On this day: 25 January

Years ago today

Events · 27

• 750(Julian date)
  Battle of the Zab — 750 battle in Iraq
• 1348(Julian date)
  1348 Friuli earthquake — 1348 earthquake in Italy
• 1554(Julian date)
  São Paulo — largest city of Brazil, and capital of the State of São Paulo
• 1573(Julian date)
  Battle of Mikatagahara — 1573 battle in Japan
• 1819
  University of Virginia — public university in Charlottesville, Virginia
• 1879
  Bulgarian National Bank — central bank
• 1881
  Oriental Telephone Company — telecommunications company
• 1924
  1924 Winter Olympics — 1st Winter Olympics, in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France
• 1924
  World Organisation for Animal Health — intergovernmental organization
• 1937
  Guiding Light — American radio and television soap opera
• 1938
  Wen Hui Bao — Shanghai-based Chinese language newspaper
• 1941
  Diocese of Honolulu — diocese of the Catholic Church in the United States
• 1941
  Panjiayu Massacre — massacre by the Japanese in China
• 1944
  Ba Congress — 1944 Chetnik congress in Serbia
• 1964
  Nike — American athletic equipment company
• 1971
  1971 Ugandan coup d'état — military coup d'état in Uganda on 25 January 1971
• 1990
  Avianca Flight 052 — 1990 aviation accident in Cove Neck, New York, U.S.
• 1993
  1993 shootings at CIA Headquarters — American shooting
• 1995
  Norwegian rocket incident — false alarm incident
• 1996
  Green Party Taiwan — political party in Taiwan
• 1998
  1998 Temple of the Tooth attack — terrorist attack by LTTE
• 1999
  1999 Armenia, Colombia earthquake — january 1999 earthquake in Colombia
• 2010
  Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 — 2010 plane crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 90
• 2011
  2011 Egyptian revolution — political upheaval in Egypt, leading to ouster of President Hosni Mubarak
• 2013
  2013 Uribana prison riot — 2013 deadly prison riot in Barquisimeto, Venezuela
• 2015
  2015 Mamasapano clash — 2015 shootout between police and Islamist militants in Maguindanao, Philippines
• 2019
  Brumadinho dam disaster — iron ore dam failure in Brazil, disaster which occurred on 25 January 2019

Births · 60

• 750
  Leo IV the Khazar — Byzantine emperor
• 1477(Julian date)
  Anne of Brittany — Duchess of Brittany and twice Queen of France (1477-1514)
• 1627
  Robert Boyle — Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor (1627-1691)
• 1736
  Joseph-Louis Lagrange — Mathematician and astronomer (1736–1813)
• 1743
  Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi — German philosopher (1743-1819)
• 1759
  Robert Burns — Scottish poet and lyricist (1759–1796)
• 1843
  Hermann Schwarz — German mathematician (1843-1921)
• 1860
  Charles Curtis — vice president of the United States from 1929 to 1933
• 1860
  Katō Takaaki — Japanese politician (1860-1926)
• 1874
  William Somerset Maugham — English playwright and author (1874–1965)
• 1882
  Virginia Woolf — English modernist writer (1882–1941)
• 1886
  Wilhelm Furtwängler — German conductor and composer (1886–1954)
• 1894
  Aino Aalto — Finnish architect, designer and business leader (1894–1949)
• 1899
  Paul-Henri Spaak — Belgian politician (1899-1972)
• 1900
  Theodosius Dobzhansky — geneticist and evolutionary biologist (1900-1975)
• 1913
  Witold Lutosławski — Polish composer and conductor (1913-1994)
• 1917
  Ilya Prigogine — Russian-Belgian physical chemist (1917–2003)
• 1917
  Jânio Quadros — Brazilian politician, former president of Brazil (1961)
• 1923
  Arvid Carlsson — Swedish neuroscientist
• 1927
  Antônio Carlos Jobim — Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist (1927–1994)
• 1928
  Eduard Shevardnadze — Soviet and Georgian politician and diplomat, Soviet foreign minister and second President of Georgia (1995–2003)
• 1929
  Benny Golson — American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger (1929–2024)
• 1931
  Dean Jones — American actor (1931–2015)
• 1933
  Corazon Aquino — President of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992
• 1935
  António Ramalho Eanes — President of Portugal

Deaths · 60

• 168(Julian date)
  Emperor Huan of Han — Chinese Han Dynasty emperor from 146 to 168
• 389(Julian date)
  Gregory of Nazianzus — Christian saint and theologian (c. 329 – 390)
• 477(Julian date)
  Geiseric — King of the Vandals and Alans
• 844(Julian date)
  Gregory IV — Pope and bishop of Rome from 827 to 844
• 863(Julian date)
  Charles of Provence — King of Provence
• 1067(Julian date)
  Emperor Yingzong of Song — 5th Emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty
• 1138(Julian date)
  Anacletus II — antipope 1130 to 1138
• 1139(Julian date)
  Godfrey I — Count of Louvain (c. 1060–1139)
• 1366(Julian date)
  Henry Suso — German Dominican friar and mystic
• 1431(Julian date)
  Charles II of Lorraine — Duke of Lorraine
• 1559
  Christian II of Denmark — king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden
• 1578(Julian date)
  Mihrimah Sultan — Ottoman princess, daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent and Hürrem Sultan
• 1586
  Lucas Cranach the Younger — German Renaissance artist (1515–1586)
• 1640
  Robert Burton — English scholar (1577–1640)
• 1670
  Nicholas Francis — Catholic cardinal and Duke of Lorraine (1609–1670)
• 1726
  Guillaume de L'Isle — cartographer, geographer, bookseller (1675–1726)
• 1742
  Edmond Halley — English astronomer, mathematician, geophysicist, meteorologist and physicist (1656–1742)
• 1872
  Richard S. Ewell — Confederate Army general (1817–1872)
• 1881(Julian date)
  Konstantin Thon — Russian architect (1794–1881)
• 1891
  Theo Van Gogh — Dutch art dealer (1857-1891), brother of painter Vincent van Gogh
• 1900
  Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg — Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein from 1869 to 1880
• 1907
  René Pottier — French racing cyclist (1879–1907)
• 1908
  Ouida — British novelist (1839–1908)
• 1912(Julian date)
  Dmitry Milyutin — Russian general and noble (1816-1912)
• 1925
  Juan Vucetich — Croatian-born Argentine police official, pioneer in fingerprint classification systems