On this day: June 25

Events on June 25

• 1401 Schaffhausen massacre: 30 Jews are executed, following torture, after being accused of a blood libel in Schaffhausen (in present-day Switzerland). Wikipedia
• 1658 Spanish forces fail to retake Jamaica at the Battle of Rio Nuevo during the Anglo-Spanish War. Wikipedia
• 1788 Virginia becomes the tenth state to ratify the United States Constitution. Wikipedia
• 1900 The Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China. Wikipedia
• 1906 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania millionaire Harry Thaw shoots and kills prominent architect Stanford White. Wikipedia
• 1910 Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird is premiered in Paris, bringing him to prominence as a composer. Wikipedia
• 1913 American Civil War veterans begin arriving at the Great Reunion of 1913. Wikipedia
• 1940 Second World War: Operation Aerial, an evacuation of nearly 200,000 Allied soldiers from French ports, was completed. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: The French armistice with Nazi Germany comes into effect. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: The Continuation War between the Soviet Union and Finland, supported by Nazi Germany, began. Wikipedia
• 1943 The Holocaust and World War II: Jews in the Częstochowa Ghetto in Poland stage an uprising against the Nazis. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: U.S. Navy and Royal Navy ships bombarded Cherbourg, France, to support U.S. Army units engaged in the Battle of Cherbourg. Wikipedia
• 1950 The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea. Wikipedia
• 1950 The Korean War began with North Korean forces launching a pre-dawn raid over the 38th parallel into South Korea. Wikipedia
• 1950 The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 82 condemning the North Korean invasion of South Korea. Wikipedia
• 1975 Mozambique achieves independence from Portugal. Wikipedia
• 1975 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares a state of internal emergency in India. Wikipedia
• 1976 Missouri Governor Kit Bond issues an executive order rescinding the Extermination Order, formally apologizing on behalf of the state of Missouri for the suffering it had caused to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Wikipedia
• 1981 Microsoft is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington. Wikipedia
• 1991 The breakup of Yugoslavia begins when Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence from Yugoslavia. Wikipedia
• 1996 The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. servicemen. Wikipedia
• 2009 Singer Michael Jackson died as a result of the combination of drugs in his body. Wikipedia
• 2009 The death of American entertainer Michael Jackson triggers an outpouring of worldwide grief as reactions online cause the flow of internet traffic to surge to unprecedented and historic levels. Wikipedia
• 2013 In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the CIA acknowledged the existence of Area 51 (diagram pictured), a secretive U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada and a subject of various UFO, and other, conspiracy theories. Wikipedia
• 2022 Two people are killed and 21 more injured after a gunman opens fire at three sites in Oslo in a suspected Islamist anti-LGBTQ+ attack. Wikipedia
• 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russian forces captured the city of Sievierodonetsk, Ukraine, after six weeks of fighting. Wikipedia

Born on June 25

• 1852 Antoni Gaudí, Spanish architect, designed the Park Güell and the Sagrada Família (died 1926) Wikipedia
• 1864 Walther Nernst, German chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1941) Wikipedia
• 1894 Hermann Oberth, Romanian-German physicist and engineer (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1900 Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, English admiral and politician, 44th Governor-General of India (died 1979) Wikipedia
• 1903 George Orwell, British novelist, essayist, and critic (died 1950) Wikipedia
• 1907 J. Hans D. Jensen, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1973) Wikipedia
• 1908 Willard Van Orman Quine, American philosopher and academic (died 2000) Wikipedia
• 1911 William Howard Stein, American chemist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1980) Wikipedia
• 1924 Sidney Lumet, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1925 Robert Venturi, American architect and academic (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1926 Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian author and poet (died 1973) Wikipedia
• 1928 Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Russian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1928 Peyo, Belgian author and illustrator, created The Smurfs (died 1992) Wikipedia
• 1931 V. P. Singh, Indian lawyer and politician, 7th Prime Minister of India (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1936 B. J. Habibie, Indonesian engineer and politician, 3rd President of Indonesia (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1954 Sonia Sotomayor, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Wikipedia
• 1956 Anthony Bourdain, American chef and author (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1961 Ricky Gervais, English comedian, actor, director, producer and singer Wikipedia
• 1963 George Michael, English singer-songwriter and producer (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1963 Yann Martel, Spanish-born Canadian author Wikipedia
• 1972 Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Libyan engineer and politician (died 2026) Wikipedia
• 1975 Vladimir Kramnik, Russian chess player Wikipedia

Died on June 25

• 1014 Æthelstan Ætheling, son of Æthelred the Unready Wikipedia
• 1483 Richard Grey, half brother of Edward V of England (born 1458) Wikipedia
• 1767 Georg Philipp Telemann, German composer and theorist (born 1681) Wikipedia
• 1822 E. T. A. Hoffmann, German composer, critic, and jurist (born 1776) Wikipedia
• 1861 Abdülmecid I, Ottoman sultan (born 1823) Wikipedia
• 1876 George Armstrong Custer, American general (born 1839) Wikipedia
• 1894 Sadi Carnot, French engineer and politician, 5th President of France (born 1837) Wikipedia
• 1971 John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr, Scottish physician, biologist, and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1880) Wikipedia
• 1984 Michel Foucault, French historian and philosopher (born 1926) Wikipedia
• 1995 Ernest Walton, Irish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1903) Wikipedia
• 1995 Warren E. Burger, Fifteenth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (born 1907) Wikipedia
• 1997 Jacques Cousteau, French oceanographer and explorer (born 1910) Wikipedia
• 2009 Michael Jackson, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actor (born 1958) Wikipedia
• 2009 Farrah Fawcett, American actress and producer (born 1947) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Arbor Day (Philippines) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: David of Munktorp Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Dorothea of Montau Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Eurosia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maximus (Massimo) of Turin Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Moluag Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Our Lady of Medjugorje Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Philipp Melanchthon (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Presentation of the Augsburg Confession (Lutheran) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Prosper of Aquitaine Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Prosper of Reggio Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: William of Montevergine Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: June 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Mozambique from Portugal in 1975. Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Croatia) Wikipedia
• National Catfish Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Statehood Day (Slovenia) Wikipedia
• Statehood Day (Virginia) Wikipedia
• Teacher's Day (Guatemala) Wikipedia
• World Vitiligo Day Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “June 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.