Events
August
25
357
– Battle of Strasbourg: Julian, Caesar (deputy
emperor) and supreme commander of the Roman army
in Gaul, wins an important victory against the
Alemanni at Strasbourg (Argentoratum).
450 – Pulcheria becomes empress of the Byzantine
Empire after her brother Theodosius II is killed
during an hunting accident. She marries the Illyrian
(or Thracian) senator Marcian who is crowned as
emperor.
1248 – The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights
and fortification rights from Otto III, the Archbishop
of Utrecht.
1258 – Regent George Mouzalon and his brothers
are killed during a coup headed by the aristocratic
faction under, paving the way for its leader,
Michael VIII Palaiologos, to ultimately usurp
the throne of the Empire of Nicaea.
1537 – The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest
surviving regiment in the British Army, and the
second most senior, is formed.
1580 – Battle of Alcântara. Spain defeats Portugal.
1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first
telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1758 – Seven Years' War: Frederick II of Prussia
defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
1768 – James Cook begins his first voyage.
1825 – Uruguay declares its independence from
Brazil.
1830 – The Belgian Revolution begins.
1835 – The New York Sun perpetrates the Great
Moon Hoax.
1875 – Captain Matthew Webb became the first person
to swim across the English Channel, traveling
from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22
hours.
1894 – Kitasato Shibasaburō discovers the infectious
agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his
findings in The Lancet.
1898 – 700 Greek civilians, 17 British guards
and the British Consul of Crete are killed by
a Turkish mob in Heraklion, Greece.
1912 – The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist
party, is founded.
1914 – World War I: The library of the Catholic
University of Leuven is deliberately destroyed
by the German Army. Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable
volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts
are lost.
1916 – The United States National Park Service
is created.
1920 – Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, which
began on August 13, ends. The Red Army is defeated.
1921 – The first skirmishes of the Battle of Blair
Mountain occur.
1933 – The Diexi earthquake strikes Mao County,
Sichuan, China and kills 9,000 people.
1939 – The United Kingdom and Poland form a military
alliance in which the UK promises to defend Poland
in case of invasion by a foreign power.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Milne Bay, Papua
New Guinea.
1942 – World War II: second day of the Battle
of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport
convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned-back
by an Allied air attack, losing one destroyer
and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser
heavily damaged.
1944 – World War II: Paris is liberated by the
Allies.
1945 – Ten days after World War II ends with Japan
announcing its surrender, armed supporters of
the Communist Party of China kill Baptist missionary
John Birch, regarded by some of the American right
as the first victim of the Cold War.
1948 – The House Un-American Activities Committee
holds first-ever televised congressional hearing:
"Confrontation Day" between Whittaker
Chambers and Alger Hiss.
1950 – President Harry Truman orders the US Army
to seize control of the nation's railroads to
avert a strike.
1961 – President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns
after just seven months in power.
1980 – Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.
1981 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest
approach to Saturn
1989 – Tadeusz Mazowiecki is chosen as the first
non-communist Prime Minister in Central and Eastern
Europe.
1989 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest
approach to Neptune, the outermost planet in the
Solar System.
1989 – Mayumi Moriyama becomes Japan's first female
cabinet secretary.
1991 – The Airbus A340 aircraft makes it's first
flight.
1991 – Belarus gains its independence from the
Soviet Union
1991 – The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day
siege of a Croatian city by the Yugoslav People's
Army (JNA), supported by various Serbian paramilitary
forces, between August–November 1991 during the
Croatian War of Independence
1991 – Linus Torvalds announces the first version
of what will become Linux.
1997 – Egon Krenz, the former East German leader,
is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the
Berlin Wall.
2003 – The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed
between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian
federal government in Rae-Edzo (now called Behchoko).
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Æbbe of Coldingham
Aredius
Genesius of Arles
Gregory of Utrecht
Joseph Calasanctius
Louis IX of France
Menas of Constantinople
Patricia of Naples
Earliest date on which La Tomatina can fall, while
August 31 is the latest; celebrated on the last
Wednesday in August. (Buñol)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence
of Uruguay from Brazil in 1825.
Liberation Day (Paris)
Opiconsivia held in honor of Ops. (Roman Empire)
Soldier's Day (Brazil)
For details, contact Datacentre
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