What Happened on February 25th in History
30 historical events on this date
Roman emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius as his son, effectively making him his successor.
Year 138 (CXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Niger and Camerinus. The denomination 138 for this year...
Khosrow II, the last great Shah of the Sasanian Empire (Iran), is overthrown by his son Kavadh II.
Khosrow II, commonly known as Khosrow Parviz, is considered to be the last great monarch of pre-Islamic Iran, ruling the Sasanian Empire from 590 to 628, including an interruption of one year.
George Frideric Handel's opera Nero premieres in Hamburg.
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti.
Samuel Colt is granted a United States patent for his revolver firearm.
Samuel Colt was an American inventor, industrialist, and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company and made the mass production of revolvers commercially viable.
Lord George Paulet occupies the Kingdom of Hawaii in the name of Great Britain in the Paulet affair.
Lord George Paulet CB was a British officer of the Royal Navy.
Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress.
Hiram Rhodes Revels was an American politician, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and college administrator. Born free in North Carolina, he later lived and worked in Ohio, where...
Guangxu Emperor of Qing dynasty China begins his reign, under Empress Dowager Cixi's regency.
The Guangxu Emperor, also known by his temple name Emperor Dezong of Qing, personal name Zaitian, was the tenth and penultimate emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over...
Marie-Adélaïde, the eldest of six daughters of Guillaume IV, becomes the first reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.
Marie-Adélaïde, was Grand Duchess of Luxembourg from 1912 until her abdication in 1919. She was the first Grand Duchess regnant of Luxembourg, its first female monarch since Duchess Maria Theresa...
World War I: In the Battle of Verdun, a German unit captures Fort Douaumont, keystone of the French defences, without a fight.
World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the...
World War I: German forces capture Tallinn to virtually complete the occupation of Estonia.
Tallinn is the capital and most populous city of Estonia. Located on a bay in northern Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of 452,563 as of 2026 and...
Georgian capital Tbilisi falls to the invading Russian forces after heavy fighting and the Russians declare the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The Democratic Republic of Georgia was the first modern establishment of a republic of Georgia, which existed from May 1918 to March 1921. Recognized by all major European powers of the time, DRG...
Adolf Hitler, having been stateless for seven years, obtains German citizenship when he is appointed a Brunswick state official by Dietrich Klagges, a fellow Nazi. As a result, Hitler is able to run for ReichsprÀsident in the 1932 election.
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party,...
Launch of the USSÂ Ranger at Newport News, Virginia. It is the first purpose-built aircraft carrier to be commissioned by the US Navy.
USS Ranger (CV-4) was an interwar United States Navy aircraft carrier, the only ship of its class. A Treaty ship, Ranger was the first U.S. vessel to be designed and built from the keel up as a...
As part of British air raid precautions, the first of 2.5 million Anderson shelters is constructed in a garden in Islington, north London.
Air Raid Precautions (ARP) refers to a number of organisations and guidelines in the United Kingdom dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air raids. Government consideration...
The outlawed Communist Party of the Netherlands organises a general strike in German-occupied Amsterdam to protest against Nazi persecution of Dutch Jews.
The Communist Party of the Netherlands was a communist party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the...
The formal abolition of Prussia is proclaimed by the Allied Control Council, the Prussian government having already been abolished by the PreuĂenschlag of 1932.
The abolition of Prussia occurred on 25 February 1947 by decree of the Allied Control Council, the governing authority of post-World War II occupied Germany and Austria, through Control Council Law...
Soviet NKVD forces in Hungary abduct BĂ©la KovĂĄcsâsecretary-general of the majority Independent Smallholders' Partyâand deport him to the USSR in defiance of Parliament. His arrest is an important turning point in the Communist takeover of Hungary.
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, abbreviated as NKVD, was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint...
In a coup d'Ă©tat led by Klement Gottwald, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia takes control of government in Prague to end the Third Czechoslovak Republic.
In late February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSÄ), with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia through a coup d'Ă©tat. It marked the...
The first Pan American Games are officially opened in Buenos Aires by Argentine President Juan PerĂłn.
The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas first held in 1951. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win...
In his speech On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, denounces Stalin.
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" was a speech given by Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, on 25 February 1956. It was formally a report by the First Secretary of the...
The government of Suriname is overthrown by a military coup led by DĂ©si Bouterse.
Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. Situated slightly north of the equator, over 90%...
People Power Revolution: President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the Philippines' first female president.
The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, was a series of popular demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25,...
Disbandment of the Warsaw Pact at a meeting of its members in Budapest.
The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a collective defence treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other...
American-Israeli extremist Baruch Goldstein commits a mass shooting at the Cave of the Patriarchs mausoleum, leaving 29 dead and over 100 injured before he is disarmed and beaten to death by survivors.
Baruch Kopel Goldstein was an American-Israeli physician and religious extremist who, in 1994, murdered 29 Palestinians in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an incident of Jewish terrorism....
Alitalia Flight 1553 crashes at Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport in Genoa, Italy, killing four.
Minerva Airlines Flight 1553, was a regularly scheduled commercial passenger flight from Cagliari to Genoa operated by Minerva Airlines under the Alitalia Express brand via a codeshare agreement...
Soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles mutiny at their headquarters in Pilkhana, Dhaka, Bangladesh, resulting in 74 deaths, including 57 army officials.
Border Guard Bangladesh is the paramilitary force responsible for the protection and surveillance of Bangladeshâs land borders. Operating under the Ministry of Home Affairs and with operational...
Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 crashes during landing at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Netherlands, primarily due to a faulty radio altimeter, resulting in the death of nine passengers and crew including all three pilots.
Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 was a passenger flight that crashed during landing at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands, on 25 February 2009, resulting in the deaths of nine passengers and...
At least 310 people are killed in avalanches in northeastern Afghanistan.
The 2015 Afghanistan avalanches were a series of devastating snow avalanches that occurred in late February 2015 across northeastern Afghanistan, primarily affecting four provinces. The hardest hit...
Three people are killed and fourteen others injured in a series of shootings in the small Kansas cities of Newton and Hesston.
On February 25, 2016, three people were killed and fourteen others injured in a series of shootings in Newton and Hesston, Kansas, including in and outside an Excel Industries building. The shooter,...
Four people are killed and several more are injured when Cuban Border Guard Troops confront and open fire on a US-registered speedboat violating Cuban waters.
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country in the Caribbean. It comprises the eponymous main island as well as 4,195 islands, islets, and cays. Situated at the convergence of the...