1925

Events of 1925

January–March

• January 3 – Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
• January 5 – Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor (Wyoming) in the United States.
• January 27 – February 1 – The 1925 serum run to Nome (the "Great Race of Mercy") relays diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled across the U.S. territory of Alaska, to combat an epidemic.
• February 2 – The 1925 Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake strikes northeastern North America.
• February 21 – The New Yorker magazine publishes its first issue.
• February 25 – Art Gillham records for Columbia Records the first Western Electric masters to be commercially released.
• March 4 – İsmet İnönü is appointed as the prime minister in Turkey (Turkey's 4th and İnönü's 3rd government).
• March 4 – Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to have his inauguration broadcast on radio.
• March 6 – Pionerskaya Pravda, one of the oldest children's newspapers in Europe, is founded in the Soviet Union.
• March 10 – Olympiacos F.C., Greece's most successful football club is founded.
• March 15 – The Phi Lambda Chi fraternity (original name "The Aztecs") is founded on the campus of Arkansas State Teacher's College in Conway, Arkansas (now the University of Central Arkansas).
• March 18 – The Tri-State Tornado rampages through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people and injuring 2,027. It hits the towns of Murphysboro, Illinois; Gorham, Illinois; Ellington, Missouri; and Griffin, Indiana.
• March 21 – Tennessee Governor Austin Peay signs the Butler Act, prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the state's public schools.
• March 31 – Radio station WOWO in Ft. Wayne, Indiana begins broadcasting.

April–June

• April 1 – Frank Heath and his horse Gypsy Queen leave Washington, D.C. to begin a two-year journey to visit all 48 states.
• April 1 – Patent and Trademark Office transferred to the Department of Commerce.
• April 3 – United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia return to the (bullion) gold standard.
• April 10 – F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby.
• April 16 – The Communist St. Nedelya Church assault claims the lives of 150 and injures 500 in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.
• April 25 – Fritz Haarmann, a serial killer convicted of the murder of 24 boys and young men, is beheaded in Germany.
• May 5 – Scopes Trial: Dayton, Tennessee, biology teacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.
• May 5 – The General Election Law is passed in Japan.
• May 8 – Tom Lee rescues 32 people from the M.E. Norman, a sinking steamboat.
• May 25 – Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
• May 25 – The National Forensic League is founded.
• May 29 – The British explorer Percy Fawcett sends a last telegram to his wife, before he disappears in the Amazon.
• June 1 – Percy and Florence Arrowsmith are married. This couple, who celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary June 1, 2005 (Percy aged 105, and wife Florence 100), are acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records as record-holders for the longest marriage for a living couple and the greatest aggregate age of a married couple.
• June 6 – The Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Percy Chrysler.
• June 13 – Charles Francis Jenkins achieves the first synchronized transmission of pictures and sound, using 48 lines, and a mechanical system. A 10-minute film of a miniature windmill in motion is sent across 5 miles from Anacostia to Washington, DC. The images are viewed by representatives of the National Bureau of Standards, the U.S. Navy, the Commerce Department, and others. Jenkins calls this "the first public demonstration of radiovision".
• June 14 – The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece is founded.
• June 14 – The Turkish football club Göztepe is founded.
• June 29 – Santa Barbara Earthquake of 1925: A 6.3 earthquake destroys downtown Santa Barbara, California.

July–September

• July 10 – Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law.
• July 10 – Meher Baba begins his 44 year silence.
• July 18 – Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
• July 21 – Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.
• July 25 – The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.
• August 14 – The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is completed and goes on line.
• August 25 – The French evacuate the Ruhr region of Germany.
• September 3 – The U.S. dirigible Shenandoah breaks up en route to Scottfield, St. Louis; 14 crewmen are killed.
• September 27 – Feast of the Cross according to the Old Calendar; A celestial cross appears over Athens, Greece, while the Greek Police pursues a group of Greek Old Calendarists. The phenomenon lasted for half an hour.http://www.orthodox.net/articles/cross-in-athens.html

October–December

• October – The major money forgery and fraud of Alves Reis is exposed in Portugal.
• October 1 – Mount Rushmore is dedicated.
• October 8 – Cubana de Aviación founded.
• October 30 – John Logie Baird creates Britain's first television transmitter.
• November 6 – Secret agent Sidney Reilly is executed by the OGPU, the secret police of the Soviet Union.
• November 24 – The silent film Hussar of the Dead is released in Santiago de Chile.
• November 26 – Prajadhipok (Rama VII) is crowned as King of Siam.
• November 28 – The country-variety show Grand Ole Opry makes its radio debut on station WSM (it later becomes the longest-running live music show).
• December 1 – Locarno Treaties are signed.
• December 15
• * Reza Shah becomes shah of Persia.
• December 16 – Alpha Phi Omega, a National service fraternity, is founded at Lafayette College.
• December 16 – Colombo Radio launches in Ceylon; the station is subsequently known as Radio Ceylon.
• December 26 – The Great Sphinx of Giza is unearthed after restoration.

Undated

• The Australian state of Queensland introduces a 44-hour working week.
• New York City becomes the largest city in the world, taking the lead from London.
• The Thompson submachine gun sells for $175 in the 1925 Sears, Roebuck and Company mail order catalog.
• London's first enclosed double-decker buses are introduced.
• The National Football League adds 5 teams: the New York Giants, Detroit Panthers, Providence Steam Roller, a new Canton Bulldogs team, and the Pottsville Maroons.
• In Germany, the Bauhaus moves to a building in Dessau designed by Walter Gropius.
• Lion Feuchtwanger's novel Jud Süß published.
• The Shueisha Publishing Company is founded in Tokyo.
• The Brisbane City Council, (Brisbane, Australia), is created from the amlgamation of 20 smaller cities, towns and shires.

Births

January

• January 1 – Paul Bomani, Tanzanian politician and ambassador (d. 2005)
• January 1 – Valentina Cortese, Italian actress
• January 2 – Larry Harmon, American entertainer and TV producer ( Bozo the Clown) (d. 2008)
• January 4 – Veikko Hakulinen, Finnish cross-country skier (d. 2003)
• January 6 – John De Lorean, American car maker (d. 2005)
• January 7 – Gerald Durrell, British naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter (d. 1995)
• January 8 – Helmuth Hubener, German youth political activist against the Hitler regime (d. 1942)
• January 11 – Grant Tinker, American television executive (The Mary Tyler Moore Show)
• January 13 – Georgi Kaloyanchev, Bulgarian actor
• January 14 – Yukio Mishima, Japanese writer (d. 1970)
• January 17 – Duane Hanson, American Sculptor (d. 1996)
• January 25 – Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (d. 1995)
• January 26 – Paul Newman, American actor (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) (d. 2008)
• January 26 – Joan Leslie, American actress
• January 30 – Dorothy Malone, American actress

February

• February 1 – Mary Nesbitt, American female professional baseball player
• February 3 – Leon Schlumpf, Swiss Federal Councillor
• February 8 – Jack Lemmon, American actor and film director (The Odd Couple) (d. 2001)
• February 11 – Kim Stanley, American actress (d. 2001)
• February 17
• * Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (d. 2003)
• * Hal Holbrook, American actor (Mark Twain Tonight)
• February 18 – George Kennedy, American actor (Cool Hand Luke)
• February 20 – Robert Altman, American film director (d. 2006)
• February 21 – Sam Peckinpah, American director (d. 1984)
• February 25 – Maddy English, American female baseball player (d. 2004)
• * Shehu Shagari, President of Nigeria from 1979 to 1983
• February 27 – Samuel Dash, American Watergate Congressional counsel (d. 2004)

March

• March 4 – Paul Mauriat, French musician (Love Is Blue) (d. 2006)
• March 12 – Leo Esaki, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• March 16 – Luis E. Miramontes, Mexican chemist (d. 2004)
• March 23 – David Watkin, British cinematographer (d. 2008)
• March 25 – Flannery O'Connor, American writer (d. 1964)
• March 26 – Pierre Boulez, French composer
• March 29 – Bobby Hutchins, Our Gang child star (d. 1945)

April

• April 4 – Fariza Magomadova, Chechen teacher
• April 14
• * Gene Ammons, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1974)
• * Rod Steiger, American actor (In The Heat Of The Night) (d. 2002)
• April 19 – Hugh O'Brian, American actor
• April 20 – Ernie Stautner, German-born American football player (d. 2006)
• April 22 – George Cole, British actor
• April 24 – Faye Dancer, American baseball player (d. 2002)
• * Eugen Weber, Romanian-born historian (d. 2007)
• April 25 – Kay E. Kuter, American actor (d. 2003)
• April 26 – Jørgen Ingmann, Danish musician
• April – – Qassem Al-Nasser, Jordanian General (d. 2007)

May

• May 1 – Scott Carpenter, American astronaut
• May 2
• * John Neville (actor), English actor
• * Roscoe Lee Browne, American actor (d. 2007)
• * Inga Gill, Swedish actress (d. 2000)
• May 3 – Jean Séguy, French sociologist of religions (d. 2007)
• May 4
• * Maurice R. Greenberg, American businessman
• * Olive Osmond, Osmond family matriarch (d. 2004)
• May 5 – Charles Chaplin Jr., American actor (d. 1968)
• May 8 – Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Tanzanian president
• May 12 – Yogi Berra, American baseball player
• May 19
• * Pol Pot, Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader (d. 1998)
• * Malcolm X, African-American civil rights activist (d. 1965)
• May 22 – James King, American tenor (d. 2005)
• May 23 – Joshua Lederberg, American molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2008)
• May 25 – Jeanne Crain, American actress (d. 2003)
• May 26 – Alec McCowen, English actor
• May 28 – Pavel Štěpán, Czech pianist (d. 1998)

June

• June 1 – Dilia Díaz Cisneros, Venezuelan teacher
• June 3 – Tony Curtis, American actor
• June 7 – John Biddle, American yachting cinematographer and lecturer (d. 2008)
• June 8 – Barbara Bush, First Lady of the United States
• June 11 – William Styron, American writer (d. 2006)
• June 14 – Pierre Salinger, White House Press Secretary (d. 2004)
• June 21 – Maureen Stapleton, American actress (d. 2006)
• June 29 – Giorgio Napolitano, Italian politician

July

• July 1 – Farley Granger, American actor
• July 2 – Medgar Evers, African-American civil rights activist (d. 1963)
• July 6
• * Merv Griffin, American game show developer and host (d. 2007)
• * Bill Haley, American musician ( Bill Haley & His Comets) (d. 1981)
• July 10 – Mahathir bin Mohamad, fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia
• July 12 – Roger Bonham Smith, former chairman and CEO of General Motors (d. 2007)
• July 20 – Frantz Fanon, philosopher (d. 1961)
• July 28 – Baruch S. Blumberg, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• July 29 – Mikis Theodorakis, Greek composer (Zorba the Greek)
• July 30 – Alexander Trocchi, Scottish writer (d. 1984)

August

• August 2 – Alan Whicker, British television presenter
• August 3 – Dom Um Romão, Brazilian jazz drummer (d. 2005)
• August 4 - Betty Trezza, Italian-American female professional baseball player (d. 2007)
• August 7 – M. S. Swaminathan, Indian scientist
• August 8 – Alija Izetbegović, President of Bosnia-Herzegovina (d. 2003)
• August 9 – David A. Huffman, American computer scientist (d. 1999)
• August 11 – Mike Douglas, American entertainer (d. 2006)
• August 12
• * Norris McWhirter (d. 2004) and his twin brother,
• * Ross McWhirter (d. 1975), Scottish co-founders of the Guinness Book of Records
• August 15
• * Ruth Lessing, American female professional baseball player (d. 2000)
• * Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist (d. 2007)
• * Bill Pinkney, American performer and singer (d. 2007)
• August 16 – Kirke Mechem, American composer
• August 21 – Maurice Pialat, French actor and director (d. 2003)
• August 22
• * Honor Blackman, English actress
• * Terry Donahue, Canadian female professional baseball player
• August 25 – Thea Astley, Australian writer (d. 2004)
• August 26 – Jack Hirshleifer, American economist (d. 2005)
• August 27 – Nat Lofthouse, English footballer
• August 28 – Donald O'Connor, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 2003)
• August 30 – Laurent de Brunhoff, French writer and illustrator

September

• September 3 – Shoista Mullojonova, Shashmakom singer
• September 7 – Laura Ashley, Welsh designer (d. 1985)
• September 8 – Peter Sellers, English comedian and actor (The Pink Panther) (d. 1980)
• September 10 – Boris Alexandrovich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (d. 1996)
• September 15 – Helle Virkner, Danish actress (d. 2009)
• September 16 – Charles Haughey, sixth Taoiseach (head of government of the Republic of Ireland) (d. 2006)
• September 16 – B. B. King, American guitarist
• September 23 – Denis Twitchett, Cambridge scholar and Chinese historian (d. 2006)
• September 24 – Autar Singh Paintal, Indian medical scientist (d. 2004)
• September 25 – Paul B. MacCready, Jr., American aeronautical engineer (d. 2007)
• September 28
• * Cromwell Everson, South African composer (d. 1991)
• * Carolyn Morris, American female professional baseball player (d. 1996)
• * Arnold Stang, American actor (d. 2009)

October

• October 1
• * Christine Pullein-Thompson, British author (d. 2005)
• * Diana Pullein-Thompson, British author
• October 7 – Mildred Earp, American female professional baseball player
• October 11 – Elmore Leonard, American novelist
• October 13
• * Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• * Lenny Bruce, American comedian. (d. 1966)
• October 16 – Angela Lansbury, English actress
• October 20
• * Art Buchwald, American humorist and columnist (d. 2007)
• * Gene Wood, American game show announcer (d. 2004)
• October 23 – Johnny Carson, American comedian and television host (The Tonight Show) (d. 2005)
• October 24
• * Luciano Berio, Italian composer (d. 2003)
• * Bob Azzam, Egyptian singer
• * Al Feldstein, American artist and comic book creator
• October 29
• * Robert Hardy, English Actor
• * Dominick Dunne, American writer (d. 2009)
• October 31 – John Pople, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)

November

• November 10 – Richard Burton, Welsh actor (Cleopatra) (d. 1984)
• November 11 – Jonathan Winters, American actor and comedian
• November 18 – Gene Mauch, baseball manager (d. 2005)
• November 20 – Robert Kennedy, American politician and Attorney General of the United States (d. 1968)
• November 24 – William F. Buckley, Jr., American journalist, author, and commentator (The Firing Line) (d. 2008)
• November 24 – Simon van der Meer, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• November 26 – Eugene Istomin, American pianist (d. 2003)
• November 27 – John Maddox, Welsh science writer (d. 2009)
• November 30 – William H. Gates, Sr., American attorney, father of Bill Gates

December

• December 1 – Martin Rodbell, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1998)
• December 3 – Kim Dae-jung, South Korean politician (d. 2009)
• December 4 – Lino Lacedelli, Italian mountaineer (d. 2009)
• December 8 – Sammy Davis Jr., American singer, dancer, musician, and actor (d. 1990)
• December 11 – Paul Greengard, American neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• December 12 – Vladimir Shainsky, Soviet and Russian composer
• December 13 – Dick Van Dyke, American actor, singer, dancer and comedian (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
• December 14 – Gloria Malgarini, American actress
• December 19 – Robert B. Sherman, American songwriter
• December 21 – Dorothy Kamenshek, American female professional baseball player (d. 2010)
• December 23 – Duncan Hallas, prominent member of the Trotskyist movement in Great Britain (d. 2002)
• December 29 – Pete Dye, American golf course architect

Unknown

• date unknown – Godrej Sidhwa, Pakistani theologist

Deaths

January–February

• January 4 – Nellie Cashman, Irish-born prospector (b. 1845)
• January 8 – George Bellows, American artist (b. 1882)
• January 14 – Camille Decoppet, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1852)
• January 31 – George Washington Cable, American writer (b. 1844)
• February 2 – Jaap Eden, Dutch speed skater (b. 1873)
• February 3 – Oliver Heaviside, English mathematician (b. 1850)
• February 4 – Robert Koldewey, German architect and archaeologist (b. 1855)
• February 10 – Aristide Bruant, French singer and nightclub owner (b. 1851)
• February 11 – H.E. Beunke, Dutch writer (b. 1851)
• February 18 – James Lane Allen, American writer (b. 1849)
• February 24 – Hjalmar Branting, Prime Minister of Sweden, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1860)
• February 25 – Louis Feuillade, French silent film director (b. 1873)
• February 28 – Friedrich Ebert, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1871)

March–April

• March 2 – Luigj Gurakuqi, Albanian freedom fighter (assassinated) (b. 1879)
• March 4
• * Moritz Moszkowski, Polish composer (b. 1854)
• * John Montgomery Ward, American baseball player (b. 1860)
• March 7 – Georgy Evgenyevich Lvov, Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1861)
• March 10 – Myer Prinstein, American track athlete (b. 1878)
• March 12 – Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1866)
• March 14 – Walter Camp, American football coach (b. 1859)
• March 20 – George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy of India (b. 1859)
• March 25 – Tikhon of Moscow, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (b. 1865)
• March 28 – Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson, British general (b. 1864)
• March 31 – Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher (b. 1861)
• April 6 – Alexandra Kitchin, British model for Lewis Carroll (b. 1864)
• April 12 – Elwood Haynes, American inventor (b. 1857)
• April 14 – John Singer Sargent, American artist (b. 1856)
• April 15 – Fritz Haarmann, German serial killer (executed) (b. 1879)
• April 19 – John Walter Smith, American politician (b. 1845)
• April 22 – André Caplet, French composer and conductor (b. 1878)

May–June

• May 2 – Johann Palisa, Austrian astronomer (b. 1848)
• May 2 – Antun Branko Simic, Croatian poet (b. 1898)
• May 10 – William Massey, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1856)
• May 12
• * Amy Lowell, American poet (b. 1874)
• * Charles Mangin, French general (b. 1866)
• May 14 – H. Rider Haggard, English writer (b. 1856)
• May 20 – Elias M. Ammons, Governor of Colorado (b. 1860)
• May 22 – John French, 1st Earl of Ypres, British World War I field marshal (b. 1852)
• May 31 – John Palm, Curaçao born composer (b. 1885)
• June 1
• * Lucien Guitry, French actor (b. 1860)
• * Thomas R. Marshall, Vice President of the United States (b. 1854)
• June 2 – James Ellsworth, American mine owner and banker (b. 1849)
• June 16 – Emmett Hardy, American jazz cornetist (b. 1903)
• June 17 – Adolf Pilar von Pilchau, Baltic German politician, regent of the United Baltic Duchy and baron (b. 1851)
• June 18 – Robert M. La Follette, Sr., American politician (b. 1855)
• June 22 – Felix Klein, German mathematician (b. 1849)
• June 29 – Christian Michelsen, Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1857)

July–August

• July 1 – Erik Satie, French composer (b. 1866)
• July 7 – Clarence Hudson White American photographer (b. 1871)
• July 14 – Pancho Villa, Filipino world boxing champion (b. 1901)
• July 17 – Lovis Corinth, German painter (b. 1858)
• July 26
• * Antonio Ascari, Italian race car driver (b. 1888)
• * William Jennings Bryan, American lawyer and politician (b. 1860) (diabetes and fatigue)
• * Gottlob Frege, German mathematician and philosopher (b. 1848)
• August 15 – Konrad Mägi, Estonian landscape painter (b. 1878)
• August 17 – Ioan Slavici, Romanian writer (b. 1848)
• August 25 – Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf, Austrian field marshal (b. 1852)

September–October

• September 7 – René Viviani, Prime Minister of France (b. 1863)
• September 16 – Alexander Alexandrovich Friedman, Russian mathematician (b. 1888)
• September 29 – Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1851)
• October 7 – Christy Mathewson, American baseball player (b. 1880)
• October 31
• * Mikhail Frunze, Russian Bolshevik leader (b. 1885)
• * Max Linder, French silent film actor (b. 1883)

November–December

• November 1 – Lester Cuneo, American actor (b. 1888)
• November 3 – Lucile McVey, American actress, part of comedy team with her late husband Sidney Drew (b. 1890)
• November 6 – Khai Dinh, Emperor of Vietnam (b. 1885)
• November 20 – Alexandra of Denmark, queen of Edward VII of the United Kingdom (b. 1844)
• November 25 – King Vajiravudh of Siam (b. 1880)
• December 5 – Wladyslaw Reymont, Polish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)
• December 8 – Marguerite Marsh, American actress (b. 1888)
• December 9 – Pablo Iglesias, co-founder of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (b. 1850)
• December 15 – Battling Siki, Senegalese boxer (b. 1897)
• December 19 – Jose Ignacio Quinton, Puerto Rican composer and pianist (b. 1881)
• December 21
• * Jules Méline, Prime Minister of France (b. 1838)
• * Lottie Lyell, Australian female pioneer film director and producer (b. 1890)
• December 22
• * Alice Heine, American wife of Albert I of Monaco (b. 1858)
• * Mary Thurman, American actress (b. 1895)
• December 25 – Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (b. 1877)
• December 28 – Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin, Russian lyrical poet (b. 1895)
• December 31 – J. Gordon Edwards, Canadian film director (b. 1867)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – James Franck and Gustav Ludwig Hertz
• Chemistry – Richard Adolf Zsigmondy
• Physiology or Medicine – not awarded
• Literature – George Bernard Shaw
• Peace – Austen Chamberlain and Charles Gates Dawes

Ship events

• List of ship launches in 1925

Notes