THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― JUNE 25

June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 189 days remaining until the end of the year. 

NATIONAL LEON DAY 

524 – The Franks are defeated by the Burgundians in the Battle of Vézeronce.

841 – In the Battle of Fontenay-en-Puisaye, forces led by Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeat the armies of Lothair I of Italy and Pepin II of Aquitaine. The war was the contention over the territorial inheritances —the division of the unified lands of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire between his grandsons, the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious.

1530 – At the Diet of Augsburg the Augsburg Confession is presented to the Holy Roman Emperor by the Lutheran princes and Electors of Germany.

1876 – Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. The battle, which occurred June 25–26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, was the most prominent action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. The fight was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho, led by several major war leaders, including Crazy Horse and Chief Gall, inspired by the visions of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake).

1900 – The Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China.

1906 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw shoots and kills prominent architect Stanford White. Thaw was the son of Pittsburgh coal and railroad baron William Thaw, Sr. Heir to a multimillion-dollar mine and railroad fortune, Harry Thaw had a history of severe mental instability and led a profligate life. His historical legacy rests on one notorious act: on June 25, 1906, on the rooftop of Madison Square Garden, Thaw murdered renowned architect Stanford White, who had been the lover of Thaw's wife, model/chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit.

1910 – The United States Congress passes the Mann Act, which prohibits interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”; the ambiguous language would be used to selectively prosecute people for years to come. Named after Congressman James Robert Mann (IL) it was one of several acts of protective legislation aimed at moral reform during the progressive era. In practice, its ambiguous language about "immorality" has resulted in its being used to criminalize even consensual sexual behavior between adults. It was amended by Congress in 1978 and again in 1986 to apply to transport for the purpose of prostitution or illegal sexual acts.

1913 – American Civil War veterans begin arriving at the Great Reunion of 1913 held at Gettysburg National Battlefield for the 50th anniversary of the battle there.

1940 – World War II: ― The Battle of France. The surrender of France signed on June 22 officially goes into effect.

1943 – The Holocaust: Jews in the Częstochowa Ghetto in Poland stage an uprising against the Nazis. On June 25, 1943 a full uprising broke out, organized by the Organisation of Jewish Fighters, even though the insurgents were weakly armed. They barricaded themselves in bunkers along the Nadrzeczna Street. In the fighting and subsequent massacres 1,500 Jews died. The leader of the uprising, Mordechaj Zylberberg, committed suicide as the Germans were about to capture his bunker on Nadrzeczna. The uprising was suppressed on June 30, 1943 with additional 500 Jews burned alive or buried beneath the rubble of the Small Ghetto.

1944 – World War II: United States Navy and British Royal Navy ships bombard Cherbourg to support United States Army units engaged in the Battle of Cherbourg. The battle which began on June 6 as part of the Normady invasion ended on June 29 with surrender of the German garrison.

1950 – The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea. ―  From http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/korean-war-begins

1960 – Two cryptographers working for the United States National Security Agency (William Hamilton Martin and Bernon F. Mitchell) left for vacation to Mexico, traveled to Havana and from there sailed on a Russian freighter to the Soviet Union. On August 5, the Pentagon announced that they had not returned from vacation and said "there is a likelihood that they have gone behind the Iron Curtain." On September 6, 1960, they appeared at a joint news conference at the House of Journalists in Moscow and announced they had requested asylum and Soviet citizenship.

1976 – Missouri Governor Kit Bond issues an executive order rescinding the Extermination Order, formally apologizing on behalf of the state of Missouri for the suffering it had caused to the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

1981 – Microsoft is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington.


1991 – Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia. The parliament of Croatia declared Croatia's independence and dissolved its association with Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991. The Croatian parliament's decision was partially boycotted by left-wing parliament deputies. The European Community and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe urged Croatian authorities to place a three-month moratorium on the decision. The government of Yugoslavia responded to the declarations of independence of Croatia and Slovenia with Yugoslav Prime Minister Ante Marković declaring the secessions to be illegal and contrary to the Constitution of Yugoslavia, and supported the JNA taking action to secure the integral unity of Yugoslavia

1996 – The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. servicemen. A truck bomb was detonated adjacent to Building #131, an eight-story structure housing members of the United States Air Force's 4404th Wing (Provisional), primarily from a deployed rescue squadron and deployed fighter squadron. In all, 19 U.S. servicemen were killed and 498 of many nationalities were wounded. The official June 25, 1996 statement by the United States named members of Hezbollah Al-Hejaz (English: Party of God in the Hijaz) as responsible. In 2006, a U.S. court found Iran and Hezbollah guilty of orchestrating the attack.

1997 – An unmanned Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir.

1998 – In Clinton v. City of New York, the United States Supreme Court decides that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 is unconstitutional.

1999 – United Nations Security Council: Resolutions 1248 and 1249 are adopted.

2013 – Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani becomes the eighth Emir of Qatar.


BORN TODAY

1242 – Beatrice of England (d. 1275)

1886 – Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, American general, WWI and WWII, was both General of the Army and General of the Air Force (d. 1950)

1898 – Kay Sage, American painter and poet (d. 1963)

1903 – George Orwell, British novelist, essayist, and critic, Nineteen Eighty-Four (d. 1950)

1924 – Sidney Lumet, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2011)

1951 – Eva Bayer-Fluckiger, Swiss mathematician and academic

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.