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history

What Happened in 525BC, 425BC, 325BC, 225BC

Over the next few months we’ll have a look at some things – things which seem to me to be interesting or curious – which happened during other years ending ..25. Some years are busy; in others little seemed to have happened. Each month we’ll progress a bit further through centuries, starting this month with 525 BC and reaching 1825 in November. Most years are fairly sparce, so until things really get going in 1525 each entry will contain multiple years. So off we go at 525 BC.

Some Notable Events in 525 BC

17 September. Venus occults Antares. The next such occurrence will not take place until 17 November 2400 AD.

Unknown Date. Battle of Pelusium. Cambyses II of Persia conquers Egypt by painting cats and other animals sacred to the Egyptians on his soldiers’ shields. The Egyptians run in fear of “harming” these animals. After conquering Egypt, the Persian king Cambyses II sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for the Macrobian king to entice his submission. The Macrobian king replied instead with a challenge for his Persian counterpart in the form of an unstrung bow: if the Persians could manage to string it, they would have the right to invade his country; but until then, they should thank the gods that the Macrobians never decided to invade their empire.

Unknown Date. Born. Aeschylus, author of Greek tragedies.

Unknown Date. Died. Anaximenes of Miletus, Greek scientist and philosopher (b.585 BC).

Some Notable Events in 425 BC

Unknown Date. Demosthenes captures and fortifies the port of Pylos in the Peloponnesus, giving Athens a strong base close to Sparta. The Battle of Pylos results in an Athenian victory leading to the surrender of many of the Spartan troops. Pylos remains in Athenian hands.

Unknown Date. Euripides’ play Hecuba is performed.Aqua Tepula aqueduct

Unknown Date. Aristophanes’ play The Acharnians is performed. Produced by Callistratus, it wins Aristophanes a first prize at the Lenaea.

Unknown Date. Died. Herodotus of Halicarnassos, Dorian Greek historian (b.484 BC).

Some Notable Events in 325 BC

Unknown Date. Alexander the Great leaves India and nominates his officer Peithon as the satrap of the region around the Indus.

Unknown Date. The first known reference to sugar cane appears in writings by Alexander the Great’s admiral Nearchus, who writes of Indian reeds “that produce honey, although there are no bees”.

Unknown Date. Born. Euclid, Greek mathematician who will come to live in Alexandria (d.c.275 BC).

Some Notable Events in 225 BC

Unknown Date. After the Battle of Faesulae (near Montepulciano) between the Gauls and a Roman army, the combined Roman forces succeed in outmanoeuvring the Gauls and force the invaders towards the coast of Tuscany. The Consul Regulus crossed from Sardinia, landed at Pisa, and was marching towards Rome. His scouts met the Celts’ advance guard head on near Telamon.

Unknown Date. Battle of Telamon: The Romans, led by the consuls Gaius Atilius Regulus and Lucius Aemilius Papus, defeated the Celts led by the Gaesatae kings Concolitanus and Aneroëstes.

history

January 1925


Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

1. Norway’s capital Christiania was renamed Oslo.Norwegian Folk Museum, Oslo

1. The states of Aleppo and Damascus were united into the State of Syria.

6. Born. John DeLorean, car maker, in Detroit (d.2005)

7. Born. Gerald Durrell, English naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter, in Jamshedpur, British India (d.1995)

15. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin fired Leon Trotsky as Commisar for Military and Naval Affairs.

24. A total solar eclipse. The path of totality ran in an arc from SE Canada, NE USA to the north of the British Isles./p>

25. The tomb of Tutankhamun was reopened in Egypt so Howard Carter could resume his archaeological work. Carter was disappointed to find that the pall which had covered the sarcophagus was now ruined because someone in Egypt’s antiquities department had carelessly stored it in a wooden shed that did not provide adequate protection from sunlight.

history, memes

December 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

15. Winston Churchill, writing to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, said Singapore’s defences did not need to be completed for another fifteen to twenty years: “I do not believe there is the slightest chance of war with Japan in our lifetime. Japan is at the other end of the world. She cannot menace our vital security in any way.”

20. Adolf Hitler was released from Landsberg Prison, as part of a general amnesty for political prisoners, having served less than 9 months of a 5 year sentence.

24. Imperial Airways de Havilland DH34 airliner crashes soon after take-off from London’s Croydon Airport killing all eight people aboard; this leads to the first public inquiry into a civil aviation accident ever held in the United Kingdom.

26. Judy Garland made her show business debut, aged 2½, singing “Jingle Bells” at her parents’ theatre in Grand Rapids, MN.

30. American astronomer Edwin Hubble announced that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula, is another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe.

history, memes

November 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

4. 1924 United States presidential election won by Republican Calvin Coolidge

4. Died. Gabriel Fauré, French composer (b. 1845)

20. Born. Benoit Mandelbrot, Polish-born mathematician (d. 2010)

30. Born. Allan Sherman, American comedy writer, television producer and song parodist (d. 1973)

history, memes

October 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

1. Born. Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, he’s 100 today!

12-15. Zeppelin LZ-126 makes a transatlantic delivery flight from Friedrichshafen, Germany, to Lakehurst, New Jersey

29. Died. Frances Hodgson Burnett, Anglo-American writer (b. 1849)

history, memes

September 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

2. Born. Daniel arap Moi, 2nd President of Kenya (d. 2020)

4. Born. Joan Aiken, English writer (d. 2004)

16. Born. Lauren Bacall, American actress (d. 2014)

28. US Army pilots John Harding and Erik Nelson complete the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe; it has taken them 175 days and 74 stops before their return to Seattle

30. Born. Truman Capote, American author (d. 1984)

history, memes

August 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

1. Born. Frank Worrell, West Indies cricketer (d. 1967)

11. Lee de Forest used his experimental Phonofilm sound-on-film process to film US President Calvin Coolidge on the White House lawn; the earliest sound film footage of an American president.

12. Born. Derek Shackleton, England cricketer (d. 2007)

12. Born. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan (d. 1988)

27. American Telephone and Telegraph Company successfully transmitted a colour photograph from Chicago to New York. It took just an hour.

history, memes

July 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

2. Marconi described his new beam system of short-wave wireless transmission at the Royal Society of Arts in London. This could transmit more words per day than previously possible, and more economically, resulting in a general reduction in telegraph rates.

2. Portuguese Prime Minister Álvaro de Castro fought a sword duel with Flight Captain Ribeiro over a political dispute. Ribiero was wounded in the arm.

6. The first photograph is sent across the Atlantic by radio.

10. Denmark gains Greenland when Norway ends its claim.

12. The original trademark application for Kleenex was filed by Kimberly-Clark Corporation.

history, memes

June 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

3. Died. Franz Kafka, Austrian author (b. 1883)

5. Ernst Alexanderson sends the first facsimile across the Atlantic Ocean, which goes to his father in Sweden

8. George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen “going strong for the top” of Mount Everest by teammate Noel Odell at 12:50pm; the two mountaineers are never seen alive again

12. Born. George HW Bush, 41st President of the United States (d. 2018)

history, memes

May 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

4. Died. Edith Nesbit, British author (b. 1858)

11. Mercedes-Benz is formed by the merging of companies owned by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz

12. Born. Tony Hancock, English comedian (d. 1968)