What happened on May 25 ?

1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo back from the Moors.

1420 - Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ.

1521 - The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.

1659 - Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth.

1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States. George Washington presides.

1810 - In the May Revolution, armed citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Viceroy during the Semana de Mayo.

1865 - In Mobile, Alabama, 300 are killed when an ordnance depot explodes.

1895 - Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison.

1895 - The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as the president.

1914 - The United Kingdom's House of Commons passes Home Rule Act for devolution in Ireland.

1925 - Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

1925 - The National Forensics League of the U.S. is founded.

1926 - Sholom Schwartzbard assassinates Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of Ukrainian People's Republic.

1932 - Goofy makes his debut.

1935 - In a span of 45 minutes at the Big Ten Conference meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jesse Owens sets or ties four track and field world records.

1935 - Babe Ruth hits his 714th and last home run at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, setting a baseball record that will stand for 39 years.

1938 - Spanish Civil War: Bombing of Alicante, 313 deaths.

1940 - World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk begins.

1946 - The parliament of Transjordan makes Abdullah I of Jordan their king.

1953 - Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.

1955 - Kanchenjunga, the third-highest peak in the world, is scaled successfully for the first time.

1961 - Apollo program: U.S. president John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the moon" before the end of the decade.

1963 - In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Organisation of African Unity is established.

1965 - Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston in the first minute of the first round of a boxing match.

1966 - Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.

1966 - The first prominent DaZiBao during the Cultural Revolution in China was posted at Peking University.

1977 - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope opens in theaters and eventually becomes the highest grossing film of all time.

1979 - American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, Illinois, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.

1979 - Florida executes John Spenkelink, the first non-voluntary execution in the United States in more than 10 years.

1980 - Televangelist Oral Roberts senses an "overwhelming holy presence" and hallucinates a 900-foot-tall Jesus Christ. The deity reaches down and picks up a 60-story hospital, bragging to the Oklahoman preacher: "See how easy it is for Me to lift it!"

1981 - In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

1982 - HMS Coventry is sunk during the Falklands War.

1983 - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is released.

1985 - Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.

1986 - Hands Across America took place.

1992 - Jay Leno takes over as host of The Tonight Show.

1995 - The Bosnian Serb Army kills 72 youngsters in the Bosnian city of Tuzla.

1996 - Bradley Nowell, lead singer of Sublime, dies from a heroin overdose in San Francisco, at age 28.

1997 - A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.

1997 - Strom Thurmond becomes the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Senate, at 41 years and 10 months.

1999 - The two officers scapegoated after the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor, Rear Admiral Kimmel and Lieutenant General Short are exonerated (posthumously) by the U.S. Senate of all charges of dereliction of duty.

2000 - Liberation Day of Lebanon. Israel withdraws its army from most of the Lebanese territory after 22 years of its first invasion in 1978.

2001 - 32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

2001 - 64-year-old Sherman Bull, of New Canaan, Connecticut, becomes the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

2002 - China Airlines Flight 611: A Boeing 747-200 breaks apart in mid-air and plunges into the Taiwan Strait killing 225 people.

2002 - A train crash in Tenga, Mozambique kills 197 people.

2003 - Néstor Kirchner becomes President of Argentina after defeating Carlos Menem. He is the first elected President since the economic crisis.

2006 - Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling are convicted for their roles in the collapse of Enron.