July 25th

July 25 is the 207th day of the year.  There are 159 days remaining until the end of the year.

1521 About 300 sodomites burned in Vrijdagmarkt Ghent to provide heat from a renewable energy source during an exceptionally cool July

1860 1st US intercollegiate billiard match, Harvard vs. Yale introduces trash talk in competitive athletics

1866 U.S. Grant is named 1st general of Army and David Farragut is appointed 1st Admiral of US Navy

1940 John Sigmund begins swimming for 89 hours 46 minutes in the Mississippi River without any known reason

1952 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is created (Constitution Day)

1966 Mao Tse Tung swims the Yangtse River without any known reason

1966 Supremes release "You Can't Hurry Love"

1983 1st non-human primate, baboon, is conceived in a lab dish, San Antonio, 15 years after Louise Brown, the first test-tube human, is born.  Many happy returns of the day, Louise!

1985 Spokeswoman for Rock Hudson confirms he has AIDS

1992 Army refuses to overturn 127 year old conviction against Dr. Samuel Mudd who set John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg after Lincoln’s assassination

1994 Jordan and Israeli end 46 year state of war

2010 Wikileaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in US military history.

1844 Thomas Eakins, heterosexual (quelle surpise!) US artist, photographer, teacher  

1955 Tom McCamus, Canadian actor  

1965 Olivier Py, gay French actor/director  

1970 Ernesto Alterio, Argentine actor  

1973 Tony Vincent [Anthony Peter Strascina], US actor/singer-songwriter  

1973 Martino Lazzeri, English actor  

1974 Jay R Ferguson, US actor  

1976 Stéphane Rideau, French actor 

1982 Brad Renfro, US actor  

1989 Steve Rubell, gay US night club owner (Studio 54), succumbs to AIDS at 45