February 25


It is the feast day of Saint Walpurga and is a day of national significance in Hungary, Kuwait, the Philippines and Suriname. Among famous events on the day have been the patent for Samuel Colt's revolver ; the first African American sworn into the United States Senate ; Hitler obtaining German citizenship so he could run for public office ; the construction in an Islington garden of the first Anderson shelter ; Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin ; and the disbandment of the Warsaw Pact.
People born on 25 February include José de San Martín, the first President of Peru; Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir ; operatic tenor Enrico Caruso ; actor Tom Courtenay ; musician George Harrison ; and eight-time Olympic champion Birgit Fischer. Among those who have died on the day are Albrecht von Wallenstein, Austrian general in the Thirty Years War ; Christopher Wren, English architect who designed St Paul's Cathedral ; Paul Reuter, founder of the Reuters news agency ; Prohibition Era gangster Bugs Moran ; acclaimed playwright Tennessee Williams ; and record-breaking Australian cricketer Don Bradman.

Events

pre-19th century

pre-19th century

Christian [feast day]s