On this day in history

August 25

9 births · 12 deaths · 3 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

1960 Summer Olympics

66 years ago

Born this day

1930

Sean Connery

Would be 96

Oldest record

799th

Genghis Khan

death anniversary

Famous births9

1744 · 282 yrs

Johann Gottfried Herder

Johann Gottfried von Herder ( HUR-dər; German:; 25 August 1744 – 18 December 1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, pastor, poet, and literary critic. Herder is associated with the Age of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.

PhilosophyWould be 282

Photo: Anton Graff · Public domain

1911 · 115 yrs

Võ Nguyên Giáp

Võ Nguyên Giáp (chữ Hán: 武元甲, Vietnamese pronunciation:; 25 August 1911 – 4 October 2013) was a Vietnamese general, communist revolutionary and politician. Highly regarded as a military strategist, Giáp led Vietnamese communist military forces to victory in the decades-long Indochina wars.

MilitaryWould be 115

Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain

1912 · 114 yrs

Erich Honecker

Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (German:; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

MilitaryWould be 114

Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1918 · 108 yrs

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein ( BURN-styne; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American-born conductor to receive international acclaim.

MusicWould be 108

Photo: Jack Mitchell · CC BY-SA 4.0

1930 · 96 yrs

Sean Connery

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor and film producer. Connery was the first actor to portray the fictional British secret agent James Bond in motion pictures, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983.

FilmWould be 96

Photo: Rob Bogaerts for Anefo · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

1934 · 92 yrs

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

Ali Akbar Hashemi Bahramani Rafsanjani (né Bahramani; 25 August 1934 – 8 January 2017) was an Iranian Shia cleric and politician who was the president of Iran from 1989 to 1997.

PoliticsWould be 92

Photo: Fars News Agency · CC BY 4.0

1958 · 68 yrs

Tim Burton

Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker, and former animator. He is known for pioneering goth subculture in Hollywood, with his films employing a distinctive style that blends gothic horror and dark fantasy aesthetics with whimsical and surreal elements.

FilmAge 68

Photo: Harald Krichel · CC BY-SA 4.0

1970 · 56 yrs

Claudia Schiffer

Claudia Maria Schiffer, Lady Drummond (German:; born 25 August 1970), is a German model and actress. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a supermodel.

FashionAge 56

Photo: nicolas genin · CC BY-SA 2.0

1987 · 39 yrs

Blake Lively

Blake Ellender Brown (born August 25, 1987), known professionally as Blake Lively, is an American actress and entrepreneur. A daughter of actor Ernie Lively, she made her professional debut in his directorial project Sandman (1998).

FilmAge 39

Photo: SWinxy · CC BY 4.0

Famous deaths12

1227 · 799 yrs

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; c. 1162 – 18 or 25 August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongol tribes, he launched a series of military campaigns, conquering large parts of China and Central Asia.

RoyaltyWould be 864

Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain

1270 · 756 yrs

Louis IX of France

Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), also known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270.

RoyaltyWould be 812

Photo: AnonymousUnknown author · Public domain

1776 · 250 yrs

David Hume

David Hume (born David Home; 7 May 1711 – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist who is known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism.

PhilosophyWould be 315

Photo: Allan Ramsay · Public domain

1867 · 159 yrs

Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday (22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English chemist and physicist who contributed vastly to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and electrolysis.

ScienceWould be 235

Photo: Thomas Phillips · Public domain

1900 · 126 yrs

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher and writer who started his career as a classical philologist and turned to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, at age 24, he was appointed Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel.

PhilosophyWould be 181

Photo: Friedrich Hermann Hartmann · Public domain

1908 · 118 yrs

Antoine Henri Becquerel

Antoine Henri Becquerel (15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French experimental physicist who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Marie and Pierre Curie for his discovery of radioactivity.

ScienceWould be 173

Photo: Paul Nadar / Adam Cuerden · Public domain

1938 · 88 yrs

Aleksandr Kuprin

Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin (Russian: Александр Иванович Куприн; 7 September 1870 – 25 August 1938) was a Russian writer best known for his novels The Duel (1905) and Yama: The Pit (1915), as well as Moloch (1896), Olesya (1898), "Captain Ribnikov" (1906), "Emerald" (1907), and The Garnet Bracelet (1911) – the latter…

LiteratureWould be 156

Photo: Vokrugsveta · Public domain

1976 · 50 yrs

Eyvind Johnson

Eyvind Johnson (29 July 1900 – 25 August 1976) was a Swedish novelist and short story writer.

LiteratureWould be 126

Photo: Meyere de, Jan · Public domain

1984 · 42 yrs

Truman Capote

Truman Garcia Capote ( kə-POH-tee; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, and playwright.

LiteratureWould be 102

Photo: Jack Mitchell · CC BY-SA 4.0

2001 · 25 yrs

Aaliyah

Aaliyah Dana Haughton ( ah-LEE-ə; January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001) was an American singer, actress, dancer, and model. Known as the "Princess of R&B" and "Queen of Urban Pop", she is credited with helping to redefine contemporary R&B, pop, and hip hop.

MusicWould be 47

Photo: mika-photography.com · CC BY-SA 3.0

2012 · 14 yrs

Neil Armstrong

NASA astronaut and commander of Apollo 11, the first person to walk on the Moon.

SpaceWould be 96

Photo: NASA · Public domain

2018 · 8 yrs

John McCain

John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and naval officer who represented Arizona in the United States Congress for over 35 years, first as a U.S. representative from 1983 to 1987, then as a U.S. senator from 1987 until his death in 2018.

PoliticsWould be 90

Photo: United States Congress · Public domain

Events3

1830 · 196 yrs

Belgian Revolution

The Belgian Revolution (French: Révolution belge, Dutch: Belgische Revolutie/opstand/omwenteling) was a conflict which led to the secession of the southern provinces (mainly the former Southern Netherlands) from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the establishment of an independent Kingdom of Belgium.

Politics

1960 · 66 yrs

1960 Summer Olympics

The 1960 Summer Olympics (Italian: Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad (Italian: Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 (Italian: Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy.

Sports

2020 · 6 yrs

2020 Summer Paralympics

The 2020 Summer Paralympics (Japanese: 東京2020パラリンピック競技大会, Hepburn: Tōkyō Nizeronizero Pararinpikku Kyōgi Taikai), branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

Sports

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