By: HISTORY.com Editors

1979

Hurricane David forms

Published: November 13, 2009Last Updated: August 19, 2026

On August 25, 1979, the storm that will become Hurricane David forms near Cape Verde off the African coast in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Its winds increase as it moves west-northwestward, and the hurricane goes on to devastate the island of Dominica then the Dominican Republic, killing at least 2,000 people.

Two days after forming, on August 27, the storm reached hurricane status and headed straight for the Caribbean Sea. The small island of Dominica and its capital city, Roseau, took an extremely hard hit on August 29. Winds with speeds of up to 150 miles per hour devastated the island. Thirty-seven people died, and 60,000 lost their homes, nearly 75 percent of the entire population. The banana and citrus crops, essential to the island’s economy, were wiped out. It was the worst storm to hit the island to that time.

At 1:30 a.m. the next day, the hurricane turned on Santo Domingo and the Dominican Republic. Now a Category 5 storm, it pummeled the island with 175 mph winds (and gusts over 200 mph) and waves as high as 20 to 30 feet. Mudslides caused by the storm proved to be particularly deadly in the Dominican Republic, where they killed some 2,000 people. The worst incident was in Padre Las Casas, where more than 400 people tied themselves together as they attempted to climb to higher ground but were washed away when a dike broke, releasing a flood of water in their direction. The hurricane caused US$1 billion worth of damage in the country.

On September 1, David hit the Bahamas and, two days later, caused $60 million in damages in Florida. From there, the hurricane skipped up the coastline of the United States. Charleston, South Carolina, took a heavy hit, and the storm caused flooding from Virginia to New York. Trees and power lines came down in many states. Hurricane David finally dissipated on September 7.

5 Times Hurricanes Changed History

These violent storms have had far-reaching consequences that altered the course of history in surprising ways.

By: Christopher Klein

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on August 25th

1835

“The Great Moon Hoax” is published in the “New York Sun”

The first in a series of six articles announcing the supposed discovery of life on the moon appears in the New York Sun newspaper. The fictional stories became known as "The Great Moon Hoax."

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1875

Englishman swims the Channel

Matthew Webb, a 27-year-old merchant navy captain, becomes the first known person to successfully swim the English Channel. Captain Webb accomplished the grueling 21-mile crossing, which really entailed 39 miles of swimming because of tidal currents, in 21 hours and 45 minutes. Webb set out to much fanfare the day before, on August 24. During […]

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1896

Outlaw Bill Doolin is killed

The outlaw Bill Doolin is killed by a posse at Lawson, Oklahoma on the night of August 25, 1896. Born in Arkansas in 1858, William Doolin was never as hardened a criminal as some of his companions. He went west in 1881, finding work in Oklahoma at the big ranch of Oscar D. Halsell. Halsell took a […]

1:30m read

1914

Germans burn Belgian town of Louvain

Over the course of five days, beginning August 25, 1914, German troops stationed in the Belgian village of Louvain during the opening month of World War I burn and loot much of the town, executing hundreds of civilians. Located between Liege, the fortress town that saw heavy fighting during the first weeks of the German […]

1931

Yangtze River peaks in Gaoyou, China, killing more than 10,000

On August 25, 1931, after months of torrential flooding, levees around the city of Gaoyou, China, break and the Yangtze River overflows, killing between 10,000 and 15,000 in a single night. The disastrous breach was part of a catastrophic flood that killed an estimated 3.7 million people directly and indirectly over the next several months, […]

1:34m read

1939

“The Wizard of Oz” opens in U.S. theaters

On August 25, 1939, The Wizard of Oz, which will become one of the best-loved movies in history, opens in theaters around the United States. Based on the 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), the film starred Judy Garland as the young Kansas farm girl Dorothy, who, after […]

1:58m read

1944

Paris is liberated after four years of Nazi occupation

On August 25, 1944, after more than four years of Nazi occupation, Paris is liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. German resistance was light, and General Dietrich von Choltitz, commander of the German garrison, defied an order by Adolf Hitler to blow up Paris’ landmarks and burn the […]

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1945

John Birch, inspiration to conservatives, killed by Chinese communists

On August 25, 1945, John Birch, an American missionary to China before the war and a captain in the Army during the war, is killed by Chinese communists days after the surrender of Japan, for no apparent reason. His death would inspire a small but vocal group of conservative anticommunists. After America had entered the […]

1950

Truman orders army to seize control of railroads

On August 25, 1950, in anticipation of a crippling strike by railroad workers, President Harry S. Truman issues an executive order putting America’s railroads under the control of the U.S. Army, as of August 27, at 4:00 pm. Truman had already intervened in another railway dispute when union employees of the Chicago, North Shore and […]

1:28m read

1958

Momofuku Ando creates the first mass-market instant ramen

To help address the food shortage crisis in Japan after World War II, inventor and businessman Momofuku Ando develops Chicken Ramen, the first-ever instant noodles, on August 25, 1958. The shelf-stable noodles are readily available, take two minutes to cook and fill hungry bellies. Today, instant noodles are a ubiquitous global fast food—and not just […]

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1962

Little Eva earns a No. 1 hit with “Loco-Motion”

On August 25, 1962, a diminutive, 17-year-old singer named Eva Narcissus Boyd scored her first and only No. 1 pop hit with “The Loco-Motion.”

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1982

U.S. Marines deployed to Lebanon

During the Lebanese Civil War, a multinational force including 800 U.S. Marines lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon. It was the beginning of a problem-plagued mission that would stretch into 17 months and leave 262 U.S. servicemen dead. In 1975, a bloody civil war erupted in Lebanon, with Palestinian and leftist […]

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1984

Truman Capote, author of “In Cold Blood,” dies

Truman Capote, the author of the pioneering true-crime novel In Cold Blood, dies at age 59 in Los Angeles. In Cold Blood told the story of the 1959 murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, two parolees from the Kansas State Penitentiary, decided to rob Herbert Clutter, a successful farmer, […]

1:48m read

1985

Samantha Smith dies in plane crash

Samantha Smith, the 13-year-old “ambassador” to the Soviet Union, dies in a plane crash. Smith was best known for writing to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov in 1982 and visiting the Soviet Union as Andropov’s guest in 1983. In late 1982, Smith, a fifth-grader at Manchester Elementary School in Manchester, Maine, wrote a plaintive letter to […]

1:58m read

2001

Aaliyah dies in plane crash

R&B superstar and actor Aaliyah was only 22 years old when she unexpectedly died on August 25, 2001.

2009

Ted Kennedy, “liberal lion of the Senate,” dies at 77

On August 25, 2009, Edward “Ted” Kennedy, the youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy and a U.S. senator from Massachusetts from 1962 to 2009, dies of brain cancer at age 77 at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Kennedy, one of the longest-serving senators in American history, was a leader of the Democratic Party […]

3:50m read

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