Events on May 25 54
Year 1521
The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.
Year 1644
Ming general Wu Sangui forms an alliance with the invading Manchus and opens the gates of the Great Wall of China at Shanhaiguan pass, letting the Manchus through towards the capital Beijing.
Year 1659
Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth of England.
Year 1660
Charles II lands at Dover at the invitation of the Convention Parliament (England), which marks the end of the Cromwell-proclaimed Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and begins the Restoration (1660) of the British monarchy.
Year 1738
A treaty between Pennsylvania and Maryland ends the Conojocular War with settlement of a boundary dispute and exchange of prisoners.
Year 1787
The United States Constitutional Convention formally convenes in Philadelphia, when a quorum of seven states is secured.
Year 1798
United Irishmen Rebellion: Battle of Carlow begins; executions of suspected rebels at Carnew and at Dunlavin Green take place.
Year 1809
Chuquisaca Revolution: Patriot revolt in Chuquisaca (modern day Sucre) against the Spanish Empire, sparking the Latin American wars of independence.
Year 1810
May Revolution: citizens of Buenos Aires expel Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros during the May week, starting the Argentine War of Independence.
Year 1837
The Rebels of Lower Canada (Quebec) rebel against the British for governmental reforms.
Year 1865
In Mobile, Alabama, around 300 people are killed when an ordnance depot explodes.
Year 1878
Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London.
Year 1895
Playwright, poet, and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
Year 1914
The House of Commons of the United Kingdom passes the Home Rule Bill for devolution in Ireland.
Year 1925
Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in Tennessee.
Year 1926
Sholom Schwartzbard assassinates Symon Petliura, the head of the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic, which is in government-in-exile in Paris.
Year 1935
Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks three world records and ties a fourth at the Big Ten Conference Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Year 1940
World War II: The German 2nd Panzer Division captures the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer; the surrender of the last French and British troops marks the end of the Battle of Boulogne.
Year 1953
At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.
Year 1953
The first public television station in the United States officially begins broadcasting as KUHT from the campus of the University of Houston.
Year 1955
In the United States, a night-time F5 tornado strikes the small city of Udall, Kansas, killing 80 and injuring 273. It is the deadliest tornado to ever occur in the state and the 23rd deadliest in the U.S.
Year 1955
First ascent of Kangchenjunga (8,586 m.), the third-highest mountain in the world, by a British expedition led by Charles Evans. Joe Brown and George Band reached the summit on May 25, followed by Norman Hardie and Tony Streather the next day.
Year 1961
Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the Moon" before the end of the decade.
Year 1973
HNS Velos, while participating in a NATO exercise and in order to protest against the dictatorship in Greece, anchored at Fiumicino, Italy, refusing to return to Greece.
Year 1977
Chinese government removes a decade old ban on William Shakespeare's work, effectively ending the Cultural Revolution started in 1966.
Year 1978
The first bomb of a series of bombings orchestrated by the Unabomber detonates at Northwestern University resulting in minor injuries.
Year 1979
American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing all 271 on board and two people on the ground.
Year 1981
In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Year 1985
Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.
Year 1997
A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.
Year 1999
The United States House of Representatives releases the Cox Report which details the People's Republic of China's nuclear espionage against the U.S. over the prior two decades.
Year 2000
Liberation Day of Lebanon. Israel withdraws its army from Lebanese territory (except for the disputed Shebaa farms zone) 22 years after its invasion in 1978.
Year 2002
China Airlines Flight 611 disintegrates in mid-air and crashes into the Taiwan Strait. All 225 people on board are killed.
Year 2008
NASA's Phoenix lander lands in Green Valley region of Mars to search for environments suitable for water and microbial life.
Year 2009
North Korea allegedly tests its second nuclear device. Following the nuclear test, Pyongyang also conducted several missile tests building tensions in the international community.
Year 2011
Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her twenty-five-year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Year 2012
The SpaceX Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with the International Space Station.
Year 2013
Suspected Maoist rebels kill at least 28 people and injure 32 others in an attack on a convoy of Indian National Congress politicians in Chhattisgarh, India.
Year 2013
A gas cylinder explodes on a school bus in the Pakistani city of Gujrat, killing at least 18 people.
Year ?
Servius Tullius, the king of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victory over the Etruscans.