsas, Greek footballer
Thodoris "Theodoros" Karapetsas is a Greek footballer.
25/07/1989
Natalia Vieru, Russian basketball player
Natalia Stanislavovna Vieru is a Russian former basketball player. She is a member of the Russia women's national basketball team and competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Vieru played last for the Russian club UMMC Ekaterinburg as a center from 2015 to 2020.
25/07/1988
Sarah Geronimo, Filipino singer and actress
Sarah Asher Tua Geronimo is a Filipina singer, record producer and actress. Known for her vocal versatility, genre-spanning repertoire, and commanding stage presence, Geronimo is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures and one of the defining voices in Philippine pop music. Credited with shaping pop music in the Philippines, Geronimo became a staple of Pinoy pop culture and is considered one of the greatest pop stars of all time in the country.
John Goossens, Dutch footballer
John Goossens is a Dutch former professional footballer who mainly played as a defensive midfielder, although he was capable of playing in several positions in midfield, and even as a left winger. Since his retirement from football in 2022, he has worked as a financial counsellor for professional footballers.
Tom Hiariej, Dutch footballer
Tom Jan Hiariej is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder or right-back. He is of Moluccan descent.
Stacey Kemp, English skater
Stacey King is an English former competitive pair skater who represented Great Britain. With her husband David King, she is an eight-time British national champion.
Paulinho, Brazilian footballer
José Paulo Bezerra Maciel Júnior, known as Paulinho, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
Anthony Stokes, Irish footballer
Anthony Christopher Stokes is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a striker.
25/07/1987
Richard Bachman, American ice hockey player
Richard Harrison Bachman is an American former professional ice hockey goaltender who is currently the goaltending coach for the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League (AHL). He played two seasons of college ice hockey at Colorado College before enjoying a career in the National Hockey League with the Dallas Stars, Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks. Bachman was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, but grew up in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
Mitchell Burgzorg, Dutch footballer and rapper
Mitchell Burgzorg is a Dutch retired footballer and a rapper under the name Priester.
Fernando, Brazilian footballer
Fernando Francisco Reges, known simply as Fernando, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder.
Jax Jones, English DJ, singer and songwriter
Timucin Lam, known professionally as Jax Jones, is an English DJ and record producer. He rose to prominence in 2014 by featuring on Duke Dumont's number-one single "I Got U". He followed this with his own singles, "You Don't Know Me" featuring Raye in 2016, and "Instruction" featuring Demi Lovato and Stefflon Don in 2017. Jax's debut studio album, Snacks (Supersize) was released in 2019.
Eran Zahavi, Israeli footballer
Eran Zahavi is an Israeli former professional footballer who played as a forward.
25/07/1986
Abraham Gneki Guié, Ivorian footballer
Abraham Gneki Guié Guié is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a winger or striker.
Hulk, Brazilian footballer
Givanildo Vieira de Sousa, mononymously known as Hulk, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Fluminense.
25/07/1985
James Lafferty, American actor and athlete
James Martin Lafferty is an American actor, director, and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Nathan Scott on The WB/CW drama series One Tree Hill (2003–2012).
Nelson Piquet Jr., Brazilian race car driver
Nelson Ângelo Tamsma Piquet Souto Maior, also known as Nelson Piquet Jr. or Nelsinho Piquet, is a Brazilian stock car racing driver and former Formula One and Formula E driver where he was champion in the 2014–15 season. He currently competes full-time in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series, driving the No. 33 Toyota Corolla E210 for Motul TMG Racing.
Hugo Rodallega, Colombian footballer
Hugo Rodallega Martínez is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Categoría Primera A club Santa Fe.
25/07/1984
Loukas Mavrokefalidis, Greek basketball player
Loukas Mavrokefalidis is a Greek former professional basketball player. He has also represented the senior Hellenic national team. Born in Jeseník, Czechoslovakia, he is a 2.10 m, 120 kg (265 lbs.) power forward and center. He was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2nd round of the 2006 NBA draft.
Robert Clardy, American football coach
Robert Ira Clardy is an American high school football coach. He is the head football coach at Bolivar High School in Bolivar, Missouri, a position he has held since 2025. Clardy served as the head football coach at Southwest Baptist University from 2015 to 2024, compiling a record of 39–60 in ten seasons. He was an assistant coach at Southwest Baptist for seven seasons prior to his head-coaching tenure. He played college football for Southwest Baptist as a quarterback.
25/07/1983
Nenad Krstić, Serbian basketball player
Nenad Krstić is a Serbian basketball executive and former professional player.
25/07/1982
Jason Dundas, Australian TV host
Jason Dundas is an Australian-born television presenter, actor, producer and director, known for his roles as special correspondent for CBS's Entertainment Tonight, the host of The X Factor Australia in 2016, host of America's Best Dance Crew on MTV, VH1's Big Morning Buzz Live, travel series Getaway in Australia, and the founder and director of Dundas Media.
Brad Renfro, American actor and musician (died 2008)
Brad Barron Renfro was an American actor. He made his film debut at age 11 with a starring role in The Client (1994). Renfro went on to appear in 21 feature films, winning several awards.
25/07/1981
Finn Bálor, Irish wrestler
Fergal Devitt is an Irish professional wrestler. As of May 2014, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Finn Bálor.
Conor Casey, American soccer player
Conor Patrick Casey is an American former soccer player. He played for 16 seasons as a forward, finishing his career with Columbus Crew SC, before turning to coaching with his former club Colorado Rapids.
Constantinos Charalambidis, Cypriot footballer
Constantinos Charalambidis is a Cypriot former professional footballer.
Yūichi Komano, Japanese footballer
Yuichi Komano is a former Japanese professional footballer who last played as a defender. He last played for Japan national team until 2013.
Mac Lethal, American rapper and producer
David McCleary Sheldon, known professionally as Mac Lethal, is an American rapper, songwriter and author from Kansas City, Missouri. He is the founder of Black Clover Records and formerly a radio host on KRBZ 96.5 the Buzz show Black Clover Radio.
Jani Rita, Finnish ice hockey player
Jani Markus Rita is a Finnish former professional ice hockey winger who last played with Jokerit of the Russian KHL, for whom he played most of his career.
25/07/1980
Shawn Riggans, American baseball player
Shawn Willis Riggans is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2006 to 2009 for the Tampa Bay Rays.
Toni Vilander, Finnish race car driver
Toni Markus Vilander is a Finnish professional racing driver who currently drives for the Risi Competizione Ferrari team in various categories of sports car racing.
David Wachs, American actor and producer
David Wachs is an American actor and musician. He was born and raised in Palm Desert, California to parents who were both musicians. He has appeared in several TV shows, including ER, Living with Fran, and Still Standing, as well as in films such as Hotel California (2008), and The Last Hurrah (2009), among others.
Scott Waldrom, New Zealand rugby player
Scott Waldrom is a New Zealand former rugby union player. When Waldroms playing career finished in 2012 due to injury he was playing for the Waikato Chiefs in Super Rugby and Taranaki in the ITM Cup. He played in the openside flanker position.
25/07/1979
Ali Carter, English snooker player
Allister Carter is an English professional snooker player. He has twice been a World Championship finalist, in 2008 and 2012, losing both finals to Ronnie O'Sullivan. He has won six ranking titles and briefly reached number two in the world rankings in 2010. His nickname, "The Captain", comes from his hobby of piloting aeroplanes.
Tom Lungley, English cricketer and umpire
Tom Lungley is an English first-class cricketer and umpire. He is a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler.
Ahmed Tantawi, Egyptian politician and journalist
Ahmed Mohamed Ramadan Tantawi known as Ahmed Tantawi also: Al-Tantawy is an Egyptian politician and journalist. As of July 2022, he was the former head of the Dignity Party and a former member of the Egyptian House of Representatives. In 2023, Tantawi announced his potential candidacy for the 2023 Egyptian presidential election but repressive tactics, including retaliatory detentions of his family members, supporters and campaign members, prevented his campaign from collecting the 25,000 voters' endorsements required to officially file his candidacy.
25/07/1978
Gerard Warren, American football player
Gerard Thurston Warren is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons. He played college football for the University of Florida. He was selected by the Cleveland Browns third overall in the 2001 NFL draft, and also played professionally for the Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders and New England Patriots of the NFL.
25/07/1977
Kenny Thomas, American basketball player
Kenneth Cornelius Thomas is an American former professional basketball player who played eleven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
25/07/1976
Marcos Assunção, Brazilian footballer
Marcos dos Santos Assunção is a Brazilian former professional footballer. A central midfielder, he was renowned as a world-class free kick specialist.
Jovica Tasevski-Eternijan, Macedonian poet and critic
Jovica Tasevski-Eternijan is a Macedonian poet, essayist and literary critic.
Javier Vázquez, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
Javier Carlos Vázquez is a Puerto Rican former Major League Baseball starting pitcher. He played for the Montreal Expos (1998–2003), New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks (2005), Chicago White Sox (2006–2008), Atlanta Braves (2009), and Florida Marlins (2011).
25/07/1975
Jody Craddock, English footballer and coach
Jody Darryl Craddock is an English former professional footballer and artist who played as a centre back in the Premier League for Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Jean-Claude Darcheville, Guianan-French footballer
Jean-Claude Jacques Ducan Darcheville is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played for various clubs in France, England, Scotland, and Greece. He represented French Guiana at the 2012 Caribbean Cup. He is currently the manager of the Saint Martin national team.
El Zorro, Mexican wrestler
Jesús Cristóbal Martínez Rodriguez is a Mexican professional wrestler who is best known as El Zorro. His gimmick started out very similar to the fictional character Zorro complete with mask, but in recent years it has evolved and the mask has been eliminated. He is best known for his work in the Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) promotion in Mexico, where he is a former AAA Mega Champion. He has in the past worked both in Europe, Japan and made a few brief appearances for the World Wrestling Federation show WWF Super Astros. He was the "Deputy leader" of the La Legión Extranjera faction headed by Konnan. In December 2012, Martínez was repackaged as La Parka Negra, the storyline nemesis of La Parka. He returned as El Zorro in October 2013, before departing the company in February 2017.
Brian Gibson, American bass player
Brian Gibson is an American musician, artist, and video game designer based in Providence, Rhode Island. Gibson is best known as the bassist for the band Lightning Bolt. In the summer of 2015 he co-founded the game development company Drool. At Drool, he created the art and music for the video game Thumper and co-designed the game alongside Marc Flury. Thumper was released with critical acclaim in October 2016. He was previously a lead artist working at video game company Harmonix since 2001, but quit in the summer of 2015.
Evgeni Nabokov, Russian ice hockey player
Yevgeni Viktorovich Nabokov is a Kazakh-born Russian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played for the San Jose Sharks, New York Islanders, and Tampa Bay Lightning of National Hockey League (NHL) and for Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk, Dynamo Moscow, Metallurg Magnitogorsk and SKA Saint Petersburg of the Russian Super League (RSL) and Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) from 1991 to 2015.
25/07/1974
Lauren Faust, American animator, producer, and screenwriter
Lauren J. Faust is an American animator, writer, director, and producer. She is known for developing the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and DC Super Hero Girls. Faust has collaborated with her husband Craig McCracken on his four animated series The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Wander Over Yonder, and Kid Cosmic.
Julia Laffranque, Estonian lawyer and judge
Julia Laffranque, is an Estonian jurist, judge, and legal scientist. She is a visiting professor of European law, justice at the Supreme Court of Estonia, judge at the European Court of Human Rights (2011-2020).
Kenzo Suzuki, Japanese rugby player and wrestler
Kenzo Suzuki is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), in Mexico with Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) and in the United States with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he was a one-time WWE Tag Team Champion in the latter company. He currently performs for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) under the ring name Kenso, where he is a one-time World Tag Team Champion and a one-time Gaora TV Champion.
25/07/1973
David Denman, American actor
David Denman is an American actor. He made his film debut in The Replacements (2000) before his breakout role as Roy Anderson on the NBC sitcom The Office, which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Dani Filth, English singer-songwriter
Daniel Lloyd Davey, known professionally as Dani Filth, is an English singer who is the lead vocalist, lyricist and founding member of the extreme metal band Cradle of Filth.
Kevin Phillips, English footballer
Kevin Mark Phillips is an English former professional footballer who was most recently the head coach of National League club AFC Fylde.
Igli Tare, Albanian footballer
Igli Tare is an Albanian football executive and former professional footballer who played as a forward. He was most recently the sporting director of Serie A club Milan.
25/07/1972
David Penna, Australian rugby league player and coach
David Penna is an Australian rugby league coach and former footballer who played for the Parramatta Eels and the South Sydney Rabbitohs during his long professional career.
25/07/1971
Roger Creager, American singer-songwriter
Roger Creager is an American Texas country music singer and songwriter from Corpus Christi, Texas.
Tracy Murray, American basketball player
Tracy Lamont Murray is an American former professional basketball player who works as an analyst with the UCLA Sports Network for all of the games during the UCLA Bruins' basketball season. Tracy is also a part-time analyst on the Slam Dunk Show on ABC7 Los Angeles. He worked as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the 2015–16 NBA season.
Billy Wagner, American baseball player and coach
William Edward Wagner, nicknamed "Billy the Kid", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, and Atlanta Braves from 1995 to 2010. A seven-time All-Star and the 1999 National League (NL) Rolaids Relief Man Award winner, Wagner is one of only eight major league relief pitchers to reach 400 career saves. A left-handed batter and thrower, Wagner stands 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and weighs 180 pounds (82 kg).
25/07/1969
Jon Barry, American basketball player and sportscaster
Jon Alan Barry is an American former professional basketball player and television analyst for ABC and ESPN. Barry is currently the lead analyst for ESPN Radio's coverage of the NBA.
Annastacia Palaszczuk, Australian politician, 39th Premier of Queensland
Annastacia Palaszczuk is an Australian politician who served as the 39th premier of Queensland from 2015 to 2023. She held office as the leader of the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2012 until her resignation, and was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland (MLA) for the division of Inala from 2006 to 2023. Palaszczuk is the fifth-most-tenured premier in Queensland state history and the first woman to win the premiership from opposition, she also presided over the first majority female cabinet in Australian state and federal history.
D. B. Woodside, American actor
David Bryan Woodside is an American actor. He is best known for his television roles as the bass singer Melvin Franklin in The Temptations, Robin Wood in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Malcolm Franks in Single Ladies, Jeff Malone in Suits, Dr. Joseph Prestridge in Parenthood, the angel Amenadiel in Lucifer, and Wayne Palmer in the thriller series 24.
25/07/1968
Rudi Bryson, South African cricketer
Rudi Edwin Bryson is a former South African cricketer who played seven One Day Internationals in 1997. He also played in 96 first-class and 155 List A matches during his career.
Shi Tao, Chinese journalist and poet
Shi Tao is a Chinese journalist, writer and poet, who in 2005 was sentenced to 10 years in prison for releasing a document of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to an overseas Chinese democracy site. Yahoo! China was later discovered to have facilitated his arrest by providing his personal details to the Chinese government. Yahoo! was subsequently rebuked by a panel of the U.S. Congress, settled a lawsuit by Shi's family out of court, and pledged to reform its practices.
25/07/1967
Matt LeBlanc, American actor and producer
Matthew Steven LeBlanc is an American actor. He gained global recognition with his portrayal of Joey Tribbiani in the NBC sitcom Friends (1994–2004), and in its spin-off series Joey (2004–2006). For his work on Friends, LeBlanc received three nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards. He has also starred as a fictionalized version of himself in Episodes (2011–2017), for which he won a Golden Globe Award and received four additional Emmy Award nominations. He co-hosted Top Gear from 2016 to 2019. From 2016 to 2020, he played patriarch Adam Burns in the CBS sitcom Man with a Plan.
Ruth Peetoom, Dutch minister and politician
Gerhardine Ruth Peetoom is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). She was the party chair of the Christian Democratic Appeal between 2 April 2011 and 9 February 2019.
Tommy Skjerven, Norwegian footballer and referee
Tommy Skjerven is a Norwegian football referee from Kaupanger. He debuted as a referee in 1984, and served as a FIFA referee from 2001 until 2012. He is no longer included on the FIFA list as of 2013, because he reached the international retirement age of 45 in 2012. Skjerven represents Kaupanger IL. Skjerven was the main referee in the cup final between Odd Grenland and Vålerenga in 2002. His day job is working for noreg.no in Hermansverk in Leikanger Municipality.
25/07/1966
Daryl Halligan, New Zealand rugby player and sportscaster
Daryl John Halligan is a rugby league commentator and former professional rugby player. A New Zealand international winger, he was the preeminent goal-kicker of his era, retiring as the highest point scorer in Australian premiership history. Halligan played club football in Australia for the North Sydney Bears and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, winning the 1995 ARL Premiership with the latter.
Maureen Herman, American bass player
Maureen Herman is an American musician and writer. She rose to prominence as the second bassist of the alternative rock band Babes in Toyland, which she joined in 1992, replacing original bassist Michelle Leon. After Herman quit the band in 1996, she became a writer and remained out of the public light for several years. In 2015, she reunited with Babes in Toyland and embarked on an international tour before she was fired later that year.
Diana Johnson, English politician
Dame Diana Ruth Johnson is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull North since the 2005 general election. A member of the Labour Party, she has served as Minister of State in the Department for Work and Pensions since 2025.
25/07/1965
Marty Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Dennis Martin Brown is an American country music artist. Active between 1991 and 1996, he has released six studio albums and has charted one single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. Marty Brown and his wife, Shellie, currently reside in Simpson County, Franklin, Kentucky, since July 2004.
Illeana Douglas, American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
Illeana Hesselberg, known professionally as Illeana Douglas, is an American actress and filmmaker. Following her screen debut with a small part in Hello Again (1987), she went on to appear in a variety of mainstream and independent features throughout the 1990s, such as Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Alive (1993), To Die For (1995), Grace of My Heart (1996), Chasing Amy, Picture Perfect, Happy, Texas; Message in a Bottle; and Stir of Echoes. Her other credits include The Next Best Thing (2000), Ghost World (2001), Dummy (2002), Factory Girl (2006), She's Funny That Way (2014), and Return to Sender (2015).
Torey Lovullo, American baseball player and coach
Salvatore Anthony "Torey" Lovullo is an American former professional baseball infielder and the current manager for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Dale Shearer, Australian rugby league player
Dale Shearer, also known by the nickname of "Rowdy", is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. A Queensland State of Origin and Australian international representative of Aboriginal heritage, he played club football in Queensland, New South Wales and England. His playing career included a NSWRL Premiership win with Manly-Warringah in 1987 and a Rugby League World Cup Final win in 1988. Ten years after his retirement, Shearer was still the all-time top try-scorer in State of Origin and he was named on the wing of the Indigenous Australian team of the century.
25/07/1964
Anne Applebaum, American journalist and author
Anne Elizabeth Applebaum is an American journalist and historian. She has written about the history of Communism and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. She became a Polish citizen in 2013.
Tony Granato, American ice hockey player and coach
Anthony Lewis Granato is an American former professional ice hockey left winger and former head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey team. He served as head coach of the United States men's national ice hockey team at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Previously, he was the head coach of the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Colorado Avalanche, as well as an assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Breuk Iversen, American designer and journalist
Breuk Iversen is an American designer and writer. He is known for launching 11211 Magazine and creating 2003 site-specific exhibit "Offal: Salon des Refuses", with Jan McLaughlin, at the Dam, Stuhltrager Gallery, that explored issues of economy, aesthetics, politics and popular culture through society's byproducts.
25/07/1963
Denis Coderre, Canadian politician, 44th Mayor of Montreal
Denis Coderre is a Canadian politician who served as the 44th mayor of Montreal from 2013 to 2017.
Julian Hodgson, Welsh chess player
Julian Michael "Jules" Hodgson is a British chess player, grandmaster, and former British chess champion.
25/07/1962
Carin Bakkum, Dutch tennis player
Carin Bakkum is a Dutch former tennis player. During her career, Bakkum won two ITF singles titles as well as one WTA and 11 ITF doubles titles. She reached a singles ranking high of world number 141 on 27 March 1989, and on 22 June 1987, she reached a doubles ranking high of world number 69.
Doug Drabek, American baseball player and coach
Douglas Dean Drabek is an American former professional baseball pitcher, and a current minor league baseball coach. He is the pitching coach for the Reno Aces, the Triple-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles between 1986 and 1998. Drabek batted and threw right-handed. Known for his fluid pitching motion and sound mechanics, he won the National League Cy Young Award in 1990. Drabek was an MLB All-Star in 1994.
25/07/1960
Alain Robidoux, Canadian snooker player
Alain Robidoux is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Robidoux played on the sport's main tour from 1987 to 2004 and reached the final of the 1996 German Open, which he lost 7–9 to Ronnie O'Sullivan.
Justice Howard, American photographer
Justice Howard is an American photographer whose work includes shooting erotica, pin-up and celebrities. Her work has appeared in over 50 hardcover books and in thousands of magazines including Vogue Paris, Esquire, Easyriders, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, People, In Touch Weekly, Skin Two, and a 25-page spread in Bound by Ink, as well as being displayed in over 60 art gallery exhibits and numerous museum shows. She has also been featured in DankLook's "On Women in Black and White Fine Art Photography." Her photography features themes of female empowerment, freedom, and inner strength. She was previously a model before "graduating to photography" and training under a German master photographer. Her work has been compared to that of Annie Leibovitz and Herb Ritts.
Māris Martinsons, Latvian film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor
Māris Martinsons is a Latvian film director, producer, screenwriter and film editor. From 1991 he has lived and worked in Lithuania, but moved back to his homeland Latvia in 2010.
25/07/1959
Fyodor Cherenkov, Russian footballer and manager (died 2014)
Fyodor Fyodorovich Cherenkov was a Soviet and Russian football midfielder who played for Spartak Moscow and Red Star Football Club (1990–91).
Geoffrey Zakarian, American chef and author
Geoffrey Zakarian is an American chef, restaurateur, television personality, and author. He is the executive chef of several restaurants in New York City, Atlantic City, and Miami. He is featured on several television shows on the Food Network, including Chopped and The Next Iron Chef. In 2011, on The Next Iron Chef he won an opportunity to join Iron Chef America.
25/07/1958
Alexei Filippenko, American astrophysicist and academic
Alexei Vladimir "Alex" Filippenko is an American astrophysicist and professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. Filippenko graduated from Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, California. He received a Bachelor of Arts in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1979 and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology in 1984, where he was a Hertz Foundation Fellow. He was a postdoctoral Miller Fellow at Berkeley from 1984 to 1986 and was appointed to Berkeley's faculty in 1986. In 1996 and 2005, he was a Miller Research Professor, and he is currently a Senior Miller Fellow. His research focuses on supernovae and active galaxies at optical, ultraviolet, and near-infrared wavelengths, as well as on black holes, gamma-ray bursts, and the expansion of the Universe.
Thurston Moore, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known as guitarist and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. He has participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moore was ranked 34th in Rolling Stone's 2004 edition of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
25/07/1957
Mark Hunter, English politician
Mark James Hunter is a British Liberal Democrat politician and former leader of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council who became Member of Parliament (MP) for Cheadle at a 2005 by-election. At the 2015 general election, Hunter lost his seat to Mary Robinson of the Conservative Party. Hunter then returned to Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, and served as the leader of from 19 May 2022 to 21 May 2025. As leader he was also a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and was the combined authority's portfolio holder for Children and Young People. He has continued to serve as Councillor for Cheadle Hulme South.
Steve Podborski, Canadian skier
Stephen Gregory Podborski is a Canadian former World Cup and Olympic downhill ski racer.
25/07/1956
Frances Arnold, American scientist and engineer
Frances Hamilton Arnold is an American chemical engineer and Nobel Laureate. She is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In 2018, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering the use of directed evolution to engineer enzymes.
25/07/1955
Iman, Somalian-English model and actress
Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid, known mononymously as Iman, is a Somali-American model and actress. A muse of the designers Gianni Versace, Thierry Mugler, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, and Yves Saint Laurent, she is also noted for her philanthropic work. Since her debut in 1975, she rose to the pinnacle of global fashion, establishing herself as one of the world’s most iconic models. She was married to athlete Spencer Haywood from 1977 to 1987 and musician David Bowie from 1992 until his death in 2016.
Randall Bewley, American guitarist and songwriter (died 2009)
Randall Eugene Bewley was the guitarist for the Athens, Georgia-based band Pylon.
25/07/1954
Ken Greer, Canadian guitarist, keyboard player, and producer
Kenneth William Greer is a Canadian guitarist and keyboardist. He is one of the founding members of the Canadian rock band Red Rider.
Sheena McDonald, Scottish journalist
Sheena Elizabeth McDonald is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster.
Jochem Ziegert, German footballer and manager
Jochem Ziegert is a former German footballer.
25/07/1953
Walter Payton, American football player and race car driver (died 1999)
Walter Jerry Payton was an American professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears. Nicknamed "Sweetness", he is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time.
Joseph A. Tunzi, Chicago based author, foremost expert on Elvis Presley
Joseph Anthony Tunzi is an American author, publisher, and producer, based in Chicago, Illinois.
Robert Zoellick, American banker and politician, 14th United States Deputy Secretary of State
Robert Bruce Zoellick is an American lawyer and government official who was the 11th president of the World Bank Group from 2007 to 2012. He was previously chairman of international advisors at Goldman Sachs from 2006 to 2007, United States Deputy Secretary of State from 2005 to 2006, and U.S. Trade Representative from 2001 to 2005. Prior to those posts, from 1985 to 2001, he served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, in addition to positions in various think tanks and academia.
25/07/1952
Eduardo Souto de Moura, Portuguese architect, designed the Estádio Municipal de Braga
Eduardo Elísio Machado Souto de Moura, better known as Eduardo Souto de Moura, is a Portuguese architect who was the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2011 and the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2013. Along with Fernando Távora and Álvaro Siza, he is one of the alumni of the Porto School of Architecture, where he was appointed a Professor.
25/07/1951
Jack Thompson, American lawyer and activist
John Bruce Thompson is an American activist and disbarred attorney. As an attorney, Thompson focused his legal efforts against what he perceives as obscenity in modern culture. Thompson gained recognition as an anti–video game activist, criticizing the content of video games and their alleged effects on children. He also targeted rap music and radio personality Howard Stern.
Verdine White, American bass player and producer
Verdine Adams White is an American musician, best known as a founding member and bassist for the band Earth, Wind & Fire. White was placed at No. 19 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 50 Greatest Bassists of All Time".
25/07/1950
Mark Clarke, English singer-songwriter and bass player
Mark Clarke is an English musician and singer, best known for his work with Colosseum and Mountain, as well as brief stints with Uriah Heep and Rainbow.
25/07/1948
Steve Goodman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1984)
Steven Benjamin Goodman was an American folk and country singer-songwriter from Chicago. He wrote the song "City of New Orleans", which was recorded by artists including Arlo Guthrie, John Denver, Willie Nelson, and Judy Collins. In 1985, Goodman received the Grammy songwriter award for best country song. Goodman co-wrote "You Never Even Call Me by My Name", which became the best-selling song of country musician David Allan Coe. A lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, Goodman wrote "Go Cubs Go". Goodman died of leukemia in September 1984.
25/07/1946
José Areas, Nicaraguan drummer
José Octavio "Chepito" Areas Dávila is a Nicaraguan percussionist best known for having played timbales and Conga drums in the Latin rock group Santana in 1969–1977 and 1987–1989.
Nicole Farhi, French fashion designer and sculptor
Nicole Farhi, Lady Hare, CBE is a French former fashion designer. In mid-career in London, she took up sculpture and, on retirement from the fashion industry, became a sculptor.
John Gibson, American radio host
John David Gibson is an American radio talk show host. As of September 2008, he hosts the syndicated radio program The John Gibson Show. He formerly co-hosted the weekday edition of The Big Story on Fox News.
Rita Marley, Cuban-Jamaican singer
Alfarita Constantia "Rita" Marley is a Jamaican reggae singer. She is the widow of reggae musician Bob Marley. Along with Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt, Rita was a member of the reggae vocal group the I Threes, and the backing vocalists for Bob Marley and the Wailers.
P. Selvarasa, Sri Lankan politician
Ponnambalam Selvarasa is a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former Member of Parliament.
Ljupka Dimitrovska, Macedonian-Croatian pop singer (died 2016)
Ljupka Dimitrovska was a Macedonian-born Croatian singer. Internationally, she was best known for "Adio," written by Nikica Kalogjera and Ivica Krajač, which won the first prize at the 1970 Athens pop song festival. She died in Zagreb, aged 70.
25/07/1944
Sally Beauman, English journalist and author (died 2016)
Sally Vanessa Beauman was an English journalist and writer. She was the author of eight widely translated and best-selling novels.
25/07/1943
Jim McCarty, English singer and drummer
James Stanley McCarty is an English musician, best known as the drummer for the Yardbirds and Renaissance. McCarty has performed and recorded as a drummer and occasional singer with the Yardbirds, Together, Renaissance, Shoot, Illusion, Box of Frogs, the British Invasion All-Stars, and Pilgrim. He was also a keyboardist for Stairway and, under his own name, a guitarist in the Jim McCarty Band.
Erika Steinbach, Polish-German politician
Erika Steinbach is a German right-wing politician. She previously served as a member of the Bundestag from 1990 until 2017.
25/07/1942
Bruce Woodley, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
Bruce William Woodley is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. He was a founding member of the successful folk-pop group the Seekers, and co-composer of the songs "I Am Australian," "Red Rubber Ball," and Simon & Garfunkel's "Cloudy."
25/07/1941
Manny Charlton, Spanish-born Scottish rock musician and songwriter (died 2022)
Manuel Charlton was a Scottish musician, record producer and founding member of the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth. He was the band's lead guitarist from 1968 to 1990. He also produced Nazareth albums in the 1970s, including Hair of the Dog.
Nate Thurmond, American basketball player (died 2016)
Nathaniel Thurmond was an American professional basketball player who spent the majority of his 14-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Golden State Warriors franchise. He played the center and power forward positions. Thurmond was a seven-time All-Star and the first player in NBA history to record an official quadruple-double. In 1965, he grabbed 42 rebounds in a game; only Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell recorded more rebounds in an NBA game. Thurmond was named a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985, one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, and part of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.
Emmett Till, African-American lynching and kidnapping victim (died 1955)
Emmett Louis Till was an African-American boy who, at 14 years old, was abducted and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery store. The brutality of his murder and the acquittal of his killers drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States. Till posthumously became an icon of the civil rights movement.
25/07/1940
Richard Ballantine, American-English journalist and author (died 2013)
Richard Ballantine was a cycling writer, journalist and cycling advocate. Born in America, the son of Ian and Betty Ballantine of Ballantine Books, and educated at the Browning School in New York and Columbia University, he principally resided in London, England. He wrote the popular Richard's Bicycle Book (1972) and its subsequent editions. He was an editor at Rufus Publications and founded several magazines including Bicycle magazine.
25/07/1939
S. Ramadoss, Indian politician
S. Ramadoss is an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu. He is the founder and president of the Pattali Makkal Katchi. In 2025, following a months long dispute with his son, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, he formed Anaithindhiya Jananayaka Padhugappu Kazhagam, a splinter faction of the original PMK party.
25/07/1937
Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, English archaeologist and academic
Andrew Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn was a British archaeologist, paleolinguist and Conservative peer noted for his work on radiocarbon dating, the prehistory of languages, archaeogenetics, neuroarchaeology, and the prevention of looting at archaeological sites.
25/07/1936
Gerry Ashmore, English race car driver (died 2021)
Joseph Frederick Harold Gerald "Gerry" Ashmore was a British motor racing driver from England. He participated in four Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, scoring no championship points.
Glenn Murcutt, English-Australian architect and academic
Glenn Marcus Murcutt is an Australian architect. He has been the recipient of the 1992 Alvar Aalto Medal, the 2002 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the 2009 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the 2021 Praemium Imperiale. Glenn Murcutt works as a sole practitioner without staff, builds only within Australia and is known to be very selective with his projects. Being the only Australian winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize, he is often referred to as Australia's most famous architect.
25/07/1935
Barbara Harris, American actress and singer (died 2018)
Barbara Densmoor Harris was an American Tony Award-winning Broadway stage star and Academy Award-nominated motion picture actress.
Adnan Khashoggi, Saudi Arabian businessman (died 2017)
Adnan Khashoggi was a Saudi businessman and arms dealer known for his business dealings, extensive geopolitical influence, and opulent lifestyle, which earned him the moniker "The Great Gatsby of the Middle East." During his peak in the early 1980s, Khashoggi's net worth was estimated at around $4 billion, amassed through his pivotal role as an intermediary between Western defense companies and the Saudi government.
Gilbert Parent, Canadian educator and politician, 33rd Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (died 2009)
Gilbert "Gib" Parent was a Canadian member of Parliament. He is best known in his role as speaker of the House of Commons between 1994 and 2001.
John Robinson, American football player and coach (died 2024)
John Alexander Robinson was an American football coach best known for his two stints as head coach of the USC Trojans and for his tenure as the head coach for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL) from 1983 to 1991. Robinson's USC teams won four Rose Bowls and captured a share of the national championship in the 1978 season. Robinson is one of the few college football head coaches to have non-consecutive tenure at the same school. In 2009, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Larry Sherry, American baseball player and coach (died 2006)
Lawrence Sherry was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed relief pitcher from 1958 to 1968, most prominently as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1959 World Series as the Dodgers won their first championship since relocating from Brooklyn just two years earlier. After his playing career, Sherry managed in the minor leagues before serving as a major league coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the California Angels.
Lars Werner, Swedish lawyer and politician (died 2013)
Lars Helge Werner was a Swedish socialist politician.
25/07/1934
Don Ellis, American trumpet player and composer (died 1978)
Donald Johnson Ellis was an American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer, and bandleader. He is best known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly in the area of time signatures. Later in his life he worked as a film composer, contributing a score to 1971's The French Connection and 1973's The Seven-Ups.
Claude Zidi, French director and screenwriter
Claude Zidi is a French film director and screenwriter. From 1971, he became known as a director of comedies, the majority of which were box-office hits in France. He was one of France's most commercially successful directors between the 1970s and the 1990s. In 1985, he won the César Award for Best Director for his film My New Partner.
25/07/1932
Paul J. Weitz, American astronaut (died 2017)
Paul Joseph Weitz was an American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, who flew into space twice. He was a member of the three-man crew who flew on Skylab 2, the first crewed Skylab mission. He was also commander of the STS-6 mission, the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
25/07/1931
James Butler, English sculptor and educator (died 2022)
James Walter Butler MBE RA was a British sculptor most famous for his 1980 statue of Richard III in Leicester.
25/07/1930
Murray Chapple, New Zealand cricketer and manager (died 1985)
Murray Ernest Chapple was a New Zealand cricketer. He played 14 Test matches over 13 years, scoring three fifties with a highest score of 76. He captained New Zealand in one Test in 1966.
Maureen Forrester, Canadian actress and singer (died 2010)
Maureen Kathleen Stewart Forrester, was a Canadian operatic contralto.
Alice Parizeau, Polish-Canadian journalist and criminologist (died 1990)
Alice Parizeau was a Polish-Canadian writer, essayist, journalist and criminologist.
Herbert Scarf, American economist and academic (died 2015)
Herbert Eli "Herb" Scarf was an American mathematical economist and Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University.
Annie Ross, Scottish-American singer and actress (died 2020)
Annie Ross was a British-born American singer and actress, best known as a member of the influential jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. She helped pioneer the vocalese style of jazz singing, with a style described by critic Dave Gelly as "a kind of dreamy watchfulness that is a definition of 1950s hip." In 2010, she was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.
25/07/1929
Judd Buchanan, Canadian businessman and politician, 36th Canadian Minister of Public Works
Julian Judd Buchanan is a Canadian former politician and businessman.
Somnath Chatterjee, Indian lawyer and politician, 14th Speaker of the Lok Sabha (died 2018)
Somnath Chatterjee was an Indian politician who was associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for most of his life, though he had been a non affiliated independent during his last decade. He was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009.
Eddie Mazur, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1995)
Edward Joseph "Spider" Mazur was a Canadian ice hockey forward. He played in the National Hockey League with the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Black Hawks between 1951 and 1956. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1948 to 1966, was spent in the minor leagues.
25/07/1928
Dolphy, Filipino actor, singer, and producer (died 2012)
Rodolfo Vera Quizon Sr., known professionally as Dolphy, was a Filipino comedian and actor. Widely regarded by Philippine media as the country's "King of Comedy", he starred in a long list of comedy films and television series over a career spanning more than six decades.
Mario Montenegro, Filipino actor (died 1988)
Mario Montenegro was a Filipino actor and painter. He rose to stardom during the Golden Age of Philippine cinema as a heroic lead in historical and adventure films. He was dubbed "Brown Adonis" for his physique and portraying a number of culturally important Philippine figures, including Diego Silang, Andres Bonifacio, Macario Sakay, Ramon Magsaysay, Francisco Dagohoy, and Lapulapu.
Nils Taube, Estonian-English businessman (died 2008)
Baron Nils Taube was Britain's longest serving fund manager. A colleague of George Soros and advisor to Lord Rothschild, he also anticipated the 1987 stockmarket crash, while delivering an annual return of 15 percent for over 35 years while he ran his own fund.
25/07/1927
Daniel Ceccaldi, French actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2003)
Daniel Ceccaldi was a French actor.
Midge Decter, American journalist and author (died 2022)
Midge Decter was an American journalist and author. Originally a liberal, she was one of the pioneers of the neoconservative movement in the 1970s and 1980s. She was a critic of feminism and the women's liberation movement.
Sadiq Hussain Qureshi, Pakistani politician, 10th Governor of Punjab (died 2000)
Nawab Sadiq Hussain Qureshi was a Pakistani politician who served as the eighth chief minister of Punjab from 1975 till Zia-ul-Haq's military coup in 1977. He also served as the governor of Punjab from 1974 to 1975. He was a close aide of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and retired from all active politics after Bhutto's overthrow in the 1977 coup.
Jean-Marie Seroney, Kenyan activist and politician (died 1982)
Jean-Marie Seroney was a Kenyan human rights advocate, legislator, and an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. He was detained as a prisoner of conscience for 1,155 days.
25/07/1926
Whitey Lockman, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 2009)
Carroll Walter "Whitey" Lockman was an American left-handed hitting first baseman and outfielder, coach, manager and front office executive in Major League Baseball.
Bernard Thompson, British television producer and director (died 1998)
Bernard Thompson was a British television producer and director most famous for his work on Last of the Summer Wine and Are You Being Served?. Thompson served as producer and director during Last of the Summer Wine's second series. Thompson also served as a director on Are You Being Served?.
Beatriz Segall, Brazilian actress (died 2018)
Beatriz Segall was a Brazilian actress. One of her most notable works is the role of Odete Roitman on the telenovela Vale Tudo (1988), considered the greatest villain in the history of Brazilian television.
25/07/1925
Benny Benjamin, American R&B drummer (died 1969)
William "Benny" Benjamin, nicknamed Papa Zita, was an American musician, most notable as the primary drummer for the Motown Records studio band The Funk Brothers. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 and was named the eleventh best drummer of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2016.
Jerry Paris, American actor and director (died 1986)
William Gerald Paris was an American actor and director best known for playing Jerry Helper, the dentist and next-door neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and for directing the majority of the episodes of the sitcom Happy Days.
Dick Passwater, American race car driver (died 2020)
Richard Passwater was an American racecar driver who raced in NASCAR and USAC Stock Cars. He won the fifth race of the 1953 NASCAR Grand National Series at Charlotte Speedway.
Jutta Zilliacus, Finnish journalist and politician (died 2026)
Jutta Armelle Zilliacus was a Finnish-Estonian journalist and author in the Swedish language. She was also a politician, and served as a Member of Parliament for the Swedish People's Party for Helsinki from 1975 to 1987 and a member of the Helsinki City Council from 1968 to 1984.
25/07/1924
Frank Church, American lawyer and politician (died 1984)
Frank Forrester Church III was an American politician and lawyer. From 1957 to 1981, he served as a U.S. senator from Idaho, and is currently the last Democrat to do so. He was the longest serving Democratic senator from the state and the only Democrat from the state who served more than two terms in the Senate. Church was a prominent figure in American foreign policy and established a reputation as a member of the party's liberal wing.
Scotch Taylor, South African cricketer and hockey player (died 2004)
Alistair Innes "Scotch" Taylor was a South African sportsman who played first-class cricket and hockey for Transvaal, and captained the Transvaal cricket team for four seasons. Taylor represented South Africa in one cricket Test in 1956. He was an alumnus of the King Edward VII School, set up a squash section in the Old Edwardians club, and was elected president of the South African Hockey Union.
25/07/1923
Estelle Getty, American actress (died 2008)
Estelle Gettleman, known professionally as Estelle Getty, was an American actress and comedian. She was best known for her portrayal of Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls (1985–1992), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She reprised the role in Empty Nest (1993–1995), The Golden Palace (1992–1993), Blossom (1990–1995), and Nurses (1991–1994).
Edgar Gilbert, American mathematician and theorist (died 2013)
Edgar Nelson Gilbert was an American mathematician and coding theorist, a longtime researcher at Bell Laboratories. His accomplishments include the Gilbert–Varshamov bound in coding theory, the Gilbert–Elliott model of bursty errors in signal transmission, the Erdős–Rényi–Gilbert model for random graphs, the Gilbert disk model of random geometric graphs, the Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds model of card shuffling, Gilbert tessellations, and the formulation of the Gilbert–Pollak conjecture on the Steiner ratio.
Maria Gripe, Swedish journalist and author (died 2007)
Maria Gripe, born Maja Stina Walter, was a Swedish author of books for children and young adults, which were often written in magical and mystical tone. She has written almost forty books, with many of her characters presented in short series of three or four books. For her lasting contribution to children's literature, she received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Writing in 1974.
25/07/1922
John B. Goodenough, American materials scientist, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2023)
John Bannister Goodenough was an American materials scientist, a solid-state physicist, and a Nobel laureate in chemistry. From 1986 he was a professor of Materials Science, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is credited with identifying the Goodenough–Kanamori rules of the sign of the magnetic superexchange in materials, with developing materials for computer random-access magnetic memory and with inventing cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries.
25/07/1921
Adolph Herseth, American soldier and trumpet player (died 2013)
Adolph Sylvester "Bud" Herseth was principal trumpet in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1948 until 2001, and served as principal trumpet emeritus from 2001 until his retirement in 2004.
Lionel Terray, French mountaineer (died 1965)
Lionel Terray was a French climber who made many first ascents, including on the 1955 French Makalu expedition in the Himalaya and Cerro Fitz Roy in the Patagonian Andes.
25/07/1920
Rosalind Franklin, English biophysicist, chemist, and academic. Contributor to basic research of DNA. (died 1958)
Rosalind Elsie Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Her work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, Franklin's contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognised during her life, for which Franklin has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology". James Watson believed that, had she not died, ideally, Franklin would have been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
25/07/1918
Jane Frank, American painter and sculptor (died 1986)
Jane Schenthal Frank was an American multidisciplinary artist, known as a painter, sculptor, mixed media artist, illustrator, and textile artist. Her landscape-like, mixed-media abstract paintings are included in public collections, including those of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She studied with artists, Hans Hofmann and Norman Carlberg.
25/07/1917
Fritz Honegger, Swiss lawyer and politician (died 1999)
Fritz Honegger was a Swiss politician.
25/07/1916
Lucien Saulnier, Canadian lawyer and politician (died 1989)
Lucien Saulnier, was a Canadian politician. He was chair of the Montreal Urban Community during the October Crisis. He was also chairman and chief executive officer of the Société de développement industriel du Québec.
25/07/1915
S. U. Ethirmanasingham, Sri Lankan businessman and politician (date of death unknown)
Somasunderam Udayar Ethirmanasingham MBE was a Ceylon Tamil businessman and politician who served as a Member of Parliament.
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., American lieutenant and pilot (died 1944)
Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. was an American naval aviator who was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He was a member of the Kennedy family and the oldest of the nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. During World War II, Kennedy was killed in action while serving as a land-based patrol bomber pilot, and posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
25/07/1914
Woody Strode, American football player and actor (died 1994)
Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode was an American athlete, actor, and author. He was a decathlete and football star who was one of the first Black American players in the National Football League (NFL) in the postwar era. After football, he went on to become a film actor, where he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960.
25/07/1909
Elizabeth Francis, American centenarian (died 2024)
Elizabeth Francis was an American supercentenarian who was the oldest-living person in the United States from the death of Edith Ceccarelli on February 22, 2024, until her own death on October 22, 2024.
25/07/1908
Bill Bowes, English cricketer (died 1987)
William Eric Bowes was an English professional cricketer active from 1929 to 1947 who played in 372 first-class matches as a right arm fast bowler and a right-handed tail end batsman. He took 1,639 wickets with a best performance of nine for 121 and completed ten wickets in a match 27 times. He scored 1,531 runs with a highest score of 43* and is one of very few major players whose career total of wickets taken exceeded his career total of runs scored. He did not rate himself as a fielder but he nevertheless held 138 catches.
Ambroise-Marie Carré, French priest and author (died 2004)
Ambroise-Marie Carré OP was a Catholic priest, author and member of the Académie française. Born in Fleury-les-Aubrais in Loiret, France, Carré studied at l'école Saint-Joseph and the collège Sainte-Croix de Neuilly before entering the Dominican order in 1926 and being ordained a priest in 1933. Not long thereafter, he was to edit, from 1936 until 1939, the Revue des Jeunes. Under the German Occupation, following the capitulation of the French government to the Nazis during the Second World War, Carré aided those persecuted by the Vichy government, regardless of their religion or ethnicity; for this, he was awarded the Légion d'honneur and the Croix de Guerre.
Jack Gilford, American actor (died 1990)
Jack Gilford was an American Broadway, film, and television actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Save the Tiger (1973).
25/07/1906
Johnny Hodges, American saxophonist and clarinet player (died 1970)
John Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges was an American alto saxophonist, best known for solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years. Hodges was also featured on soprano saxophone, but refused to play soprano after 1940. Along with Benny Carter, Hodges is considered to be one of the definitive alto saxophone players of the big band era.
25/07/1905
Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-Swiss novelist, playwright, and memoirist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994)
Elias Canetti was a German-language writer, known as a modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and nonfiction writer.
Georges Grignard, French race car driver (died 1977)
Auguste Georges Paul Grignard was a racing driver from France. He raced in Formula One from 1947 to 1953, participating in one World Championship Grand Prix on 28 October 1951. He also participated in numerous non-Championship races, including winning the 1950 Paris Grand Prix.
Denys Watkins-Pitchford, English author and illustrator (died 1990)
Denys James Watkins-Pitchford MBE was an English naturalist, artist and author under the pen name 'BB'. He won the 1942 Carnegie Medal for The Little Grey Men.
25/07/1902
Eric Hoffer, American philosopher and author (died 1983)
Eric Hoffer was an American philosopher and social critic. A conservative moderate with an atypical working-class background, Hoffer wrote ten books over his career and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer (1951), was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, although Hoffer believed that The Ordeal of Change (1963) was his finest work. The Eric Hoffer Book Award is an international literary prize established in his honor. The University of California, Berkeley awards an annual literary prize named jointly for Hoffer.
25/07/1901
Ruth Krauss, American author and poet (died 1993)
Ruth Ida Krauss was an American writer of children's books, including The Carrot Seed, and of theatrical poems for adult readers. Many of her books are still in print.
Mohammed Helmy, Egyptian physician and Righteous Among the Nations (died 1982)
Mohammed ″Mod″ Helmy was an Egyptian-German physician who was recognized by Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 2013, with his name being listed at Yad Vashem in the city of Jerusalem. Born in Sudan, he moved to Berlin to study medicine and was later involved in saving many Jews from being exterminated by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. After World War II he was finally allowed to marry his love Emmi. In 2013 Helmy was the first Arab to be recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations; his nephews were summoned by Yad Vashem to receive the honour on his behalf, but were reluctant to do so because of the Arab–Israeli conflict, though they eventually attended the ceremony at the German foreign ministry.
Lila Lee, American actress and singer (died 1973)
Lila Lee was a prominent screen actress, primarily a leading lady, of the silent film and early sound film eras.
25/07/1896
Jack Perrin, American actor and stuntman (died 1967)
Jack Perrin was an American actor specializing in Westerns.
Josephine Tey, Scottish author and playwright (died 1952)
Elizabeth MacKintosh, known by the pen name Josephine Tey, was a Scottish author. She is known for her Inspector Alan Grant series, which started with The Man in the Queue (1929). Her 1951 novel The Daughter of Time, from the same series, a detective work investigating the death of the Princes in the Tower, was chosen by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990 as the greatest crime novel of all time. Her first play Richard of Bordeaux, written under another pseudonym, Gordon Daviot, starred John Gielgud in its successful West End run.
25/07/1895
Ingeborg Spangsfeldt, Danish actress (died 1968)
Ingeborg Spangsfeldt was a Danish film actress whose career began in the early 1910s until her retirement upon getting married in 1924.
25/07/1894
Walter Brennan, American actor (died 1974)
Walter Andrew Brennan was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940), making him the only person to win three awards in the supporting actor category. Brennan was also nominated for his performance in Sergeant York (1941). Other noteworthy performances were in To Have and Have Not (1944), My Darling Clementine (1946), Red River (1948) and Rio Bravo (1959). On television, he starred in the sitcom The Real McCoys (1957–1963).
Gavrilo Princip, Bosnian Serb revolutionary and assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife (died 1918)
Gavrilo Princip was a Bosnian Serb student who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. The assassination set off the July Crisis, a series of events that within one month led to the outbreak of World War I.
25/07/1886
Edward Cummins, American golfer (died 1926)
Edward McClellan Cummins was an American golfer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. In 1904 he was part of the American team which won the gold medal. He finished 25th in this competition. In the individual competition he finished 25th in the qualification and was eliminated in the first round of the match play. He died in a car accident in 1926.
25/07/1883
Alfredo Casella, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1947)
Alfredo Casella was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.
25/07/1882
George S. Rentz, American commander (died 1942)
George Snavely Rentz was a United States Navy chaplain who served during World War I and World War II. For selfless heroism following the loss of USS Houston (CA-30) in the Battle of Sunda Strait, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross— the only Navy Chaplain to be so honored during World War II.
25/07/1878
Masaharu Anesaki, Japanese philosopher and scholar (died 1949)
Masaharu Anesaki , also known under his pen name "Chōfū Anesaki" , was a leading Japanese intellectual and scholar of the Meiji period. Anesaki is credited as being the father of religious studies in Japan, but also wrote on a variety of subjects including culture, literature, and politics. He was also a member of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations.
25/07/1875
Jim Corbett, Indian hunter, environmentalist, and author (died 1955)
Edward James Corbett was an Anglo-Indian hunter and author. He gained fame through hunting and killing several man-eating tigers and leopards in Northern India, as detailed in his bestselling 1944 memoir Man-Eaters of Kumaon. In his later years, he became an outspoken advocate of the nascent conservation movement.
25/07/1870
Maxfield Parrish, American painter and illustrator (died 1966)
Maxfield Parrish was an American painter and illustrator active in the first half of the 20th century. His works featured distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery. The National Museum of American Illustration deemed his painting Daybreak (1922) to be the most successful art print of the 20th century.
25/07/1869
Platon, Estonian bishop and saint (died 1919)
Platon, born Paul Kulbusch, was an Estonian bishop and the first Orthodox saint of Estonian ethnicity.
25/07/1867
Max Dauthendey, German author and painter (died 1918)
Max Dauthendey was a German author and painter of the impressionist period. He was born in Würzburg and died in Malang. Together with Richard Dehmel and Eduard von Keyserling, he is regarded as one of the most influential authors of that period. Dauthendey was stranded in Java at the outbreak of World War One. Attempts to provide him with a safe passage back to Germany failed.
Alexander Rummler, American painter (died 1959)
Alexander Joseph Rummler was an American painter best known for his work on murals and billboards.
25/07/1866
Frederick Blackman, English physiologist and academic (died 1947)
Frederick Frost Blackman FRS was a British plant physiologist.
25/07/1865
Jac. P. Thijsse, Dutch botanist and conservationist (died 1945)
Jacobus Pieter Thijsse was a Dutch conservationist and botanist. He founded the Society for Preservation of Nature Monuments in the Netherlands. Along with Eli Heimans and Johannes Bernink, he was active in a period of revival of biological education known as biologisch reveil.
25/07/1857
Frank J. Sprague, American naval officer and inventor (died 1934)
Frank Julian Sprague was an American inventor who contributed to the development of the electric motor, electric railways, and electric elevators. His contributions were especially important in promoting urban development by increasing the size cities could reasonably attain and by allowing greater concentration of business in commercial sections. He became known as the "father of electric traction". Demonstrating an aptitude for science and mathematics, Sprague secured an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1874 and, after graduation in 1878 and 2 years at sea, resigned to pursue his career in electrical engineering.
25/07/1848
Arthur Balfour, Scottish-English lieutenant and politician, 33rd Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1930)
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. He also later served as foreign secretary in the Lloyd George ministry, from 1916 to 1919.
25/07/1847
Paul Langerhans, German pathologist, physiologist and biologist (died 1888)
Paul Langerhans was a German pathologist, physiologist and biologist, credited with the discovery of the cells that secrete insulin, named after him as the islets of Langerhans.
25/07/1844
Thomas Eakins, American painter, sculptor, and photographer (died 1916)
Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artists.
25/07/1839
Francis Garnier, French captain and explorer (died 1873)
Marie Joseph François Garnier was a French officer, inspector of Indigenous Affairs of Cochinchina and explorer. He eventually became mission leader of the Mekong Exploration Commission in 19th century Southeast Asia.
25/07/1806
Maria Weston Chapman, American abolitionist (died 1885)
Maria Weston Chapman was an American abolitionist. She was elected to the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839 and from 1839 until 1842, she served as editor of the anti-slavery journal The Non-Resistant.
25/07/1797
Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel (died 1889)
Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel was the wife of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, the tenth-born child, and seventh son, of George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The longest-lived daughter-in-law of George III, she was the maternal grandmother of Mary of Teck, wife of George V.
25/07/1753
Santiago de Liniers, 1st Count of Buenos Aires, French-Spanish captain and politician, 10th Viceroy of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (died 1810)
Santiago Antonio María de Liniers y Bremond, 1st Count of Buenos Aires, KOM, OM was a Spanish military officer and a viceroy of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. Although born Jacques de Liniers in France, he is more widely known by the Spanish form of his name.
25/07/1750
Henry Knox, American general and politician, 1st United States Secretary of War (died 1806)
Henry Knox was an American military officer, politician, bookseller, and a Founding Father of the United States. Knox, born in Boston, became a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in all of George Washington's campaigns. Following the war, he oversaw the War Department under the Articles of Confederation from 1785 to 1789. Washington appointed him the nation's first secretary of war, a position which he held from 1789 to 1794. He is well known today as the eponym of Fort Knox in Kentucky, which is often conflated with the adjacent United States Bullion Depository.
25/07/1683
Pieter Langendijk, Dutch playwright and poet (died 1756)
Pieter Langendijk was a damask weaver, city artist, dramatist, and poet.
25/07/1658
Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, Scottish general (died 1703)
Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, 10th Earl of Argyll was a Scottish peer.
25/07/1657
Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, German composer (died 1714)
Philipp Heinrich Erlebach was a German Baroque composer, a prolific writer of church music and secular music. Much of his work is lost due to a fire.
25/07/1654
Agostino Steffani, Italian composer and diplomat (died 1728)
Agostino Steffani was an Italian bishop, polymath, diplomat and composer.
25/07/1642
Louis I, Prince of Monaco (died 1701)
Louis I was Prince of Monaco from 1662 until 1701.
25/07/1633
Joseph Williamson, English politician (died 1701)
Sir Joseph Williamson, PRS was an English civil servant, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England variously between 1665 and 1701 and in the Irish House of Commons between 1692 and 1699. He was Secretary of State for the Northern Department from 1674 to 1679.
25/07/1605
Theodore Haak, German scholar (died 1690)
Theodore Haak was a German Calvinist scholar, resident in England in later life. Haak's communications abilities and interests in the new science provided the backdrop for convening the "1645 Group", a precursor of the Royal Society.
25/07/1581
Brian Twyne, English archivist (died 1644)
Brian Twyne was an English antiquary and an academic at the University of Oxford. After being educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and becoming a Fellow of the college in 1606, he published his one main work, a history of the university, in 1608. This was designed to prove that Oxford was older than Cambridge University, and has been described by a modern writer as a "remarkable achievement for a young scholar of twenty-eight."
25/07/1573
Christoph Scheiner, German astronomer and Jesuit (died 1650)
Christoph Scheiner was a Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer in Ingolstadt.
25/07/1562
Katō Kiyomasa, Japanese warlord (died 1611)
Katō Kiyomasa was a Japanese daimyō of the Azuchi–Momoyama and Edo periods. His court title was Higo no Kami . His name as a child was Yashamaru, and first name was Toranosuke. He was one of Hideyoshi's Seven Spears of Shizugatake.
25/07/1556
George Peele, English translator, poet, and dramatist (died 1596)
George Peele was an English translator, poet, and dramatist, who is most noted for his supposed, but not universally accepted, collaboration with William Shakespeare on the play Titus Andronicus. Many anonymous Elizabethan plays have been attributed to him, but his reputation rests mainly on Edward I, The Old Wives' Tale, The Battle of Alcazar, The Arraignment of Paris, and David and Bethsabe. The Troublesome Reign of John, King of England, the immediate source for Shakespeare's King John, has been published under his name.
25/07/1532
Alphonsus Rodriguez, Jesuit lay brother and saint (died 1617)
Alphonsus Rodríguez was a Spanish Jesuit religious brother who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
25/07/1498
Hernando de Aragón, Archbishop of Zaragoza (died 1575)
Hernando de Aragón y de Gurrea, OCist, Archbishop of Zaragoza and Lieutenant General of Aragon, was an Aragonese humanist and historian.
25/07/1486
Albrecht VII, Duke of Mecklenburg (died 1547)
Albrecht VII, the Handsome, Duke of Mecklenburg in Güstrow, was a minor ruler in North Germany of the 16th century. He also asserted claims to Scandinavian thrones based on the royal lineage of the House of Mecklenburg.
25/07/1450
Jakob Wimpfeling, Renaissance humanist (died 1528)
Jakob Wimpfeling was a Renaissance humanist and theologian.
25/07/1421
Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, English politician (died 1461)
Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, was an English magnate.
25/07/1404
Philip I, Duke of Brabant (died 1430)
Philip I, also known as Philip of Saint Pol, was the younger son of Anthony, Duke of Brabant and Jeanne of Saint-Pol. He succeeded his brother John IV as Duke of Brabant in 1427, while he had inherited Saint-Pol and Ligny as an appanage on the death of his maternal grandfather, Waleran III of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny, in 1415.
25/07/1394
James I, king of Scotland (died 1437)
James I was King of Scots from 1406 to 1437. The youngest of three sons, he was born in Dunfermline Abbey to King Robert III and his wife Annabella Drummond. His older brother David, Duke of Rothesay died under suspicious circumstances while being detained by their uncle, Robert, Duke of Albany. His other brother, Robert, died young. Fears for James's safety grew through the winter of 1405/6 and plans were made to send him to France. In February 1406, James was forced to take refuge in the castle of the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth after his escort was attacked by supporters of Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas. He remained there until mid-March, when he boarded a vessel bound for France. On 22 March, English pirates captured the ship and delivered the prince to Henry IV of England. The ailing Robert III died on 4 April, and the 11-year-old James, now the uncrowned King of Scotland, would not regain his freedom for another eighteen years.
25/07/1336
Albert I, Duke of Bavaria (died 1404)
Albert I, Duke of Lower Bavaria was a feudal ruler of the counties of Holland, Hainaut, and Zeeland in the Low Countries. Additionally, he held a portion of the Bavarian province of Straubing, his Bavarian ducal line's appanage and seat, Lower Bavaria.
25/07/1291
Hawys Gadarn, Welsh noblewoman (died 1353)
Hawys Gadarn (Hawys ferch Owain ap Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn), also known as the Hardy, the Powerful, the Intrepid, and Hawise de la Pole, (1291 – c. 1353) was the daughter of Owen de la Pole and the heir to Powys Wenwynwyn in Wales. She was married to John Charleton after seeking the intervention of Edward II of England to support her inheritance against the schemes of four of her uncles to take her lands.
25/07/1261
Arthur II, Duke of Brittany (died 1312)
Arthur II, of the House of Dreux, was Duke of Brittany from 1305 to his death. He was the first son of John II and Beatrice, daughter of Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence.
25/07/1165
Ibn Arabi, Andalusian Sufi mystic, poet, and philosopher (died 1240)
Ibn 'Arabī was a Sunni Muslim Arab scholar, Sufi mystic, poet, and Muslim philosopher from al-Andalus, who exercised notable influence within Sufi metaphysics and Islamic thought in general. There are 850 works attributed to Ibn 'Arabi, though only 700 of these are considered authentic, and only 400 are extant. His cosmological teachings became a dominant intellectual framework in many regions of the Muslim world.
25/07/1109
Afonso I, king of Portugal (died 1185)
Dom Afonso I nicknamed "the Conqueror", "the Founder" and "the Great" by the Portuguese, was the first king of Portugal, from 26 July 1139 until his death on 6 December 1185. He achieved the independence of the County of Portugal, establishing a new kingdom and doubling its area with the Reconquista, an objective that he pursued until his death.
25/07/1016
Casimir I the Restorer, duke of Poland (died 1058)
Casimir I the Restorer, a member of the Piast dynasty, was the duke of Poland from 1040 until his death. Casimir was the son of Mieszko II Lambert and Richeza of Lotharingia. He is known as the Restorer because he managed to reunite parts of the Kingdom of Poland after a period of turmoil. He reincorporated Masovia and conquered Silesia and Pomerania. However, he failed to crown himself King of Poland, mainly because of internal and external threats to his rule.
25/07/0975
Thietmar, bishop of Merseburg (died 1018)
Thietmar, Prince-Bishop of Merseburg from 1009 until his death in 1018, was an important chronicler recording the reigns of German kings and Holy Roman Emperors of the Ottonian (Saxon) dynasty. Two of Thietmar's great-grandfathers, both referred to as Liuthar, were the Saxon nobles Lothar II, Count of Stade, and Lothar I, Count of Walbeck. They were both killed fighting the Slavs at the Battle of Lenzen.
Lives Remembered on 25th July
On 25th July, 97 remarkable people passed away — from 306 to 2024. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.
25/07/2024
Shafin Ahmed, Bangladeshi bassist and singer-songwriter (born 1961)
Shafin Ahmed was a Bangladeshi rock bassist, singer-songwriter, record producer and politician. He was the lead singer, songwriter and bassist for the Bangladeshi rock band Miles, where he and his elder brother Hamin Ahmed joined in 1979 and have led the band.
Martin Indyk, American diplomat (born 1951)
Martin Sean Indyk was an Australian-American diplomat and foreign relations analyst with expertise in the Middle East.
25/07/2022
Paul Sorvino, American actor (born 1939)
Paul Anthony Sorvino was an American actor. He often portrayed authority figures on both the criminal and the law enforcement sides of the law.
25/07/2020
Peter Green, English blues rock guitarist, singer-songwriter and founder of Fleetwood Mac (born 1946)
Peter Allen Greenbaum, known professionally as Peter Green, was an English blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist who was the founder and original leader of the band Fleetwood Mac. Green formed the group in 1967 after a stint in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and quickly established the new band as a popular live act in addition to a successful recording act, before departing in 1970. Green's songs, such as "Albatross", "Black Magic Woman", "Oh Well", "The Green Manalishi " and "Man of the World", appeared on singles charts and several have been adapted by a variety of musicians.
Lou Henson, American college basketball coach (born 1932)
Louis Ray Henson was an American college basketball coach. He retired as the all-time leader in victories at the University of Illinois with 423 victories and New Mexico State with 289 victories. Overall, Henson won 779 games putting him in sixteenth place on the all-time list. Henson was also one of only four NCAA coaches to have amassed at least 200 total wins at two institutions. On February 17, 2015, Henson was selected as a member of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. In August 2015, prior to the reopening of the newly renovated State Farm Center at the University of Illinois, the hardwood floor was dedicated and renamed Lou Henson Court in his honor. The court at the Pan American Center at New Mexico State University is also named in his honor.
25/07/2019
Beji Caid Essebsi, 4th President and 9th Prime Minister of Tunisia (born 1926)
Beji Caid Essebsi was a Tunisian politician who served as the fourth president of Tunisia from 31 December 2014 until his death on 25 July 2019. Previously, he served as minister of foreign affairs from 1981 to 1986 and prime minister from February to December 2011.
25/07/2018
Sergio Marchionne, Italian-Canadian businessman (born 1952)
Sergio Marchionne was an Italian-Canadian businessman, widely known for his turnarounds of the automakers Fiat and Chrysler, his business acumen and his outspoken and often frank approach, especially when dealing with unpalatable issues related to his companies and the automotive industry.
25/07/2017
Michael Johnson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1944)
Michael Jay Johnson was an American pop, country, and folk singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best remembered for his 1978 hit song "Bluer Than Blue". He charted four hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and nine more on Hot Country Songs, including two number one country hits in 1986's "Give Me Wings" and "The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulder". He also co-wrote "Cain's Blood", the debut single of 1990s country group 4 Runner.
25/07/2016
Tim LaHaye, American Christian minister and author (born 1926)
Timothy Francis LaHaye was an American Baptist evangelical Christian minister and political activist who wrote more than 85 books, both non-fiction and fiction, including the Left Behind series of novels depicting apocalypse events after a pre-tribulation rapture.
Tom Peterson, American television personality (born 1930)
Thomas Howard Peterson was an American retailer, pitchman, and television personality from Portland, Oregon. Peterson opened his first store in 1964, which grew to a regional consumer electronics, home appliance, and furniture chain in the 1970s. His memorable television commercials and unusual promotions made him a widely recognized personality in the Portland area by the 1980s, leading to several cameo appearances in the films of Gus Van Sant.
25/07/2015
Jacques Andreani, French diplomat, French ambassador to the United States (born 1929)
Jacques Andreani was French ambassador to Egypt, Italy and the United States.
R. S. Gavai, Indian lawyer and politician, 18th Governor of Kerala (born 1929)
Ramkrishna Suryabhan Gavai, popularly known as Dadasaheb Gavai, was an Indian politician, social activist, senior leader of the Ambedkarite movement, and founder of the Republican Party of India (Gavai). He was the President of Ambedkar's ideological party Republican Party of India, through this party, he did many works in political and social fields. Gavai also worked with Babasaheb Ambedkar, a polymath. He was the Governor of the three states of Bihar, Sikkim and Kerala, as well as he has served in both houses of the Indian Parliament, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Gavai was a 30-year member (MLC) of the Maharashtra Legislative Council during which he served on the posts of the chairman, the deputy chairman, and the Opposition leader of the council.
Bob Kauffman, American basketball player and coach (born 1946)
Robert Kauffman was an American professional basketball player and coach. Kauffman was a three-time NBA All-Star.
25/07/2014
Bel Kaufman, German-American author and academic (born 1911)
Bella Kaufman was an American teacher and author, well known for writing the bestselling 1964 novel Up the Down Staircase.
Richard Larter, Australian painter and illustrator (born 1929)
Richard Larter was an Australian painter, often identified as one of Australia's few highly recognisable pop artists. Larter also frequently painted in a Pointillist style. He took advantage of unusual techniques with painting: using a syringe filled with paint to create his early works, and juxtaposing multiple images on to a canvas. Many of his works are brightly coloured and draw on popular culture for source materials, reproducing news photographs, film stills, and images from pornography. He was married to Pat Larter, an artist who was involved in the Mail art movement, then performance art and finally painting in a brightly coloured style similar to Richard's. The Larters emigrated to Australia in 1962. Richard Larter's pop art was less ironic than his American and English counterparts. In this Larter is similar to other noted Australian pop artists, such as, Mike Brown and Martin Sharp.
25/07/2013
Walter De Maria, American sculptor, illustrator, and composer (born 1935)
Walter Joseph De Maria was an American artist, sculptor, illustrator and composer, who lived and worked in New York City. Walter de Maria's artistic practice is connected with minimal art, conceptual art, and land art of the 1960s.
William J. Guste, American lawyer and politician (born 1922)
William Joseph Guste Jr. was an American attorney and politician from the state of Louisiana. He was Attorney General of Louisiana from 1972 to 1992.
Hugh Huxley, English-American biologist and academic (born 1924)
Hugh Esmor Huxley was a British molecular biologist who made important discoveries in the physiology of muscle. He was a graduate in physics from Christ's College, Cambridge. However, his education was interrupted for five years by the Second World War, during which he served in the Royal Air Force. His contribution to development of radar earned him an MBE.
25/07/2012
B. R. Ishara, Indian director and screenwriter (born 1934)
Babu Ram Ishara was an Indian film director and screenwriter best known for his films of the 1970s. He filmed 35 Bollywood films between 1964 and 1996. He was much popular for his film Chetana, Log Kya Kahenge, Milap, Man Jaiye, Ghar Ki Laaj, Woh Phir Aayegi and Sautela Bhai.
Barry Langford, English director and producer (born 1926)
Barry Langford was a British television and music director, producer, and businessman. He directed many television programmes for the BBC in the 1960s and 1970s, and also worked as manager for musical artists including David Bowie and Tom Jones. He helped improve BBC television programming and also helped the development of Israeli television in the 1970s.
Greg Mohns, American-Canadian football player and coach (born 1950)
Gregory R. Mohns was an American football coach and executive. He was the head coach of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1998 to 2000.
Franz West, Austrian painter and sculptor (born 1947)
Franz West was an Austrian artist.
25/07/2011
Michael Cacoyannis, Cypriot-Greek director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1922)
Michalis Kakogiannis, usually credited as Michael Cacoyannis or Michael Yannis, was a Greek Cypriot filmmaker, theatre director, and playwright. He is best known for writing, directing, producing, and editing Zorba the Greek (1964), an adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel of the same name. He also directed the 1983 Broadway revival of the musical based on the film in addition to writing, directing, designing, and translating dozens of stage play and opera productions.
25/07/2009
Vernon Forrest, American boxer (born 1971)
Vernon Forrest was an American professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2008. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBC, IBF, Ring magazine and lineal welterweight between 2002 and 2003, and the WBC super welterweight title twice between 2007 and 2009. In 2002, Forrest was named Fighter of the Year by The Ring and the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Stanley Middleton, English author (born 1919)
Stanley Middleton FRSL was a British novelist.
Harry Patch, English soldier (born 1898)
Henry John Patch, dubbed in his later years "the Last Fighting Tommy", was an English supercentenarian, briefly the oldest man in Europe, and the world's last surviving trench combat soldier of the First World War. Patch was not the longest-surviving soldier of the First World War, but he was the fifth-longest-surviving veteran of any sort from the First World War, behind British veterans Claude Choules and Florence Green, Frank Buckles of the United States and John Babcock of Canada. At the time of his death, aged 111 years and 38 days, Patch was the fourth-oldest man in the world, behind Walter Breuning, Horacio Celi Mendoza, and Jiroemon Kimura.
Yasmin Ahmad, Malaysian film director (born 1958)
Yasmin binti Ahmad was a Malaysian film director, writer and scriptwriter. She was the executive creative director at Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur. Her television commercials and films are well known in Malaysia for being humorous and touching. Her work crossed cross-cultural barriers, particularly her ads for Petronas, the national oil and gas company. Her works have won multiple awards both within Malaysia and internationally. In Malaysia, her films were highly controversial due to their depiction of events and relationships, which have been considered 'forbidden' by social conservatives, especially hard-line interpretations of Islam. She was a central figure of the "first" New Wave of Malaysian cinema.
25/07/2008
Jeff Fehring, Australian footballer (born 1955)
Jeff Fehring was an Australian rules footballer who played for Geelong and St Kilda in the Victorian Football League from 1977 to 1981.
Tracy Hall, American chemist and academic (born 1919)
Howard Tracy Hall was an American physical chemist and one of the early pioneers in the research of synthetic diamonds, using a press of his own design.
Randy Pausch, American computer scientist and educator (born 1960)
Randolph Frederick Pausch was an American educator, a professor of computer science, human–computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
25/07/2007
Bernd Jakubowski, German footballer and manager (born 1952)
Bernd Jakubowski was an East German footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
25/07/2006
Ezra Fleischer, Romanian-Israeli poet and philologist (born 1928)
Ezra Fleischer was a Romanian-Israeli Hebrew-language poet and philologist known for his pioneering research on early Hebrew piyyut and medieval Jewish liturgy. Fleischer received the Israel Prize for Literature Studies in 1959 for his contributions to Hebrew poetry and philology.
25/07/2005
Albert Mangelsdorff, German trombonist (born 1928)
Albert Mangelsdorff was a German jazz trombonist. Working mainly in free jazz, he was an innovator in multiphonics.
25/07/2004
John Passmore, Australian philosopher and academic (born 1914)
John Arthur Passmore was an Australian philosopher.
25/07/2003
Ludwig Bölkow, German engineer (born 1912)
Ludwig Bölkow was a German aeronautical engineer.
John Schlesinger, English actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1926)
John Richard Schlesinger was an English film, television and theatre director, and actor. He emerged in the early 1960s as a leading light of the British New Wave, before embarking on a successful career in Hollywood, often directing films dealing with provocative subject matter, combined with his status as one of the rare openly gay directors working in mainstream films.
25/07/2002
Abdel Rahman Badawi, Egyptian philosopher and poet (born 1917)
Abdel Rahman Badawi was an Egyptian existentialist philosopher, professor of philosophy and poet. He has been called the "foremost master of Arab existentialism." He published more than 150 works, mostly rendering of Arabic philosophical manuscripts.
25/07/2000
Rudi Faßnacht, German footballer, coach, and manager (born 1934)
Rudolf "Rudi" Faßnacht was a German football manager.
25/07/1998
Evangelos Papastratos, Greek businessman, co-founded Papastratos (born 1910)
Evangelos Papastratos was a Greek businessman born in the city of Agrinio in Aetolia-Acarnania, Greece.
25/07/1997
Ben Hogan, American golfer (born 1912)
William Ben Hogan was an American professional golfer who is considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the game. He profoundly influenced golf swing theory, and was noted for his ballstriking skill and assiduous practice. Hogan won nine major championships and is one of six men to complete the modern career grand slam.
25/07/1995
Charlie Rich, American singer-songwriter (born 1932)
Charles Allan Rich was an American country singer. His eclectic style of music also blended influences from rockabilly, jazz, blues, soul, and gospel.
25/07/1992
Alfred Drake, American actor and singer (born 1914)
Alfred Drake was an American actor and singer.
25/07/1991
Lazar Kaganovich, Soviet politician (born 1893)
Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich was a Soviet politician and one of Joseph Stalin's closest associates.
25/07/1989
Steve Rubell, American businessman, co-owner of Studio 54 (born 1943)
Steve Rubell was an American entrepreneur and co-owner of the New York City disco Studio 54.
25/07/1988
Judith Barsi, American child actress (born 1978)
Judith Eva Barsi was an American child actress. She began her career in television, making appearances in commercials and television series, as well as the 1987 film Jaws: The Revenge. She also provided the voices of Ducky in The Land Before Time and Anne-Marie in All Dogs Go to Heaven, both released after her death. She and her mother, Maria, were killed in July 1988 in a double murder–suicide committed in their home by her father, József Barsi.
25/07/1986
Vincente Minnelli, American director and screenwriter (born 1903)
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director. From a career spanning over half a century, he is best known for his sophisticated innovation and artistry in musical films. As of 2026, six of his films have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
25/07/1984
Bryan Hextall, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1913)
Bryan Aldwyn Hextall was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played for the New York Rangers in the National Hockey League (NHL). Considered one of the top wingers of the 1940s, he led the NHL in goal scoring twice and in points once. Additionally, he was named a first-team All-Star three times, and a second-team All-Star once.
Big Mama Thornton, American singer-songwriter (born 1926)
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, was an American singer and songwriter of blues and R&B.
25/07/1982
Hal Foster, Canadian-American author and illustrator (born 1892)
Harold Rudolf Foster was a Canadian-American comic strip artist and writer best known as the creator of the comic strip Prince Valiant. His drawing style is noted for its high level of draftsmanship and attention to detail.
25/07/1981
Rosa A. González, Puerto Rican nurse, author, feminist, and activist (born 1889)
Rosa A. González, RN, was a nurse, author, feminist and activist. She established various health clinics throughout Puerto Rico and was the founder of The Association of Registered Nurses of Puerto Rico. In 1929, Gonzalez wrote a book titled Los Hechos Desconocidos, in which she denounced the discrimination against women and nurses in Puerto Rico. González’s book convinced James R. Beverley, the Interim Governor of Puerto Rico, to sign Ley 77 in May 1930, which established a Nurses Examining Board. In 1978, she was the first recipient of the Public Health Department of Puerto Rico Garrido Morales Award.
25/07/1980
Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (born 1938)
Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky was a Soviet singer, songwriter, poet and actor who had an immense and enduring effect on Soviet culture. He became widely known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which featured social and political commentary in often-humorous street jargon. He was also a prominent stage- and screen-actor. Though the official Soviet cultural establishment largely ignored his work, he was remarkably popular during his lifetime and has exerted significant influence on many of Russia's musicians and actors.
25/07/1977
Shivrampant Damle, Indian educationist (born 1900)
Captain Shivrampant Damle was an Indian educationist. He is best remembered for founding the Maharashtriya Mandal in 1924.
25/07/1973
Amy Jacques Garvey, Jamaican-American journalist and activist (born 1895)
Amy Euphemia Jacques Garvey was a Jamaican-born journalist and activist. She was the second wife of Marcus Garvey. She was one of the pioneering female Black journalists and publishers of the 20th century.
Louis St. Laurent, Canadian lawyer and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Canada (born 1882)
Louis Stephen St. Laurent was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 12th prime minister of Canada from 1948 to 1957.
25/07/1971
John Meyers, American swimmer and water polo player (born 1880)
Edward John Meyers was an American freestyle swimmer and water polo player for the Missouri Athletic Club who won a bronze medal for the U.S. in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri.
Leroy Robertson, American composer and educator (born 1896)
Leroy Robertson was an American composer and music educator.
25/07/1967
Konstantinos Parthenis, Egyptian-Greek painter (born 1878)
Konstantinos Parthenis was a Greek painter. Born in Alexandria, part of the Greek community in Egypt, Parthenis broke with the Greek academic tradition of the 19th century and introduced modern elements together with traditional themes, like the figure of Christ, in his art.
25/07/1966
Frank O'Hara, American poet and critic (born 1926)
Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure in the New York School, an informal group of artists, writers, and musicians who drew inspiration from jazz, surrealism, abstract expressionism, action painting, and contemporary avant-garde art movements.
25/07/1963
Ugo Cerletti, Italian neurologist and academic (born 1877)
Ugo Cerletti was an Italian neurologist who discovered the method of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) used in psychiatry. Electroconvulsive therapy is a therapy in which electric current is used to provoke a seizure for a short duration. This therapy is used in an attempt to treat certain mental disorders, and may be useful when other possible treatments have not, or cannot, cure the person of their mental disorder.
25/07/1962
Thibaudeau Rinfret, Canadian lawyer and jurist, 9th Chief Justice of Canada (born 1879)
Thibaudeau Rinfret was a Canadian jurist who served as the ninth Chief Justice of Canada from 1944 to 1954 and briefly as Administrator of Canada from January to February 1952. He also served as a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1924 to 1944.
25/07/1959
Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, Polish-born Irish rabbi and author (born 1888)
Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, also known as Isaac Herzog or Hertzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland, his term lasting from 1921 to 1936. From 1936 until his death in 1959, he was Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine and of Israel after its creation in 1948. He was the father of Chaim Herzog and grandfather of Isaac Herzog, both presidents of Israel.
25/07/1958
Otto Lasanen, Finnish wrestler (born 1891)
Otto Abraham Lasanen was a featherweight Greco-Roman wrestler from Finland. He won a bronze medal at the 1912 Summer Olympics and placed fourth at the 1914 unofficial European Championships. In 1917 he won a Russian title, as Finland was part of Russia then. Lasanen was a car driver by profession.
25/07/1952
Herbert Murrill, English organist and composer (born 1909)
Herbert Henry John Murrill was an English musician, composer, and organist.
25/07/1947
Kathleen Scott, English sculptor (born 1878)
Edith Agnes Kathleen Young, Baroness Kennet, FRBS was a British sculptor. Trained in London and Paris, Scott was a prolific sculptor, notably of portrait heads and busts and also of several larger public monuments. These included a number of war memorials plus statues of her first husband, the Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott. Although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes her as "the most significant and prolific British women sculptor before Barbara Hepworth", her traditional style of sculpture and her hostility to the abstract work of, for example Hepworth and Henry Moore, has led to a lack of recognition for her artistic achievements.
25/07/1942
Fred Englehardt, American triple jumper (born 1879)
Frederick William Englehardt was an American athlete who competed mainly in the long jump and triple jump. He competed for the United States in the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St Louis, United States in the triple jump where he won the silver medal. He was also 4th in the long jump.
25/07/1934
François Coty, French businessman, founded Coty (born 1874)
François Coty was a French perfumer, businessman, newspaper publisher, politician and patron of the arts. He was the founder of the Coty perfume company, today a multinational. He is considered the founding father of the modern perfume industry.
Engelbert Dollfuss, Austrian politician, 14th Chancellor of Austria (born 1892)
Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian politician and dictator who served as chancellor of Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative and nationalist government. This crisis culminated in the self-elimination of the Austrian Parliament, a coup sparked by the resignation of the presiding officers of the National Council. Suppressing the Socialist movement in the Austrian Civil War and later banning the Austrian Nazi Party, he cemented his rule through the First of May Constitution in 1934. Later that year, Dollfuss was assassinated as part of a failed coup attempt by Nazi agents. His successor Kurt Schuschnigg maintained the regime until Adolf Hitler's Anschluss in 1938.
Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary (born 1888)
Nestor Ivanovych Makhno, also known as Bat'ko Makhno, was a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence. He established the Makhnovshchina, a mass movement by the Ukrainian peasantry to establish anarchist communism in the country between 1918 and 1921. Initially centered around Makhno's home province of Katerynoslav and hometown of Huliaipole, it came to exert a strong influence over large areas of southern Ukraine, specifically in what is now the Zaporizhzhia Oblast of Ukraine. Anarchists have cited him as an inspiration during his life and into today.
25/07/1887
John Taylor, American religious leader, 3rd President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (born 1808)
John Taylor was an English-born American religious leader who served as the third president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1880 to 1887. He is the first and so far only president of the LDS Church to have been born outside the United States.
25/07/1865
James Barry, English soldier and surgeon (born 1799)
James Barry was a military surgeon in the British Army. Originally from the city of Cork in Ireland, Barry obtained a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, then served first in Cape Town, South Africa, and subsequently in many parts of the British Empire. Before retirement, Barry had risen to the rank of Inspector General in charge of military hospitals, the second-highest medical office in the British Army. He improved conditions not only for wounded soldiers, but also for the native inhabitants. Barry performed the first recorded caesarean section by a European in Africa in which both the mother and child survived the surgery.
25/07/1861
Jonas Furrer, Swiss lawyer and politician, President of the Swiss Confederation (born 1805)
Jonas Furrer was a Swiss lawyer and politician who served as a member of the Federal Council, from 1848 to 1861, and as the first president of the Swiss Confederation from 1848 to 1849, and again in 1852, 1855 and 1858. He was one of the leading figures in the foundation of Switzerland as a federal state. He was a member of the Radical Party.
25/07/1843
Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist and inventor of waterproof fabric (born 1766)
Charles Macintosh FRS was a Scottish chemist and the inventor of the modern waterproof raincoat. The Mackintosh raincoat is named after him.
25/07/1842
Dominique Jean Larrey, French physician and surgeon (born 1766)
Dominique Jean, Baron Larrey was a French surgeon and soldier best known for his service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. An important innovator in battlefield medicine and triage, Larrey invented the flying ambulance and is sometimes considered the first modern military surgeon.
25/07/1834
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English philosopher, poet, and critic (born 1772)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth. He also shared volumes and collaborated with Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, and Charles Lloyd.
25/07/1831
Maria Szymanowska, Polish composer and pianist (born 1789)
Maria Szymanowska was a Polish composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She toured extensively throughout Europe, especially in the 1820s, before settling permanently in Saint Petersburg. In the Russian imperial capital, she composed for the court, gave concerts, taught music, and ran an influential salon. The salons in 18th-century France were intellectual gatherings held at home by educated women. In 1837, the composer and music critic Robert Schumann defined salon music as elegant light music and stated that this type of social music should sound beautiful, delicate, and fashionable. Szymanowska was highly praised by Schumann for her salon music works, especially her etudes.
25/07/1826
Kondraty Ryleyev, Russian poet and publisher (born 1795)
Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleyev was a Russian poet, publisher, and a leader of the Decembrist revolt, which attempted to overthrow the Russian monarchy in 1825.
25/07/1794
André Chénier, Greek-French poet and author (born 1762)
André Marie Chénier was a French poet associated with the events of the French Revolution, during which he was sentenced to death. His sensual, emotive poetry marks him as one of the precursors of the Romantic movement. His career was brought to an abrupt end when he was guillotined for supposed "crimes against the state". Chénier's life has been the subject of Umberto Giordano's opera Andrea Chénier and other works of art.
Jean-Antoine Roucher, French poet and author (born 1745)
Jean-Antoine Roucher, was a French poet.
Friedrich von der Trenck, Prussian adventurer and author (born 1726)
Friedrich Freiherr von der Trenck was a Prussian officer, adventurer, and author.
25/07/1791
Isaac Low, American merchant and politician (born 1735)
Isaac Low was an American merchant in New York City who served as a member of the Continental Congress, where he signed the Continental Association. He later served as a delegate to the New York Provincial Congress. Though originally a Patriot, he later joined the Loyalist cause in the American Revolution.
25/07/1790
Johann Bernhard Basedow, German educator and reformer (born 1723)
Johann Bernhard Basedow was a German educational reformer, teacher and writer. He founded the Philanthropinum, a short-lived but influential progressive school in Dessau, and was the author of "Elementarwerk", a popular illustrated textbook for children.
William Livingston, American soldier and politician, 1st Governor of New Jersey (born 1723)
William Livingston was an American politician and lawyer who served as the first governor of New Jersey (1776–1790) during the American Revolutionary War. As a New Jersey representative in the Continental Congress, he signed the Continental Association and the United States Constitution. He is one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a founding father of New Jersey.
25/07/1681
Urian Oakes, English-American minister and educator (born 1631)
Urian Oakes was an English-born American Congregational minister and educator who served as the fourth president of Harvard College from 1675 to 1681.
25/07/1643
Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull, English general and politician (born 1584)
Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull was an English nobleman who joined the Royalist side in the English Civil War after some delay and became lieutenant-general of the counties of Lincoln, Rutland, Huntingdon, Cambridge and Norfolk. He was killed in a friendly fire incident after being captured by Parliamentary forces.
25/07/1616
Andreas Libavius, German physician and chemist (born 1550)
Andreas Libavius was a German writer.
25/07/1608
Pomponio Nenna, Italian composer (born 1556)
Pomponio Nenna was a Neapolitan Italian composer of the Renaissance. He is mainly remembered for his madrigals, which were influenced by Gesualdo, and for his polychoral sacred motets, posthumously published as Sacrae Hebdomadae Responsoria in 1622.
25/07/1572
Isaac Luria, Ottoman rabbi and mystic (born 1534)
Isaac ben Solomon Ashkenazi Luria, commonly known in Jewish religious circles as Ha'ari, Ha'ari Hakadosh or Arizal, was a leading rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Palestine, now Israel. He is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah, his teachings being referred to as Lurianic Kabbalah.
25/07/1564
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1503)
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1556, King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia from 1526, and Archduke of Austria from 1521 until his death in 1564. Before his accession as emperor, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the House of Habsburg in the name of his elder brother, Emperor Charles V, and often served as Charles' representative in developing encouraging relationships with German princes. In addition, Ferdinand also developed valuable relationships with the German banking house of Jakob Fugger and the Catalan bank, Banca Palenzuela Levi Kahana.
25/07/1492
Innocent VIII, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1432)
Pope Innocent VIII, born Giovanni Battista Cybo, was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 29 August 1484 to his death, in July 1492. Son of the viceroy of Naples, Cybo spent his early years at the Neapolitan court. He became a priest in the retinue of Cardinal Calandrini, half-brother to Pope Nicholas V (1447–55); Bishop of Savona under Pope Paul II; and with the support of Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere he was made a cardinal by Pope Sixtus IV. After intense politicking by Della Rovere, Cybo was elected pope in 1484. King Ferdinand I of Naples had supported Cybo's competitor, Rodrigo Borgia. The following year, Pope Innocent supported the barons in their failed revolt.
25/07/1472
Charles of Artois, French nobleman (born 1394)
Charles of Artois, was Count of Eu from 23 December 1397 until his death 75 years later. He was son of Philip of Artois, Count of Eu, and Marie of Berry. Charles was taken prisoner by the English at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415 and was not released until 1438. In 1448, he married Jeanne of Saveuse, and on 23 September 1454, Helene of Melun, but he had no children. He was appointed Lieutenant of the King in Normandy and Guyenne, as well as Governor of Paris, during the War of the Public Weal in 1465.
25/07/1471
Thomas à Kempis, German priest and mystic
Thomas à Kempis was a German-Dutch Catholic canon regular of the Augustinians and the author of The Imitation of Christ, one of the best known Christian devotional books. His name means "Thomas of Kempen", Kempen, Germany, being his home town.
25/07/1409
Martin I, king of Sicily (born 1376)
Martin I of Sicily, called the Younger, was King of Sicily from his marriage to Queen Maria in 1390 until his death in 1409.
25/07/1195
Herrad of Landsberg, abbess, author, and illustrator (born c. 1130)
Herrad of Landsberg was a 12th-century Alsatian nun and abbess of Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges mountains. She was known as the author of the pictorial encyclopedia Hortus deliciarum.
25/07/1190
Sibylla, queen of Jerusalem
Sibylla was the queen of Jerusalem from 1186 until her death in 1190. She reigned alongside her husband Guy of Lusignan, whom she continued to support despite his unpopularity among the barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
25/07/1011
Ichijō, emperor of Japan (born 980)
Emperor Ichijō was the 66th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.
25/07/0885
Ragenold, margrave of Neustria
Ragenold was the Count of Herbauges from 852 and Count of Maine and Margrave of Neustria from 878. His family is unidentified, but he may have been a son of Reginald of Herbauges.
25/07/0306
Constantius Chlorus, Roman emperor (born 250)
Marcus Flavius Valerius Constantius, also called Constantius I, was a Roman emperor from 305 to 306—and was father of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of Rome. He was one of the four original members of the Tetrarchy established by Diocletian, first serving as caesar from 293 to 305 and then ruling as augustus until his death. The nickname "Chlorus" was first popularized by Byzantine-era historians and not used during the emperor's lifetime.
Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 25th July
Christian feast day: Anne (Eastern Christianity)
According to Christian tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's canonical gospels. In writing, Ann's name and that of her husband Joachim come from New Testament apocrypha, of which the Gospel of James seems to be the earliest that mentions them. The mother of Mary is mentioned but not named in the Quran.
Christian feast day: Christopher (Western Christianity)
Saint Christopher (Greek: Ἅγιος Χριστόφορος, romanized: Hágios Christóphoros, lit. 'Christ-bearer'; Latin: Sanctus Christophorus), also called Christopher of Lycia (Lycea), is a legendary figure venerated by several Christian denominations as a martyr and saint. The various legends regarding the saint do not agree on the time and place of his activity. His legendary birthplace is variously placed in Marmarica (west of Egypt), the Middle East or Barbaria. The legendary accounts may situate the saint's legendary martyrdom during the reign of the 3rd-century Roman emperors Decius (r. 249–251), Diocletian (r. 284–305) or Maximinus Daza (r. 308–313). A martyrium of a Saint Christopher consecrated near Chalcedon (near present-day Istanbul) in 452 is the earliest evidence of a cult of a Saint Christopher. The saint's veneration spread in both the Eastern and Western churches.
Christian feast day: Cucuphas
Saint Cucuphas is a martyr of Spain. His feast day is 25 July but in some areas it is celebrated on 27 July to avoid conflict with the important feast day of Santiago, the patron saint of Spain. His name is said to be of Phoenician origin with the meaning of "he who jokes, he who likes to joke."
Christian feast day: Glodesind
Glodesind (572−608) was a saint, nun, abbess, and founder of a convent in Metz, France, during the time of King Childebert II (575−596) of Austrasia. She was a member of the Carolingian nobility. When she was 11 or 12 years old, she married a young nobleman, who was arrested by the French government shortly after their wedding and executed a year later. Instead of remarrying as her family wanted, she fled to Metz and took refuge at the Church of St. Stephen. Her family gave up forcing her to marry, and she became a nun and later, the abbess of a convent that was built by her parents. She was abbess for six years until her death in 608 at the age of 30. Her feast day is 8 July.
Christian feast day: James the Great (Western Christianity)
James the Great was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was the second of the apostles to die, after Judas Iscariot, and the first to be martyred. Saint James is the patron saint of Spain and, according to tradition, what are believed to be his remains are held in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.
Christian feast day: John I Agnus
Saint John I Agnus was the 25th bishop of Tongres. He lived in the 7th century and is considered as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
Christian feast day: Julian of Le Mans (translation)
Saint Julian of Le Mans is a saint venerated in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church, honoured as the first bishop of Le Mans. His feast day is 27 January. The translation of his relics is celebrated on 25 July.
Christian feast day: Magnerich of Trier
Magneric of Trier was a Frankish bishop of Trier. He is a Catholic and Orthodox saint, with a feast day on July 25. Magneric was one of the first bishops with a Germanic name. He was a friend and admirer of Gregory of Tours, mentioned in his History of the Franks, and ordained St Géry, one of his disciples, who became bishop of Cambrai-Arras on the ascent of King Childebert II. Venantius Fortunatus described the Bishop as virtuous and charitable, and an "ornament of bishops".
Christian feast day: July 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
July 24 - Eastern Orthodox calendar - July 26
Guanacaste Day (Costa Rica)
Guanacaste Day is a Costa Rican holiday celebrating Costa Rica's annexation of the Guanacaste province in 1824. It is celebrated on July 25.
National Baha'i Day (Jamaica)
The Baháʼí Faith in Jamaica begins with a mention by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, in 1916 as Latin America being among the places Baháʼís should take the religion to. The community of the Baháʼís begins in 1942 with the arrival of Dr. Malcolm King. The first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of Jamaica, in Kingston, was elected in 1943. By 1957 the Baháʼís of Jamaica were organized under the regional National Spiritual Assembly of the Greater Antilles, and on the eve of national independence in 1962, the Jamaica Baháʼís elected their own National Spiritual Assembly in 1961. By 1981 hundreds of Baháʼís and hundreds more non-Baháʼís turned out for weekend meetings when Rúhíyyih Khánum spent six days in Jamaica. Public recognition of the religion came in the form of the Governor General of Jamaica, Sir Howard Cooke, proclaiming a National Baháʼí Day first on July 25 in 2003 and it has been an annual event since. While there is evidence of several active communities by 2008 in Jamaica, estimates of the Baháʼís population range from the hundreds to the thousands.
National Day of Galicia (Galicia, Spain)
Dia Nacional de Galicia is when the autonomous community of Galicia in Spain celebrates its national holiday. It falls on 25 July.
Puerto Rico Constitution Day (Puerto Rico)
Puerto Rico Constitution Day, also known as Constitution Day of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a public holiday in Puerto Rico on July 25 of every year established by Law #1 of August 4, 1952 of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The holiday commemorates the day the Constitution of Puerto Rico, approved on July 3, 1952, was signed into law by Governor Luis Muñoz Marín the same year.
International Afro-descendant Women's Day
The International Day of Black Latin American and Caribbean Women, shortly known as B.L.A.C Women's Day, also known as the International Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women's Day and International Afro-descendant Women's Day, is linked to Afrofeminism movement and the broader recognition of the African diaspora and the rights of people of African descent that observed on 25 July since 1992.
Tenjin Matsuri (Osaka, Japan)
Tenjin Matsuri is a festival held throughout Japan around the 25th of the month every year at various Tenmangū shrines. The festival commemorates the death anniversary of the deity Sugawara no Michizane. The month of observance varies between shrines, of these festivals, the one held on 25 July at Osaka Tenmangū Shrine is the largest. Ranking with the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto and Kanda Matsuri in Tokyo, the Tenjin Matsuri is considered to be one of the three major Shintō festivals in Japan. Its original purpose was to appease the spirit of Michizane, who was thought to have combined with the thunder god Tenjin.
What Happened on 25th July?
79 significant events took place on Tuesday, 25th July — stretching from 306 to 2019. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.
25/07/2019
National extreme heat records set this day in the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany during the July 2019 European heat wave.
In late June and late July 2019 there were two temporally distinct European heat waves, which set all-time high temperature records in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
25/07/2018
As-Suwayda attacks: Coordinated attacks occur in Syria.
The 2018 Suwayda attacks were a string of suicide bombings and mass shooting incidents in Suwayda, Syria on 25 July 2018. At least 258 people were killed and 180 wounded. The attacks were carried out by the Islamic State and largely targeted Syria's Druze minority. A 17-year old Druze girl was beheaded.
25/07/2010
WikiLeaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history.
WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange. Kristinn Hrafnsson is its editor-in-chief. Its website states that it has released more than ten million documents and associated analyses. WikiLeaks' most recent publication of original documents was in 2019 and its most recent publication was in 2021. From November 2022, numerous documents on the organisation's website became inaccessible. In 2023, Assange said that WikiLeaks is no longer able to publish due to his imprisonment and the effect that US government surveillance and WikiLeaks' funding restrictions were having on potential whistleblowers.
25/07/2007
Pratibha Patil is sworn in as India's first female president.
Pratibha Devisingh Patil, also known as Pratibha Patil Shekhawat, is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the president of India from 2007 to 2012. She was the first woman to become the president of India. A member of the Indian National Congress, she also served as the Governor of Rajasthan from 2004 to 2007, and was a member of the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996.
25/07/2001
Phoolan Devi, a serving Member of Parliament, was assassinated by shooting in New Delhi, India.
Phoolan Devi, popularly known as the Bandit Queen, was an Indian dacoit (bandit) who became a politician, serving as a member of parliament until her assassination. She was a woman of the Mallah subcaste who grew up in poverty in a village in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where her family was on the losing side of a land dispute which caused them many problems. After being married off at the age of eleven and being sexually abused by various people, she joined a gang of dacoits. Her gang robbed higher-caste villages and held up trains and vehicles. When she punished her rapists and evaded capture by the authorities, she became a heroine to the Other Backward Classes who saw her as a Robin Hood figure. Phoolan Devi was charged in absentia for the 1981 Behmai massacre, in which twenty Thakur men were killed, allegedly on her command. After this event, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh resigned, and calls to apprehend her were amplified. She surrendered two years later in a carefully negotiated settlement and spent eleven years in Gwalior prison, awaiting trial.
25/07/2000
Concorde Air France Flight 4590 crashes outside of Paris shortly after taking off at Charles de Gaulle Airport, killing 113 people.
Concorde is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies began in 1954 and a UK–France treaty followed in 1962, as the programme cost was estimated at £70 million . Construction of six prototypes began in February 1965, with the first flight from Toulouse on 2 March 1969. The market forecast was 350 aircraft, with manufacturers receiving up to 100 options from major airlines. On 9 October 1975, it received its French certificate of airworthiness, and was certified by the UK CAA on 5 December.
25/07/1996
In a military coup in Burundi, Pierre Buyoya deposes Sylvestre Ntibantunganya.
The 1996 Burundian coup d'état was a military coup d'état that took place in Burundi on 25 July 1996. In the midst of the Burundi Civil War, former president Pierre Buyoya deposed Hutu President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya. According to Amnesty International, in the weeks following the coup, more than 6,000 people were killed in the country. This was Buyoya's second successful coup, having overthrown Jean-Baptiste Bagaza in 1987.
25/07/1995
A gas bottle explodes in Saint Michel station of line B of the RER (Paris regional train network). Eight are killed and 80 wounded.
A series of attacks targeted public transport systems in Paris and Lyon, as well as a school in Villeurbanne, in 1995. They were carried out by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA), who sought to expand the Algerian Civil War to France. The attacks killed eight people, all during the first attack on 25 July. The attack also injured 190 people. The assassination of Abdelbaki Sahraoui, a co-founder of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), was a prelude to the extension of the Islamists' terrorist campaign in France.
25/07/1994
Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, that formally ends the state of war that had existed between the nations since 1948.
Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and both Israel and Palestine to the west. The Jordan River, flowing into the Dead Sea, is located along the country's western border within the Jordan Rift Valley. Jordan has a small coastline along the Red Sea in its southwest, separated by the Gulf of Aqaba from Egypt. Amman is the country's capital and largest city, as well as the most populous city in the Levant.
25/07/1993
Israel launches a massive attack against Lebanon in what the Israelis call Operation Accountability, and the Lebanese call the Seven-Day War.
Lebanon, officially the Lebanese Republic, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west; Cyprus lies a short distance from the coastline. Lebanon has a population of more than five million and an area of 10,452 square kilometres (4,036 sq mi). Beirut is the country's capital and largest city.
The Saint James Church massacre occurs in Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa.
The Saint James Church massacre was a massacre perpetrated on St James Church of England in South Africa in Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa, on 25 July 1993 by four members of the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA). Eleven members of the congregation were killed and 58 wounded. In 1998 the attackers were granted amnesty for their acts by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
25/07/1984
Salyut 7 cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
Salyut 7, also known as DOS-6, was a space station in low Earth orbit from April 1982 to February 1991. It was first crewed in May 1982 with two crew via Soyuz T-5, and last visited in June 1986, by Soyuz T-15. Various crew and modules were used over its lifetime, including 12 crewed and 15 uncrewed launches in total. Supporting spacecraft included the Soyuz T, Progress, and TKS spacecraft.
25/07/1983
Black July: Thirty-seven Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are massacred by the fellow Sinhalese prisoners.
Black July was an anti-Tamil pogrom that occurred in Sri Lanka during July 1983. The pogrom was premeditated, and was finally triggered by a deadly ambush on a Sri Lankan Army patrol by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on 23 July 1983, which killed 13 soldiers. Although initially orchestrated by members of the ruling UNP, the pogrom soon escalated into mass violence with significant public participation.
25/07/1979
In accord with the Egypt–Israel peace treaty, Israel begins its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula.
The Egypt–Israel peace treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., United States, on 26 March 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The treaty was signed by Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, and witnessed by Jimmy Carter, President of the United States.
25/07/1978
Puerto Rican police shoot two nationalists in the Cerro Maravilla murders.
Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a self-governing Caribbean archipelago and island organized as an unincorporated territory of the United States under the designation of commonwealth. Located about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Miami, Florida, between the Dominican Republic in the Greater Antilles and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Lesser Antilles, it consists of the eponymous main island and numerous smaller islands, including Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. With approximately 3.2 million people, it is divided into 78 municipalities, of which the most populous is the capital municipality of San Juan, followed by those within the San Juan metropolitan area. Spanish and English are the official languages of the government, though Spanish predominates.
Birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation, or IVF.
Louise Joy Brown is an English woman noted as the first human born following conception by in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Her birth, following a procedure pioneered in Britain, has been lauded among "the most remarkable medical breakthroughs of the 20th century".
25/07/1976
Viking program: Viking 1 takes the famous Face on Mars photo.
The Viking program consisted of a pair of identical American space probes, Viking 1 and Viking 2 both launched in 1975, and landed on Mars in 1976. The mission effort began in 1968 and was managed by the NASA Langley Research Center. Each spacecraft was composed of two main parts: an orbiter spacecraft which photographed the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander which studied the planet from the surface. The orbiters also served as communication relays for the landers once they touched down.
25/07/1973
Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, the largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, with the largest and most populous being the Russian SFSR. In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, it was the flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.
25/07/1971
The Sohagpur massacre is perpetrated by the Pakistan Army.
The Sohagpur massacre was a mass killing of 187 civilians on 25 July 1971 in the Mymensingh District of East Pakistan during the Liberation War. The massacre was perpetrated by the Pakistan Army and Al-Badr, a paramilitary force opposing Bangladeshi independence. Following the massacre, Sohagpur became known as the "village of widows."
25/07/1969
Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This is the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.
25/07/1965
Bob Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music.
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 69-year career. With an estimated 125 million records sold worldwide, he is one of the best-selling musicians. Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". His lyrics incorporated political, social, and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.
25/07/1961
Cold War: In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.
25/07/1958
The African Regroupment Party holds its first congress in Cotonou.
The African Regroupment Party was a political party in the French African colonies.
25/07/1957
The Tunisian King Muhammad VIII al-Amin is replaced by President Habib Bourguiba.
Mohamed el-Amine Bey bin Mohamed el-Habib, commonly known as Lamine Bey, was the last Bey of Tunis, and also the only King of Tunisia after independence.
25/07/1956
Forty-five miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51.
Nantucket is an island in Massachusetts, United States, about 30 miles (48 km) south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government. Nantucket is the southeasternmost town in Massachusetts. The name "Nantucket" is adapted from similar Algonquian names for the island.
25/07/1946
The Crossroads Baker device is the first underwater nuclear weapon test.
Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity on July 16, 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The purpose of the tests was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships.
25/07/1944
World War II: Operation Spring near Caen is one of the bloodiest days for the First Canadian Army during the war.
Operation Spring was an offensive operation of the Second World War conducted by II Canadian Corps during the Normandy campaign in 1944. The plan was intended to create pressure on the German forces operating on the British and Canadian front simultaneous with Operation Cobra, an American offensive. Operation Spring was intended to capture Verrières Ridge and the villages on the south slope of the ridge. A successful German defence of the ridge contained the offensive on the first day, and inflicted many casualties on the Canadians.
25/07/1943
World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by the King (encouraged by the Grand Council of Fascism) and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.
World War II: 136 Greek civilians are murdered by soldiers of the German 1st Mountain Division in the village of Mousiotitsa, Greece.
The Massacres of Mousiotitsa refer to Nazi war crimes perpetrated in the summer of 1943 by soldiers of the 1st Mountain Division in the village of Mousiotitsa, Greece, during its occupation by the Axis in World War II. Mousiotitsa endured two assaults by the same German unit, separated by a one-month period. The first took place on 25 July and the second on 27 August 1943.
25/07/1942
The Norwegian Manifesto calls for nonviolent resistance to the German occupation.
The Norwegian resistance to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms:Asserting the legitimacy of the exiled government, and by implication the lack of legitimacy of Vidkun Quisling's pro-Nazi regime and Josef Terboven's military administration The initial defence in Southern Norway, which was largely disorganised, but succeeded in allowing the government to escape capture The more organised military defence and counter-attacks in parts of Western and Northern Norway, aimed at securing strategic positions and the evacuation of the government Armed resistance, in the form of sabotage, commando raids, assassinations and other special operations during the occupation Civil disobedience and unarmed resistance
25/07/1940
General Henri Guisan orders the Swiss Army to resist German invasion and makes surrender illegal.
Henri Guisan was a Swiss military officer who held the office of General of the Swiss Armed Forces during the Second World War. He was the fourth and the most recent person to be appointed to the rarely used Swiss rank of general, and was possibly Switzerland's most famous soldier. He is best remembered for effectively mobilizing the Swiss military and population in order to prepare resistance against a possible invasion by Nazi Germany in 1940. Guisan was voted the fourth-greatest Swiss figure of all time in 2010.
25/07/1934
The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.
Nazi Germany, officially the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and the German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after 12 years, when the Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, ending World War II in Europe.
25/07/1925
Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.
The Russian News Agency TASS, or simply TASS, is a Russian state-owned news agency founded in 1904. It is the largest Russian news agency and one of the largest news agencies worldwide.
25/07/1917
Sir Robert Borden introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
Sir Robert Laird Borden was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I.
25/07/1915
RFC Captain Lanoe Hawker becomes the first British pursuit aviator to earn the Victoria Cross.
The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC supported the British Army by artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance. This work gradually led RFC pilots into aerial battles with German pilots and later in the war included the strafing of enemy infantry and emplacements, the bombing of German military airfields and later the strategic bombing of German industrial and transport facilities.
25/07/1909
Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine from Calais to Dover, England, United Kingdom in 37 minutes.
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot was a French aviator, inventor, and engineer. He developed the first practical headlamp for cars and established a profitable business manufacturing them, using much of the money he made to finance his attempts to build a successful aircraft. Blériot was the first to use the combination of hand-operated joystick and foot-operated rudder control as used to the present day to operate the aircraft control surfaces. Blériot was also the first to make a working, powered, piloted monoplane. In 1909 he became world-famous for making the first aeroplane flight across the English Channel, winning the prize of £1,000 offered by the Daily Mail newspaper. He was the founder of Blériot Aéronautique, a successful aircraft manufacturing company.
25/07/1908
Ajinomoto is founded. Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers that a key ingredient in kombu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG), and patents a process for manufacturing it.
Ajinomoto Co., Inc. is a Japanese multinational food and biotechnology corporation which produces seasonings, cooking oils, frozen foods, beverages, sweeteners, amino acids, insulating films, and pharmaceuticals. Aji-No-Moto is the trade name for the company's original monosodium glutamate (MSG) product, the first of its kind, since 1909. The corporation's head office is located in Chūō, Tokyo. As of 2024, Ajinomoto operates in 31 countries worldwide and employs an estimated 34,862 people. Its yearly revenue in 2024 is around ¥1.53 trillion JPY or $10.61 billion USD.
25/07/1898
Spanish–American War: The American invasion of Spanish-held Puerto Rico begins, as United States Army troops under General Nelson A. Miles land and secure the port at Guánica.
The Spanish–American War was fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the U.S. acquiring sovereignty over Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and establishing a protectorate over Cuba. It represented U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence and Philippine Revolution, with the latter later leading to the Philippine–American War. The Spanish–American War brought an end to almost four centuries of Spanish presence in the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific; the United States meanwhile not only became a major world power, but also gained several island possessions spanning the globe, which provoked rancorous debate over the wisdom of expansionism.
25/07/1897
American author Jack London embarks on a sailing trip to take part in the Klondike's gold rush, from which he wrote his first successful stories.
John Griffith London, better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing.
25/07/1894
The First Sino-Japanese War begins when the Japanese fire upon a Chinese warship.
The First Sino-Japanese War, or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily for influence over Korea. In China it is commonly known as the Jiawu War. After 6 to 7 months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the ports of Lüshunkou and Weihaiwei, the Qing government sued for peace in February 1895 and signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki two months later, ending the war.
25/07/1869
The Japanese daimyōs begin returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese Date: June 17, 1869).
Daimyo or daimio were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 15th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to the emperor and the kuge. In the term, dai (大) means 'large', and myō stands for myōden (名田), meaning 'private land'.
25/07/1868
The Wyoming Territory is established.
The Territory of Wyoming was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 25, 1868, until July 10, 1890, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Wyoming. Cheyenne was the territorial capital. The boundaries of the Wyoming Territory were identical to those of the modern State of Wyoming.
25/07/1866
The United States Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to be promoted to this rank.
Military ranks are a system of hierarchical relationships within armed forces, police, intelligence agencies and other institutions organized along military lines. Responsibility for personnel, equipment and missions grows with each advancement. The military rank system defines dominance, authority and responsibility within a military hierarchy. It incorporates the principles of exercising power and authority into the military chain of command—the succession of commanders superior to subordinates through which command is exercised. The military chain of command is an important component for organized collective action.
25/07/1861
American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Crittenden–Johnson Resolution, stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery, in the wake of the defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.
25/07/1853
Joaquin Murrieta, the famous Californio bandit known as the "Robin Hood of El Dorado", is killed.
Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo, also called the Robin Hood of the West or the Robin Hood of El Dorado, was a Mexican figure of disputed historicity. The novel The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta: The Celebrated California Bandit (1854) by John Rollin Ridge is ostensibly his story.
25/07/1837
The first commercial use of an electrical telegraph is successfully demonstrated in London by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone.
Electrical telegraphy is point-to-point distance communicating via sending electric signals over wire, a system primarily used from the 1840s until the late 20th century. It was the first electrical telecommunications system and the most widely used of a number of early messaging systems called telegraphs, that were devised to send text messages more quickly than physically carrying them. Electrical telegraphy can be considered the first example of electrical engineering.
25/07/1835
James Bowman Lindsay demonstrates a constant electric light at a public meeting in Dundee, Scotland.
James Bowman Lindsay was a Scottish inventor and writer. He is credited with early developments in several fields, such as incandescent lighting and telegraphy.
25/07/1824
Costa Rica annexes Guanacaste from Nicaragua.
Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, sharing a maritime border with Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around five million in a land area of nearly 51,180 km2 (19,760 sq mi); the capital and largest city is San José, home to around 350,000 residents and two million people in the surrounding metropolitan area.
25/07/1814
War of 1812: An American attack on Canada is repulsed.
The War of 1812 was a conflict initiated by the United States against the United Kingdom and its allies fought mainly in North America and at sea during the wider Napoleonic Wars. The United States declared war on Britain on 18 June 1812. Although peace terms were agreed upon in the December 1814 Treaty of Ghent, the war did not officially end until the peace treaty was ratified by the United States Congress on 17 February 1815.
25/07/1799
Napoleon Bonaparte defeats a numerically superior Ottoman army under Mustafa Pasha at the Battle of Abukir.
Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was Emperor of the French from 18 May 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, with a brief restoration during the Hundred Days in 1815. He rose to prominence as a general during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe and the Middle East during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. As a statesman, he implemented numerous legal and administrative reforms in France and Europe.
25/07/1797
Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife (Spain).
Vice-Admiral of the White Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte was a Royal Navy officer whose leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics led to multiple decisive British naval victories during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Trafalgar Square is dedicated to him. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest admirals in history.
25/07/1792
The Brunswick Manifesto is issued to the population of Paris promising vengeance if the French royal family is harmed.
The Brunswick Manifesto was a proclamation issued by Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, commander of the Allied army, on 25 July 1792 to the population of Paris during the War of the First Coalition. The manifesto threatened that if the French royal family were harmed, then French civilians would be harmed. It was said to have been a measure intended to intimidate Paris but rather helped further spur the increasingly radical French Revolution and finally led to the war between Revolutionary France and counter-revolutionary monarchies.
25/07/1788
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his Symphony No. 40 in G minor (K550).
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a Classical composer and musician. He completed more than 800 works in his life—including outstanding examples of most of the genres of his time: symphonies, concertos, chamber music, opera, and choral music.
25/07/1783
American Revolutionary War: The war's last action, the Siege of Cuddalore, is ended by a preliminary peace agreement.
The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence or simply the American Revolution, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.
25/07/1759
French and Indian War: In Western New York, British forces capture Fort Niagara from the French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a conflict in North America between Great Britain and France, along with their respective Indigenous allies. Historians generally consider it part of the global Seven Years' War, which lasted from 1756 to 1763, although in the United States it is often viewed as a distinct conflict unassociated with any larger European war.
25/07/1755
British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council order the deportation of the Acadians.
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and colonisation attempts by Scotland during the 17th century. At its height in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was the largest empire in history and, for a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23 per cent of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered 35.5 million km2 (13.7 million sq mi), 24 per cent of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its constitutional, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread. It was described as "the empire on which the sun never sets", as the sun was always shining on at least one of its territories.
25/07/1722
Dummer's War begins along the Maine-Massachusetts border.
Dummer's War (1722–1725) was a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the Wabanaki Confederacy, who were allied with New France. The eastern theater of the war was located primarily along the border between New England and Acadia in Maine, as well as in Nova Scotia; the western theater was located in northern Massachusetts and Vermont in the frontier areas between Canada and New England.
25/07/1718
At the behest of Tsar Peter the Great, the construction of Kadriorg Palace, dedicated to his wife Catherine, begins in Tallinn.
Peter I was the Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V until 1696. Peter, as an autocrat, organized a well-ordered police state.
25/07/1693
Ignacio de Maya founds the Real Santiago de las Sabinas, now known as Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Mexico.
Sabinas Hidalgo is a city and municipality located in the Mexican state of Nuevo León.
25/07/1668
A magnitude 8.5 earthquake strikes eastern China, killing over 43,000 people.
A major earthquake occurred during the rule of the Qing dynasty in Shandong Province on July 25, 1668. It had an estimated magnitude of Ms 8.5, making it the largest historical earthquake in East China, and one of the largest to occur on land. An estimated 43,000 to 50,000 people were killed, and its effects were widely felt. Its epicenter may have been located between Ju and Tancheng counties, northeast of the prefecture-level city of Linyi in southern Shandong.
25/07/1609
The English ship Sea Venture, en route to Virginia, is deliberately driven ashore during a storm at Bermuda to prevent its sinking; the survivors go on to found a new colony there.
Sea Venture was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission flotilla to the Jamestown Colony in 1609. She was the 300 ton flagship of the London Company. During the voyage to Virginia, Sea Venture encountered a tropical storm and was wrecked, with her crew and passengers landing on the uninhabited Bermuda. Sea Venture's wreck is widely thought to have been the inspiration for William Shakespeare's 1611 play The Tempest.
25/07/1603
James VI and I and Anne of Denmark are crowned in Westminster Abbey.
James VI and I was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603, until his death in 1625. Though he long attempted to get both countries to adopt a closer political union, the kingdoms of Scotland and England remained sovereign states ruled by James in personal union, with their own parliaments, judiciaries and laws.
25/07/1593
Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.
Henry IV, also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. He pragmatically balanced the interests of the Catholic and Protestant parties in France, as well as among the European states. He was assassinated in Paris in 1610 by a Catholic zealot, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII.
25/07/1591
The Duke of Parma is defeated near the Dutch city of Nijmegen by an Anglo-Dutch force led by Maurice of Orange.
Alexander Farnese was an Italian noble and military leader, who was Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro from 1586 to 1592, as well as Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1578 to 1592. Nephew to King Philip II of Spain, he served in the Battle of Lepanto and the subsequent campaigns of the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire. He was latter appointed general of the Spanish army during the Dutch revolt and its ramifications, serving in Netherlands, France and the Holy Roman Empire until his death in 1592.
25/07/1567
Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.
Caracas, officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas. Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern part of Venezuela, within the Caracas Valley of the Venezuelan coastal mountain range. The valley is close to the Caribbean Sea, separated from the shore by a steep 2,200-meter-high (7,200-foot) mountain range, Cerro El Ávila. To the south there are more hills and mountains that form the valley. The Metropolitan Region of Caracas has an estimated population of over 5 million inhabitants.
25/07/1554
The royal wedding of Mary I and Philip II of Spain celebrated at Winchester Cathedral.
Mary I of England (1516–1558) and Philip of Spain married at Winchester Cathedral on Wednesday 25 July 1554.
25/07/1547
Henry II of France is crowned.
Henry II was King of France from 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis in 1536.
25/07/1538
The city of Guayaquil is founded by the Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana and given the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil.
Guayaquil, officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is located on the west bank of the Guayas River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Guayaquil.
25/07/1536
Sebastián de Belalcázar on his search of El Dorado founds the city of Santiago de Cali.
Sebastián Moyano y Cabrera, best known as Sebastián de Belalcázar was a Spanish conquistador. Belalcázar, also written as Benalcázar. He is known as the founder of important early virreinal cities in the northwestern part of South America; Quito in 1534 and Cali, Pasto, and Popayán in 1537. Belalcázar led expeditions in present-day Ecuador and Colombia and died of natural causes after being sentenced to death in the port of Cartagena de Indias in 1551.
25/07/1467
The Battle of Molinella: The first battle in Italy in which firearms are used extensively.
The Battle of Riccardina or Battle of Molinella, fought on July 25, 1467, in Molinella, was one of the most important battles of the 15th century in Italy.
25/07/1278
The naval Battle of Algeciras takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista resulting in a victory for the Emirate of Granada and the Maranid Dynasty over the Kingdom of Castile.
The Battle of Algeciras was a naval battle which occurred on July 25, 1278. The battle pitted the fleets of the Kingdom of Castile, commanded by the Admiral of Castile, Pedro Martínez de Fe, and the combined fleets of the Marinid dynasty and that of the Emirate of Granada, commanded by Abu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr. The battle was fought in the context of the Moorish naval expeditions to the Iberian Peninsula. The battle, which took place in the Strait of Gibraltar, resulted in a Muslim victory.
25/07/1261
The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.
Constantinople was the historical name for the city of Istanbul up until 1930, located on a peninsula at the southeastern tip of Thrace in Europe; with the Bosporus strait and the ancient cities of Chalcedon and Chrysopolis in Bithynia, Anatolia to the east; the Golden Horn and the citadel of Galata (Pera) to the north; the Sea of Marmara to the south; and the Princes' Islands to the southeast. Constantinople served as the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires between its consecration in 330 and the formal abolition of the Ottoman sultanate in 1922.
25/07/1139
Battle of Ourique: The Almoravids, led by Ali ibn Yusuf, are defeated by Prince Afonso Henriques who is proclaimed King of Portugal.
The Battle of Ourique took place on 25 July 1139, in which the Portuguese forces of Afonso Henriques defeated those led by the Almoravid governor of Córdoba, Muhammad Az-Zubayr Ibn Umar, identified as "King Ismar" in Christian chronicles.
25/07/1137
Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Prince Louis, later King Louis VII of France, at the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux.
Eleanor of Aquitaine was duchess of Aquitaine from 1137 to 1204, queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, and queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II. As the reigning duchess of Aquitaine, she ruled jointly with her husbands and two of her sons, Kings Richard I and John of England. As the heiress of the House of Poitiers, which controlled much of southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful people in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages.
25/07/0918
Wang Geon becomes King of Goryeo after overthrowing Gung Ye in a coup the previous day
Taejo, personal name Wang Kŏn, also known as Taejo Wang Kŏn, was the founder of the Goryeo Dynasty of Korea. He ruled from 918 to 943, achieving unification of the Later Three Kingdoms in 936.
25/07/0864
The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings.
The Edict of Pîtres was a capitulary promulgated at Pîtres on 25 June 864. It is often cited by historians as an example of successful government action on the part of Charles the Bald, king of West Francia.
25/07/0677
Climax of the Siege of Thessalonica by the Slavs in a three-day assault on the city walls.
The siege of Thessalonica in 676–678 was an attempt by the local Slavic tribes to capture the Byzantine city of Thessalonica, taking advantage of the preoccupation of the Byzantine Empire with the repulsion of the First Arab Siege of Constantinople. The events of the siege are described in the second book of the Miracles of Saint Demetrius.
25/07/0315
The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum in Rome to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.
The Arch of Constantine is a triumphal arch in Rome dedicated to the emperor Constantine the Great. The arch was commissioned by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in AD 312. Situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill, the arch spans the Via Triumphalis, the route taken by victorious military leaders when they entered the city in a triumphal procession. Dedicated in 315, it is the largest Roman triumphal arch, with overall dimensions of 21 m (69 ft) high, 25.9 m (85 ft) wide and 7.4 m (24 ft) deep. It has three bays, the central one being 11.5 m (38 ft) high and 6.5 m (21 ft) wide and the laterals 7.4 m (24 ft) by 3.4 m (11 ft) each. The arch is constructed of brick-faced concrete covered in marble.
25/07/0306
Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.
Constantine I, also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a pivotal role in elevating the status of Christianity in the Roman Empire, the Edict of Milan decriminalising Christian practice and ceasing Christian persecution. This was a turning point in the Christianisation of the Roman Empire. He founded the city of Constantinople and made it the capital of the Empire, which it remained for over a millennium.