Following are some of the major events to have occurred on May 25:
1915 – In World War One, the second Battle of Ypres ended with around 105,000 casualties. The Germans used poison gas for the first time.
1935 – American athlete Jesse Owens set six world records in 45 minutes at the U.S. Big Ten Championship at Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1946 – Abdullah Ibn Hussein declared himself the first King of Jordan just two months after the British mandate ended.
1969 – The Sudanese government was overthrown in a military coup led by Colonel Jaafar Nimeiri.
1991 – Some 15,000 Falashas, or Ethiopian Jews, were airlifted from Addis Ababa to Israel as rebel forces approached the Ethiopian capital.
2003 – Brazilian basketball star Oscar Schmidt announces retirement.
2004 – At least 1,950 people were killed in floods in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, many of them swept away when rain-swollen rivers burst their banks.
2005 – Indian-born international filmmaker Ismail Merchant died aged 68. He teamed up with fellow filmmaker James Ivory and their string of film credits included hits such as “A Room With A View,” “Howards End” and “The Remains of the Day.”
2006 – A jury found energy trading company Enron Corp. chief executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling guilty of lying about the company’s financial troubles. Lay died of a heart attack in July 2006 before he could be sentenced. Skilling is serving a 24-year term at a federal prison.
2009 – In North Korea, Pyongyang conducted an underground nuclear test, stoking tension across the regional economic powerhouse of East Asia. U.S. President Barack Obama strongly condemned Pyongyang’s action and called for a strong international response.
2013 – Professional slackliner Reinhard Kleindl sets world record for walking highest urban high line at 185 metres.
(Reuters)
