On This Day

What Happened on January 25 in History

8 events that happened on January 25, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.

Colonial America and the Revolution

1787
Shays' Rebellion collapses after a failed attack on the arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts.
Debt-burdened farmers led by Daniel Shays marched on the arsenal, which was held by state militia under General William Shepard. Artillery fire killed four rebels and scattered the rest, and the uprising added urgency to calls for a stronger national government.
Source: battlefields.org; history.com

1819
Virginia's General Assembly charters the University of Virginia, the school planned by Thomas Jefferson.
The act set up the state university on the site of Central College in Charlottesville, which Jefferson had championed. It became the first nonsectarian university in the United States.
Source: news.virginia.edu

1915
Alexander Graham Bell opens coast-to-coast telephone service with a call from New York to San Francisco.
The ceremonial call opened the new line linking the East and West coasts. President Woodrow Wilson also took part, speaking from the Oval Office.
Source: archive.nytimes.com; georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov
1924
The first Winter Olympic Games open at Chamonix in the French Alps.
Billed at the time as an International Winter Sports Week, the meet offered ski jumping, bobsled, skating and other events in six sports. Its success led the International Olympic Committee to treat it as the first Winter Olympics and to stage a second edition in St. Moritz in 1928.
Source: history.com
1942
Thailand declares war on the United States and Great Britain.
Thailand had let Japanese troops cross its territory and signed an alliance with Japan in December 1941. The United States chose not to declare war in return and later backed the Free Thai resistance.
Source: history.com; history.state.gov
1945
The Battle of the Bulge ends after about six weeks of fighting in the Ardennes.
Germany's last major offensive in the west began on December 16, 1944, when its forces struck thinly held American lines in Belgium and Luxembourg. More than 700,000 Allied troops took part in pushing the bulge back, and Hitler was never again able to attack in the west on such a scale.
Source: army.mil

1949
The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
The young Television Academy, founded a few years earlier, created the awards to honor work in a new medium at a time when only a small share of American homes owned a TV set. The Emmys grew into television's best-known prize.
Source: history.com

1995
Russian radar mistakes a Norwegian research rocket for a possible missile attack.
Early-warning crews tracked an unexpected launch near Norway, and the nuclear command case carried by President Boris Yeltsin was activated for the first time. Within minutes Russian officers concluded that the rocket was heading away from Russia, and the alert ended without any response.
Source: history.com