What Happened On
First Woman to Walk in Space
July 25, 1984
Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya conducts and EVA outside the Salyut 7 space station for 3 hours and 35 minutes. In 1982, Savitskaya had become the second woman in space.
Face on Mars
July 25, 1976
Viking I takes the famous "Face on Mars" photo.
Launched the previous August, Viking I also sent back the first pictures from the surface of Mars.
Viking I was the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, and was part of a two-part mission to search for signs of life on Mars. It performed the first Martian soil sample using its robotic arm and a special biological laboratory.
Note: Pareidolia - the psychological phenomenon that causes people to see patterns in a random stimulus.
See also "Happy Face Crater".
Dylan Goes Electric
July 25, 1965
Bob Dylan, renowned for his acoustic folk music, plugs in and goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival. The audience responds with loud booing. Folk music legend Pete Seeger said at the time, "If I had an axe, I'd cut the cable right now." There is controversy over why the crowd was booing. Some saying it was because he had gone electric, and others contend it was because the set was too short. Dylan had performed a 15-minute set, but with several instrument changes he only managed to play three songs.
The Greensboro Four
The Greensboro Four
Greensboro Sit-In
July 25, 1960
Woolworth's opens its lunch counters to blacks when the store manager asked three black employees to order a meal at the counter, officially desegregating the Woolworth's lunch counter. The company had lost $200,000 since February, when protests started after four black college students, known as the "Greensboro Four", refused to move from a North Carolina Woolworth's lunch counter after being denied service. Over 70,000 people participated in the protests.
Andrea Doria listing after the impact. The starboard lifeboats have been launched, while the portside lifeboats are still attached
Andrea Doria listing after the impact. The starboard lifeboats have been launched, while the portside lifeboats are still attached
Sinking of the Andrea Doria
July 25, 1956
Italian liner Andrea Doria, Italy's largest, fastest, and supposedly safest ship, collides with the Swedish liner Stockholm shortly before midnight, sinking 12 hours later. 46 of the more 1,700 people aboard were killed. Five members of the Stockholm crew were killed. When the two ships realized they were on a collision course, the Andre Doria steered to left while the Stockholm steered to the right, thus keeping them on a collision course.
After the collision, the Andrea Doria began listing due to taking on water on the side of the impact (starboard) and due to empty fuel tanks on the opposite side (port). Safety procedures called for filling empty fuel tanks with seawater after their fuel was used up to prevent such an occurrence. This safety precaution had not been done during the ship's voyage in order to reduce the cost of refueling. The listing prevented the port side lifeboats from being launched and prevented people from entering the starboard side lifeboats before lowering them to the water, making their usage more dangerous. Two people died as a result of falling into the lifeboats. Other ships came to the rescue and provided lifeboats to evacuate the ship. All of the survivors were evacuated before the ship sank. Otherwise, the death toll would have been significantly higher.
It was Italy's largest, fastest, and supposedly safest ship at the time. One of its lifeboats was found on a New York beach in 1981.
Martin and Lewis in 1950
Martin and Lewis in 1950
Martin and Lewis
July 25, 1946
The legendary comedy duo makes their official debut together. Their act at the Atlantic City's 500 Club consisted or Dean Martin trying to sing while Jerry Lewis constantly interrupts him.
First Underwater Atomic Explosion
July 25, 1946
The U.S. explodes a device near Bikini Island in the Pacific. The bomb was a Fat Man plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapon of the kind dropped on Nagasaki. It was detonated 90 feet (27 m) underwater, halfway to the bottom in water 180 feet (55 m) deep. It sank nine ships plus one that sank five months later because it was too radioactive to repair a leak caused by the blast.
King Heinrich VI
King Heinrich VI
Erfurt Latrine Disaster (aka the Royal Flush)
July 25, 1184
More than 60 nobles drown in a pool of liquid excrement. A group of nobles from across the Holy Roman Empire were meeting in a room at the Church of St. Peter, in Erfurt, Germany when their combined weight caused the wooden floor to collapse into the latrine beneath the cellar. King Heinrich VI, who had called the meeting, avoided falling into the latrine because he was sitting in an alcove that had a stone floor.
Roseanne Barr singing the National Anthem
Roseanne Barr singing the National Anthem
Roseanne Grabs Crotch and Spits after Screeching the National Anthem
July 25, 1990
Comedienne Roseanne Barr delivers a screeching rendition of the U.S. National Anthem at a Padres baseball game. When she finished, she grabbed her crotch and spit on the ground amid a stadium of booing fans. She claimed later that the crotch grab was intended to poke fun a ballplayer's bad habits and wasn't intended to disrespect the anthem.
Nixon (left) and tape recorder he used to record his conversations
Nixon (left) and tape recorder he used to record his conversations
Watergate
July 25, 1973
U.S. President Richard Nixon refuses to release the tapes to the Watergate Special Prosecutor as ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Birth Control Ban
July 25, 1968
Pope Paul VI issues an encyclical banning all forms of artificial contraception. It stated that the "direct interruption of the generative process already begun" is unlawful and that abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, is absolutely forbidden, as is sterilization.
Photo Credit: Hovercraft Museum
Photo Credit: Hovercraft Museum
First Crossing of the English Channel by a Manned Hovercraft
July 25, 1959
The seven-ton SR.N1 developed by Christopher Cockerell crosses the English Channel from Calais to Dover.
First Jet-Fighter Used in Combat
July 25, 1944
A German jet fires at a British plane, which manages to escape.
Mussolini Deposed
July 25, 1943
Benito Mussolini is deposed and imprisoned by the Italian people. He was rescued in September by the Germans.
Civil War
July 25, 1861
Congress passes a resolution that declares the Civil War is not being fought to end slavery, but to preserve the Union. It was an attempt to prevent the slave-holding border states from joining the Confederacy, in particular the slave states of Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland. It was also intended to maintain the support of many Northerners who supported a war to keep the Union together, but did not support abolition. Preservation of the Union would remain the official aim of the Union until the passage the Emancipation Proclamation.
Birthdays
First Test-Tube Baby
Louise Joy Brown
Born July 25, 1978
British woman. She was the world's first test-tube baby. The process, known as in vitro fertilization (IVF), actually took place in a Petri dish, not a test tube. Her sister was also conceived through IVF four years later.
Brennan as Amos McCoy
Brennan as Amos McCoy
Walter Brennan
Born July 25, 1894 d. 1974
American Oscar-winning actor. TV: The Real McCoys (1957-63, Amos McCoy). He was the first actor to win three Oscars (1936, 38, 40). According to Brennan, an event he described as "the luckiest break in the world," occurred during a fight scene when an actor accidentally kicked him in the face and knocked his teeth out, requiring him to get dentures. "When necessary I could take 'em out - and suddenly look about 40 years older."
Princip on Trial - seated front row, center
Princip on Trial - seated front row, center
The Man Who Started WWI
Gavrilo Princip
Born July 25, 1894 d. 1918
Bosnian Serb revolutionary. He assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife the Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo in 1914. In retaliation, Austria-Hungary then invaded Serbia, which led to World War I. Princip killed Ferdinand because he wanted to end Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ferdinand was heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. More than 16 million people would die as a result of the war.
Princip was too young to receive the death penalty, so he was sentenced to 20 years in prison where he died of tuberculosis.
Ray Billingsley
Born July 25, 1957
American cartoonist. Creator of Curtis.
Roger Clinton, Jr.
Born July 25, 1956
American relative, half-brother of U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Verdine White
Born July 25, 1951
American singer, with Earth, Wind & Fire. Music: Shining Star (1975, #1, Grammy), Best of My Love (1977, #1), and After the Love has Gone (1979, #2, Grammy).
Estelle Getty
Born July 25, 1923 d. 2008
American Emmy-winning actress. TV: The Golden Girls (1985-92, Sophia) and Empty Nest (1993-95).
Jack Gilford (Jacob Gellman)
Born July 25, 1908 d. 1990
American actor. TV: The Cracker Jack commercials of the late 1960s and Taxi (1979-81, Alex's father).
Davidson Black
Born July 25, 1884 d. 1934
Canadian anthropologist. He discovered the race Homo erectus (1927) when he identified a single hominid tooth as the "Peking Man."
Sir Arthur James Balfour (Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour)
Born July 25, 1848 d. 1930
British prime minister (1902-05), author of The Balfour Declaration (1917), which favored limited Jewish settlement in Palestine.
Henry Knox
Born July 25, 1750 d. 1806
American Revolutionary War hero. He established the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (1779) and was the second U.S. Secretary of War (1785-94). He was also a witness to the Boston Massacre (1770), in which he claims he attempted to defuse the situation by trying to convince the British soldiers to return to their quarters.
Deaths
Randy Meisner
Died July 25, 2023 b. 1946
American singer, with The Eagles. Music: Take It Easy (1972) and Hotel California (1976, #1).
Photo Credit: Nick contador
Photo Credit: Nick contador
Peter Green (Peter Greenbaum)
Died July 25, 2020 b. 1946
English Hall of Fame guitarist, with Fleetwood Mac. Music: Black Magic Woman (1968) and Albatross (1969, #1 UK).
Olivia De Havilland
Died July 25, 2020 b. 1916
British-American Oscar-winning actress. Film: Gone with the Wind (1939, Melanie). She and her sister Joan Fontaine are the only siblings to have won lead acting Oscars.
John Saxon (Carmine Orrico)
Died July 25, 2020 b. 1935
American actor. TV: The Bold Ones: The New Doctors (1969-72, Dr. Ted Stuart) and Falcon Crest (1982-88, Tony Cumson). Film: Enter the Dragon (1973), Black Christmas (1974) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
Prince Valiant, 1938
Prince Valiant, 1938
Hal Foster (Harold Rudolf Foster)
Died July 25, 1982 b. 1892
Canadian-American cartoonist. Creator and artist for Prince Valiant (1937-71) and artist for the Tarzan comic strip (1929-37). His comics were known for their high level of draftsmanship and attention to detail.
Harry Morris Warner
Died July 25, 1958 b. 1881
Russian-born American film executive. He and his brothers Sam, Albert, and Jack founded Warner Bros. Pictures (1923).
The Father of Modern Perfumes
Francois Coty
Died July 25, 1934 b. 1874
French perfume maker and newspaper publisher. The Father of Modern Perfumes.
James Barry (Margaret Anne Bulkley)
Died July 25, 1865 b. circa 1789
British surgeon, served in the British armed forces. Barry was the first woman doctor of the British Isles, although it wasn't discovered that she was a woman until after her death.
Barry had risen to the rank of Inspector General (equivalent to Brigadier) in charge of military hospitals, the second-highest medical office in the British Army.
Charles Macintosh
Died July 25, 1843 b. 1766
Scottish chemist, invented waterproof fabrics used for raincoats (1823).
Dominique-Jean Larrey
Died July 25, 1842 b. 1766
French surgeon in Napoleon Bonaparte's army. He initiated the use of field hospitals (the forerunner of MASH units), army ambulance corps, and triages. He also published the first description of trench foot.
Ferdinand
Died July 25, 1564 b. 1503
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1558-64). His motto was Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus: "Let justice be done, though the world perish".
Innocent VIII
Died July 25, 1492 b. 1432
Italian religious leader, 213th Pope (1484-92).