This Day In European History
25th January
Events1504: An English Parliament, which tries to remove or regulate private armies, first meets.
1533: King Henry VIII of England marries Anne Boleyn, wife number two.
1828: Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington and leading British commander during the Napoleonic Wars, becomes Prime Minister of Britain.
1831: A Polish national assembly declares the country independent; Russia suppresses the revolt within a year.
1878: First sinking of a ship by torpedo when a Turkish steamer is attacked in Georgia.
1924: The first Winter Olympics is held in the French Alps.
Births
1540: Saint Edmund Campion, English Jesuit.
1627: Robert Boyle, British natural philosopher.
1640: William Cavendish, English politician and leader of the opposition to King James II of England's succession.
1736: Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Italian/French mathematician.
1759: Robert Burns, Scottish poet.
1874: William Somerset Maugham, British writer.
1882: Virginia Woolf, British writer.
1899: Paul Spaak, Belgium politician and EEC/NATO advocate.
Deaths
