25 January 1958

A Saturday in history

Weekday

Saturday

Season

Winter (N. Hemisphere)

Century

20th century

Records

360

  1. 2011

    Arab Spring: The Egyptian revolution began with protests on the "Day of Anger", eventually leading to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years of rule.

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  2. 2010

    Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409, en route to Addis Ababa, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff from Beirut, Lebanon, killing all 90 people on board.

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  3. 2010

    Avatar, a science-fiction film directed by James Cameron, became the highest-grossing film of all time.

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  4. 2006

    Three independent observing campaigns announced the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, a super-Earth 21,500 ± 3,300 light-years away from Earth near the center of the Milky Way.

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  5. 2004

    Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity landed on Mars and rolled into Eagle crater, a small crater on the Meridiani Planum.

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  6. 1998

    The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam detonated a truck bomb at the sacred Buddhist Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, killing 17 people.

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  7. 1995

    A team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII sounding rocket, which was mistaken by Russian forces for a Trident missile.

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  8. 1993

    Pakistani national Mir Aimal Kansi shot five people outside the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia, killing two.

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  9. 1990

    Avianca Flight 52 ran out of fuel on approach to John F. Kennedy International Airport and crashed into the village of Cove Neck, New York, resulting in the deaths of 73 people.

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  10. 1971

    Idi Amin seized power from Ugandan president Milton Obote in a coup d'état, beginning eight years of military rule.

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  11. 1967

    South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Cao Kỳ fired his rival Nguyễn Hữu Có while the latter was overseas on a diplomatic visit.

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  12. 1944

    Representatives of the Chetnik movement began a four-day congress to organise political opposition to the Allied support of the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans in Yugoslavia.

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  13. 1932

    The Alt Llobregat insurrection was suppressed in central Catalonia, and over 100 Catalan anarchist activists were arrested and deported.

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  14. 1917

    Serving as a British armed merchant cruiser, Laurentic (pictured) was sunk by German naval mines off the northern coast of Ireland, resulting in 354 deaths.

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  15. 1890

    American journalist Nellie Bly (pictured) completed a circumnavigation of the globe by land and sea in a then-record-breaking 72 days.

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  16. 1792

    Thomas Hardy founded the London Corresponding Society to seek a "radical reform of parliament", later influencing the reform movements of early-19th-century England.

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  17. 1765

    Port Egmont, the first British colony in the Falkland Islands, was founded.

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  18. 1725

    Privateer Amaro Pargo was declared a hidalgo, a member of the Spanish nobility.

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  19. 1704

    English colonists from the Province of Carolina and their native allies began a series of raids against the largely peaceful population of Apalachee in Spanish Florida.

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  20. 1533

    Anne Boleyn (depicted), already pregnant with the future Elizabeth I, secretly married Henry VIII of England in the second of his six marriages.

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  21. 1515

    Francis I, a great-great-grandson of Charles V, was crowned king of France in the Reims Cathedral.

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Photo archive

24 historic images from this day — tap to open the gallery.

What was life like?

Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.

Sources & fact check

Every claim is traced to primary sources, archives, universities and the press — with an explicit confidence rating. Dossiers are generated once and cached permanently.