History Events on August 25

Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.

#Galileo_Galilei

Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall.

#Egon_Krenz

The first Great Moon Hoax article is published in The New York Sun, announcing the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon.

#Great_Moon_Hoax

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.

#Second_Polish_Republic

The United States National Park Service is created.

#National_Park_Service

Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, which began on August 13, ends with the Red Army's defeat.

#Polish-Soviet_War

The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day siege of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serb paramilitary forces, between August and November 1991 (during the Croatian War of Independence).

#Battle_of_Vukovar

France and Viet Nam sign the Treaty of Hu?, recognizing a French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin.

#French_Third_Republic

Kitasato Shibasabur? discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.

#Kitasato_Shibasabur?

Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux.

#Linus_Torvalds

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.

#Battle_of_the_Eastern_Solomons

The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.

#House_Un-American_Activities_Committee

Seven hundred Greek civilians, 17 British guards and the British Consul of Crete are killed by a Turkish mob in Heraklion, Greece.

#Consul_(representative)

Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 21 hours and 45 minutes.

#Matthew_Webb

The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, the Archbishop of Utrecht.

#Ommen

Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn.

#Voyager_2

Seven Years' War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.

#Seven_Years'_War

Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so.

#Voyager_1

World War I: Japan declares war on Austria-Hungary.

#World_War_I

António Mota and a few companions become the first Europeans to visit Japan.

#António_Mota

World War II: The first Bombing of Berlin by the British Royal Air Force.

#World_War_II

Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004. Over the next few days, the storm causes catastrophic flooding throughout much of eastern Texas, killing 106 people and causing $125 billion in damage.

#Hurricane_Harvey

War of the Portuguese Succession: Spanish victory at the Battle of Alcântara brings about the Iberian Union.

#War_of_the_Portuguese_Succession

Portuguese forces are defeated by the Kingdom of Kandy at the Battle of Randeniwela in Sri Lanka.

#Kingdom_of_Kandy

American fur trapper Hugh Glass is mauled by a grizzly bear while on an expedition in South Dakota.

#Hugh_Glass

War of 1812: On the second day of the Burning of Washington, British troops torch the Library of Congress, United States Treasury, Department of War, and other public buildings.

#War_of_1812

The Belgian Revolution begins.

#Belgian_Revolution

Uruguay declares its independence from Brazil.

#Uruguay

Emperor Constantine V humiliates nineteen high-ranking officials, after discovering a plot against him. He executes the leaders, Constantine Podopagouros and his brother Strategios.

#Constantine_V

Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko is sentenced to nine years imprisonment for money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion.

#Pavlo_Lazarenko

President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns after just seven months in power, initiating a political crisis that culminates in a military coup in 1964.

#Jânio_Quadros

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.

#Catholic_University_of_Leuven_(1834-1968)

Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union.

#Belarus

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army launches its second large-scale attack at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, prompting a massive military crackdown on Rohingya people by the Myanmar Army.

#Arakan_Rohingya_Salvation_Army

George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, is assassinated by a former member of his group.

#George_Lincoln_Rockwell

Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the second to last planet in the Solar System at the time.

#Voyager_2

King Louis IX of France dies in Tunis while on the Eighth Crusade.

#Louis_IX_of_France

Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.

#Zimbabwe

Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.

#Victory_over_Japan_Day

American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company are killed as their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas.

#Aaliyah

The Diexi earthquake strikes Mao County, Sichuan, China and kills 9,000 people.

#1933_Diexi_earthquake

World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.

#Liberation_of_Paris

President Harry Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.

The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.

Regent George Mouzalon and his brothers are killed during a coup headed by the aristocratic faction under Michael VIII Palaiologos, paving the way for its leader to ultimately usurp the throne of the Empire of Nicaea.