Charge of the Light Brigade

The Battle of Agincourt, held in northern France in October 1415, brought a decisive victory for the forces of England's Henry V over a far larger French army.

On October 25, 1853, members of the Paiute Indian Tribe attack U.S. Army Captain John W. Gunnison and his party of 37 soldiers and railroad surveyors near Sevier Lake, Utah. Gunnison and seven other men were killed, but the survey party continued with its work and eventually reported its findings to the United States Congress. U.S. officials […]

On October 25, 1920, Greece’s King Alexander dies from wounds he received after a monkey attacked him earlier in the month. He was 27 years old. The incident leading to King Alexander’s death occurred while he was walking on the grounds of the castle outside of Athens. A Barbary macaque that belonged to a resident […]

On October 25, 1944, during the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, the Japanese deploy kamikaze (“divine wind”) bombers against American warships for the first time. It will prove costly—to both sides. This decision to employ suicide bombers against the American fleet at Leyte, an island of the Philippines, was based on the failure of conventional […]

The Atomic Age sci-fi thriller “The Amazing Colossal Man” premieres in New York City on October 25, 1957. The film was one of many from the era to exploit cultural anxieties over atomic weaponry.

U.N. representatives vote to seat the the People’s Republic of China as a permanent member and expels Taiwan, led by the Chinese Nationalist Party.   The U.S.—which had unsuccessfully proposed seating both the PRC and Taiwan—was interested in seeking the PRC’s help in resolving the sticky Vietnam situation, using influence with the PRC as diplomatic leverage […]

President Ronald Reagan, citing the threat posed to American nationals on the Caribbean nation of Grenada by that nation’s Marxist regime, orders U.S. forces to invade and secure their safety. There were approximately 1,000 Americans in Grenada at the time, many of them students at the island’s medical school. In little more than a week, […]