April 25 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1507, German geographer and mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller published a book in which he named the newly discovered continent of the New World “America” after the man he mistakenly thought had discovered it, Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
In 1792, “La Marseillaise,” composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, became the French national anthem.
In 1859, ground was broken for the Suez Canal at Port Said, Egypt.
File Photo by Cynthia R. Zarate/UPI
In 1901, New York became the first state to require license plates on automobiles.
In 1915, the Battle of Gallipoli began when Allied troops launched an invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula, landing at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles. The conflict lasted eight months, two weeks and one day, and ended in an Ottoman victory.
In 1945, delegates of 46 countries gathered in San Francisco to organize a permanent United Nations.
In 1967, the first law legalizing abortion in the United States was signed into law by Colorado Gov. John Arthur Love.
In 1982, Israel turned over the final third of the occupied Sinai Peninsula to Egypt under the Camp David peace agreement.
In 1993, an estimated 300,000 people took part in a gay rights march on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
In 2000, Vermont approved a measure legalizing “civil unions” among same-sex couples, becoming the first U.S. state to give same-sex couples the same legal status as traditional married couples.
File Photo by Steven E. Frischling/UPI
In 2005, the crash of a commuter train near Osaka, Japan, killed more than 70 people and injured about 300 others.
In 2011, nearly 800 classified U.S. military documents released by WikiLeaks revealed details about the alleged terrorist activities of al-Qaida operatives held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
In 2013, the George W. Bush Presidential Library was dedicated on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas.
In 2015, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Kathmandu, Nepal, killing nearly 9,000 people and leaving millions homeless.
In 2015, protests — some violent — broke out in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year old black man, while in police custody.
In 2021, a fire at the Ibn al-Khatib hospital in Baghdad killed 82 people after an explosion of oxygen tanks meant for COVID-19 patients.
File Photo by Murtaja Lateef/EPA-EFE
About the Author
