August 25 in History

Year 383 (CCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Merobaudes and Saturninus. The denomination 383 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Marcian (; Latin: Marcianus; Ancient Greek: Μαρκιανός Markianos; c. 392 – 27 January 457) was Roman emperor of the East from 450 to 457. Very little is known of his life before becoming emperor, other than that he was a domesticus (personal assistant) who served under the commanders Ardabur and his son Aspar for fifteen years. After the death of Emperor Theodosius II on 28 July 450, Marcian was made a candidate for the throne by Aspar, who held much influence because of his military power. After a month of negotiations Pulcheria, Theodosius's sister, agreed to marry Marcian. Zeno, a military leader whose influence was similar to Aspar's, may have been involved in these negotiations, as he was given the high-ranking court title of patrician upon Marcian's accession. Marcian was elected and inaugurated on 25 August 450. Marcian reversed many of the actions of Theodosius II in the Eastern Roman Empire's relationship with the Huns under Attila and in religious matters. Marcian almost immediately revoked all treaties with Attila, ending all subsidy payments to him. In 452, while Attila was raiding Roman Italy, then a part of the Western Roman Empire, Marcian launched expeditions across the Danube into the Great Hungarian Plain, defeating the Huns in their own heartland. This action, accompanied by the famine and plague that broke out in northern Italy, allowed the Western Roman Empire to bribe Attila into retreating from the Italian peninsula. After Attila's death in 453, Marcian took advantage of the resulting fragmentation of the Hunnic confederation by settling Germanic tribes within Roman lands as foederati ("federates" providing military service in exchange for benefits). Marcian also convened the Council of Chalcedon, which declared that Jesus had two "natures": divine and human. This led to the alienation of the population of the eastern provinces of Syria and Egypt, as many of them were miaphysites, rejecting the new official Christology. Marcian died on 27 January 457, leaving the Eastern Roman Empire with a treasury surplus of seven million solidi coins, an impressive achievement considering the economic ruin inflicted upon the Eastern Roman Empire by the Huns and Theodosius's tribute payments. After his death, Aspar passed over Marcian's son-in-law, Anthemius, and had a military commander, Leo I, elected as emperor.

Constantine V was Byzantine emperor from 741 to 775. His reign saw a consolidation of Byzantine security from external threats. As an able military leader, Constantine took advantage of civil war in the Muslim world to make limited offensives on the Arab frontier. With this eastern frontier secure, he undertook repeated campaigns against the Bulgars in the Balkans. His military activity, and policy of settling Christian populations from the Arab frontier in Thrace, made Byzantium's hold on its Balkan territories more secure. He was also responsible for important military and administrative innovations and reforms.

Ommen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɔmə(n)] ) is a municipality and a Hanseatic city in the eastern Netherlands. It is located in the Vecht valley of the Salland region in Overijssel. Historical records first name Ommen in the early 12th century and it was officially founded as a city in 1248. The municipality had a population of 18,295 in 2021 and covers an area of 182.01 km2 (70.27 sq mi).

Philip III (1 May 1245 – 5 October 1285), called the Bold (French: le Hardi), was King of France from 1270 until his death in 1285. His father, Louis IX, died in Tunis during the Eighth Crusade. Philip, who was accompanying him, returned to France and was anointed king at Reims in 1271. Philip inherited numerous territorial lands during his reign, the most notable being the County of Toulouse, which was annexed to the royal domain in 1271. With the Treaty of Orléans, he expanded French influence into the Kingdom of Navarre and following the death of his brother Peter during the war of the Sicilian Vespers, the County of Alençon was returned to the crown lands. Following the War of the Sicilian Vespers, Philip led the Aragonese Crusade in support of his uncle, Charles I of Naples. Philip was initially successful, but his army was racked with sickness and he was forced to retreat. He died from dysentery in Perpignan in 1285 at the age of 40. He was succeeded by his son Philip IV.

The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is the reserve regiment in the British Army's Land Special Operations Force. Incorporated by royal charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII, it is the oldest regiment in the British Army and is considered the second-oldest military unit in the world. Today, it is also a charity whose purpose is to attend to the "better defence of the realm", primarily through supporting the HAC regiment. The word "artillery" in "Honourable Artillery Company" does not have the current meaning that is generally associated with it, but dates from a time when in the English language that word meant any projectile, for example arrows shot from a bow. The equivalent form of words in modern English would be either "Honourable Infantry Company" or "Honourable Military Company". In the 17th century, its members played a significant part in the formation of both the Royal Marines and the Grenadier Guards. More recently, regiments, battalions and batteries of the Company fought with distinction in both World Wars and its current regiment, which forms part of the Army Reserve contribution to the Land Special Operations Force, is the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior in the Army Reserve. Members of the regiment are drawn, for the most part, from young men and women working in and around the City and Greater London. Those leaving the active units may become Veteran Members and remain within the fraternity of the company.

António da Mota was a Portuguese trader and explorer who, in 1543, together with Fernão Mendes Pinto and Francisco Zeimoto, became one of the first Europeans to set foot in Japan.

The War of the Portuguese Succession, a result of the impending extinction of the Portuguese royal line after the Battle of Alcácer Quibir and the ensuing Portuguese succession crisis of 1580, was fought from 1580 to 1583 between the two main claimants to the Portuguese throne: António, Prior of Crato, proclaimed in several towns as King of Portugal, and his first cousin Philip II of Spain, who eventually succeeded in claiming the crown, reigning as Philip I of Portugal.

Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei, commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer and polymath. He was born in Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence. Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, classical physics, the scientific method, and modern science.

The Kingdom of Kandy (මහනුවර රාජධානිය​) was the last Sinhalese monarchy on the island of Sri Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island. It was founded in the late 15th century and endured until the early 19th century. Kandy was the last independent kingdom of the Sinhalese monarchy, administrative system, traditional martial culture and Theravada Buddhism against European Colonial powers for over three centuries, specifically the Portuguese and Dutch, before eventually falling to the British through the Kandyan Convention on March 2, 1815 at the Magul Maduwa, ending over 2,300 years of independent native rule. The Kingdom was first founded in 1469 when king Senasammata Vikramabahu established Senkadagalapura as a semi-independent regional state under the authority of the larger Kingdom of Kotte on the western coast. When the Portuguese traders turned into aggressive military occupiers in the coastal areas, Kingdom of Kotte lost its independence. At the same time, the lowland Kingdom of Sitawaka grew very powerful. Sitawaka fought constant wars against both the Portuguese and other native Sinhala kingdoms. Eventually, Sitawaka conquered Kandy and forced the Kandyan Royal family into exile. In 1592. An exiled noble named Konnapu Bandara returned to the highlands. He had previously served as a Portuguese commander under the name Dom Joäo Austria. He defeated the Sitawaka forces and took the throne as King Vimaladharmasuriya I, declaring full independence. He founded Kandy as the spiritual and political center of the Sinhalese people. In 1594, the king completely destroyed a Portuguese invasion force at the Battle of Danture. After this major victory, Kandy became the only remaining independent native kingdom on the island. For over 200 years, the Kingdom of Kandy used the mountains to defend itself against European invaders. When invading armies entered the capital, Kandyan commanders used Scorched earth tactics. This led to major Military victories against the Portuguese at the Battle of Randeniwela(1630) and the Battle of Gannoruwa(1638). Kandy's defense system was also backed by specialized Gunsmith who created unique weapons for jungle warfare, including weatherproof guns called Sinhalese lock and long-barreled muskets called Bondikula. In 1658, Kandy allied with the Dutch East India Company(VOC) to expel the Portuguese. But, the Dutch broke their agreements and occupied the coast to control the cinnamon trade. This led to a century of economic conflict and the Dutch–Kandyan War (1764–1766). Although the Dutch briefly captured the capital, Guerrilla warfare and decease forced them to retreat. In 1739, a South Indian Nayakkar Dynasty took the throne. This happened after the Sinhalese king died without a son, and the crown passed to his South Indian Brother-in-law (Queen's brother) Vijaya Rajasinha. He adopted Sinhalese court customs and protected Theravada Buddhism to maintain his right to rule. In 1796, when the British took over the coastal areas from the Dutch and tried to force Kandy into accepting their authority through diplomacy, it failed. The British launched the First Kandyan War in 1803. But the British troops were soon trapped by Tropical disease and constant Guerrilla ambushes. During their retreat, they were surrounded near the Mahaweli River, where most of soldiers were killed. After the military defeat, the British used political schemes led by their colonial intelligent chief Sir John D'Oyly. He Took advantage of a growing conflict between the tyrannical King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha and the Kandyan Sinhalese nobles. After the king executed several Aristocrats and their families, the Kandyan elite decided to use the British to remove the king and regain control. D'oyly secretly negotiated with the chieftains like Ehelepola and Molligoda and promised that the British Crown would protect their privileges and the Buddhist religion. Because the chieftains withdrew their support from the king, British troops faced no armed resistance during the Second Kandian War (1815). The king was captured on March 2, 1815, the chieftains signed the Kandyan Convention, handing over the sovereignty of the Kandy to the British crown ending over 2,300 years of independent Sinhalese rule. When the British started to impose heavy Tax, the Kandyans made one final attempt to regain freedom during the Great Rebellion of 1817–1818. The British brutally crushed the uprising using Scorched earth tactics permanently breaking the native administration and cultural structure of the island.

The Parliamentarians, commonly called Roundheads by their enemies and in modern historiography, were the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War (1642–1651). They fought against King Charles I of England and his supporters, known as the Cavaliers or Royalists, who claimed rule by absolute monarchy and the principle of the divine right of kings. The goal of the Roundheads was to give to Parliament the supreme control over executive administration of England.

The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a global conflict fought by numerous great powers, primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and the Indian subcontinent. The primary warring states were Great Britain and Prussia fighting against France and Austria, with other countries joining these coalitions: Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Russia, plus Saxony and many other minor states of the Holy Roman Empire. Related conflicts include the Third Silesian War, French and Indian War, Third Carnatic War, Anglo-Spanish War (1762–1763), and Spanish–Portuguese War.

The War of 1812 was a conflict initiated by the United States against the United Kingdom and its allies fought mainly in North America and at sea during the wider Napoleonic Wars. The United States declared war on Britain on 18 June 1812. Although peace terms were agreed upon in the December 1814 Treaty of Ghent, the war did not officially end until the peace treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on 17 February 1815.

Hugh Glass (c. 1783 – 1833) was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, trader, hunter and explorer. He is best known for his story of survival and forgiveness after being left for dead by companions when he was mauled by a grizzly bear. No records exist regarding his origins but he is widely said to have been born in Pennsylvania to Scotch-Irish parents. Glass became an explorer of the watershed of the Upper Missouri River, in present-day Montana, the Dakotas, and the Platte River area of Nebraska. His life story has been the basis of two feature-length films: Man in the Wilderness (1971) and The Revenant (2015). They both portray the survival struggle of Glass who, after being abandoned by companions, crawled and stumbled 200 miles (320 km) to Fort Kiowa, South Dakota. Despite the story's popularity, its accuracy has been disputed. It was first recorded in 1825 in The Port Folio, a Philadelphia literary journal, as a literary piece and later picked up by various newspapers. Although originally published anonymously, it was later revealed to be the work of James Hall, brother of The Port Folio's editor. There is no writing from Hugh Glass himself to corroborate the tale's veracity, and even if true there were likely embellishments added over the years.

The Treinta y Tres Orientales (English: Thirty-Three Orientals or Thirty-Three Easterners) were a revolutionary group led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja and Manuel Oribe that started an insurrection against the Empire of Brazil during the Brazilian occupation of the Provincia Oriental. Their actions started in with the crossing of the Uruguay River on the night of April 19, 1825, an event that marked the beginning of the Cisplatine War, and culminated in the foundation of modern Uruguay.

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. The people of the south were mainly Flemings and Walloons. Both peoples were traditionally Catholic as contrasted with Protestant-dominated (Dutch Reformed) people of the north. Many outspoken liberals regarded King William I's rule as despotic. There were high levels of unemployment and industrial unrest among the working classes. On 25 August 1830, riots erupted in Brussels and shops were looted. Theatregoers who had just watched the nationalistic opera La muette de Portici joined the mob. Uprisings followed elsewhere in the country. Factories were occupied and machinery destroyed. Order was restored briefly after William committed troops to the Southern Provinces but rioting continued and leadership was taken up by radicals, who started talking of secession. Dutch units saw mass desertion of recruits from the southern provinces and pulled out. On 27 September, a newly formed Provisional Government in Brussels declared independence and called for the election of a National Congress. King William refrained from future military action and appealed to the Great Powers. The resulting 1830 London Conference of major European powers recognised Belgian independence. Following the installation of Leopold I as King of the Belgians in 1831, King William made a belated attempt to reconquer Belgium and restore his position through a military campaign. This Ten Days' Campaign failed because of French military intervention. The Dutch accepted the decision of the London conference and Belgian independence in 1839 by signing the Treaty of London.

The "Great Moon Hoax", also known as the "Great Moon Hoax of 1835", was a series of six articles published in New York newspaper The Sun, beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel and his fictitious companion Andrew Grant. The story was advertised on August 21, 1835, as an upcoming feature allegedly reprinted from The Edinburgh Courant. The first in a series of six was published four days later on August 25. These articles were never retracted; however, on September 16, 1835, The Sun admitted the articles were in fact fabricated. The hoax came at a time when readers looked for entertainment as much as information from penny press newspapers, which would later change with the development of ethical journalism.

Captain Matthew Webb (19 January 1848 – 24 July 1883) was an English seaman, swimmer and stuntman who became the first person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids. Webb increased the popularity of swimming in England at a time when few people knew how to swim. Born in Dawley, Shropshire, Webb developed his swimming skills as a child while playing in the River Severn. At twelve, he began his career in the Merchant Navy after training at HMS Conway. After graduating, he began a three-year apprenticeship with the Rathbone Brothers of Liverpool, during which he sailed internationally across various trade routes to countries including China, India, Hong Kong, Singapore and Yemen. After completing his second mate training in 1865, Webb worked for ten years aboard different ships and for several companies. He was recognised for two acts of bravery: in the Suez Canal he freed the ship's propeller from an entangling rope by diving underwater and cutting it, and in the Atlantic Ocean he jumped in to attempt to save a man who had fallen overboard while the ship was travelling at 14.5 kn (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph). This latter act earned him the first Stanhope medal. In 1875, on his second attempt, Webb gained fame by successfully swimming the English Channel from Dover, England, to Cap Gris-Nez, France. Public donations raised him £2,424 (about £240,000 today), and he started a career as a professional swimmer. Webb competed in several races, and performed stunts in England and America, including completing a 40-mile (64 km) swim from Gravesend to Woolwich along the Thames in 1877, swimming 74 miles (119 km) over six days to win a long-distance swimming race in 1879, and floating for 128.5 hours at the Boston Horticultural Hall in 1882. Webb's financial situation worsened, and in 1883 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, leaving him bedridden for two months. Webb died later that year after being paralysed by the water pressure while attempting to swim down the rapids at Niagara Gorge, below Niagara Falls.

The French Third Republic was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940, after the Fall of France during World War II led to the formation of the Vichy government. The French Third Republic was a parliamentary republic.

Baron Kitasato Shibasaburō (北里 柴三郎; Japanese pronunciation: [k̟ʲi̥.tä́.(d͡)zä́.tó̞ | ɕì.bä́.sä́.bɯ̈̀.ɾò̞ò̞, -tó̞ ɕí-]; January 29 [O.S. 17 January], 1853 – June 13, 1931) was a Japanese physician and bacteriologist. He is remembered as the co-discoverer of the infectious agent of bubonic plague in Hong Kong during an outbreak in 1894, almost simultaneously with Alexandre Yersin. Kitasato was nominated for the first annual Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901. Kitasato and Emil von Behring, working together in Berlin in 1890, announced the discovery of diphtheria antitoxin serum. Von Behring was awarded the 1901 Nobel Prize because of this work, but Kitasato was not.

The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the Liaodong Peninsula and near Mukden in Southern Manchuria, with naval battles taking place in the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan. At the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895 had ceded the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur to Japan before the Triple Intervention, in which Russia, Germany, and France forced Japan to relinquish its claim. Japan feared that Russia would impede its plans to establish a sphere of influence in mainland Asia, especially as Russia built the Trans-Siberian Railroad, began making inroads in Korea, and acquired a lease of the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur from China in 1898. Japan signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, and began offering to recognize Russia's dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as part of Japan's sphere of influence. However, this was rejected by Russia. After negotiations broke down, Japan opened hostilities in a surprise attack on the Russian Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur on 9 February [O.S. 27 January] 1904. Both sides declared war, and Japanese troops landed in Korea, crossed the Yalu River into Manchuria in May, and landed more forces on the Liaodong Peninsula. In August, the Japanese laid siege to Port Arthur, which eventually fell in January 1905. In March 1905, Japanese troops took Mukden, the Manchurian capital, after heavy fighting. The Russian Baltic Fleet, which had sailed over seven months and 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) from the Baltic Sea to reinforce its Pacific Fleet, arrived in the region in May and was intercepted and destroyed by the Japanese Combined Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima. The war was concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth (5 September [O.S. 23 August] 1905), mediated by US president Theodore Roosevelt. The treaty recognized Japanese interests in Korea, and awarded to Japan Russia's lease on the Liaodong Peninsula, control of the Russian-built South Manchuria Railway, and the southern half of the island of Sakhalin (Karafuto). The complete military victory of an Asian and non-Western nation over a European and Western power surprised international observers, and transformed the global balance of power, with the Empire of Japan emerging as a great power and the Russian Empire declining in prestige among the European powers. Russia's incurrence of substantial casualties and losses for a cause which resulted in a humiliating defeat contributed to internal unrest culminating in the 1905 Russian Revolution, during which the Russian autocracy was forced to make concessions. More widely, however, Japan's win effectively damaged the credibility of European dominance across Asia.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, World War I caused 15 to 22 million deaths, including those resulting from war crimes and genocides. The war also contributed to the spread of the Spanish flu pandemic. The conflict saw important developments in weaponry, including machine guns, artillery, aircraft, chemical weapons, and tanks.

The Sack of Louvain was the German assault on the Belgian town of Louvain, part of the events collectively known as the Rape of Belgium, taking place during the First World War. Over the course of several days of pillaging and brutality, 248 people were killed and 1,500 were deported to Germany where they were held at the Munster internment camp until January 1915. The Library of the Catholic University of Louvain was destroyed after it was set on fire by the occupying German soldiers and 1,120 of the 8,928 homes in Louvain were destroyed.

The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. The service manages all national parks; most national monuments; and other natural, historical, and recreational properties, with various title designations. The United States Congress created the agency on August 25, 1916, through the National Park Service Organic Act. Its headquarters is in Washington, D.C., within the main headquarters of the Department of the Interior. The NPS employs about 20,000 people in 433 units covering over 85 million acres (34 million ha) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. In 2019, the service had more than 279,000 volunteers. The agency is charged with preserving the ecological and historical integrity of the places entrusted to its management and with making them accessible for public use and enjoyment.

The Polish–Soviet War was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution.

Nazi Germany, officially the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", was the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and the German Empire (1871–1918); the Nazis called it the Thousand-Year Reich, but it ended just 12 years later in May 1945, when the Allies defeated Germany and entered Berlin, ending World War II in Europe. After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi Party began to eliminate political opposition and consolidate power. A 1934 referendum confirmed Hitler as sole Führer (leader). Power was centralised in Hitler's person, and his word became the highest law. The government was not a coordinated, cooperating body, but rather a collection of factions struggling to amass power. To address the Great Depression, the Nazis used heavy military spending, extensive public works projects, including the Autobahnen (motorways), and a massive secret rearmament programme, forming the Wehrmacht (armed forces), all financed by deficit spending. The return to economic stability and end of mass unemployment boosted the regime's popularity. Hitler made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, seizing Austria in the Anschluss of 1938 and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and invaded Poland in 1939, launching World War II in Europe. In alliance with Fascist Italy and other Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, but failed to subdue Britain. Racism, Nazi eugenics, anti-Slavism, and especially antisemitism were central ideological features of the regime. The Nazis considered Germanic peoples to be the "master race", the purest branch of the Aryan race. Jews, Slavs, Romani people, homosexuals, liberals, socialists, communists, other political opponents, Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons, those who refused to work and other "undesirables" were imprisoned, deported or murdered. Christian churches and citizens that opposed Hitler's rule were oppressed and opposition leaders were imprisoned. Education focused on racial biology, population policy and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. The Nazi Propaganda Ministry disseminated films and antisemitic canards, and organised mass rallies, fostering a pervasive cult of personality around Hitler to influence public opinion. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Genocide, mass murder and large-scale forced labour became hallmarks of the regime; the implementation of its racial policies culminated in the Holocaust. After invading the Soviet Union in 1941, Nazi Germany implemented the Generalplan Ost and Hunger Plan, as part of its war of extermination in Eastern Europe. The Soviet resurgence and entry of the United States into the war meant Germany lost the initiative in 1943, and by late 1944, had been pushed back to the 1939 border. Large-scale aerial bombing of Germany escalated, and the Axis powers were driven back in Eastern and Southern Europe. Germany was conquered by the Soviet Union from the east and the other allies from the west, and capitulated in 1945. Hitler's refusal to admit defeat led to massive destruction of German infrastructure and additional war-related deaths in the closing months of the war. The Allies subsequently initiated a policy of denazification and put many of the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.

The Second Polish Republic, officially known at the time as the Republic of Poland, was the Polish state that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939 after being established in the final stage of World War I. The Second Republic was taken over in 1939 on the eve of its twenty-first anniversary, after it was invaded by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Slovak Republic, marking the beginning of the European theatre of the Second World War. The Polish government-in-exile was established in Paris and later London after the fall of France in 1940.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many engaging in total war on an unprecedented scale. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the deaths of 60 to 75 million people, a majority of whom were civilians. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, also known as the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia or the Allied invasion of Iran, was the joint invasion of the officially neutral Imperial State of Iran by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union in August 1941, during World War II. Iran would remain under British and Soviet occupation until 1946, months after the war's end. Britain began to withdraw on 2 March 1946, while the Soviets did not leave until May, having sparked an international crisis through their refusal to do so.

The naval Battle of the Eastern Solomons took place on 24–25 August 1942 and was the third carrier battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II and the second major engagement fought between the United States Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Guadalcanal campaign. As at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway, the ships of the two adversaries were never within sight of each other. Instead, all attacks were carried out by carrier-based or land-based aircraft.

The Battle of Milne Bay, also known as Operation RE or the Battle of Rabi (ラビの戦い) by the Japanese, was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Japanese naval infantry, known as Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai, with two small tanks attacked the Allied airfields at Milne Bay that had been established on the eastern tip of New Guinea. Due to poor intelligence work, the Japanese miscalculated the size of the predominantly Australian garrison and, believing that the airfields were defended by only two or three companies, initially landed a force roughly equivalent in size to one battalion on 25 August 1942. The Allies, forewarned by intelligence from Ultra, had heavily reinforced the garrison.

The Liberation of Paris was a battle that took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944. Paris had been occupied by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Armistice of 22 June 1940, after which the Wehrmacht occupied northern and western France.

Victory over Japan Day is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war to an end. The term has been applied to both of the days on which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made – 15 August 1945, in Japan, and because of time zone differences, 14 August 1945 – as well as to 2 September 1945, when the surrender document was signed, officially ending World War II.

The August Revolution, at the time known as the General Uprising, was a revolution led by the Viet Minh against the Japanese occupation of Vietnam and the Empire of Vietnam from 16 to 30 August 1945. The Empire of Vietnam was led by the Nguyễn dynasty and was backed by Japan.

The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives created in 1938. Their goal was to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist ties. It became a standing (permanent) committee in 1946. Then, from 1969 and onward, it was known as the House Committee on Internal Security. When the House abolished the committee in 1975, its functions were transferred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Frank Pace Jr. was the 3rd United States Secretary of the Army and a business executive.

Instant noodles, or instant ramen, is a type of food consisting of noodles sold in a precooked and dried block with flavoring powder and/or seasoning oil. The dried noodle block was originally created by flash-frying cooked noodles, which is still the dominant method used in Asian countries; air-dried noodle blocks are favored in Western countries. Dried noodle blocks are designed to be cooked or soaked in boiling water before eating. Ramen, a Japanese adaptation of Chinese noodle soup, is sometimes used as a descriptor for instant noodle flavors by some Japanese manufacturers. It has become synonymous in the United States with all instant noodle products.

The 1960 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad and commonly known as Rome 1960, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awarded the administration of the 1908 Summer Olympics. However, following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906, the city had no choice but to decline and pass the honour to London. The Soviet Union won the most gold and overall medals at the 1960 Games.

Jânio da Silva Quadros was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd president of Brazil from 31 January to 25 August 1961, when he resigned from office. He also served as the 24th and 36th mayor of São Paulo, and the 18th governor of the state of São Paulo. Quadros was known for his populist style of government and eccentric behavior.

George Lincoln Rockwell was an American neo-Nazi activist and politician who founded the American Nazi Party (ANP) and became one of the most notorious white supremacists in the United States until his assassination in 1967. While Rockwell remains obscure to the American public and never achieved political power, he remains an influence on far-right extremism.

Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo River, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the north, and Mozambique to the east. The capital and largest city is Harare, and the second largest is Bulawayo.

The Jahrhundertring was a production of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen, first performed at the Bayreuth Festival in 1976. The production was a centennial celebration of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle. The production was created by a French team consisting of conductor Pierre Boulez, stage director Patrice Chéreau, stage designer Richard Peduzzi, costume designer Jacques Schmidt, and lighting designer André Diot.

Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants and enabled further encounters with the ice giants. The only spacecraft to have visited either of the ice giant planets, it was the third of five spacecraft to achieve Solar escape velocity, which allowed it to leave the Solar System. Launched 16 days before its twin Voyager 1, the primary mission of the spacecraft was to study the outer planets and its extended mission is to study interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere.

Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 was a scheduled flight from Logan International Airport to Bangor International Airport in the United States on August 25, 1985. On final approach to Auburn/Lewiston Municipal Airport, the Bar Harbor Airlines Beechcraft Model 99 crashed short of the runway, killing all six passengers and two crew on board. Among the passengers was Samantha Smith, a 13-year-old American schoolgirl who had become famous as a goodwill ambassador to the Soviet Union and had been cast on the television show Lime Street.

Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants and enabled further encounters with the ice giants. The only spacecraft to have visited either of the ice giant planets, it was the third of five spacecraft to achieve Solar escape velocity, which allowed it to leave the Solar System. Launched 16 days before its twin Voyager 1, the primary mission of the spacecraft was to study the outer planets and its extended mission is to study interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404 was a Fokker F27 Friendship that disappeared shortly after takeoff on 25 August 1989. The aircraft presumably crashed somewhere in the Himalayas, Pakistan. All 54 people on board were lost and presumed dead.

Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an area of 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) with a population of 9.1 million. The country has a hemiboreal climate and is administratively divided into six regions. Minsk is the capital and largest city; it is administered separately as a city with special status.

The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of Vukovar in eastern Croatia by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various paramilitary forces from Serbia, between August and November 1991. Before the Croatian War of Independence the Baroque town was a prosperous, mixed community of Croats, Serbs and other ethnic groups. As Yugoslavia began to break up, Serbia's President Slobodan Milošević and Croatia's President Franjo Tuđman began pursuing nationalist politics. In 1990, an armed insurrection was started by Croatian Serb militias, supported by the Serbian government and paramilitary groups, who seized control of Serb-populated areas of Croatia. The JNA began to intervene in favour of the rebellion, and conflict broke out in the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia in May 1991. In August, the JNA launched a full-scale attack against Croatian-held territory in eastern Slavonia, including Vukovar.

Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish and American software engineer who is the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel since 1991. He also created the distributed version control system Git.

Egon Rudi Ernst Krenz is a German former politician who was the last Communist leader of the German Democratic Republic during the Revolutions of 1989. He succeeded Erich Honecker as the General Secretary of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) but was forced to resign only weeks later when the Berlin Wall fell.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton 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. Her accolades include three American Music Awards and two MTV VMAs, along with five Grammy Award nominations.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program, as well as research in aeronautics and space. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA operates ten field centers across the US and is organized into three mission directorates: Human Spaceflight, Research and Technology, and Science. Established in 1958 amid the Space Race, NASA succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the US space program a distinct civilian orientation focused on peaceful applications. Since then, it has led most American spaceflight programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the Apollo program, Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS), and the ongoing multinational Artemis program.

Hurricane Katrina was an extremely powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone that affected the Southeastern United States in late August 2005, particularly in and around the city of New Orleans. Katrina became the United States' costliest tropical cyclone, with an estimated $125 billion in damages. The hurricane killed 1,392 people, making it the deadliest American hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane and is the only mainland U.S. hurricane to have killed over a thousand people since then. Katrina was the twelfth tropical cyclone, the fifth hurricane, the third major hurricane, and the second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States, as measured by barometric pressure.

Pavlo Ivanovych Lazarenko is a Ukrainian convicted criminal, international fugitive, and a former politician who served as Prime Minister of Ukraine from 1996 to 1997.

Filair was an airline based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It operated from N'Dolo Airport in Kinshasa. The airline was on the list of air carriers banned in the European Union, as well as all airlines regulated by the authorities in the DRC.

On August 25, 2011, members of the drug cartel Los Zetas set a casino on fire in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, killing 52 people.

Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program, to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It was launched 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. It communicates through the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) to receive routine commands and to transmit data to Earth. Real-time distance and velocity data are provided by NASA and JPL. At a distance of 172.52 AU as of October 2026, it is the most distant human-made object from Earth. Voyager 1 is projected to reach a distance of one light day from Earth on November 18, 2026.

Hurricane Harvey was a powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone that made landfall in Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing widespread flooding and more than 100 deaths. It is tied with 2005's Hurricane Katrina as the costliest tropical cyclone on record, inflicting $125 billion in damage, primarily from catastrophic rainfall-triggered flooding in Greater Houston and Southeast Texas; this made the storm the costliest natural disaster recorded in Texas at the time. It was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Wilma in 2005, ending a record 12-year span. In a four-day period, many areas received more than 40 inches (1,000 mm) of rain as the system slowly meandered over eastern Texas and adjacent waters, causing unprecedented flooding. With peak accumulations of 60.58 in (1,539 mm) in Nederland, Texas, Harvey was the wettest tropical cyclone on record in the United States. The resulting floods inundated hundreds of thousands of homes, which displaced more than 30,000 people and prompted more than 17,000 rescues.

Violent clashes have been ongoing in the northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine State since October 2016. Insurgent attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) have led to sectarian violence perpetrated by Myanmar's military and the local Buddhist population against predominantly Muslim Rohingya civilians. The conflict has sparked international outcry and was described as an ethnic cleansing by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In August 2017, the situation worsened and hundreds of thousands of refugees fled Myanmar into Bangladesh, with an estimated 500,000 refugees having arrived by 27 September 2017. In January 2019, Arakan Army insurgents raided border police posts in Buthidaung Township, joining the conflict and beginning their military campaign in northern Rakhine State against the Burmese military.