On This Day in History – August 25: Major Events, Birthdays, Holidays

by hpmom August 25, 2025

August 25, 2025

On This Day in History – August 25

Step back through time and discover what made August 25 a memorable date across centuries.

From royal moments to space missions, this day holds fascinating events, milestones, and anniversaries worth remembering.

1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1718 – New Orleans is founded by French settlers in present-day Louisiana.
1835 – The New York Sun publishes the first of six articles in the “Great Moon Hoax” series.
1916 – The U.S. National Park Service is created by President Woodrow Wilson.
1944 – Paris is liberated by Allied forces during World War II after four years of Nazi occupation.
1950 – President Harry S. Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads during a strike.
1991 – Belarus declares independence from the Soviet Union.
2001 – Aaliyah, American R&B singer, dies in a plane crash in the Bahamas at age 22.
2012 – Voyager 1 becomes the first man-made object to enter interstellar space.
2017 – Hurricane Harvey intensifies into a Category 4 storm before hitting Texas.

1530 – Ivan the Terrible, First Tsar of Russia (d. 1584)
1819 – Allan Pinkerton, Scottish-American detective and founder of the Pinkerton Agency (d. 1884)
1918 – Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor (d. 1990)
1930 – Sean Connery, Scottish actor and James Bond icon (d. 2020)
1933 – Tom Skerritt, American actor
1949 – Gene Simmons, Israeli-American musician (KISS)
1954 – Elvis Costello, British musician and songwriter
1958 – Tim Burton, American filmmaker
1961 – Billy Ray Cyrus, American country singer
1987 – Blake Lively, American actress

1227 – Genghis Khan, Mongolian emperor (b. 1162)
1819 – James Watt, Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer (b. 1736)
1822 – William Herschel, German-British astronomer (b. 1738)
1867 – Michael Faraday, English physicist and chemist (b. 1791)
1908 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1852)
2001 – Aaliyah, American singer and actress (b. 1979)
2012 – Neil Armstrong, American astronaut and first man on the moon (b. 1930)
2014 – Richard Attenborough, English actor and director (b. 1923)
2018 – John McCain, American politician and war hero (b. 1936)
2020 – Lori Nelson, American actress (b. 1933)

Voyager 1 is still traveling through interstellar space after crossing the solar system boundary in 2012.
The “Great Moon Hoax” in 1835 tricked thousands into believing life had been found on the Moon.
August 25 is often associated with the end of summer holidays in many parts of Europe.
Elvis Costello and Gene Simmons, both born on this date, have made significant impacts in very different music genres.
Hurricane Harvey (2017) became one of the costliest tropical cyclones in U.S. history.