On this day: November 25

Events on November 25

• 1343 A tsunami, caused by an earthquake in the Tyrrhenian Sea, devastates Naples and the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, among other places. Wikipedia
• 1759 An earthquake hits the Mediterranean destroying Beirut and Damascus and killing 30,000–40,000. Wikipedia
• 1833 A massive undersea earthquake, estimated magnitude between 8.7 and 9.2, rocks Sumatra, producing a massive tsunami all along the Indonesian coast. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: Battle of Missionary Ridge: Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant break the Siege of Chattanooga by routing Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg at Missionary Ridge in Tennessee. Wikipedia
• 1874 The United States Greenback Party is established as a political party consisting primarily of farmers affected by the Panic of 1873. Wikipedia
• 1901 Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 premiered in Munich. Wikipedia
• 1912 Românul de la Pind, the longest-running newspaper by and about Aromanians prior to World War II, ceases its publications. Wikipedia
• 1915 Albert Einstein presents the field equations of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: German forces defeat Portuguese army of about 1,200 at Negomano on the border of modern-day Mozambique and Tanzania. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: German troops invaded Portuguese East Africa in an attempt to escape superior British forces to the north and resupply from captured Portuguese materiel. Wikipedia
• 1936 In Berlin, Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, agreeing to consult on measures "to safeguard their common interests" in the case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against either nation. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: HMS Barham is sunk by a German torpedo. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: Statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina is re-established at the State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Wikipedia
• 1952 Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End after a premiere in Nottingham, UK. It will become the longest continuously running play in history. Wikipedia
• 1960 The Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic are assassinated. Wikipedia
• 1968 The Old Student House in Helsinki, Finland is occupied by a large group of University of Helsinki students. Wikipedia
• 1975 Suriname gains independence from the Netherlands. Wikipedia
• 1975 Coup of 25 November 1975, a failed military coup d'état by Portuguese far-left activists seeking to hijack the Portuguese transition to democracy to establish a communist regime. Wikipedia
• 1981 Pope John Paul II appoints Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Wikipedia
• 1981 A group of Conservative members of Parliament wrote a letter outlining their opposition to the economic policy of Margaret Thatcher, leading to speculation over a split from the party. Wikipedia
• 1984 Thirty-six top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. Wikipedia
• 1986 Iran–Contra affair: U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Wikipedia
• 1987 Typhoon Nina pummels the Philippines with category 5 winds of 265 km/h (165 mph) and a surge that destroys entire villages. At least 1,036 deaths are attributed to the storm. Wikipedia
• 1992 The Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with effect from January 1, 1993. Wikipedia
• 2000 The 2000 Baku earthquake, with a Richter magnitude of 7.0 kills 26 people dead in Baku, Azerbaijan, being the strongest earthquake in the region in 158 years. Wikipedia
• 2008 Cyclone Nisha strikes northern Sri Lanka, killing 15 people and displacing 90,000 others while dealing the region the highest rainfall in nine decades. Wikipedia

Born on November 25

• 1562 Lope de Vega, Spanish playwright and poet (died 1635) Wikipedia
• 1609 Henrietta Maria of France, Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland (died 1669) Wikipedia
• 1638 Catherine of Braganza, Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland (died 1705) Wikipedia
• 1814 Julius Robert von Mayer, German physician and physicist (died 1878) Wikipedia
• 1835 Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist (died 1919) Wikipedia
• 1844 Karl Benz, German engineer and businessman, founded Mercedes-Benz (died 1929) Wikipedia
• 1845 José Maria de Eça de Queirós, Portuguese-French journalist and author (died 1900) Wikipedia
• 1862 Gustaf Söderström, Swedish tug of war competitor, shot putter, and discus thrower (died 1958) Wikipedia
• 1881 Pope John XXIII (died 1963) Wikipedia
• 1887 Nikolai Vavilov, Russian botanist and geneticist (died 1943) Wikipedia
• 1895 Anastas Mikoyan, Soviet politician, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (died 1978) Wikipedia
• 1895 Ludvík Svoboda, Czech general and politician, 8th President of Czechoslovakia (died 1979) Wikipedia
• 1900 Rudolf Höss, German SS officer, commandant of Auschwitz, convicted war criminal (died 1947) Wikipedia
• 1901 Arthur Liebehenschel, German SS officer, commandant of Auschwitz and later Majdanek, convicted war criminal (died 1948) Wikipedia
• 1915 Augusto Pinochet, Chilean general and politician, 30th President of Chile (died 2006) Wikipedia
• 1923 Mauno Koivisto, Finnish banker and politician, 9th President of Finland (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1926 Poul Anderson, American author (died 2001) Wikipedia
• 1971 Christina Applegate, American actress Wikipedia
• 1981 Xabi Alonso, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1984 Gaspard Ulliel, French actor (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1986 Katie Cassidy, American actress Wikipedia
• 2002 Pedri, Spanish footballer Wikipedia

Died on November 25

• 311 Pope Peter I of Alexandria Wikipedia
• 1120 William Adelin, son of Henry I of England (sinking of the White Ship) (born 1103) Wikipedia
• 1185 Pope Lucius III (born 1097) Wikipedia
• 1885 Thomas A. Hendricks, American lawyer and politician, 21st Vice President of the United States (born 1819) Wikipedia
• 1885 Alfonso XII of Spain (born 1857) Wikipedia
• 1950 Johannes V. Jensen, Danish author and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1873) Wikipedia
• 1959 Gérard Philipe, French actor (born 1922) Wikipedia
• 1968 Upton Sinclair, American novelist, critic, and essayist (born 1878) Wikipedia
• 1970 Yukio Mishima, Japanese author, actor, and director (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 1974 U Thant, Burmese lawyer and diplomat, 3rd Secretary-General of the United Nations (born 1909) Wikipedia
• 1997 Hastings Banda, Malawian physician and politician, 1st President of Malawi (born 1898) Wikipedia
• 2005 George Best, Northern Irish footballer (born 1946) Wikipedia
• 2016 Fidel Castro, Communist leader of Cuba, and revolutionary (born 1926) Wikipedia
• 2020 Diego Maradona, Argentinian football player (born 1960) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Catherine of Alexandria and its related observances Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Elizabeth of Reute Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Isaac Watts (Lutheran Church and Church of England) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: James Otis Sargent Huntington (Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: November 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women Wikipedia
• Roses Revolution Day, against obstetric violence Wikipedia

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