25 January in history
7 events that happened on 25 January, from 1533 to 1971.
✦ Anniversary of the day
1533 CE 493 years ago
Henry VIII secretly marries Anne Boleyn
Henry married the pregnant Anne Boleyn in a private ceremony at Whitehall while still married to Catherine of Aragon. To make the marriage lawful he broke with Rome and headed his own Church of England.
1554 CE 472 years ago
Jesuit missionaries found São Paulo
Manuel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta celebrated Mass at a new Jesuit mission on the Piratininga plateau. The settlement grew into São Paulo, now the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere.
1858 CE 168 years ago
Queen Victoria's eldest daughter marries Prince Frederick of Prussia
Victoria, the Princess Royal, married the future German Emperor Frederick III at St James's Palace. Mendelssohn's 'Wedding March' played as they left, starting a fashion for it at weddings.
1881 CE 145 years ago
Edison and Bell interests form the Oriental Telephone Company
Companies holding the telephone patents of Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell combined to form the Oriental Telephone Company. It built early telephone exchanges in India and other parts of Asia.
1945 CE 81 years ago
Battle of the Bulge ends in Allied victory
Allied forces restored their line in the Ardennes, ending Germany's last major offensive in the west. Fought in bitter winter conditions, it was the costliest American battle of the Second World War.
1971 CE 55 years ago
Idi Amin seizes power in Uganda
While President Milton Obote was abroad, army commander Idi Amin took power in a coup. His eight-year rule saw the expulsion of Uganda's Asians and the killing of an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 people.
