August 25

Today in History
• 1515 - Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founds Havana in modern day Cuba
• 1537 - The Honourable Artillery Company, oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, formed
• 1609 - Galileo demonstrates his 1st telescope to Venetian lawmakers
• 1689 - Montreal taken by Iroquois
• 1718 - Hundreds of French colonists arrive in Louisiana; New Orleans founded
• 1804 - Alicia Thornton becomes first female jockey in England riding
• 1814 - British forces destroy Library of Congress, containing 3,000 books (War of 1812)
• 1829 - President Jackson makes an offer to buy Texas, but Mexican government refuses


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Day of Songun
• Kiss and Make Up Day
• National Banana Split Day
• National Park Service Founders Day
• National Secondhand Wardrobe Day
• National Whiskey Sour Day
• Tracky Dack Day
• Uruguay Independence Day

Birthdays
• 1530 - Ivan the Terrible, Grand Prince of Moscow (1533-47)
• 1662 - John Leverett the Younger, American President of Harvard
• 1786 - Ludwig I, King of Bavaria (1825-48)
• 1796 - James Lick, American land baron in California
• 1819 - Allan Pinkerton, American private detective, founder of Chicago detective agency
• 1845 - Ludwig II, Mad king of Bavaria (1864-86)
• 1851 - Alexander, Prince of Orange, heir apparent to the Netherlands
• 1905 - Sister Faustina [Helena Kowalska], Polish Roman Catholic saint, nun and mystics