BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)

39th year  -  N° 361                 Thursday, 26 December 2024         Antwerpen		
Through the Night Softly




42 events for 25 May:

  • (-)
    939 Years Ago Today

    Monday 25th of May 1085

    157th Pope Gregorius VII dies of unknown causes at the age of 70 in Salerno, Campania, Italy.

    "I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore, I die in exile."


  • (-)
    763 Years Ago Today

    Wednesday 25th of May 1261

    181st Pope Alexander IV dies of unknown causes at the age of 62 in Viterbo, Lazio, Italy.


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    159 Years Ago Today

    Thursday 25th of May 1865

    Over 300 die in federal ammunition depot explosion in Beauregard Street, Mobile, Alabama, United States.


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    159 Years Ago Today

    Thursday 25th of May 1865

    Leader of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) John Raleigh Mott is born in Livingston Manor, New York, United States.


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    158 Years Ago Today

    Friday 25th of May 1866

    3-year-old Catharina Swanenburg is poisoned with arsenic by serial poisoner Maria Swanenburg aka Goeie Mie in Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.


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    158 Years Ago Today

    Friday 25th of May 1866

    1-year-old Johanna Swanenburg is poisoned with arsenic by serial poisoner Maria Swanenburg aka Goeie Mie in Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.


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    142 Years Ago Today

    Thursday 25th of May 1882

    Anti-war protester Alice Herz is born as Alice Strauß in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.


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    137 Years Ago Today

    Wednesday 25th of May 1887

    Stigmatised monk Pio of Pietrelcina is born as Francesco Forgione in Pietrelcina, Campania, Italy.


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    135 Years Ago Today

    Saturday 25th of May 1889

    Aviation pioneer Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky is born in 15-a Yaroslaviv Val, Kiev, Ukraine, Russia.


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    129 Years Ago Today

    Saturday 25th of May 1895

    41-year-old Poet and writer Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde is convicted of 'committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons' and sentenced to two years hard labour in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

    Judge Justice Wills described the sentence, the maximum allowed, as "totally inadequate for a case such as this" and that the case was "the worst case I have ever tried". Wilde's response was "And I? May I say nothing, my Lord?"


  • (-)
    111 Years Ago Today

    Sunday 25th of May 1913

    10-year-old Christine Klein is throatcut by serial killer Peter Kürten aka The Vampire of Düsseldorf in Mulheim-am-Rhein, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.


  • (+)
    97 Years Ago Today

    Wednesday 25th of May 1927

    Writer Robert Ludlum is born in New York City, New York, United States.


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    88 Years Ago Today

    Monday 25th of May 1936

    30-year-old Wife of camp commandant and human-skin-handywoman Ilse Koch aka Die Hexe von Buchenwald aka Die Buchenwälder Schlampe marries SS-Mann Karl Otto Koch in KZ Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, Brandenburg, Germany.


  • (x)
    81 Years Ago Today

    Tuesday 25th of May 1943

    In a letter to Enrico Fermi, 39-year-old Theoretical physicist Robert Julius Oppenheimer aka The Father of the Atomic Bomb discusses the possibility of infecting food with Strontium 90 whereby easily about 1/2 million people could be killed at once in Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States.


  • (-)
    78 Years Ago Today

    Saturday 25th of May 1946

    Doctor and serial killer Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot aka The Triangular Chamber of Death Murderer is executed by the Guillotine at the age of 49 in Prison de la Santé, 42 Rue de la Santé, Paris, XIVe, Montparnasse, Île-de-France, France.


  • (+)
    68 Years Ago Today

    Friday 25th of May 1956

    Irish republican hunger striker Kevin Lynch is born as Caoimhghin O Loinsigh in Park, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.


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    67 Years Ago Today

    Saturday 25th of May 1957

    Victim of Edmund Kemper aka The Co-ed Killer Aiko Koo is born in San Francisco, California, United States.


  • (-)
    63 Years Ago Today

    Thursday 25th of May 1961

    Murderer Victor John Terry is executed by hanging at the age of 20 in Wandsworth Prison, London, Wandsworth, Greater London, United Kingdom.


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    61 Years Ago Today

    Saturday 25th of May 1963

    28-year-old Serial killer Joseph Kallinger aka The Shoemaker sets fire to the 2nd floor of a building he owns in 2039 East Fletcher Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

    He collected 15.000$ on insurance money.


  • (-)
    56 Years Ago Today

    Saturday 25th of May 1968

    4-year-old Martin Brown is strangled by child killer Mary Bell aka Child of Hell in 85 St. Margaret’s Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, Scotswood, Northumberland, United Kingdom.

    "There has been a boy who Just lay down and Died."


  • (x)
    55 Years Ago Today

    Sunday 25th of May 1969

    30-year-old Foot fetishist and serial killer Jerry Jerome Henry Brudos aka The Lust Killer is arrested and questioned but released by the FBI in Corvallis, Oregon, United States.


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    50 Years Ago Today

    Saturday 25th of May 1974

    After a botched abduction of a Puerto Rican boy on 15 May 1974, Erno Soto is arrested on suspicion of being Unidentified serial killer Charlie Chop-off in New York City, New York, United States.

    He was never brought to trial due to lack of evidence.


  • (x)
    47 Years Ago Today

    Wednesday 25th of May 1977

    Two unidentified burglars are blown to pieces while robbing a safe in a dynamite warehouse in Hunneberg, Västergötland, Sweden.


  • (x)
    46 Years Ago Today

    Thursday 25th of May 1978

    36-year-old Mathematician and serial bomber Theodore John 'Ted' Kaczynski aka The Unabomber leaves Bomb #1 in the parking lot in University of Illinois Science & Engineering Building, Chicago, Chicago Circle, Illinois, United States.

    Campus security officer Terry Marker is injured on his left hand when he opens the package and the bomb explodes the next day at the Northwestern Technological Institute.


  • (x)
    45 Years Ago Today

    Friday 25th of May 1979

    273 die in American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 Flight 191 crash in Ravenswood Airport, Des Plaines, Illinois, United States.


  • (-)
    45 Years Ago Today

    Friday 25th of May 1979

    Murderer John Arthur Spenkelink is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 30 in Florida State Prison, 23916 NW 83rd Ave., Raiford, Florida, United States.

    Spenkelink's last meal request was for two swigs of Jack Daniels. After the execution, unfounded rumors spread that the fighting, shouting Spenkelink was dragged to the electric chair, gagged, beaten and had his neck broken.


  • (x)
    44 Years Ago Today

    Sunday 25th of May 1980

    42-year-old Wiener Aktionist Hermann Nitsch performs his 67. Aktion for Pfingsfest in Schloss Prinzendorf, Schloss Straße 1, Prinzendorf an der Zaya, Niederösterreich, Austria.

    Nitsch' 67. Aktion for Pfingsfest lasted 12 hours.


  • (x)
    41 Years Ago Today

    Wednesday 25th of May 1983

    294 die in 10th of the Ramadan Ferry fire and sinking in Lake Nasser, Egypt.


  • (x)
    40 Years Ago Today

    Friday 25th of May 1984

    Noise music band Club Moral play their 35th concert in Gladhouse, Schrijnmakersstraat 11, Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium.


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    40 Years Ago Today

    Friday 25th of May 1984

    The first daughter of 28-year-old Child killer Mary Flora Bell aka Child of Hell is born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.


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    40 Years Ago Today

    Friday 25th of May 1984

    23-year-old Sue Luna is abducted and killed by serial killer Robert Hansen aka The Aviation Hunter in Anchorage, Alaska, United States.


  • (-)
    40 Years Ago Today

    Friday 25th of May 1984

    An unidentified boy is stabbed to death by serial killer Andrei Chikatilo aka The Rostov Ripper in Rostov, Rostov Oblast, Russia.


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    38 Years Ago Today

    Sunday 25th of May 1986

    School shooter Andrew Douglas Golden aka Drew Douglas Grant is born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States.


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    38 Years Ago Today

    Sunday 25th of May 1986

    Some 600 die in M.V. Shamia Ferry capsizing in Meghna River, Barisal, Bangladesh.


  • (-)
    34 Years Ago Today

    Friday 25th of May 1990

    Member of the Grupos de Resistencia Antifascista Primero de Octubre José Manuel Sevillano dies after 177 days hungerstriking at the age of 30 in Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Calle Doctor Esquerdo 46, Madrid, Área metropolitana de Madrid, Spain.


  • (-)
    24 Years Ago Today

    Thursday 25th of May 2000

    Murderer James Edward Clayton is executed by lethal injection at the age of 34 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.


  • (x)
    22 Years Ago Today

    Saturday 25th of May 2002

    192 die in train derailment in Tenga, Maputo, Mozambique.


  • (x)
    21 Years Ago Today No Debris Has Been Found

    Sunday 25th of May 2003

    Shortly before sunset it is believed that two men, US pilot and flight engineer Ben C. Padilla and Congolese mechanic John M. Mutantu, boarded a Boeing 727-223 airliner with serial number 20985. With no lights, the aircraft took off, heading southwest over the Atlantic Ocean before disappearing. in Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, Luanda, Luanda, Angola.

    Neither the aircraft nor the two men have been seen since and no debris from the aircraft has been found.


  • (-)
    18 Years Ago Today

    Thursday 25th of May 2006

    Musician Desmond Dekker dies of a heart attack at the age of 65 in Thornton Heath, London, Croydon, Greater London, United Kingdom.


  • (x)
    17 Years Ago Today

    Friday 25th of May 2007

    21-year-old School shooter Andrew Douglas Golden aka Drew Douglas Grant is released from prison in Arkansas Juvenile Assessment & Treatment Center, 1501 Woody Drive, Bryant, Arkansas, United States.

    Golden served nine years for the Jonesboro Massacre.



  • 11 Years Ago Today The Eyes had it

    Saturday 25th of May 2013

    John Cale pretty in pink surveying the audience for his video-installation 'Diddiau Du/Dark Days' in Middelheimmuseum, Antwerpen, Wilrijk, Antwerpen, Belgium.


  • (-)
    8 Years Ago Today

    Wednesday 25th of May 2016

    Accomplice of serial killer William Bonin aka The Freeway Killer Gregory Matthew Miley dies after being beaten by another inmate in Mule Creek State Prison, 4001 Highway 104, Ione, California, United States.



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