Following are some of the major events that occurred on June 25:
1530: The Augsburg Confession, a key document of Lutheranism and one of the most important documents of the Protestant Reformation, was presented to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg.
1788: Virginia became the 10th state to ratify the United States Constitution, thus fulfilling the requirements for it to become the supreme law of the land.
1862: The Seven Days Battles began during the American Civil War. This series of engagements was a Confederate offensive against Union forces led by General George McClellan on the Virginia Peninsula.
1876: Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry were defeated by Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. This battle remains one of the most famous and controversial events in American history.
1947: The Diary of Anne Frank was first published. The diary, written by a young Jewish girl while hiding from the Nazis during World War II, has become one of the most widely read and influential accounts of the Holocaust.
1950: The Korean War began when North Korean forces invaded South Korea. This conflict, which lasted until 1953, involved the United States, China, and other countries and resulted in millions of casualties.
1975: Mozambique gained independence from Portugal after a long and bloody struggle. Samora Machel became the first president of the newly independent nation.
1991: Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia, marking the beginning of the violent breakup of the former communist state.
1998: Microsoft released Windows 98, a major update to its popular operating system that introduced numerous features and improvements.
2009: Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died at the age of 50 from cardiac arrest caused by a combination of drugs.
