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There are many events that happened on this date in history. Here are just a few of them!

February 25 is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 309 days remain until the end of the year (310 in leap years).

EVENTS

138 – Roman emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius as his son, effectively making him his successor.

1336 – Four thousand defenders of Pilenai commit mass suicide rather than be taken captive by the Teutonic Knights.

1705 – George Frideric Handel's opera Nero premiered in Hamburg.

1836 – Samuel Colt is granted a United States patent for his revolver firearm.

1870 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress.

1932 – Adolf Hitler, having been stateless for seven years, obtains German citizenship when he is appointed a Brunswick state official by Dietrich Klagges, a fellow Nazi. As a result, Hitler is able to run for Reichspräsident in the 1932 election.

1933 – Launch of the USS Ranger at Newport News, Virginia. It is the first purpose-built aircraft carrier to be commissioned by the US Navy.

1951 – The first Pan American Games are officially opened in Buenos Aires by Argentine President Juan Perón.

1956 – In his speech On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, denounces Stalin.

2016 – Three people are killed and fourteen others injured in a series of shootings in the small Kansas cities of Newton and Hesston.

BIRTHS

1670 – Maria Margarethe Kirch, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1720)

1806 – Emma Catherine Embury, American author and poet (d. 1863)

1860 – William Ashley, English historian and academic (d. 1927)

1873 – Enrico Caruso, Italian-American tenor; the most popular operatic tenor of the early 20th century and the first great recording star. (d. 1921)

1885 – Princess Alice of Battenberg, mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (d. 1969)

1888 – John Foster Dulles, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 52nd United States Secretary of State (d. 1959)

1890 – Myra Hess, English pianist and educator (d. 1965)

1901 – Zeppo Marx, American comedian and theatrical agent (d. 1979)

1908 – Frank G. Slaughter, American physician and author (d. 2001)

1913 – Jim Backus, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1989)

1918 – Bobby Riggs, American tennis player (d. 1995)

1927 – Ralph Stanley, American singer and banjo player (d. 2016)

1938 – Diane Baker, American actress and producer

1942 – Karen Grassle, American actress

1943 – George Harrison, English singer-songwriter, guitarist and film producer (d. 2001)

1958 – Kurt Rambis, Greek-American basketball player, coach, and executive

1965 – Carrot Top, American comedian

1971 – Sean Astin, American actor, director and producer

1976 – Rashida Jones, American actress and writer

DEATHS

1805 – Thomas Pownall, English politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1722)

1822 – William Pinkney, American politician and diplomat, 7th United States Attorney General (b. 1764)

1841 – Philip P. Barbour, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 12th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1783)

1852 – Thomas Moore, Irish poet and lyricist (b. 1779)

1899 – Paul Reuter, German-English journalist and businessman, founded Reuters (b. 1816)

1957 – Bugs Moran, American mob boss (b. 1893)

1983 – Tennessee Williams, American playwright, and poet (b. 1911)

2017 – Bill Paxton, American actor and filmmaker (b. 1955)

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