April 25

1507 – German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller is first to use the name America on his world map “Universalis Cosmographia”

1792 – Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.

1846 – Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War.

1859 – British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.

1898 – Congress officially declares war on Spain effective from the 21st of the month.

1901 – New York becomes the first state to require automobile license plates.

1928 – Buddy, a German Shepherd, becomes the first guide dog for the blind for his master, Morris Frank, in New York, City

1938 – In the case of Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, the Supreme Court rules that federal district courts in civil cases must apply the laws of the states in which they sit, not federal law, unless they conflict with federal law.

1945 – U.S. and Soviet troops meet in Torgau, Germany along the River Elbe, cutting through the middle of the Wehrmacht forces of Nazi Germany

1953 – In the April edition of the scientific journal Nature; English Biologist Francis Crick and American Biologist James Watson publish the article “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” describing the double helix structure of DNA.

1954 – The first practical solar photovoltaic power cell is publicly demonstrated at Bell Telephone Laboratories, in New Jersey.

1959 – The Saint Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.

1960 – The U.S Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

1961 – Fairchild Semiconductor founder Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.

1982 – Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords.

1983 – American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.

2001 – President George W. Bush pledges U.S. military support in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

2011– 324 people are killed in the largest and deadliest tornado outbreak in the U.S. and Canada since the 1974 Super Outbreak.