November 25

Events

Pre-1600

*571 BC – Servius Tullius, king of Rome, celebrates the first of his three triumphs for his victory over the Etruscans.
*1034 – Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots, dies. His grandson, Donnchad, son of Bethóc and Crínán of Dunkeld, inherits the throne.
* 1120 – The ''White Ship'' sinks in the English Channel, drowning William Adelin, son and heir of Henry I of England.
* 1177 – Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Raynald of Châtillon defeat Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard.
* 1343 – A tsunami, caused by an earthquake in the Tyrrhenian Sea, devastates Naples and the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, among other places.
*1400 – King Minkhaung I becomes king of Ava.
*1487 – Elizabeth of York is crowned Queen of England.
*1491 – The siege of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, ends with the Treaty of Granada.
* 1510 – Portuguese conquest of Goa: Portuguese naval forces under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque, and local mercenaries working for privateer Timoji, seize Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate, resulting in 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule.
* 1596 – The Cudgel War begins in Finland (at the time part of Sweden), when peasants rebel against the imposition of taxes by the nobility.

1601–1900

*1667 – A deadly earthquake rocks Shemakha in the Caucasus, killing 80,000 people.
*1678 – Trunajaya rebellion: After a long and logistically challenging march, the allied Mataram and Dutch troops successfully assaulted the rebel stronghold of Kediri.
*1755 – King Ferdinand VI of Spain grants royal protection to the Beaterio de la Compañia de Jesus, now known as the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary.
* 1758 – French and Indian War: British forces capture Fort Duquesne from French control. Later, Fort Pitt will be built nearby and grow into modern Pittsburgh.
*1759 – An earthquake hits the Mediterranean destroying Beirut and Damascus and killing 30,000–40,000.
*1783 – American Revolutionary War: The last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
*1795 – Partitions of Poland: Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last king of independent Poland, is forced to abdicate and is exiled to Russia.
*1826 – The Greek frigate ''Hellas'' arrives in Nafplion to become the first flagship of the Hellenic Navy.
* 1833 – A massive undersea earthquake, estimated magnitude between 8.7 and 9.2, rocks Sumatra, producing a massive tsunami all along the Indonesian coast.
* 1839 – A cyclone slams into south-eastern India, with high winds and a storm surge destroying the port city of Coringa (which has never been completely rebuilt). The storm wave swept inland, taking with it 20,000 ships and thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths resulted from the disaster.
*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.
* 1864 – American Civil War: A group of Confederate operatives calling themselves the Confederate Army of Manhattan starts fires in more than 20 locations in an unsuccessful attempt to burn down New York City.
* 1874 – The United States Greenback Party is established as a political party consisting primarily of farmers affected by the Panic of 1873.
*1876 – American Indian Wars: In retaliation for the American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops sack the sleeping village of Cheyenne Chief Dull Knife at the headwaters of the Powder River.

1901–present

*1905 – Prince Carl of Denmark arrives in Norway to become King Haakon VII of Norway.
* 1908 – A fire breaks out on as it leaves Malta's Grand Harbour, resulting in the ship's grounding and the deaths of at least 118 people.
* 1912 – ''Românul de la Pind'', the longest-running newspaper by and about Aromanians until World War II, ceases its publications.
*1915 – Albert Einstein presents the field equations of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
*1917 – World War I: German forces defeat Portuguese army of about 1,200 at Negomano on the border of modern-day Mozambique and Tanzania.
* 1918 – Vojvodina, formerly Austro-Hungarian crown land, proclaims its secession from Austria-Hungary to join the Kingdom of Serbia.
*1926 – The deadliest November tornado outbreak in U.S. history kills 76 people and injures more than 400.
*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. The pact is renewed on the same day five years later with additional signatories.
* 1941 – is sunk by a German torpedo during World War II.
*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.
* 1947 – Red Scare: The "Hollywood Ten" are blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios.
* 1947 – New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.
*1950 – The Great Appalachian Storm of 1950 impacts 22 American states, killing 353 people, injuring over 160, and causing US$66.7 million in damages (1950 dollars).
*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.
* 1952 – Korean War: After 42 days of fighting, the Battle of Triangle Hill ends in a Chinese victory. American and South Korean units abandon their attempt to capture the " Iron Triangle".
* 1958 – French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French Community.
* 1960 – The Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic are assassinated.
*1963 – State funeral of John F. Kennedy; after lying in state at the United States Capitol, a Requiem Mass takes place at Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle and the President is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
* 1968 – The Old Student House in Helsinki, Finland is occupied by a large group of University of Helsinki students.
*1970 – In Japan, author Yukio Mishima and one compatriot commit ritualistic seppuku after an unsuccessful coup attempt.
*1973 – Georgios Papadopoulos, head of the military Regime of the Colonels in Greece, is ousted in a hardliners' coup led by Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannidis.
* 1975 – Suriname gains independence from the Netherlands.
*1977 – Former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., is found guilty by the Philippine Military Commission No. 2 and is sentenced to death by firing squad. He is later assassinated in 1983.
*1981 – Pope John Paul II appoints Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
*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.
* 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.
* 1986 – The King Fahd Causeway is officially opened in the Persian Gulf.
*1987 – Typhoon Nina pummels the Philippines with category 5 winds of and a surge that destroys entire villages. At least 1,036 deaths are attributed to the storm.
* 1992 – The Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with effect from January 1, 1993.
* 1999 – A five-year-old Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez, is rescued by fishermen while floating in an inner tube off the Florida coast.
*2000 – The 2000 Baku earthquake, with a Richter magnitude of 7.0, leaves 26 people dead in Baku, Azerbaijan, and becomes the strongest earthquake in the region in 158 years.
* 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.
* 2009 – Jeddah floods: Freak rains swamp the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during an ongoing Hajj pilgrimage. Three thousand cars are swept away and 122 people perish in the torrents, with 350 others missing.

Births

Pre-1600

* 902 – Emperor Taizong of Liao (d. 947)
* 1075 – Emperor Taizong of Jin (d. 1135)
*1454 – Catherine Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus (d. 1510)
*1467 – Thomas Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre, Knight of Henry VIII of England (d. 1525)
*1493 – Osanna of Cattaro, Dominican visionary and anchoress (d. 1565)
*1562 – Lope de Vega, Spanish playwright and poet (d. 1635)
*1566 – John Heminges, English actor (d. 1630)
*1577 – Piet Pieterszoon Hein, Dutch admiral (d. 1629)
* 1587 – Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet, English politician (d. 1666)

1601–1900

*1609 – Henrietta Maria of France, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (d. 1669)
* 1638 – Catherine of Braganza (d. 1705)
*1666 – Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Guarneri, Italian violin maker (d. 1740)
*1703 – Jean-François Séguier, French astronomer and botanist (d. 1784)
*1752 – Johann Friedrich Reichardt, German composer and critic (d. 1814)
*1753 – Robert Townsend, American spy (d. 1838)
* 1758 – John Armstrong, Jr., American general and politician, 7th United States Secretary of War (d. 1843)
*1778 – Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, English author and activist (d. 1856)
*1787 – Franz Xaver Gruber, Austrian organist and composer (d. 1863)
*1814 – Julius Robert von Mayer, German physician and physicist (d. 1878)
* 1815 – William Sawyer, Canadian merchant and politician (d. 1904)
*1817 – John Bigelow, American lawyer and politician, United States Ambassador to France (d. 1911)
*1835 – Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1919)
*1841 – Ernst Schröder, German mathematician and academic (d. 1902)
* 1843 – Henry Ware Eliot, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1919)
* 1844 – Karl Benz, German engineer and businessman, founded Mercedes-Benz (d. 1929)
* 1845 – José Maria de Eça de Queirós, Portuguese-French journalist and author (d. 1900)
*1846 – Carrie Nation, American activist (d. 1911)
*1858 – Alfred Capus, French journalist, author, and playwright (d. 1922)
* 1862 – Ethelbert Nevin, American pianist and composer (d. 1901)
* 1862 – Gustaf Söderström, Swedish tug of war competitor, shot putter, and discus thrower (d. 1958)
* 1865 – Kate Gleason, American engineer, businesswoman, and philanthropist (d. 1933)
*1867 – Talaat Harb, Egyptian economist, founded the Banque Misr (d. 1941)
*1868 – Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse (d. 1937)
*1869 – Ben Lindsey, American lawyer and judge (d. 1934)
*1870 – Winthrop Ames, American director, producer, and playwright (d. 1937)
* 1870 – Maurice Denis, French painter of Les Nabis movement (d. 1943)
*1872 – Robert Maysack, American gymnast and triathlete (d. 1960)
*1873 – Albert Henry Krehbiel, American painter and illustrator (d. 1945)
* 1874 – Joe Gans, American boxer (d. 1910)
*1876 – Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1936)
* 1877 – Harley Granville-Barker, British actor, director and playwright (d. 1946)
*1880 – John Flynn, Australian minister and pilot, founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (d. 1951)
* 1880 – Elsie J. Oxenham, English author (d. 1960)
*1881 – Jacob Fichman, Romanian-Israeli poet and critic (d. 1958)
* 1881 – Pope John XXIII (d. 1963)
* 1883 – Harvey Spencer Lewis, American mystic and author (d. 1939)
*1887 – Nikolai Vavilov, Russian botanist and geneticist (d. 1943)
*1889 – Reşat Nuri Güntekin, Turkish author and playwright (d. 1956)
* 1890 – Isaac Rosenberg, English soldier and poet (d. 1918)
*1891 – Ōnishiki Uichirō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 26th Yokozuna (d. 1941)
*1893 – Joseph Wood Krutch, American author and critic (d. 1970)
*1895 – Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist and composer (d. 1991)
* 1895 – Anastas Mikoyan, Soviet politician, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (d. 1978)
* 1895 – Helen Hooven Santmyer, American poet and author (d. 1986)
* 1895 – Ludvík Svoboda, Czech general and politician, 8th President of Czechoslovakia (d. 1979)
*1896 – Albertus Soegijapranata, Indonesian archbishop (d. 1963)
* 1896 – Virgil Thomson, American composer and critic (d. 1989)
*1898 – Debaki Bose, Indian actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1971)
* 1898 – Aarne Viisimaa, Estonian tenor and director (d. 1989)
*1900 – Rudolf Höss, German SS officer (d. 1947)
* 1900 – Helen Gahagan Douglas, American actress and politician (d. 1980)

1901–present

*1901 – Arthur Liebehenschel, German SS officer (d. 1948)
*1902 – Eddie Shore, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 1985)
*1904 – Lillian Copeland, American discus thrower and shot putter (d. 1964)
* 1904 – Toni Ortelli, Italian composer and conductor (d. 2000)
*1905 – Samiha Ayverdi, Turkish mystic and author (d. 1993)
*1906 – Alice Ambrose, American philosopher and logician (d. 2001)
*1907 – John Stuart Hindmarsh, English race car driver and pilot (d. 1938)
* 1908 – Natyaguru Nurul Momen, Bangladeshi playwright, author, educator, director and media personality (d. 1990)
*1909 – P. D. Eastman, American author and illustrator (d. 1986)
* 1911 – Roelof Frankot, Dutch painter and photographer (d. 1984)
*1913 – Lewis Thomas, American physician, etymologist, and educator (d. 1993)
*1914 – Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player and coach (d. 1999)
* 1914 – Léon Zitrone, Russian-French journalist (d. 1995)
*1915 – Augusto Pinochet, Chilean general and politician, 30th President of Chile (d. 2006)
* 1915 – Armando Villanueva, Peruvian politician, 121st Prime Minister of Peru (d. 2013)
*1916 – Peg Lynch, American actress and screenwriter (d. 2015)
*1917 – Luigi Poggi, Italian cardinal (d. 2010)
* 1917 – Alparslan Türkeş, Cypriot-Turkish colonel and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey (d. 1997)
*1919 – Norman Tokar, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1979)
* 1920 – Shelagh Fraser, English actress (d. 2000)
* 1920 – Ricardo Montalbán, Mexican-American actor, singer, and director (d. 2009)
* 1920 – Noel Neill, American actress (d. 2016)
* 1922 – Ilja Hurník, Czech composer and playwright (d. 2013)
* 1922 – Fernance B. Perry, Portuguese-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2014)
*1923 – Mauno Koivisto, Finnish banker and politician, 9th President of Finland (d. 2017)
* 1923 – Art Wall Jr., American golfer (d. 2001)
* 1924 – Paul Desmond, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1977)
* 1924 – Sybil Stockdale, American activist, co-founded the National League of Families (d. 2015)
* 1924 – Takaaki Yoshimoto, Japanese poet, philosopher, and critic (d. 2012)
*1926 – Poul Anderson, American author (d. 2001)
* 1926 – Jeffrey Hunter, American actor and producer (d. 1969)
* 1926 – Ranganath Misra, Indian lawyer and jurist, 21st Chief Justice of India (d. 2012)
*1927 – John K. Cooley, American journalist and author (d. 2008)
*1929 – Judy Crichton, American director and producer (d. 2007)
*1931 – Nat Adderley, American cornet and trumpet player (d. 2000)
* 1932 – Takayo Fischer, American actress and singer
* 1933 – Kathryn Crosby, American actress and singer
* 1935 – Robert Berner, American geologist and academic (d. 2015)
*1936 – Trisha Brown, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2017)
* 1938 – Erol Güngör, Turkish sociologist and psychologist (d. 1983)
* 1938 – Rosanna Schiaffino, Italian actress (d. 2009)
* 1939 – Martin Feldstein, American economist and academic (d. 2019)
*1940 – Reinhard Furrer, Austrian-German physicist and astronaut (d. 1995)
* 1940 – Karl Offmann, Mauritian politician, 3rd President of Mauritius (d. 2022)
* 1940 – Shyamal Kumar Sen, Indian jurist and politician, 21st Governor of West Bengal
* 1940 – Percy Sledge, American singer (d. 2015)
* 1941 – Christos Papanikolaou, Greek pole vaulter
* 1941 – Gerald Seymour