March 25
it was the official date of the beginning of the year in England and its dominions.
Events
Pre-1600
- 410 - The Southern Yan capital of Guanggu falls to the Jin dynasty general Liu Yu, ending the Southern Yan dynasty.
- 421 - Italian city Venice is founded with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo di Rialto on the islet of Rialto.
- 708 - Pope Constantine becomes the 88th pope. He would be the last pope to visit Constantinople until 1967.
- 717 - Theodosius III resigns the throne to the Byzantine Empire to enter the clergy allowing Leo III to take the throne and begin the Isaurian dynasty.
- 919 - Romanos Lekapenos seizes the Boukoleon Palace in Constantinople and becomes regent of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII.
- 1000 - Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah assassinates the eunuch chief minister Barjawan and assumes control of the government.
- 1065 - The Great German Pilgrimage is attacked on Good Friday by Beduin bandits, suffering heavy losses.
- 1306 - Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scots.
- 1409 - The Council of Pisa convenes, in an attempt to heal the Western Schism.
- 1410 - The Yongle Emperor of Ming China launches the first of his military campaigns against the Mongols, resulting in the fall of the Mongol khan Bunyashiri.
- 1519 - Hernán Cortés, entering province of Tabasco, defeats Tabascan Indians.
- 1576 - Jerome Savage takes out a sub-lease to start the Newington Butts Theatre outside London.
- 1584 - Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia.
1601–1900
- 1655 - Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.
- 1708 - A French fleet anchors nears Fife Ness as part of the planned French invasion of Britain.
- 1725 - Bach's chorale cantata "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1", is first performed on the Feast of the Annunciation, coinciding with Palm Sunday.
- 1770 - Daskalogiannis leads the people of Sfakia in the first Greek uprising against the Ottoman rule
- 1776 - American Revolutionary War - American Patriots conduct a Raid on Tybee Island, primarily seeking to capture runaway slaves who sought refuge with British forces stationed there.
- 1802 - The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and the United Kingdom.
- 1807 - The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger-carrying railway in the world.
- 1811 - Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for publishing the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism.
- 1821 - Greek War of Independence: Traditional date of the start of the Greek War of Independence. The war had actually begun on 23 February 1821.
- 1845 - New Zealand Legislative Council pass the first Militia Act constituting the New Zealand Army.
- 1865 - American Civil War: In Virginia during the Siege of Petersburg, Confederate forces temporarily capture Fort Stedman from the Union before being repulsed.
- 1878 – Last issue of the Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, the first or one of the first anarchist newspapers.
- 1894 - Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, Ohio for Washington, D.C.
1901–present
- 1905 - The Greek football club P.A.E. G.S. Diagoras is founded in the city of Rhodes.
- 1911 - In New York City, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 garment workers.
- 1911 - Andrey Yushchinsky is murdered in Kiev, leading to the Beilis affair.
- 1914 - The Greek multi-sport club Aris Thessaloniki is founded in Thessaloniki.
- 1917 - The Georgian Orthodox Church restores its autocephaly abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811.
- 1918 - The Belarusian People's Republic is established.
- 1919 - The Tetiev pogrom occurs in Ukraine, becoming the prototype of mass murder during the Holocaust.
- 1924 - On the anniversary of Greek Independence, Alexandros Papanastasiou proclaims the Second Hellenic Republic.
- 1931 - The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
- 1932 - The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is unveiled in Athens.
- 1941 - The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers with the signing of the Tripartite Pact.
- 1947 - An explosion in a coal mine in Centralia, Illinois kills 111.
- 1948 - The first successful tornado forecast predicts that a tornado will strike Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.
- 1949 - More than 92,000 kulaks are suddenly deported from the Baltic states to Siberia.
- 1957 - United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" on obscenity grounds.
- 1957 - The European Economic Community is established with West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg as the first members.
- 1959 - Chain Island is sold by the State of California to Russell Gallaway III, a Sacramento businessman who plans to use it as a "hunting and fishing retreat", for $5,258.20.
- 1965 - Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. successfully complete their 4-day march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.
- 1971 - The Army of the Republic of Vietnam abandon an attempt to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos.
- 1975 - Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by his nephew.
- 1979 - The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.
- 1988 - The Candle demonstration in Bratislava is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
- 1995 - WikiWikiWeb, the world's first wiki, and part of the Portland Pattern Repository, is made public by Ward Cunningham.
- 1996 - The European Union's Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease.
- 2006 - Capitol Hill massacre: A gunman kills six people before taking his own life at a party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.
- 2006 - Protesters demanding a new election in Belarus, following the rigged 2006 Belarusian presidential election, clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin is among several protesters arrested.
- 2018 - Syrian civil war: Following the completion of the Afrin offensive, the Syrian Democratic Forces initiate an insurgency against the Turkish occupation of the Afrin District.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1252 - Conradin, Duke of Swabia
- 1259 - Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor
- 1297 - Andronikos III Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor
- 1297 - Arnošt of Pardubice, the first Bohemian archbishop
- 1345 - Blanche of Lancaster
- 1347 - Catherine of Siena, Italian philosopher, theologian, and saint
- 1404 - John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, English military leader
- 1414 - Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford, English noble
- 1434 - Eustochia Smeralda Calafato, Italian saint
- 1479 - Vasili III of Russia
- 1491 - Marie d'Albret, Countess of Rethel
- 1510 - Guillaume Postel, French linguist
- 1538 - Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer
- 1541 - Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
- 1545 - John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg
- 1546 - Giacomo Castelvetro, Italian writer
- 1593 - Jean de Brébeuf, French-Canadian missionary and saint
1601–1900
- 1611 - Evliya Çelebi, Ottoman Turk traveller and writer
- 1636 - Henric Piccardt, Dutch lawyer
- 1643 - Louis Moréri, French priest and scholar
- 1661 - Paul de Rapin, French soldier and historian
- 1699 - Johann Adolph Hasse, German singer and composer
- 1741 - Jean-Antoine Houdon, French sculptor and educator
- 1745 - John Barry, American naval officer and father of the American navy
- 1767 - Joachim Murat, French general
- 1782 - Caroline Bonaparte, French daughter of Carlo Buonaparte
- 1800 - Ernst Heinrich Karl von Dechen, German geologist and academic
- 1808 - José de Espronceda, Spanish poet and author
- 1824 - Clinton L. Merriam, American banker and politician
- 1828 - George Montgomery White, American politician
- 1840 - Myles Keogh, Irish-American colonel
- 1859 – Hendrik Wortman, Dutch civil engineer
- 1863 - Simon Flexner, American physician and academic
- 1867 - Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor, designed Mount Rushmore
- 1867 - Arturo Toscanini, Italian-American cellist and conductor
- 1868 - Bill Lockwood, English cricketer
- 1871 - Louis Perrée, French fencer
- 1872 - Horatio Nelson Jackson, American race car driver and physician
- 1873 - Rudolf Rocker, German-American author and activist
- 1874 - Selim Sırrı Tarcan, Turkish educator and politician
- 1876 - Irving Baxter, American high jumper and pole vaulter
- 1877 - Walter Little, Canadian politician
- 1878 - František Janda-Suk, Czech discus thrower and shot putter
- 1879 - Amedee Reyburn, American swimmer and water polo player
- 1881 - Béla Bartók, Hungarian pianist and composer
- 1881 - Patrick Henry Bruce, American painter and educator
- 1881 - Mary Webb, English author and poet
- 1893 - Johannes Villemson, Estonian runner
- 1895 - Siegfried Handloser, German general and physician
- 1885 - Jimmy Seed, English international footballer and manager
- 1897 - Leslie Averill, New Zealand doctor and soldier
- 1899 - François Rozet, French-Canadian actor
- 1900 - George Carstairs, Australian rugby league player