Saturday 25th of April 1215

King of France Louis IX aka Saint Louis is born in Poissy, Île-de-France, France.

Friday 25th of April 1558

16-year-old Queen of Scots Mary Stuart marries 14-year-old François II in Paris, IVe, Île-de-France, France.

Tuesday 25th of April 1595

Poet Torquato Tasso dies of feeble health at the age of 51 in Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo, Rome, Trastevere, Lazio, .

Saturday 25th of April 1744

Astronomer, physicist and mathematician Anders Celsius dies of tuberculosis at the age of 43 in Uppsala, Uppland, Sweden.

Monday 25th of April 1791

Highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier is executed by the Guillotine at the age of 35 in Place de Grève, Paris, IVe, Île-de-France, France.

Pelletier was the first person to be executed by Guillotine.

Monday 25th of April 1859

British and French engineers start digging the Suez Canal in Port Said, Port Said, Egypt.

The excavation took some 10 years using forced labour of Egyptian workers during the first years. The inauguration of the Suez Canal was on 17 November 1869.

Saturday 25th of April 1874

Inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi known for inventing radio is born in Palazzo Dall’Armi Marescalchi, Via Quattro Novembre 5, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Friday 25th of April 1884

Racecar driver and automobile manufacturer Arthur Chevrolet is born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Friday 25th of April 1902

Nazi psychiatrist Werner Heyde aka Fritz Sawade known for organizing the T-4 Euthanasia Program is born in Forst, Brandenburg, Germany.

Monday 25th of April 1921

Artist Karel Christiaan Appel is born in Dapperstraat 7, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.

Thursday 25th of April 1935

A recently caught tiger shark swimming in a public aquarium regurgitates the tattooed arm of 45-year-old Boxer and small-time criminal Jim James Smith in Coogee Palace Aquarium, Coogee, New South Wales, Australia.

Smith's arm had been cut off, which led to a murder investigation. The case has remained unsolved to this day.

Thursday 25th of April 1940

Actor Al Alfredo James Pacino is born in New York, Manhattan, New York, United States.

Wednesday 25th of April 1945

52-year-old Reichsmarschall and Nazi leader Hermann Wilhelm Göring is arrested and sentenced to death by the SS for treason in München, Bayern, Germany.

Thursday 25th of April 1946

Murderer Abraham Gold is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 44 in Sing Sing Prison, Ossining, New York, United States.

Wednesday 25th of April 1951

Murderer Joseph Brown is executed by hanging at the age of 33 in Wandsworth Prison, London, Wandsworth, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 25th of April 1951

Murderer Edward Charles Smith is executed by hanging by Albert Pierrepoint at the age of 33 in Wandsworth Prison, London, Wandsworth, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 25th of April 1973

44-year-old Serial killer Charles Ray Hatcher aka Evil Incarnate is sentenced to one year imprisonment for an attack on an unidentified boy in San Francisco, California, United States.

Thursday 25th of April 1974

Wife of Jim Morrison Pamela Susan Courson dies of a heroin overdose at the age of 28 in 108 N. Sycamore Ave, Los Angeles, California, United States.

Sunday 25th of April 1976

Spree killer Moses Pearson aka Pickle Daddy commits suicide by a shot in the head at the age of 31 in Jackson, Georgia, United States.

Pearson began his robbing and killing spree in Jacksonville, Florida the day before. He killed two people and wounded seven others before fleeing the city with three women as hostages. Pearson then fled northward along Interstate 75 into Georgia, robbing service stations and truck stops and leaving seven people wounded and one dead. Along the route his three hostages escaped as he engaged in several gun battles and was wounded in the cheek and ear. Pearson shot himself in the head when he was closed in by the police.

Tuesday 25th of April 1978

40-year-old Wiener Aktionist Hermann Nitsch performs his 61. Aktion im Rahmen des Internationalen Performance Festival in Österreichischen Kunstverein, Köllnerhofgasse 6, Wien, Wien, Austria.

Friday 25th of April 1980

8 US-soldiers die in RH-53 Bluebeard 3 helicopter crash in Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

'Operation Eagle Claw' was an aborted attempt to free the American hostages in their embassy.

Monday 25th of April 1983

17-year-old Paula Golding is abducted and shot dead by serial killer Robert Hansen aka The Aviation Hunter in Anchorage, Alaska, United States.

Golding's body was found on 2 September on the banks of the Knik River.

Saturday 25th of April 1987

Noise music band Club Moral perform their 71st concert during the Haters tour in Kulturfabrik, Dießemer Straße 13, Krefeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Monday 25th of April 1988

Radical feminist writer Valerie Jean Solanas known for shooting Andy Warhol dies of pneumonia at the age of 52 in Bristol Hotel, 56 Mason Street, San Francisco, Tenderloin, California, United States.

Monday 25th of April 1988

68-year-old Guard at Sobibór KZ John Demjanjuk is sentenced to death in Jerusalem District Court, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.

Demjanjuk was placed in solitary confinement during the appeals process. Carpenters started building the gallows that would be used to hang him if his appeals were rejected and Demjanjuk heard the construction from his cell. On 29 July 1993 a five-judge panel of the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the guilty verdict on appeal.

Thursday 25th of April 1991

German neo-Nazi leader Michael Aloysius Alfons Kühnen dies of AIDS-related diseases at the age of 36 in Städtischen Kliniken, Mönchebergstraße 41-43, Kassel, Hessen, Germany.

Tuesday 25th of April 1995

Dancer, singer and actress Ginger Rogers dies of a heart attack at the age of 84 in Rancho Mirage, California, United States.

Wednesday 25th of April 2001

Murderer David Lee Goff is executed by lethal injection at the age of 32 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Thursday 25th of April 2002

225 die in China Airlines Boeing 747-209B Flight 611 crash in Makung, Penghu Islands, Taiwan.

Monday 25th of April 2005

107 die in Rapid commuter train derailment in Amagasaki Station, Amagasaki, Hyogo, Japan.

The front two carriages rammed into an apartment building. Investigators have focused on speeding by the 23-year-old driver, Ryūjirō Takami (who was among the dead), as being the most likely cause of the accident.

Monday 25th of April 2005

An almost sculptural installation of letterboxes at an apartment block in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia.

Wednesday 25th of April 2007

Singer Bobby Robert George Pickett known for his 1962 novelty song ‘Monster Mash’ dies of leukemia at the age of 69 in Veterans Administration Hospital, Los Angeles, California, United States.

Tuesday 25th of April 2023

Singer, songwriter, musician and activist Harry Belafonte dies of congestive heart failure at the age of 96 in New York, Manhattan, New York, United States.