1925 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Calvin Coolidge
• Vice President: vacant, Charles G. Dawes
• Chief Justice: William Howard Taft
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Frederick H. Gillett , Nicholas Longworth
• Senate Majority Leader: vacant, Charles Curtis
• Congress: 68th, 69th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• January 5 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes Governor of Wyoming, the first female governor in the United States. Twelve days later, Miriam A. Ferguson becomes first female governor of Texas.
• January 27 – February 1 - The 1925 serum run to Nome relays diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled across the U.S. territory of Alaska, to combat an epidemic.
• February 21 – First issue of The New Yorker magazine is published by Gaven Sydnes.
• March 4 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to have his inauguration broadcast on radio.
• March 15 - The Phi Lambda Chi fraternity is founded on the campus of Arkansas State Teacher's College in Conway, Arkansas.
• March 18 - The Tri-State Tornado rampages through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people and injuring 2,027. It hits the towns of Murphysboro, Illinois; Gorham, Illinois; Ellington, Missouri; and Griffin, Indiana. The storm's damage path was indicated at 378 km.
• March 21 - Tennessee Governor Austin Peay signs the Butler Act, prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the state's public schools.
• March 31 - Radio station WOWO in Ft. Wayne, Indiana begins broadcasting.

  April–June

• April 1 - Frank Heath and his horse Gypsy Queen leave Washington, D.C. to begin a two-year journey to visit all 48 states.
• April 10 - F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby.
• April 18 - University of Miami chartered in Coral Gables, Florida.
• May 5 - Scopes Trial: Dayton, Tennessee, biology teacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.
• May 8 - African American Tom Lee rescues 32 people from the M.E. Norman, a steamboat sinking in the Mississippi.
• June 6 - The Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Percy Chrysler.
• June 13 - Charles Francis Jenkins achieves the first synchronized transmission of pictures and sound, using 48 lines, and a mechanical system. A 10-minute film of a miniature windmill in motion is sent across 5 miles from Anacostia to Washington, D.C. The images are viewed by representatives of the National Bureau of Standards, the U.S. Navy, the Department of Commerce, and others. Jenkins calls this "the first public demonstration of radiovision".
• June 27 - The 6.6 Montana earthquake affects the central part of the state with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII. Because the affected area is mostly rural, financial losses are limited to $150,000, though the damage is considered severe.
• June 29 - The 6.8 Santa Barbara earthquake affects the central coast of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX, destroying much of downtown Santa Barbara, California and leaving 13 people dead.

  July–September

• July 10 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law.
• July 21 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.
• August 14 - The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is completed and goes on line.
• September 3 - The U.S. Navy dirigible Shenandoah breaks up in a squall line over Ohio en route to Scottfield, St. Louis; 14 crewmen are killed.
• September 1 to 30 - In the first year for which statewide data are reliable, this month with a statewide average water equivalent of remains Alaska’s wettest calendar month on record.

  October–December

• October 15 - The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Washington Senators, 4 games to 3, to win their 2nd World Series Title.
• November 21 – Lava Beds National Monument is established.
• November 28 - The weekly country music radio program Grand Ole Opry is first broadcast on WSM radio in Nashville, Tennessee, as the "WSM Barn Dance".
• December 16 - Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity, is founded at Lafayette College.

  Undated

• New York City becomes the largest city in the world, taking the lead from London.
• The motel concept originates with the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, California, originally called the Milestone Mo-Tel, constructed by Arthur Heineman.
• The National Football League adds 5 teams: the New York Giants, Detroit Panthers, Providence Steam Roller, a new Canton Bulldogs team, and the Pottsville Maroons.
• Calvin Coolidge signs into law the act establishing a U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services System.
• First National Spelling Bee.

  Ongoing

• Lochner era
• U.S. occupation of Haiti
• Prohibition
• Roaring Twenties

  Births

January

• January 1 – Charlie Capps, American politician
• January 2 – Larry Harmon, American entertainer and television producer
• January 4 – Henry Gleitman, American academic
• January 6 – John DeLorean, American car maker
• January 7 – Harry Stradling Jr., American cinematographer
• January 8 – Tharon Musser, American designer
• January 9 – Lee Van Cleef, American actor
• January 10 – Elizabeth Virginia Hallanan, American judge
• January 11
• * Betty Bumpers, childhood immunizations activist
• * William Styron, American writer
• January 12 – Katherine MacGregor, American actress
• January 13
• * Rosemary Murphy, American actress
• * Gwen Verdon, American actress and dancer
• January 15 – Ruth Slenczynska, American pianist
• January 16
• * Harold "Slim" Switzer, child actor
• * Jesse J. Taylor, United States Navy naval aviator
• January 17
• * Duane Hanson, American sculptor
• * Edgar Ray Killen, Ku Klux Klan leader and convicted murderer
• January 18 – Art Paul, American graphic designer
• January 21 – Charles Aidman, American actor
• January 22 – Bobby Young, American professional baseball player
• January 24 – Maria Tallchief, American ballerina
• January 25 – Barbara Carroll, American jazz pianist
• January 26
• * Joan Leslie, American actress
• * Paul Newman, American actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist
• January 29
• * Harold C. Agerholm, soldier, posthumous Medal of Honor recipient
• * Dub Garrett, American football player
• * Robert W. McCollum, American epidemiologist
• January 30 – Douglas Engelbart, pioneer in human–computer interaction
• January 31 – Benjamin Hooks, American civil rights activist, minister, and attorney

  February

• February 1 – Mary Nesbitt, American female professional baseball player
• February 2 – Elaine Stritch, American actress
• February 3
• * Shelley Berman, American comedian
• * John Fiedler, American actor
• February 8 – Jack Lemmon, American actor and film director
• February 9
• * John B. Cobb, American theologian and philosopher
• * Billy Williamson, American musician
• February 11
• * Virginia E. Johnson, American sexologist
• * Kim Stanley, American actress
• February 15
• * Angella D. Ferguson, American pediatrician
• * Jerome Waldie, American politician
• February 17 – Hal Holbrook, American actor
• February 18 – George Kennedy, American actor
• February 20 – Robert Altman, American film director
• February 21 – Sam Peckinpah, American film director
• February 22
• * Edward Gorey, American illustrator and writer
• * Gerald Stern, American poet, essayist and educator
• February 23 – Patricia Broderick, American playwright and painter
• February 24 – Bud Day, United States Air Force colonel
• February 25
• * Maddy English, American female baseball player
• * Lisa Kirk, American actress and singer
• February 26
• * Arthur S. Abramson, American linguist
• * Lefty Kreh, American sports photojournalist, author and sport fisherman
• * Dave Pell, American jazz musician
• * Robert F. Williams, African-American civil rights activist and author
• February 27
• * Samuel Dash, Watergate Congressional counsel
• * Ed Quirk, American football player
• February 28 – Louis Nirenberg, Canadian-American mathematician

  March

• March 1 – Keith Harvey Miller, American politician
• March 4 – Dale Barnstable, American basketball player
• March 6 – Clyde Biggers, American football coach
• March 7 – Rene Gagnon, U.S. Marine flag raiser on Iwo Jima
• March 8 – John Harland Bryant, American physician
• March 9 – G. William Miller, American politician
• March 12 – G. William Whitehurst, American politician
• March 13
• * Roy Haynes, American jazz drummer
• * John Tate, American mathematician
• March 14 – Joseph A. Unanue, American chief executive
• March 15 – Art Murakowski, American football player
• March 16 – Mary Hinkson, African-American dancer and choreographer
• March 19 – Brent Scowcroft, American general and diplomat
• March 20 – Romana Acosta Bañuelos, American public servant
• March 23 – Robie Lester, American Grammy-nominated voice artist and singer
• March 25 – Flannery O'Connor, American author
• March 28 – Dorothy DeBorba, American child actress
• March 31 – John Wesley Hanes III, American civil servant

  April

• April 2 - Hard Boiled Haggerty, professional wrestler and actor
• April 4 - Jan Merlin, actor, screenwriter and author
• April 5 - Donald Burgett, writer and World War II veteran
• April 12
• * Evelyn Berezin, computer engineer
• * Ned Miller, country music singer-songwriter
• April 14
• * Gene Ammons, jazz saxophonist
• * Rod Steiger, film actor
• April 17
• * Charles Yanofsky, American geneticist
• * Mallory Horne, American politician
• April 18 - Bob Hastings, actor
• April 19
• * Chuck Klausing, American football player and coach
• *Hugh O'Brian, actor
• April 20
• * Ernie Stautner, German-born American football player died 2006)
• * Elena Verdugo, actress
• * Bob Will, Olympic rower
• April 24 - Faye Dancer, baseball player
• April 25 - Kay E. Kuter, actor
• April 28 - John Thorn, headmaster, author and educational consultant

  May

• May 1 – Scott Carpenter, American astronaut
• May 4 – Maurice R. Greenberg, American businessman
• May 5
• * Charles Chaplin Jr., American actor
• * Edwin Michael Kosik, American judge
• May 10 – Pete Babando, American ice hockey player
• May 11
• *William Glasser, American psychiatrist and author
• *Edward Zemprelli, American politician
• May 12 – Yogi Berra, American baseball player
• May 14
• * Sophie Kurys, American professional baseball player
• * Patrice Munsel, American actress, singer, and operatic soprano
• * Oona O'Neill, American actress
• * Marvin Traub, American businessman and writer
• May 16
• * James F. Holland, American physician
• * Nancy Roman, American astronomer
• May 17 – Herb Henson, American country musician
• May 19 – Malcolm X, African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist
• May 23
• * Mac Wiseman, American bluegrass musician
• * Joshua Lederberg, American molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• May 27 – Frank Dempsey, American football player
• May 28 – Lucien Nedzi, American politician
• May 29 – Thomas Collier Platt Jr., American judge
• May 31 – Julian Beck, American actor, director, poet, and painter

  June

• June 3 – Tony Curtis, American actor
• June 5
• * Warren Frost, American actor
• * Bill Hayes, American actor and singer
• June 6 – Fitzhugh L. Fulton, American pilot
• June 7
• * John Biddle, American yachting cinematographer
• * Robert Smithdas, deaf-blind teacher, advocate and author
• June 8
• * Barbara Bush, born Barbara Pierce, First Lady of the United States
• * Del Ennis, American baseball player and coach
• * Eddie Gaedel, American baseball player with dwarfism
• June 9
• * Herman Sarkowsky, German-American businessman and executive
• * Robert H. Traurig, American lawyer and businessman
• June 10 – Nat Hentoff, American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist
• June 11 – William Styron, American writer
• June 12 – Richard Paul Conaboy, American judge
• June 14 – Pierre Salinger, American politician
• June 16 – Lewis Morley, American photographer
• June 17 – Alexander Shulgin, American psychopharmacologist
• June 19 – Wendell Erickson, American politician
• June 20 – Audie Murphy, American World War II hero and actor
• June 21
• * Stanley Moss, American poet, publisher, and art dealer
• * Maureen Stapleton, American actress
• June 22
• * Nat Boxer, American sound engineer
• * Ben Jarvis, American politician
• June 23
• * Art Modell, American businessman
• * Oliver Smithies, British-American geneticist
• June 24 – Ogden R. Reid, United States Representative from New York
• June 25
• *John Briley, American writer
• * June Lockhart, American actress
• * Virginia Patton, American actress
• * Robert Venturi, American architect
• June 26 – Richard X. Slattery, American actor
• June 27
• * Fiora Contino, American opera conductor
• * Doc Pomus, born Jerome Solon Felder, songwriter
• * Wayne Terwilliger, American baseball player, coach and manager
• June 28 – Ray Boyle, American actor
• June 29
• *Ray Boyle, American actor
• * Francis S. Currey, American Medal of Honour recipient
• * John Fujioka, American actor of Japanese descent
• * Shirley Brannock Jones, American judge
• * Arthur Storch, American actor and stage director
• * Cara Williams, American actress
• June 30 – Fred Schaus, American basketball player, head coach and athletic director

  July

• July 1
• * Farley Granger, American actor
• * Art McNally, American football referee
• July 2
• * Marvin Rainwater, American country and rockabilly singer and songwriter
• * Medgar Evers, African-American civil rights activist
• July 3 – Danny Nardico, American professional boxer
• July 4
• * Cathy Berberian, American mezzo-soprano and composer
• * John Imbrie, American paleoceanographer
• * Max Pievsky, American politician
• July 6
• * Merv Griffin, American game show host and producer, talk show host, singer
• * Bill Haley, American pop singer
• July 7
• * Marc Breslow, American television director
• * Jud Kinberg, American producer and screenwriter
• July 8
• * Arthur Imperatore Sr., Italian-American businessman from New Jersey
• * Bill Mackrides, American football quarterback
• July 9
• * Mary de Rachewiltz, American poet and translator
• * Marion Gay Wofford, American politician
• July 10
• * Ernest Bertrand Boland, Roman Catholic bishop
• * Jerome Kohlberg Jr., American businessman
• July 11
• * Mattiwilda Dobbs, African-American coloratura soprano
• * Peter Kyros, American politician
• July 14 – Sheila Guyse, African-American singer, actress, and recording artist
• July 15 – D. A. Pennebaker, American documentary filmmaker
• July 18
• * Windy McCall, American relief pitcher in Major League Baseball
• * Glen Wood, American race car driver
• July 19 – Sue Thompson, American pop and country music singer
• July 23 – Gloria DeHaven, American actress
• July 31
• * Harry Malmberg, American second baseman and coach
• * Carmel Quinn, Irish-American singer and performer

  August

• August 12
• * Dale Bumpers, American politician
• * Lois Jurgens, American convicted murderer
• * Dean Sensanbaugher, American football halfback and defensive back
• August 13 – Benny Bailey, American bebop and hard-bop jazz trumpeter
• August 19 – Frederic Richards, American biochemist and biophysicist
• August 29 – Earle Brucker, Jr., American baseball player
• August 31
• * Ted Schwinden, American politician
• * Pete Vonachen, American restaurateur and baseball team owner

  September

• September 1 – Arvonne Fraser, American women's rights activist
• September 2 – Ike Franklin Andrews, American politician
• September 3 – Hank Thompson, American country musician
• September 8 – Jacqueline Ceballos, American feminist
• September 10 – Dick Lucas, American minister and cleric
• September 12
• * Stan Lopata, American professional baseball player
• * Dick Moore, American child actor
• September 13
• * Marshall Flaum, American television director, producer and screenwriter
• * Mel Tormé, American musician
• September 15 – Peggy Webber, American actress
• September 16
• * Martha Firestone Ford, American businesswoman
• * Eugene Garfield, American linguist and businessman
• * B.B. King, African-American blues guitarist
• * Morgan Woodward, American actor
• September 19 – Franklin Sousley, U.S. Marine flag raiser on Iwo Jima
• September 25
• * Edwin N. Lightfoot, American chemical engineer
• * Paul B. MacCready, Jr., American aeronautical engineer
• September 26 – Marty Robbins, American singer-songwriter and racing driver
• September 28 – Carolyn Morris, American female professional baseball player
• September 29 – John Tower, American politician

  October

• October 2 – Paul Goldsmith, American NASCAR driver
• October 3
• * Gore Vidal, American writer
• * George Wein, American pianist and producer
• October 5
• * Gail Davis, American actress
• * Robert B. Morgan, American politician
• October 6 – Hiroshi H. Miyamura, American Medal of Honour recipient
• October 7 – Mildred Earp, American baseball player
• October 8 – Eleanor Anne Young, American religious sister, research scientist, and educator
• October 10
• * Anne Pippin Burnett, American classics scholar
• * Thomas F. Stroock, American politician
• October 11 – Elmore Leonard, American novelist
• October 13 – Lenny Bruce, comic
• October 16 – Daniel J. Evans, American politician
• October 20
• * Art Buchwald, American humorist and columnist
• * Gene Wood, American game show announcer
• October 22 – Robert Rauschenberg, American painter
• October 23 – Johnny Carson, American comedian and television host
• October 24 – Al Feldstein, American comic book artist
• October 25 – John J. Snyder, Roman Catholic bishop
• October 27 – Warren Christopher, American diplomat
• October 29 – Dominick Dunne, American writer
• October 31 – Robert Rheault, American army officer

  November

• November 4 – Doris Roberts, American actress
• November 6 – Fred B. Rooney, American politician
• November 7 – Angelo Thomas Acerra, Roman Catholic bishop
• November 11 – Jonathan Winters, American actor and comedian
• November 15 – Howard Baker, American politician
• November 17
• * Jean Faut, American baseball player
• * Rock Hudson, American film actor
• November 18 – Gene Mauch, American baseball manager
• November 20
• * Kaye Ballard, American actress, comedian
• * Robert F. Kennedy, American politician and Attorney General of the United States
• * Mark Miller, American actor
• November 22
• * Carla Balenda, American actress
• * Gunther Schuller, American musician
• November 23
• * Gene Brito, American football Defensive end
• * Maria di Gerlando, American operatic soprano
• * Johnny Mandel, American composer and conductor
• November 24 – William F. Buckley, Jr., American journalist
• November 26 – Eugene Istomin, American classical pianist
• November 27 – Marshall Thompson, American actor
• November 28
• * Grace Berg Schaible, American lawyer and politician
• * Herb Wallerstein, American director and producer
• November 29
• * Naomi Stevens, American actress
• * "Sunshine" Sonny Payne, American radio presenter
• November 30
• * Maryon Pittman Allen, American politician and journalist
• * Donald Collins, American politician
• * Bill Gates Sr., American attorney, philanthropist and author

  December

• December 1 – Martin Rodbell, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• December 2 – Julie Harris, American actress
• December 8
• * Sammy Davis Jr., African American singer, dancer, musician and actor
• * Hank Thompson, player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball
• December 11
• * Aaron Feuerstein, American businessman and philanthropist
• * John R. Gorman, American Roman Catholic bishop
• * Paul Greengard, American neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• December 13
• * John Ehle, American writer
• * Dick Van Dyke, American actor, singer, dancer and comedian
• December 15 – Kasey Rogers, American actress
• December 19 – Robert B. Sherman, American songwriter
• December 21
• * John Harlan, American game show announcer
• * Dorothy Kamenshek, American baseball player
• December 23 – Harry Guardino, American actor
• December 25
• * Ned Garver, American professional baseball pitcher
• * Dorothy Mueller, American baseball player
• December 26 – Jimmy Roselli, American singer
• December 27 – Wilson Frost, American politician
• December 29 – Pete Dye, American golf course architect
• December 30 – Shirley Herz, American Broadway theatre press representative
• December 31 – Dick Manville, American baseball player

  Deaths

• January 8 - George Bellows, realist painter
• January 22 - Fanny Bullock Workman, geographer, writer and mountain climber
• January 26 - Caspar F. Goodrich, admiral
• January 31 - George Washington Cable, novelist
• February 1 - Ellen Hamlin, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Hannibal Hamlin
• February 7 - Edward Jobson, actor
• February 18 - James Lane Allen, fiction writer
• February 23 - Samuel Berger, Olympic boxer
• March 4 - John Montgomery Ward, baseball player
• March 10 - Myer Prinstein, Olympic long jumper
• March 13 - Lucille Ricksen, silent film actress
• March 14 - Walter Camp, American football coach
• March 30 - William J. McConnell, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1890 to 1891
• April 8 - Emma Curtis Hopkins, spiritual writer
• April 13 - Elwood Haynes, inventor
• April 14 - John Singer Sargent, portrait painter
• April 19 - John Walter Smith, politician
• May 12 - Amy Lowell, poet
• May 15 - Nelson A. Miles, general
• May 20 - Elias M. Ammons, Governor of Colorado
• May 25 - Henry W. Petrie, popular music composer
• June 1 - Thomas R. Marshall, 28th Vice President of the United States from 1913 to 1921
• June 2 - James Ellsworth, mineowner and banker
• June 16 - Emmett Hardy, jazz cornet player
• June 18 - Robert M. La Follette Sr., politician
• June 26 - James A. Barber, Medal of Honor recipient
• July 7 - Clarence Hudson White photographer
• July 26 - William Jennings Bryan, lawyer and politician
• July 29 - Mark Fenton, silent film actor
• August 4 - Charles W. Clark, baritone
• August 5 - Jennie Lee, silent film actress
• August 7 - George Gray, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1885 to 1899
• August 16 - Edna Hicks, blues singer
• August 17 - Junius George Groves, slave-born potato farmer
• September 13 - Emily Elizabeth Holman, architect
• September 17 - Carl Eytel, painter of the Southwest
• October 7 - Christy Mathewson, baseball player
• October 10 - James Buchanan Duke, tobacco and electric power industrialist
• November 1 - Lester Cuneo, actor
• November 3 - Lucile McVey, silent film comedy actress
• November 21 - Robert Wrenn, tennis player
• December 7 - James O. Barrows, actor
• December 8 - Marguerite Marsh, silent film actress
• December 22 - Mary Thurman, silent film actress
• December 28 - Raymond P. Rodgers, admiral
• December 31 - J. Gordon Edwards director