25th November

Events

• 1758 - French and Indian War: British forces capture Fort Duquesne from French control.
• 1783 - American Revolutionary War: The last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Missionary Ridge - At Missionary Ridge in Tennessee, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant break the Siege of Chattanooga by routing Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg.
• 1874 - The United States Greenback Party is established as a political party made primarily of farmers financially hurt by the Panic of 1873.
• 1886 - Indian Wars: In retaliation for the dramatic American defeat at the Battle of Littlebighorn, United States Army troops under General Ranald Mackenzie sack Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River (the soldiers destroyed all of the villager's winter food and clothing and then slashed their ponies' throats).
• 1936 - In Berlin, Nazi-Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, thus agreeing to consult on what measures to take "to safeguard their common interests" in case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against either nation (Adolf Hitler broke the terms of the pact when he signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact in August, 1939).
• 1944 - World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's store in Deptford, killing 160 shoppers.
• 1947 - Red Scare: The "Hollywood Ten" are blacklisted by Hollywood film studios.
• 1947 - New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.
• 1952 - Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London (as of 2003 it is the longest continuously running play in history).
• 1958 - French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French Community.
• 1963 - John F. Kennedy assassination: The late US President John F. Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
• 1970 - In Japan, world-famous author Yukio Mishima commits ritualistic suicide after failing to sway public opinion toward his extreme political beliefs.
• 1973 - Greek President George Papadopoulos is ousted in military coup led by Lieutenant General Phaidon Gizikis.
• 1975 - Suriname becomes independent.
• 1980 - No Más Fight: Sugar Ray Leonard takes the second fight of his legendary boxing trilogy with Roberto Duran, when Duran quits in round 8 in New Orleans. Leonard officially recovers the WBC world welterweight title with a technical knockout.
• 1986 - Iran Contra Affair: US Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
• 1992 - The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia starting on January 1, 1993.
• 1994 - Sony founder Akio Morita announces he will be stepping down as CEO of the floundering company.
• 1999 - The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution designating November 25 as the yearly-celebrated International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women (the resolution was introduced by the Dominican Republic on the anniversary of the 1961 brutal murder of three Dominican women).
• 2002 - US President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Act into law, establishing the Department of Homeland Security in the largest US government reorganization since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 (the Senate passed the bill 90-9 on November 19).

Births

• 1562 - Félix Lope de Vega, playwright (d. 1635)
• 1609 - Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland through her marriage to Charles I (d. 1669)
• 1817 - John Bigelow, American statesman, author (d. 1911)
• 1830 - Lina Morgenstern, writer (d. 1909)
• 1835 - Andrew Carnegie, industrialist, philanthropist (d. 1919)
• 1844 - Karl Benz, engineer (d. 1929)
• 1846 - Carry Nation, temperance advocate (d. 1911)
• 1874 - Joe Gans, American boxer (d. 1910)
• 1881 - Pope John XXIII (d. 1963)
• 1893 - Joseph Krutch, American naturalist, author (d. 1970)
• 1895 - Ludvík Svoboda politician and Czechoslovakia President (d. 1979)
• 1896 - Virgil Thomson, composer, music critic (d. 1989)
• 1913 - Lewis Thomas, physician, essayist (d. 1993)
• 1914 - Léon Zitrone, animator
• 1914 - Joe DiMaggio, baseball player (d. 1999)
• 1915 - Augusto Pinochet, Chilean politician
• 1920 - Ricardo Montalban, actor
• 1926 - Poul Anderson, science fiction writer (d. 2001)
• 1933 - Kathryn Grant, actress
• 1940 - Reinhard Furrer, physicist, astronaut (d. 1995)
• 1944 - Ben Stein, actor, game show host, political consultant
• 1947 - John Larroquette, actor
• 1952 - Imran Khan, cricket player
• 1959 - Charles Kennedy, British politician
• 1960 - Amy Grant, singer
• 1960 - John F. Kennedy Jr., journalist (d. 1999)
• 1971 - Christina Applegate, American actress
• 1981 - Barbara and Jenna Bush, daughters of President George W. Bush

Deaths

• 1884 - Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, chemist
• 1920 - Gaston Chevrolet, automobile pioneer
• 1944 - Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball commissioner
• 1947 - Léon-Paul Fargue, poet
• 1959 - Gérard Philipe, actor
• 1968 - Upton Sinclair, journalist, politician, writer
• 1970 - Yukio Mishima, writer
• 1972 - Henri Coanda, aerodynamics pioneer
• 1973 - Laurence Harvey, actor
• 1974 - U Thant, former UN Secretary-General
• 1974 - Nick Drake, musician
• 1981 - Jack Albertson, actor
• 1998 - Flip Wilson, actor, comedian
• 2002 - Karel Reisz, theatre director

Holidays and observances

See also

November 24 - November 26 - October 25 - December 25 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December