October 25 in History

Historical Events on October 25

1147 Reconquista: After a siege of four months, crusader knights led by Afonso Henriques reconquered Lisbon.

1616 Dutch sea-captain Dirk Hartog makes second recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil, at the later-named Dirk Hartog Island off the West Australian coast.

1812 War of 1812: The American frigate, USS United States, commanded by Stephen Decatur, captures the British frigate HMS Macedonian.

1822 Greek War of Independence: The First Siege of Missolonghi begins.

1944 Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich.

1944 World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf: The largest naval battle in history, takes place in and around the Philippines between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the U.S. Third and U.S. Seventh Fleets. Afterward is the first Kamikaze attack of the war.

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows photos at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council proving that Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba.

1971 The United Nations seats the People's Republic of China and expels the Republic of China (see political status of Taiwan and China and the United Nations).

1973 Yom Kippur War officially ends with a ceasefire.

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Famous Birthdays on October 25

1881 Pablo Picasso

1921 Michael I of Romania

1940 Bob Knight

1944 James Carville

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Famous Deaths on October 25

1154 Stephen, King of England

1400 Geoffrey Chaucer

1806 Henry Knox

2004 John Peel

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