March 25 in History
421 — Venice is founded on a Friday at noon.
1655 — Christiaan Huygens, Dutch physicist, mathematician, astronomer and inventor widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time, discovers Titan, Saturn’s largest satellite. 1811 — The Great Comet of 1811 is discovered by French astronomer Honoré Flaugergues.
1821 — The Greek War of Independence (Greek Revolution) against the Ottoman Empire is declared. It is celebrated as Independence Day. 1843 — Seventeen Republic of Texas soldiers (fighting for independence from Mexico) are executed by a firing squad, after drawing black beans from a jar otherwise filled with white beans. Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had ordered the execution of a 10th of the 176 Texians who surrendered or were captured after the Mier Expedition.
1843 — London’s Thames Tunnel opens 18 years after construction began.
1867 — Gutzon Borglum, sculptor of Mount Rushmore, is born in St Charles, Idaho Territory. 1906 — Jean Sablon, French crooner and actor, is born in Nogent-sur-Marne.
1908 — David Lean, British film director (“Bridge on the River Kwai”, “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Doctor Zhivago”), is born in Croydon.
1921 — The US Navy tug Conestoga sails out of Mare Island to take up an assignment as station ship at Tutuila, American Samoa, (via Pearl Harbor). The tug and its 56 officers and sailors are never heard from again. Its suspected wreckage is spotted near the Farallon Islands in 2009. US government scientists confirm the find in 2016. 1921 — Simone Signoret, French actress (“Room at the Top”), is born in Wiesbaden, Germany.
1942 — Aretha Franklin, American singer, is born in Memphis, Tennessee.
1947 — Elton John (Reginald Kenneth Dwight), English singer, is born in Pinner, Middlesex.
1975 — King Faisal Ibn Abdul Aziz, 68, of Saudi Arabia is shot dead by his nephew, Faisal bin Musaid, who is beheaded on June 18 1975.
2000 — A flash flood down the Storms River Gorge in the Eastern Cape leaves 13 dead from a group of 24 white-water enthusiasts. A build-up of debris in the Witteklip River, a tributary to the Storms River, had collapsed, releasing a 2m-high wall of water on the tubers.
2012 — Six rugby players from the Motherwell club in Port Elizabeth, taking a swim to cool off after a training session, drown when a rip-current pulls 21 people out to sea at Blue Water Bay.