421 The city of Venice was originally populated by refugees from mainland cities sacked by the Huns. According to legend, it was founded exactly at the stroke of noon with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo at the islet of Rialto on March 25, 421 (the Feast of the Annunciation).
1016 Olaf Haraldsson saw his call to unite Norway into one kingdom. After spending his teenage years in Denmark and England, he returned to Norway in 1015 and declared himself king, obtaining the support of the five petty kings of the Uplands. At the Battle of Nesjar, which was fought off the coast of Norway on March 25, 1016, Olaf Haraldsson was victorious over former co-regent Sweyn Haakonsson confirming his status as Olaf II, King of Norway.
1199 King Richard I of England was wounded in the left shoulder by a crossbow bolt launched from a tower by Bertrand de Gourdon in the early evening of March 25, 1199, whilst besieging the small castle of Chalus in France. He died of his wound two weeks later.
1306 Robert the Bruce was crowned as Robert I of Scotland at Scone on March 25, 1306. The coronation took place in defiance of the English claims of suzerainty over Scotland after the execution of Sir William Wallace. England's unimpressed monarch, Edward I, attempted to oust him.
He was crowned as Robert I by his mistress, Isabella, Countess of Buchan, who claimed the right of her family, the Macduff Earls of Fife, to place the Scottish king on his throne.
1436 Construction of Florence's cathedral started in 1296 but the building of the dome didn't begin until August 7, 1420. It was the first 'octagonal' dome in history to be built without a temporary wooden supporting frame. Containing four million bricks and weighing 37,000 tonnes, the dome is a spectacular feat of renaissance engineering. The cathedral was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV on March 25, 1436, (the first day of the year according to the then-Florentine calendar).
1584 On March 25, 1584, Queen Elizabeth I granted Walter Raleigh a royal charter authorizing him to found a colony in North America in return for one-fifth of all the gold and silver that might be mined there. Raleigh and Elizabeth intended that the venture should provide riches from the New World. Raleigh organised two expeditions, attempting unsuccessfully to establish a settlement on Roanoke Island in Virginia.
1586 The 30 year old Margaret Clitherow, the wife of a York butcher who'd converted to Catholicism was imprisoned and then crushed to death with a weighted board on March 25, 1586. The martyr's 'crime' was hiding Catholic priests and attempting to smuggle them out of the city.
1655 Saturn has hundreds of moonlets and at least 62 moons, which orbit the planet. Saturn's largest moon Titan was discovered on March 25, 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens.
Titan is larger than the planet Mercury. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System and the only one with a substantial atmosphere. Its thick atmosphere is orange due to a dense organonitrogen haze.
1752 After the fall of the Roman Empire, which traditionally began the year on January 1st, there wasn't a universally agreed-upon date for the New Year in Europe. In many parts of Europe the New Year was celebrated on March 25th, which coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation, a significant Christian holiday celebrating the day the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive Jesus. England continued this tradition until 1752.
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| Venice By Didier Descouens |
1016 Olaf Haraldsson saw his call to unite Norway into one kingdom. After spending his teenage years in Denmark and England, he returned to Norway in 1015 and declared himself king, obtaining the support of the five petty kings of the Uplands. At the Battle of Nesjar, which was fought off the coast of Norway on March 25, 1016, Olaf Haraldsson was victorious over former co-regent Sweyn Haakonsson confirming his status as Olaf II, King of Norway.
1199 King Richard I of England was wounded in the left shoulder by a crossbow bolt launched from a tower by Bertrand de Gourdon in the early evening of March 25, 1199, whilst besieging the small castle of Chalus in France. He died of his wound two weeks later.
1306 Robert the Bruce was crowned as Robert I of Scotland at Scone on March 25, 1306. The coronation took place in defiance of the English claims of suzerainty over Scotland after the execution of Sir William Wallace. England's unimpressed monarch, Edward I, attempted to oust him.
He was crowned as Robert I by his mistress, Isabella, Countess of Buchan, who claimed the right of her family, the Macduff Earls of Fife, to place the Scottish king on his throne.
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| Bruce crowned King of Scots; modern tableau at Edinburgh Castle By Kim Traynor |
1436 Construction of Florence's cathedral started in 1296 but the building of the dome didn't begin until August 7, 1420. It was the first 'octagonal' dome in history to be built without a temporary wooden supporting frame. Containing four million bricks and weighing 37,000 tonnes, the dome is a spectacular feat of renaissance engineering. The cathedral was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV on March 25, 1436, (the first day of the year according to the then-Florentine calendar).
1584 On March 25, 1584, Queen Elizabeth I granted Walter Raleigh a royal charter authorizing him to found a colony in North America in return for one-fifth of all the gold and silver that might be mined there. Raleigh and Elizabeth intended that the venture should provide riches from the New World. Raleigh organised two expeditions, attempting unsuccessfully to establish a settlement on Roanoke Island in Virginia.
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| The arrival of the Englishmen in Virginia (1590). |
1586 The 30 year old Margaret Clitherow, the wife of a York butcher who'd converted to Catholicism was imprisoned and then crushed to death with a weighted board on March 25, 1586. The martyr's 'crime' was hiding Catholic priests and attempting to smuggle them out of the city.
1655 Saturn has hundreds of moonlets and at least 62 moons, which orbit the planet. Saturn's largest moon Titan was discovered on March 25, 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens.
Titan is larger than the planet Mercury. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System and the only one with a substantial atmosphere. Its thick atmosphere is orange due to a dense organonitrogen haze.
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| Titan |
1752 After the fall of the Roman Empire, which traditionally began the year on January 1st, there wasn't a universally agreed-upon date for the New Year in Europe. In many parts of Europe the New Year was celebrated on March 25th, which coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation, a significant Christian holiday celebrating the day the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive Jesus. England continued this tradition until 1752.
1807 The MP William Wilberforce was devoted to the abolition of the slave trade. He said "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the reformation of manners." Thanks largely to the efforts of William Wilberforce, the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire on March 25, 1807 though all existing slaves were still bound to their masters. Britain was the first Western country to abolish the slave trade.
1807 The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, became the first passenger carrying railway in the world on March 25, 1807. Originally built under an Act of Parliament of 1804 to move limestone from the quarries of Mumbles to Swansea and to the markets beyond, it carried the world's first fare-paying railway passengers three years later. It moved from horse power to steam locomotion in 1877.
1810 The Commercial Bank of Scotland was founded by John Pitcairn, Lord Cockburn and others on March 25, 1810 in response to public dissatisfaction with the three charter banks. In 1969, the bank merged with the Royal Bank of Scotland to become the largest clearing bank in Scotland.
1811 In 1810 two students at Oxford University, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Thomas Jefferson Hogg sent a radical anti religion pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism, to the heads of the colleges. Both students refused to answer questions about the pamphlet and were expelled on March 25, 1811. Shelley could have been reinstated at Oxford, following the intervention of his father, had he recanted his avowed views. Shelley refused, which led to a total break between himself and his father.
1821 The traditional date of the start of the Greek War of Independence is March 25, 1821, though the war actually began February 23, 1821. The date was chosen in the early years of Greece's sovereignty so that it falls on the day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, strengthening the ties between the Greek Orthodox Church and the newly-found state.
1857 William Colgate, the founder of what became the Colgate toothpaste company, died on March 25, 1857. William Colgate started a candle, starch and soap making company on Dutch Street in New York City under the name of "William Colgate & Company" in 1806. Colgate became in 1896 the first company to manufacture toothpaste in a collapsible tube, similar to the tubes that had just been introduced for artist's oil colors. Originally toothpaste were sold in jars, then later metal tubes.
1857 Leon Scott de Martinville invented the "Phonautograph", the world's first record player. He received on March 25, 1857 a French patent for his device. The phonautograph only created visual images of the sound and did not have the ability to play back its recordings. Scott de Martinville's device was used for scientific investigations of sound waves and proved useful in the study of vowel sounds. However, it wasn't commercially viable.
1894 In 1894 a crowd of workers unemployed due to the Panic of 1893 conducted the first significant popular protest march. The Coxey's Army March originated with 100 men in Massillon, Ohio, on March 25, 1894. At its peak, the march reportedly had between 500 and 1,000 participants, who marched to Washington D.C. to demand action from the federal government. However, the marchers were met with resistance from police and the military, and Coxey was arrested for trespassing on the Capitol grounds.
1807 The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, became the first passenger carrying railway in the world on March 25, 1807. Originally built under an Act of Parliament of 1804 to move limestone from the quarries of Mumbles to Swansea and to the markets beyond, it carried the world's first fare-paying railway passengers three years later. It moved from horse power to steam locomotion in 1877.
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| Horse-powered train on the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, Wales |
1810 The Commercial Bank of Scotland was founded by John Pitcairn, Lord Cockburn and others on March 25, 1810 in response to public dissatisfaction with the three charter banks. In 1969, the bank merged with the Royal Bank of Scotland to become the largest clearing bank in Scotland.
1811 In 1810 two students at Oxford University, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Thomas Jefferson Hogg sent a radical anti religion pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism, to the heads of the colleges. Both students refused to answer questions about the pamphlet and were expelled on March 25, 1811. Shelley could have been reinstated at Oxford, following the intervention of his father, had he recanted his avowed views. Shelley refused, which led to a total break between himself and his father.
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| 1811 title page |
1821 The traditional date of the start of the Greek War of Independence is March 25, 1821, though the war actually began February 23, 1821. The date was chosen in the early years of Greece's sovereignty so that it falls on the day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, strengthening the ties between the Greek Orthodox Church and the newly-found state.
1857 William Colgate, the founder of what became the Colgate toothpaste company, died on March 25, 1857. William Colgate started a candle, starch and soap making company on Dutch Street in New York City under the name of "William Colgate & Company" in 1806. Colgate became in 1896 the first company to manufacture toothpaste in a collapsible tube, similar to the tubes that had just been introduced for artist's oil colors. Originally toothpaste were sold in jars, then later metal tubes.
1857 Leon Scott de Martinville invented the "Phonautograph", the world's first record player. He received on March 25, 1857 a French patent for his device. The phonautograph only created visual images of the sound and did not have the ability to play back its recordings. Scott de Martinville's device was used for scientific investigations of sound waves and proved useful in the study of vowel sounds. However, it wasn't commercially viable.
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| An early phonautograph (1859). The barrel is made of plaster of Paris |
1894 In 1894 a crowd of workers unemployed due to the Panic of 1893 conducted the first significant popular protest march. The Coxey's Army March originated with 100 men in Massillon, Ohio, on March 25, 1894. At its peak, the march reportedly had between 500 and 1,000 participants, who marched to Washington D.C. to demand action from the federal government. However, the marchers were met with resistance from police and the military, and Coxey was arrested for trespassing on the Capitol grounds.
1911 A tragic fire that broke out on March 25, 1911 in the New York City Triangle Shirtwaist Company, trapped numerous immigrant workers behind locked doors. Many jumped to their deaths from the garment factory, or were burned beyond recognition. In total, the 18-minute fire left 146 dead. However, they did not die in vain as new laws were passed to protect children and others from slave-type labor conditions. The owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company were indicted for manslaughter.
1914 American agronomist Norman Borlaug was born on March 25, 1914. In the 1970's, he developed a new strain of wheat that was heavily disease resistant and could grow in very arid conditions. Between 1965 and 1970, Pakistan, Mexico, and India more than doubled their food supplies. His initiatives worldwide are said to have saved a billion lives.
1918 In 1909 the French composer Claude Debussy learned that he was afflicted with rectal cancer, from which he died on March 25, 1918. He was interred at Paris Cimetière de Passy. His music, which is known for its impressionistic style and innovative use of harmony and timbre, continues to be widely performed and admired around the world. Some of his most famous works include "Clair de Lune," "La Mer," and "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun."
1925 The flag of Panama was made by María de la Ossa de Amador and officially adopted on March 25, 1925. The stars and quarters are said to stand for the rival political parties (blue was the color of the Conservatives, and red the color of the Liberals), and the white is the peace in which they operate.
1925 John Logie Baird, a Scottish electrical engineer gave the first public demonstration of televised silhouette images in motion at Selfridge's Department Store in London on March 25, 1925. Baird's early system used a large spinning disc through which a picture could be broken down into horizontal lines.
1947 Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on March 25, 1947 in Pinner, Middlesex, the eldest child of Stanley Dwight, who served as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force and only child of Sheila Eileen (Harris). Reginald started playing the piano at the age of 3, and within a year, his mother heard him picking out Winifred Atwell's "The Skater's Waltz" by ear. He started formal piano lessons at the age of 7.
1949 Laurence Olivier's movie version of Shakespeare's Hamlet was released in 1948, with Olivier playing the titular character. The film was critically acclaimed and won four Academy Awards - Best Picture, Best Actor (Olivier), Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design - at the 1949 Academy Awards ceremony held on March 25, 1949. It was the first time a British movie won the Best Picture award at the Oscars.
1949 The extensive deportation campaign known as March deportation was conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on March 25–28, 1949 to force collectivization by way of terror. The Soviet authorities deported more than 92,000 people from the Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union. Over 70% of the deportees were women, and children under the age of 16.
1957 West Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg signed the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957, which established the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). These two organizations laid the foundation for the modern European Union.
1914 American agronomist Norman Borlaug was born on March 25, 1914. In the 1970's, he developed a new strain of wheat that was heavily disease resistant and could grow in very arid conditions. Between 1965 and 1970, Pakistan, Mexico, and India more than doubled their food supplies. His initiatives worldwide are said to have saved a billion lives.
1918 In 1909 the French composer Claude Debussy learned that he was afflicted with rectal cancer, from which he died on March 25, 1918. He was interred at Paris Cimetière de Passy. His music, which is known for its impressionistic style and innovative use of harmony and timbre, continues to be widely performed and admired around the world. Some of his most famous works include "Clair de Lune," "La Mer," and "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun."
1925 The flag of Panama was made by María de la Ossa de Amador and officially adopted on March 25, 1925. The stars and quarters are said to stand for the rival political parties (blue was the color of the Conservatives, and red the color of the Liberals), and the white is the peace in which they operate.
1925 John Logie Baird, a Scottish electrical engineer gave the first public demonstration of televised silhouette images in motion at Selfridge's Department Store in London on March 25, 1925. Baird's early system used a large spinning disc through which a picture could be broken down into horizontal lines.
1947 Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on March 25, 1947 in Pinner, Middlesex, the eldest child of Stanley Dwight, who served as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force and only child of Sheila Eileen (Harris). Reginald started playing the piano at the age of 3, and within a year, his mother heard him picking out Winifred Atwell's "The Skater's Waltz" by ear. He started formal piano lessons at the age of 7.
1949 Laurence Olivier's movie version of Shakespeare's Hamlet was released in 1948, with Olivier playing the titular character. The film was critically acclaimed and won four Academy Awards - Best Picture, Best Actor (Olivier), Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design - at the 1949 Academy Awards ceremony held on March 25, 1949. It was the first time a British movie won the Best Picture award at the Oscars.
1949 The extensive deportation campaign known as March deportation was conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on March 25–28, 1949 to force collectivization by way of terror. The Soviet authorities deported more than 92,000 people from the Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union. Over 70% of the deportees were women, and children under the age of 16.
1957 West Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg signed the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957, which established the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). These two organizations laid the foundation for the modern European Union.
1969 During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono held their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel between March 25- 31 1969. They'd married five days earlier at the British-owned Rock of Gibraltar in Spain.
1971 The Bangladesh Liberation War began after the Pakistani military junta based in West Pakistan launched Operation Searchlight against the people of East Pakistan on the night of March 25, 1971. It pursued the systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, religious minorities and armed personnel and resulted in the flight of 10 million East Pakistani refugees to India.
1981 In 1981, members of the Polish Solidarity movement were attacked by the government's security services. Talks between the movement's leader, Lech Wałęsa, and Deputy PM Rakowski on March 25, 1981, were unsuccessful. Two days later, 12 million Poles went on a four-hour warning strike. It was the biggest strike in the history of the Eastern Bloc, during which at least 12 million Poles walked off their jobs.
1994 In the early 1990s customary law temporarily collapsed in Somalia due to the fighting among various rebel groups. President George H.W. Bush ordered “Operation Restore Hope,” to help the starving country by protecting food shipments from the warlords. By helping to end the famine, American forces saved around 100,000 lives. The last U.S. troops departed Somalia on March 25, 1994, ending a mission in which 42 U.S. soldiers died.
1994 In the early 1990s customary law temporarily collapsed in Somalia due to the fighting among various rebel groups. President George H.W. Bush ordered “Operation Restore Hope,” to help the starving country by protecting food shipments from the warlords. By helping to end the famine, American forces saved around 100,000 lives. The last U.S. troops departed Somalia on March 25, 1994, ending a mission in which 42 U.S. soldiers died.
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