Important Historical Events Today, What Happened Today in History?

Today's Historical Events. What Happened This Day In History? Here is a chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened 25 November in history.

Historical Events on November 25

Date Event
571 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.
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 12-metre (40 ft) 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.
1905 Prince Carl of Denmark arrives in Norway to become King Haakon VII of Norway.
1908 A fire breaks out on SS Sardinia 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 HMS Barham 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 265 km/h (165 mph) 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.