October 25

1147 The only success of the Second Crusade came to a combined force of 13,000 Flemish, Frisian, Norman, English, Scottish, and German crusaders on October 25, 1147. Travelling from England, by ship, to the Holy Land, the army stopped and helped the smaller (7,000) Portuguese army in the capture of Lisbon, after a four month siege, expelling its Moorish occupants.

1154 Henry II ascended to the English throne after King Stephen died on October 25, 1154.  He was crowned at Westminster Abbey on December 19, 1154. A man of simple tastes, Henry disliked pomp and ceremony and the trappings of monarchy. He was as willing to mingle with peasants as with his courtiers.

1400 Geoffrey Chaucer died October 25, 1400 of unknown causes having failed to complete his 14 year old project, Canterbury Tales. According to some theories, including one advanced by historian (and Monty Python alum) Terry Jones, Chaucer was murdered by political opponents. He was buried at Westminster Abbey. In 1556 his remains were transferred to a more ornate tomb, making Chaucer the first writer interred in the area now known as Poets' Corner.

1415 The Battle of Agincourt was fought on October 25, 1415 at the village of Agincourt, south of Calais, in northern France during the Hundred Years' War. Henry V of England defeated the French's much larger force of French under a divided command. Henry's triumph paved the way for English domination of most of France until the middle of the 15th century. 

1616 The Dutch sailing ship Eendracht reached Shark Bay on the western coastline of Australia on October 25, 1616, as documented on the Hartog Plate etched by explorer Dirk Hartog. The plate is the oldest-known artifact of European exploration in Australia still in existence.

Copy of Dirk Hartog's plate in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

1632 St Patrick's Purgatory is a great subterranean cave situated on Station Island in Lough Derg in Ulster, where the saint used to meditate on the judgement of God. The importance of The Purgatory of St Patrick in medieval times is illustrated by the fact that it is the only Irish site designated on Martin Behaim's world map of 1492. The cave has been closed since October 25, 1632, when the monastery on the island was dissolved.

1760 George II, the last British monarch born outside Great Britain, died on October 25, 1760. He reigned for 59 years and 2 months, which was longer than any other British monarch before him.
When George II died, he left explicit instructions for the sides of his and his wife’s coffins to be removed in order that their remains could mingle.

1764 On October 25, 1764 the daughter of a Congregational minister, Abigail, married John, who was the son of a farmer. The minister was so enraged that she was marrying beneath her that the lesson he read was from Luke 7 v33, "John came neither eating bread, nor drinking wine and some say he has a devil in him." John Adams (1735-1826) later became the second president of the United States.

John Adams – 1766 Portrait by Blyth

1825 Johann Strauss the Younger ('The Waltz King") was born in Vienna, Austria, on October 25, 1825. He was the eldest son of Johann Strauss the Elder who was popular in Europe as a conductor and composer. His two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard also became noted composers. Strauss the younger created over 500 works, and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna. Some of his most famous works include "The Blue Danube"  and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka". 

1838 French composer Georges Bizet was born in Paris on October 25, 1838. His father was a singing teacher, and his mother, a gifted pianist. A child prodigy, at 9 years old Georges entered the great Paris Conservatory of Music and rapidly developed into a brilliant pianist. Bizet achieved few successes in his lifetime; he died of a heart attack three months after the premiere of Carmen unaware that it would prove one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.

1854 The Charge of the Light Brigade was a gallant but disastrous charge of British light cavalry against the Russian entrenched artillery on October 25, 1854. It was made by the 4th and 13th Light Dragoons, 17th Lancers, and the 8th and 11th Hussars, under the command of Major General the Earl of Cardigan during the Battle of Balaclava. Casualty figures vary but at least 664 men took part in the Charge with at least 110 killed.

The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava by William Simpson (1855)

1854 The first Iowa State Fair was held in the more developed eastern part of the state at Fairfield between October 25–27, 1854, at a cost of around $323. The principal attraction was an equestrian exhibit by ten young ladies. In 1886 it found a permanent home in Des Moines.

1859 Chester Arthur  married Ellen "Nell" Herndon on October 25, 1859, at Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City. The couple were known for their parties in their Lexington Avenue townhouse in Manhattan. They had three children together. One of them, William died of convulsions at age two and a half, devastating his parents. Nell Arthur never lived to see her husband become US president. In fact, she died of pneumonia before he became vice president in 1880.

1861 The Toronto Stock Exchange  was officially established on October 25, 1861, with its first trading session taking place the same day. It has since played a vital role in the Canadian and global financial markets, listing a diverse range of companies from various sectors, including mining, petrochemicals, finance, technology. Today. it is the stock exchange with the most mining and petrochemical companies listed in the world.

1875 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in B Flat was premiered on October 25, 1875 in Boston, Massachusetts The pianist Hans Von Bulow was the soloist at the concerto’s premiere in Boston, where it went down a storm with the audience, but the critics were less impressed. One wrote that the concerto was "hardly destined ..to become classical".

The introductory theme to Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in B Flat 

1881 The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in the city of Málaga in the Andalusian region of Spain. He was the first child of Don José Ruiz y Blasco (1838–1913) and María Picasso y López. Pablo's mother had a difficult labor. The midwife, thinking baby Pablo was stillborn left him abandoned on the table, but fortunately his uncle, Don Salvador, hurried for a doctor who revived him with a lung full of cigar smoke.

1895 The German-born pianist and conductor Charles Hallé settled in England in 1848 and set up the Halle Orchestra and the Royal Manchester College of Music. Such was the love for Halle in Manchester that when he died on October 25, 1895, his funeral procession brought the city to a standstill.

1931 New York City's George Washington Bridge opened to vehicles on October 25, 1931. 56,312 cars and one horse crossed the structure on its first day. As of 2016, the George Washington Bridge carried over 103 million vehicles per year, making it the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge.

1936 On October 25, 1936, Italy's Benito Mussolini signed an alliance with Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany. The Axis grew out of the diplomatic efforts of two countries to secure their own specific expansionist interests in the mid-1930s.

1940 Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. was named the first African American general in the United States Army on October 25, 1940. Davis's son, Benjamin O. Davis Jr., became the first black general officer of the United States Air Force in October 1954.

Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. watches a Signal Corps crew erecting poles in 1944

1945 The Taiwan flag was first used in mainland China as the Navy flag in 1912 and was made the official national flag of the Republic of China (ROC) in 1928 by the Kuomintang (KMT). It was adopted as the official flag of Taiwan on October 25, 1945. The flag is no longer used in mainland China following the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

1962 Nelson Mandela was arrested in August 1962 near the South African town of Howick for conspiring to overthrow the state. On October 25, 1962 he was convicted of high treason and sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island. While he was in prison, Mandela would read William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus to fellow prisoners. The poem, about never giving up, resonated with Mandela for its lines "I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul."

1984 The American singer Katy Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson on October 25, 1984.
Both her parents are pastors and Katy grew up listening to gospel music - secular music was banned at home. In 2001, she released a Christian album named after herself, Katy Hudson. It sold fewer than 200 copies when it was first released.

1985 Emirates' maiden flight, K600, departed UAE's Dubai International airport for Karachi on October 25, 1985. The airline started with only two aircraft and $10 million in March 1985. Their goal was to launch the airline within five months. It is now the largest airline in the Middle East, operating over 3,600 flights per week from Dubai International Airport, to more than 140 cities in 81 countries across six continents.

2001 The flag of Rwanda was adopted on October 25, 2001. The blue band represents happiness and peace, the yellow band symbolizes economic development, and the green band symbolizes the hope of prosperity. The sun represents enlightenment.

Rwanda flag

2001 Windows XP, one of the most popular and widely used versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, was released for retail sale on October 25, 2001. Upon its release, Windows XP received critical acclaim, with critics noting increased performance and stability. It was succeeded by Windows Vista over five years later, the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft Windows desktop operating systems until Windows 10 and its successor.

2006 Krista and Tatiana Hogan (born October 25, 2006) are Canadians conjoined twins, who are joined at the head. Their brains are connected by a thalamic bridge which gives them unique neurological capabilities.The twins can feel and taste what the other is experiencing, hear each other’s thoughts without having to speak and see through one another’s eyes. 

2017 The Airbus A380, the largest passenger airliner in the world, entered commercial service on October 25, 2007 with Singapore Airlines. It is a double-deck wide-body airliner that can carry up to 853 passengers in a single-class configuration or 644 passengers in a three-class configuration. The A380 has a wingspan of 261.8 feet (80 meters) and is 240.7 feet (73.4 meters) long, roughly the length of eight buses.

2014 Peak Walk is a pedestrian suspension bridge in Switzerland linking the peak of Scex Rouge with another peak. When it opened on October 25, 2014, it became the world's first suspension bridge that connects two mountain peaks.  In addition, the bridge became the world's second highest suspension bridge after the Titlis Cliff Walk, which is 3,000 m (9,800 ft) above sea level.

2017 Sophia is a humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics. On October 25, 2017 Sophia was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot ever to have a nationality. Sophia has been covered by media around the globe and has participated in many high-profile interviews. Some replies have been nonsensical, while others have impressed interviewers.

2020 On October 25, 2020, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady  made four touchdown passes in the game against the Las Vegas Raiders. This took his all-time tally to 559 touchdown passes, breaking Drew Brees' all-time record.