On this day: May 25

Events on May 25

• 1644 Ming–Qing transition: Ming general Wu Sangui allowed the invading Manchu to cross the Great Wall of China, enabling them to capture Beijing and establish the Qing dynasty. Wikipedia
• 1782 American Revolutionary War: US Colonel William Crawford began a failed expedition to destroy British-allied American Indian towns along the Sandusky River in the Ohio Country. Wikipedia
• 1787 The Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia with the intention of revising the Articles of Confederation of the United States. Wikipedia
• 1810 The Primera Junta, the first independent government in Argentina, was established in an open cabildo in Buenos Aires, marking the end of the May Revolution. Wikipedia
• 1816 The poems Kubla Khan and Christabel by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge were published. Wikipedia
• 1878 Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore premiered at the Opera Comique in London. Wikipedia
• 1895 Oscar Wilde was sentenced by Alfred Wills to two years of hard labor for gross indecency. Wikipedia
• 1936 Employees of the Remington Rand company began an 11-month strike action, during which time the company executives developed the notorious "Mohawk Valley formula" to intimidate the strikers. Wikipedia
• 1940 Second World War: German troops captured Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, forcing British forces to evacuate via Dunkirk. Wikipedia
• 1944 The Wehrmacht and their collaborationist allies launched Operation Rösselsprung, a failed attempt to assassinate the Yugoslav Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito. Wikipedia
• 1955 Joe Brown and George Band, members of the British Kangchenjunga expedition, made the first ascent of the world's third-highest mountain but deliberately did not set foot on the summit. Wikipedia
• 1961 In an address to Congress, U.S. president John F. Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo program, with "the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth". Wikipedia
• 1961 A fire broke out at a squatter settlement in Bukit Ho Swee, Singapore, rendering approximately 16,000 people homeless. Wikipedia
• 1962 The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, the last overnight steamboat service in the United States, went out of business. Wikipedia
• 1967 Having purged a group of rivals, Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Il Sung delivered the "May 25 teaching", entrenching his son Kim Jong Il as his designated successor. Wikipedia
• 1971 Joetha Collier, a recent high school graduate, was killed in Drew, Mississippi, in a case that attracted widespread attention from civil rights activists. Wikipedia
• 1977 Star Wars (retroactively titled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) is released in US theaters. Wikipedia
• 1977 The Chinese government removes a decade-old ban on William Shakespeare's work, effectively ending the Cultural Revolution started in 1966. Wikipedia
• 1979 Six-year-old Etan Patz disappeared on his way to school in New York City, and later became one of the first missing children to have his picture featured on milk cartons. Wikipedia
• 1979 During takeoff from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, an engine detached from American Airlines Flight 191, causing a crash that killed 273 people in the deadliest aviation accident in United States history. Wikipedia
• 2008 NASA's Phoenix lander touches down in the Green Valley region of Mars to search for environments suitable for water and microbial life. Wikipedia
• 2009 North Korea conducted a nuclear test and several other missile tests that were widely condemned internationally and led to sanctions from the United Nations Security Council. Wikipedia
• 2011 The final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the highest-rated daytime talk show in U.S. television history, hosted by Oprah Winfrey, was broadcast. Wikipedia
• 2012 In a test flight, SpaceX's Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station. Wikipedia
• 2013 Naxalite insurgents of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) attacked a convoy of Indian National Congress leaders in the state of Chhattisgarh, causing at least 27 deaths. Wikipedia
• 2020 George Floyd, a black American man, was murdered during an arrest by a white police officer in Minneapolis, sparking protests in the U.S. and other countries. Wikipedia

Born on May 25

• 1803 Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and philosopher (died 1882) Wikipedia
• 1803 Edward Bulwer-Lytton, English author, playwright, and politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (died 1873) Wikipedia
• 1818 Jacob Burckhardt, Swiss historian and academic (died 1897) Wikipedia
• 1865 Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1943) Wikipedia
• 1865 John Mott, American evangelist and saint, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1955) Wikipedia
• 1887 Padre Pio, Italian priest and saint (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1889 Igor Sikorsky, Russian-American aircraft designer, founded Sikorsky Aircraft (died 1972) Wikipedia
• 1899 Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bengali poet, author, and flute player (died 1976) Wikipedia
• 1921 Jack Steinberger, German-Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1927 Robert Ludlum, American soldier and author (died 2001) Wikipedia
• 1938 Raymond Carver, American short story writer and poet (died 1988) Wikipedia
• 1939 Ian McKellen, English actor Wikipedia
• 1939 Dixie Carter, American actress and singer (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1944 Frank Oz, English-born American puppeteer, filmmaker, and actor Wikipedia
• 1953 Daniel Passarella, Argentinian footballer, coach, and manager Wikipedia
• 1963 Mike Myers, Canadian-American actor, singer, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1965 Yahya Jammeh, Gambian colonel and politician, President of the Gambia Wikipedia
• 1969 Anne Heche, American actress (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1970 Octavia Spencer, American actress and author[a] Wikipedia
• 1976 Cillian Murphy, Irish actor Wikipedia
• 1985 Roman Reigns, American football player and wrestler Wikipedia
• 1999 Ibrahima Konaté, French footballer Wikipedia

Died on May 25

• 986 Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, Muslim astronomer (born 903) Wikipedia
• 992 Mieszko I of Poland (born 935) Wikipedia
• 1085 Pope Gregory VII (born 1020) Wikipedia
• 1261 Pope Alexander IV (born 1185) Wikipedia
• 1681 Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spanish poet and playwright (born 1600) Wikipedia
• 1786 Peter III of Portugal (born 1717) Wikipedia
• 1899 Rosa Bonheur, French painter and sculptor (born 1822) Wikipedia
• 1926 Symon Petliura, Ukrainian journalist and politician (born 1879) Wikipedia
• 1934 Gustav Holst, English trombonist, composer, and educator (born 1874) Wikipedia
• 1954 Robert Capa, Hungarian photographer and journalist (born 1913) Wikipedia
• 1983 Idris of Libya (born 1889) Wikipedia
• 2014 Wojciech Jaruzelski, Polish general and politician, 1st President of Poland (born 1923) Wikipedia
• 2020 George Floyd, African American man murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin (born 1973) Wikipedia
• 2026 Sonny Rollins, American jazz musician (born 1930) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Africa Day (African Union) Wikipedia
• African Liberation Day (African Union, Rastafari) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Aldhelm Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bede Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Canius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Cristóbal Magallanes Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Denis Ssebuggwawo Wasswa Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Dionysius of Milan Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Dúnchad mac Cinn Fáelad Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gerard of Lunel Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Madeleine Sophie Barat Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Mary Magdalene de Pazzi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maximus (Mauxe) of Évreux Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Gregory VII Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Zenobius of Florence Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: May 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• First National Government / National Day (Argentina) Wikipedia
• Geek Pride Day (geek culture) Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Jordan from the United Kingdom in 1946. Wikipedia
• Last bell (Russia, post-Soviet countries) Wikipedia
• Liberation Day (Lebanon) Wikipedia
• International Missing Children's Day and its related observances: National Missing Children's Day (United States), Wikipedia
• National Tap Dance Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Towel Day in honour of the work of the writer Douglas Adams Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “May 25” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/May 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 “May 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 May 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.