On this day: January 25

Events on January 25

• 1515 Francis I, a great-great-grandson of Charles V, was crowned king of France in the Reims Cathedral. Wikipedia
• 1533 Anne Boleyn, already pregnant with the future Elizabeth I, secretly married Henry VIII of England in the second of his six marriages. Wikipedia
• 1554 São Paulo, Brazil, is founded by Jesuit priests. Wikipedia
• 1704 English colonists from the Province of Carolina and their native allies began a series of raids against the largely peaceful population of Apalachee in Spanish Florida. Wikipedia
• 1725 Privateer Amaro Pargo was declared a hidalgo, a member of the Spanish nobility. Wikipedia
• 1765 Port Egmont, the first British colony in the Falkland Islands, was founded. Wikipedia
• 1792 Thomas Hardy founded the London Corresponding Society to seek a "radical reform of parliament", later influencing the reform movements of early-19th-century England. Wikipedia
• 1890 American journalist Nellie Bly completed a circumnavigation of the globe by land and sea in a then-record-breaking 72 days. Wikipedia
• 1917 Serving as a British armed merchant cruiser, Laurentic was sunk by German naval mines off the northern coast of Ireland, resulting in 354 deaths. Wikipedia
• 1924 The 1924 Winter Olympics opens in Chamonix, in the French Alps, inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games. Wikipedia
• 1932 The Alt Llobregat insurrection was suppressed in central Catalonia, and over 100 Catalan anarchist activists were arrested and deported. Wikipedia
• 1944 Representatives of the Chetnik movement began a four-day congress to organise political opposition to the Allied support of the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans in Yugoslavia. Wikipedia
• 1961 Walt Disney Productions released the animated feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians, based on Dodie Smith's 1956 children's novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Wikipedia
• 1967 South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Cao Kỳ fired his rival Nguyễn Hữu Có while the latter was overseas on a diplomatic visit. Wikipedia
• 1971 Idi Amin seized power from Ugandan president Milton Obote in a coup d'état, beginning eight years of military rule. Wikipedia
• 1990 Avianca Flight 52 ran out of fuel on approach to John F. Kennedy International Airport and crashed into the village of Cove Neck, New York, resulting in the deaths of 73 people. Wikipedia
• 1993 Pakistani national Mir Aimal Kansi shot five people outside the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia, killing two. Wikipedia
• 1995 A team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII sounding rocket, which was mistaken by Russian forces for a Trident missile. Wikipedia
• 1998 The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam detonated a truck bomb at the sacred Buddhist Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, killing 17 people. Wikipedia
• 1998 During a historic visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II demands political reforms and the release of political prisoners while condemning US attempts to isolate the country. Wikipedia
• 2003 Invasion of Iraq: A group of people leave London, England, for Baghdad, Iraq, to serve as human shields, intending to prevent the U.S.-led coalition troops from bombing certain locations. Wikipedia
• 2004 Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity landed on Mars and rolled into Eagle crater, a small crater on the Meridiani Planum. Wikipedia
• 2006 Three independent observing campaigns announced the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, a super-Earth 21,500 ± 3,300 light-years away from Earth near the center of the Milky Way. Wikipedia
• 2010 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409, en route to Addis Ababa, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff from Beirut, Lebanon, killing all 90 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2010 Avatar, a science-fiction film directed by James Cameron, became the highest-grossing film of all time. Wikipedia
• 2011 Arab Spring: The Egyptian revolution began with protests on the "Day of Anger", eventually leading to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years of rule. Wikipedia

Born on January 25

• 1477 Anne of Brittany (probable; died 1514) Wikipedia
• 1627 Robert Boyle, Anglo-Irish chemist and physicist (died 1691) Wikipedia
• 1736 Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Italian-French mathematician and astronomer (died 1813) Wikipedia
• 1759 Robert Burns, Scottish poet and songwriter (died 1796) Wikipedia
• 1860 Charles Curtis, American lawyer and politician, 31st Vice President of the United States (died 1936) Wikipedia
• 1874 W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, novelist, and short story writer (died 1965) Wikipedia
• 1882 Virginia Woolf, English novelist, essayist, short story writer, and critic (died 1941) Wikipedia
• 1899 Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian lawyer and politician, 46th Prime Minister of Belgium (died 1972) Wikipedia
• 1917 Ilya Prigogine, Russian-Belgian chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2003) Wikipedia
• 1923 Arvid Carlsson, Swedish pharmacologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1927 Antônio Carlos Jobim, Brazilian singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1928 Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgian general and politician, 2nd President of Georgia (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1933 Corazon Aquino, Filipino politician, 11th President of the Philippines (died 2009) Wikipedia
• 1938 Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian singer-songwriter, actor, and poet (died 1980) Wikipedia
• 1938 Etta James, American singer (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1942 Eusébio, Mozambican-Portuguese footballer (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1949 Paul Nurse, English geneticist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1978 Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian actor, comedian, and politician, 6th President of Ukraine Wikipedia
• 1978 Charlene, Princess of Monaco Wikipedia
• 1980 Xavi, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1981 Alicia Keys, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress Wikipedia
• 1984 Robinho, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia

Died on January 25

• 390 Gregory Nazianzus, theologian and Patriarch of Constantinople (born 329) Wikipedia
• 477 Gaiseric, king of the Vandals (born 389) Wikipedia
• 844 Pope Gregory IV (born 795) Wikipedia
• 1559 Christian II of Denmark (born 1481) Wikipedia
• 1640 Robert Burton, English physician and scholar (born 1577) Wikipedia
• 1742 Edmond Halley, English astronomer (born 1656) Wikipedia
• 1852 Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian admiral, cartographer, and explorer (born 1778) Wikipedia
• 1947 Al Capone, American gangster and mob boss (born 1899) Wikipedia
• 1982 Mikhail Suslov, Russian economist and politician (born 1902) Wikipedia
• 1990 Ava Gardner, American actress (born 1922) Wikipedia
• 2005 Philip Johnson, American architect, designed the PPG Place and Crystal Cathedral (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 2015 Demis Roussos, Egyptian-Greek singer (born 1946) Wikipedia
• 2017 John Hurt, English actor (born 1940) Wikipedia
• 2017 Mary Tyler Moore, American actress and producer (born 1936) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Betico Day (Aruba) Wikipedia
• Burns Night (Scotland) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Dydd Santes Dwynwen (Wales) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches, which concludes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gregory the Theologian (Eastern (Byzantine) Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: The last day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Christian ecumenism) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: January 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• National Nutrition Day (Indonesia) Wikipedia
• National Police Day (Egypt) Wikipedia
• National Voters' Day (India) Wikipedia
• Revolution Day 2011 (Egypt) Wikipedia
• Tatiana Day or Russian Students Day (Russia, Eastern Orthodox) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “January 25” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/January 25” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “January 25” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for January 25 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.