On this day: January 25

Events on January 25

• 1348 A strong earthquake strikes the South Alpine region of Friuli in modern Italy, causing considerable damage to buildings as far away as Rome. Wikipedia
• 1515 Coronation of Francis I of France takes place at Reims Cathedral, where the new monarch is anointed with the oil of Clovis and girt with the sword of Charlemagne. 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
• 1575 Luanda, the capital of Angola, is founded by the Portuguese navigator Paulo Dias de Novais. Wikipedia
• 1585 Walter Raleigh is knighted, shortly after renaming a North American region as "Virginia", in honour of Elizabeth I, Queen of England, sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Wikipedia
• 1765 Port Egmont, the first British colony in the Falkland Islands, was founded. Wikipedia
• 1819 University of Virginia chartered by Commonwealth of Virginia, with Thomas Jefferson one of its founders. Wikipedia
• 1881 Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company. Wikipedia
• 1918 The Finnish Defence Forces (The White Guards) are established as the official army of independent Finland, and Baron C. G. E. Mannerheim is appointed its Commander-in-Chief. Wikipedia
• 1937 The Guiding Light debuts on NBC radio from Chicago. In 1952 it moves to CBS television, where it remains until September 18, 2009. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom. Wikipedia
• 1961 In Washington, D.C., US President John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference. Wikipedia
• 1971 Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president. Wikipedia
• 1979 Pope John Paul II starts his first official papal visits outside Italy to The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, and Mexico. Wikipedia
• 1980 Mother Teresa is honored with India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. Wikipedia
• 1986 The National Resistance Movement topples the government of Tito Okello in Uganda. Wikipedia
• 1995 The Norwegian rocket incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after it mistakes Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile. Wikipedia
• 1998 A suicide attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth kills eight and injures 25 others. 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
• 1999 A 6.0 magnitude earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000. 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 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Na'ameh, Lebanon, killing 90. 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

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
• 1886 Dean Ivan Lamb, American pioneer pilot and mercenary (died 1955) Wikipedia
• 1917 Ilya Prigogine, Russian-Belgian chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2003) Wikipedia
• 1923 Shirley Ardell Mason, American psychiatric patient (died 1998) 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
• 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
• 750 Ibrahim ibn al-Walid, Umayyad caliph Wikipedia
• 844 Pope Gregory IV (born 795) Wikipedia
• 951 Ma Xiguang, ruler of Chu (Ten Kingdoms) Wikipedia
• 1742 Edmond Halley, English astronomer (born 1656) Wikipedia
• 1881 Konstantin Thon, Russian architect, designed the Grand Kremlin Palace and Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (born 1794) Wikipedia
• 1891 Theo van Gogh, Art dealer, the brother of Vincent van Gogh (born 1857) Wikipedia
• 1947 Al Capone, American gangster and mob boss (born 1899) 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

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 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.