25 October 1287

At 49 days, Liz Truss concluded the shortest tenure as prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Mount Merapi in Central Java, Indonesia, began an increasingly violent series of eruptions that lasted over a month.

Windows XP, one of the most popular and widely used versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, was released for retail sale.

The People's Volunteer Army ambushed the South Korean II Corps at the Battle of Onjong, and elsewhere engaged the 1st Infantry Division at the Battle of Unsan, marking China's entry into the Korean War.

Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a nonconformist youth group that assisted army deserters and others hiding from the Nazis.

USS Tang, the U.S. Navy submarine credited with sinking more ships than any other American submarine, sank when it was struck by its own torpedo.

Following a series of similar actions against other sculptures, hundreds of students at Armstrong College in Newcastle tarred and feathered Statue of Industry (pictured), created by the college's master of sculpture Herbert Maryon.

The Italian cruise liner SS Principessa Mafalda sank when a propeller shaft broke and fractured the hull, resulting in 314 deaths.

The Daily Mail published the Zinoviev letter, a hoax purported to be a directive from Moscow to increase communist agitation.

Irish playwright and politician Terence MacSwiney died after a hunger strike in Brixton Prison, bringing the Irish struggle for independence to international attention.

American Civil War: During Price's Missouri Expedition, Union troops defeated Sterling Price's Confederate army in three successive battles: Marais des Cygnes, Mine Creek, and Marmiton River.

Crimean War: The ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade was decisively repelled by Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava.

George III became King of Great Britain and Ireland, succeeding his grandfather George II.

Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog left a plate on an island in Shark Bay, the oldest-known artefact of European exploration in Australia still in existence.

Hundred Years' War: The army of Henry V of England, consisting mostly of archers, unexpectedly defeated the numerically superior French cavalry at the Battle of Agincourt (pictured) on Saint Crispin's Day.

Reconquista: Forces under Afonso I of Portugal captured Lisbon from the Moors after a four-month siege in one of the few Christian victories during the Second Crusade.

A mass shooting occurs in two locations in Lewiston, Maine. 18 people are killed and 13 more injured.

Mount Merapi in Indonesia begins a month-long series of violent eruptions that kill 353 people and cause the evacuation of another 350,000 people.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes off Indonesia's Mentawai Islands, triggering a tsunami that kills at least 400 people.

Microsoft releases Windows XP, which becomes one of Microsoft's most successful operating systems.

A Learjet 35 crashes in Mina near Aberdeen, South Dakota, killing all six people on board, including PGA golfer Payne Stewart and golf course designer Bruce Borland.

After a civil war, Denis Sassou Nguesso proclaims himself President of the Republic of the Congo.

A commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.

The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic declares its sovereignty from the Soviet Union.