July 25

306 – Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.

315 – The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum in Rome to commemorate Constantine’s victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.

1139 – During the Portuguese part of the Reconquista, Almoravid moslems led by Ali ibn Yusuf, are defeated by the forces of Prince Afonso Henriques, at Ourique, in Alentejo, Portugal

1261 – The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.

1278 – During the Reconquista, oduring the siege of Algeciras near the Strait of Gibraltar, the fleet of the moslem Maranid Emirate of Granada, commanded by Abu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr wins a naval battle over the fleet of the Kingdom of Castile, commanded by the Admiral of Castile, Pedro Martínez de Fe.

1536 – Sebastián de Belalcázar, on his search for El Dorado, founds the city of Santiago de Cali, in modern Columbia.

1567 – Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas,  the capital city of Venezuela.

1603 – King James VI of Scotland is crowned King James 1 of England

1609 – The English ship Sea Venture, en route to Virginia, is deliberately driven ashore at Bermuda during a storm to prevent its sinking; the survivors going on to found a new colony there instead.

1693 – Ignacio de Maya founds the Real Santiago de las Sabinas, now known as Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Mexico.

If anyone was wondering about all the Santiagos, July 25th is the feast day of the Apostle Saint James; ‘Santiago’ in spanish.

1722 – The ‘Dummer’s War’ between colonists and Abenaki tribes begins along the Maine-Massachusetts border.

1759 – During the French and Indian War, British forces capture Fort Niagara from the French, who subsequently abandon nearby Fort Rouillé to the north.

1783 – The Revolutionary War’s last action, the Siege of Cuddalore, is ended by a preliminary peace agreement.

1853 – Bandit Joaquin Murrieta, called the “Robin Hood of El Dorado”, is killed in Fresno County, by California Rangers

1861 – Congress passes the Crittenden–Johnson Resolution, stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.

1866 – Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of The Army, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to be promoted to this rank.

1868 – The Wyoming Territory is established.

1898 – In the Puerto Rican Campaign of the Spanish American War, the U.S Army lands and secures the port at Guánica.

1909 – Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier than air machine

1946 – Off Bikini Atoll during Operation Crossroads, the MK3 nuclear bomb “Helen” is detonated 90 feet underwater as the ‘Baker‘ – second – shot of U.S. nuclear tests.

1956 – 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, with the loss of 51 passengers.

1961 – President Kennedy states that any attack on Berlin will be considered an attack on NATO.

1969 – During the Vietnam War, President Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the U.S. now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense starting the “Vietnamization” of the war.

1978 – Louise Joy Brown is born at Oldham General Hospital, in Manchester, England;  the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation.

1993 – Members of the terrorist Azanian People’s Liberation Army attack the Saint James Church in Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa killing 11 members of the congregation and wounding another 58 before a member, Charl van Wyk, returns fire, immediately stopping the terrorists and driving them off.

1994 – Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, formally ending the state of war between the two nations.

2000 – Air France Flight 4590, an Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde, crashes at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport on take off, killing all 109 passengers and crew aboard and 4 people on the ground.

2010 – WikiLeaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history.