International Waffle Day; not to be confused with National Waffle Day, celebrated on August 24th. International Waffle Day began in Sweden and Norway. March 25, is also the Feast of the Annunciation, upon which waffles are typically eaten. The shift from the religious celebration to Waffle Day occurred because the Swedish Vårfrudagen, meaning “Our Lady’s Day” (the Feast of the Annunciation), sounds similar to Våffeldagen (“waffle day”) in faster speech, and so over time Swedes began calling it Waffle Day and celebrating by eating waffles.
Day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, celebrating the visit of the Angel Gabriel to announce to Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus.
According to legend, Venice was founded at twelve o’clock noon on March 25, 421.
Sir Walter Raleigh was granted a patent to colonize Virginia in 1584.
The first settlers arrived in Maryland. Maryland Day, a legal holiday in Maryland celebrating the landing of the colonists sent to the New World in 1634 by Lord Baltimore under the leadership of his brother, Leonard Calvert.
Mount Etna in Sicily erupted on March 25, 1669, destroying Nicolosi, killing 20,000.
Publication of Federalist Paper #74:The Command of the Military and Naval Forces, and the Pardoning Power of the Executive written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788. This shortest of all the papers continues the discussion of presidential powers beginning with a short mention of being Commander in Chief of the armed forces and then with the rest of the paper on the power to pardon.
1811 – Percy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from the University of Oxford for his publication of the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism.
Shelley’s definition of atheism:”
“There Is No God. This negation must be understood solely to affect a creative Deity. The hypothesis of a pervading Spirit co-eternal with the universe remains unshaken.”
A. E. Burnside patents Burnside carbine in 1856.
Birthday of Gutzon Borglum (1867), American sculptor and painter. Best known for the figures of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore.
Birthday of Arturo Toscanini (1867), Italian musician and conductor
1965 – Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully completed their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. The route is memorialized as the “Selma To Montgomery Voting Rights Trail,” and is designated as a U.S. National Historic Trail.