On This Day

[Altobelli]

25 JANUARY

1759 The birth in this cottage at Alloway of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet. He lived at this house in Dumfries from 1793 until his death. His birthday is celebrated as ‘Burns Night’ by Scotsmen all over the world. Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne is often sung on New Year's Eve, or Hogmanay, as it's known in Scotland.

1874 The birth of William Somerset Maugham, English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s.

1899 The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company began manufacture of the first radio sets, at Chelmsford.

1911 The Daily Herald was launched. It was the first newspaper to sell two million copies.

1919 The founding of The League of Nations, forerunner of the United Nations. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.

1972 The world's first kidney and pancreatic tissue transplant was carried out in London

1980 Paul McCartney is released from Tokyo jail & deported

1981 ‘The Gang of Four’ (Roy Jenkins, Dr. David Owen, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers) split from the British Labour party to form the Social Democrats.

1989 Actor John Cleese won damages for libel at the High Court over an article in the Daily Mirror, which claimed he had become like Basil Fawlty in his comedy series Fawlty Towers

1990 The so called Burns' Day Storm occurred on this day over north-western Europe, and was one of the strongest storms on record. It started on the birthday of poet Robert Burns, lasted for two days, caused widespread damage and was responsible for 97 deaths.

2003 During the Iraq invasion, a group of people left London for Baghdad, to serve as human shields and thus prevent the U.S. led coalition troops from bombing certain locations.

2013 Thorpe Park ordered experts to redesign its £20m new rollercoaster 'The Swarm', due to open on 15th March, after dummies lost limbs during dry run tests.

2014 Sixteen schoolgirls made history by ending a tradition of male-only choral singing at Canterbury Cathedral stretching back more than a thousand years. The girls' choir had their first public performance 'On This Day', at evensong. "The girls will initially only be singing at services when boy choristers, boarders at St Edmund's school, take their twice-termly breaks. There are no women in the cathedral's adult choir."

Famous Birthday's



1759 Robert Burns, Scottish poet (Auld Lang Syne), born in Alloway, Scotland (d. 1796)



Virginia Woolf
(1882 - 1941)

Corazon Aquino
(1933 - 2009)

Alicia Keys
37th Birthday

Famous Weddings

1533 England's King Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn, his 2nd wife

1871 US President William McKinley (27) weds Ida Saxton (23) at the First Presbyterian Church in Canton

1964 Comedian and actor Bill Cosby marries Camille Olivia Hanks

1964 MLB outfielder Pete Rose (22) weds first wife Karolyn Englehardt

1981 Actor Bill Murray (30) weds Margaret Kelly on Super Bowl Sunday in Las Vegas

Famous Deaths



Al Capone
(1899 - 1947)



Ava Gardner
(1922 - 1990)

Mary Tyler Moore
(1936 - 2017)

2017 John Hurt, English actor (Elephant Man, Alien, Midnight Express), dies at 77