25 February History
- 1570 - Pope Pius V issues the bull Regnans in Excelsis which excommunicates Queen Elizabeth of England.
- 1601 - Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex and former favorite of Elizabeth I, is beheaded in the Tower of London for high treason.
- 1642 - Dutch settlers slaughter lower Hudson Valley Indians in New Netherland, North America, who sought refuge from Mohawk attackers.
- 1779 - The British surrender the Illinois country to George Rogers Clark at Vincennes.
- 1781 - American General Nathaniel Greene crosses the Dan River on his way to attack Cornwallis.
- 1791 - President George Washington sign a bill creating the Bank of the United States.
- 1804 - Thomas Jefferson is nominated for president at the Democratic-Republican caucus.
- 1815 - Napoleon leaves his exile on the island of Elba, returning to France.
- 1831 - The Polish army halts the Russian advance into their country at the Battle of Grochow.
- 1836 - Samuel Colt patents the first revolving cylinder multi-shot firearm.
- 1862 - Confederate troops abandon Nashville, Tennessee, in the face of Grant's advance. The ironclad Monitor is commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
- 1865 - General Joseph E. Johnston replaces John Bell Hood as Commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
- 1904 - J.M. Synge's play Riders to the Sea opens in Dublin.
- 1910 - The Dalai Lama flees from the Chinese and takes refuge in India.
- 1919 - Oregon introduces the first state tax on gasoline at one cent per gallon, to be used for road construction.
- 1913 - The 16th Amendment to the constitution is adopted, setting the legal basis for the income tax.
- 1926 - Poland demands a permanent seat on the League of Nations council.
- 1928 - Bell Labs introduces a new device to end the fluttering of the television image.
- 1943 - U.S. troops retake the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, where they had been defeated five days before.
- 1944 - U.S. forces destroy 135 Japanese planes in Marianas and Guam.
- 1952 - French colonial forces evacuate Hoa Binh in Indochina.
- 1956 - Stalin is secretly disavowed by Khrushchev at a party congress for promoting the "cult of the individual."
- 1976 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states may ban the hiring of illegal aliens.
25 February Birthdays
- 1841 - Pierre Auguste Renoir, French painter and founder of the French Impressionist movement.
- 1856 - Charles Lang Freer, U.S. art collector.
- 1873 - Enrico Caruso, Italian opera tenor.
- 1888 - John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State to President Eisenhower.
- 1894 - Meher Baba, spiritual leader.
- 1895 - Rudolf von Eschwege, German fighter ace in World War I. .
- 1905 - Adele Davis, nutritionist.
- 1917 - Anthony Burgess, English writer (A Clockwork Orange).