| 25th 
            August, on this day  1537 The Honourable 
            Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British 
            Army, and the second most senior, is formed. 1580 Battle 
            of Alcantara, Spain defeats Portugal
 1609 Galileo 
            demonstrates his 1st telescope to Venetian lawmakers
 1689 Montreal taken by Iroquois
 1718 Hundreds of French colonists arrive in Louisiana; New Orleans, 
            founded
 1758 Seven 
            Years' War: Frederick 
            II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle 
            of Zorndorf.
 1768 James 
            Cook begins his first voyage.
 1804 Alice 
            Meynell becomes 1st woman jockey (England)
 1814 War 
            of 1812 : British capture Washington DC
 1825 Uruguay declares independence from Brazil (National Day)
 1830 Belgium 
            revolts against Netherlands
 1835 NY 
            Sun publishes Moon 
            hoax story about John Herschel
 1862 Secretary of War authorises Gen Rufus Saxton to arm 5,000 slaves
 1864 Petersburg 
            Campaign-Battle 
            of Ream's Station
 1875 Matthew Webb becomes 1st to swim English Channel (21h 45m)
 1886 1st international polo meet (US vs England)
 1894 Shibasaburo 
            Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic 
            plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.
 1904 Jim Jefferies KOs Jack Munroe and retains boxing heavyweight 
            title
 1910 Yellow 
            Cab is founded.
 1912 The 
            Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, is founded.
 1912 1st time an aircraft recovers from a spin
 1915 Hurricane kills 275 in Galveston, Texas with $50 million damage
 1919 The start of the world's first scheduled flights, between London 
            and Paris
 1920 1st US woman to win in Olympics (Ethelda 
            Bleibtrey)
 1920 Polish-Soviet 
            War: Battle 
            of Warsaw, started on August 13, now ends. The Red Army is defeated.
 1921 The first skirmishes of the Battle 
            of Blair Mountain occur.
 1921 US signs peace treaty with Germany
 1928 Opening of the famous Kop End at Liverpool Football Club's ground 
            at Anfield. Most likely named after the Battle 
            of Spion Kop during the Boer War, the word 'Kopje' meaning 'small 
            hill'.
 1929 In US, Graf 
            Zeppelin passes over SF for LA after trans-Pacific voyage
 1932 Amelia 
            Earhart completes transcontinental flight
 1933 Diexi 
            earthquake shook Mao County, Sichuan, China and killed 9,000 people
 1940 1st parachute wedding
 1942 Battle 
            of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
 1942 Second day of the Battle 
            of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport convoy headed 
            towards Guadalcanal is turned-back by Allied air attack, losing one 
            destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged
 1943 US forces overran New Georgia in Solomon Islands during WW II
 1944 Paris 
            liberated from Nazi occupation
 1945 Jewish immigrants are permitted to leave Mauritius for Palestine
 1945 Ten days after World War II ended with Japan 
            announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party 
            of China killed Baptist missionary John 
            Birch, regarded by a portion of the American right as the first 
            victim of the Cold War.
 1948 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.
 1950 Sugar 
            Ray Robinson KOs Jose Basora to win middleweight boxing title
 1960 Start of the 17th Olympic Games in Rome, at which a young American 
            boxer - Cassius Clay - wins the light-heavyweight gold medal
 1963 Paul McCartney is fined and 1 yr suspended license for speeding
 1967 Paraguay accepts its constitution
 1981 Jeff Schwartz, sets solo record for trampoline bouncing (266:09)
 1981 Mark Chapman, John Lennon's murderer, is sentenced to 20 years
 1981 Voyager 
            2's closest approach to Saturn (63,000 miles/100,000 km)
 1985 American singer Michael 
            Jackson pays $25 million for the rights to a catalogue of music 
            which includes copyright of more than 5,000 songs, including many 
            by the British group, The Beatles
 1986 Britain stages its first street motor race - along roads around 
            the centre of Birmingham
 1989 US spacecraft Voyager, completing its' 12-year voyage to Neptune, 
            sends pictures to Earth of the planet Triton, its' moon, and pictures 
            of two additional moons previously unknown to scientists
 1989 Tadeusz 
            Mazowiecki chosen as the first non-communist Prime Minister in 
            Central and Eastern Europe.
 1990 Li Hui Rong of China sets the triple jump women's record (47'8")
 1990 UN security council authorises military action against Iraq
 1991 Belarus 
            declares independence from the Soviet Union
 1991 Carl 
            Lewis runs 100m in 9.86 seconds
 1997 Egon 
            Krenz, the former East German leader, was convicted of a shoot-to-kill 
            Berlin Wall policy.
 1998 Sheryl Gascoigne, the wife for former England internatiuonal 
            footballer Paul 
            Gasgoine, is granted a divorce on the grounds of his unreasonable 
            behaviour
 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).
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        | Birthdates which 
            occurred on 25th August : 1530 Ivan IV (the 
            Terrible) 1st tsar of Russia (1533-84) 1724 George Stubbs England, animal painter (House Frightened by Lion)
 1819 Allan Pinkerton founded Chicago detective agency
 1836 Bret Harte US, author (Outcasts of Poker Flat)
 1841 Theodor Kocher Swiss surgeon, thyroid specialist (Nobel 1909)
 1845 Ludwig II mad king of Bavaria (1864-86)
 19-- Morgan Englund actor (Dylan Lewis-Guiding Light)
 1902 Stefan Wolpe Berlin Germany, composer (Zeus & Elidco)
 1905 Clara Bow silent movie actress (Wings, Down to the Sea in Ships)
 1906 William J Brennan Newark NJ, US supreme court justice (1957-90)
 1909 Michael Rennie actor (The Robe, Klatuu-Day the Earth Stood Still)
 1909 Ruby Keeler Halifax NS, dancer (Dames)
 1910 Pierre Musy Switzerland, 4-man bobsled (Olympic-gold-1936)
 1912 Erich Honecker Germany, East German political leader
 1913 Walt Kelly cartoonist, creator of "Pogo"
 1914 Alexei Haieff Blagovestchensk Siberia, composer (Princess Zondilda)
 1915 Walter Trampler Munich Germany, violist (Beaux Arts Trio)
 1916 Van Johnson Newport RI, actor (Brigadoon) always wore red socks
 1917 Don Defore Cedar Rapids Iowa, actor (George-Hazel, Ozzie & 
            Harriet)
 1917 Mel Ferrer Elberon NJ, actor (Longest Day, Eaten Alive, 5th Floor)
 1918 Leonard Bernstein conductor/composer/pianist/egotist
 1918 Richard Greene Plymouth England, actor (Adv of Robin Hood)
 1919 George C Wallace (D-gov-Ala) pres candidate
 1921 Brian Moore Ireland, novelist (Catholics, Doctor's Wife)
 1923 Monty Hall Winnipeg Canada, TV game show host (Let's Make a Deal)
 1927 Althea Gibson 1st black tennis champion in a major event
 1930 Graham Javis Toronto Ontario, actor (Charlie-Mary Hartman)
 1930 Page Johnson WV, actress (Passages from Finnegan's Wake)
 1930 Sean Connery actor (James Bond, Man Who Would Be King)
 1931 Regis Philbin host (Joey Bishop Show, Live with Regis & Kathie 
            Lee)
 1933 Tom Skerritt Detroit Mich, actor (Ryan's Four, Alien, Big Bad 
            Mama)
 1934 Valery F Bykovsky USSR, cosmonaut (Vostok V Soyuz 22 31/39)
 1935 David Canary Elwood Ind, actor (Peyton Place, Candy-Bonanza)
 1940 Jos‚ Van Dam Brussels Belgium, bass-baritone (Fran‡ois 
            d'Assisif)
 1942 Margaret Murdock US, small bore rifle (Olympic-silver-1976)
 1946 Rollie Fingers relief pitcher (Oakland Athletics)
 1947 Anne Archer LA Cal, actress (Too Scared to Scream, Fatal Attraction)
 1949 Gene Simmons Queens, NY, rocker (KISS-Beth)
 1949 John Savage Long Island NY, actor (Deer Hunter, Maria's Lovers)
 1951 Rob Halford heavy metal rocker (Judas Priest-Got Another Thing)
 1954 Elvis Costello [Declan Patrick McManus], rocker (Allison)
 1954 John Savage Old Bethpage NY, actor (Jim Malloy-Gibbsville)
 1954 Martin Jourard keyboardist/vocalist (Motels-Only the Lonely)
 1956 Matt Aitken rocker (Stock Aitken & Waterman-Road Block)
 1962 Mazzi Rawd heavy metal rocker
 1962 Vivian Campbell heavy metal rocker (White Snake-Here I Go Again)
 1964 Blair Underwood Tacoma Wash, actor (Jonathan-LA Law)
 1970 Claudia Schiffer Rheinbach Germany, super model (Elle, Rolling 
            Stone)
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deaths which occurred on August 25th:
 1789 Mary Ball Washington mother of George, dies
 1822 William Herschel discovered Uranus, dies at 85
 1835 Ann Rutledge said to be Lincoln's true love, dies in Ill at 22
 1900 Friedrich Nietzsche philosopher, dies in Weimar, Germany
 1901 Clara Maass army nurse sacrificied her life at 25 to prove that
 the mosquito carries yellow fever
 1967 George Lincoln Rockwell head of American Nazi Party, assassinated
 1968 John George actor (Kolb-Adventures of Fu Manchu), dies at 70
 1979 Stan Kenton orch leader (Music 55), dies at 67
 1980 Gower Champion dancer (Marge & Gower Champion Show), dies 
            at 60
 1984 Truman Capote author (In Cold Blood), dies
 1985 Samantha Smith actress (Elizabeth-Lime Street), dies at 13
 1986 Allen Case actor (Deputy, Legend of Jesse James), dies at 51
 1988 Price Daniel (Gov/Sen-D-Texas), dies at 77
 
 
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