Events from the year 1925 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government President: Calvin Coolidge (R-Massachusetts) Vice President: vacant (until March 4) Charles G. Dawes (R-Illinois) (starting March 4) Chief Justice: William Howard Taft (Ohio) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Frederick H. Gillett (R-Massachusetts) (until March 4) Nicholas Longworth (R-Ohio) (starting December 7) Senate Majority Leader: Charles Curtis (R-Kansas) Congress: 68th (until March 4), 69th (starting March 4)
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events
January–March
January 5–April 1 – Celia Cooney, "the Bobbed Hair Bandit", and her husband Ed go on an armed robbery spree in Brooklyn while she is pregnant. On April 21 they are arrested in Florida. January 27–February 1 – The 1925 serum run to Nome (the "Great Race of Mercy") 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 under the editorship of Harold Ross. March 2 – In an appeal originating in a Prohibition era bootlegging case, Carroll v. United States is decided in the Supreme Court, affirming the motor vehicle exception, that a warrantless search of an automobile does not contravene the Fourth Amendment, subject to probable cause and exigent circumstances.Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 (1925). March 4 – Calvin Coolidge becomes the first president of the United States to have his inauguration broadcast on radio. Charles G. Dawes is sworn in as the 30th vice president. March 15 – The Phi Lambda Chi fraternity (original name "The Aztecs") is founded on the campus of Arkansas State Teacher's College in Conway, Arkansas (the modern-day University of Central 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 is indicated at 378 km (235 mi). 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 8 – African American Tom Lee rescues 32 people from the M.E. Norman, a steamboat sinking in the Mississippi. May 25 – The National Forensic League is founded for the promotion of public speaking and debate in the United States. June 6 – The Chrysler Corporation is founded as an automobile manufacturer 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 17 – 1st National Spelling Bee held in Washington, D.C. June 27 – The 6.6 Montana earthquake affects the central part of the state with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). 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 (Violent), destroying much of downtown Santa Barbara, California and leaving 13 people dead.
July–September July 7 – New York City Police Department Emergency Service Unit is created as the Emergency Automobile Squad. July 10–21 – Scopes Trial: In a staged test case (the "Monkey Trial") in Dayton, Tennessee, John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher (technically arrested on May 5 and indicted on May 25) is accused of assigning a reading from a state-mandated textbook on Darwinian evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law, the "Butler Act". He is found guilty and fined $100, though the verdict is later overturned on a technicality. The trial makes explicit the fundamentalist–modernist controversy within the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, with William Jennings Bryan (who dies on July 26) being challenged by the liberal Clarence Darrow. August 14 – The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is completed and goes on line. September 1–30 – 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.National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Alaska Precipitation: September 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.
October–December October 6 – Xavier University of Louisiana, America's first and only historically black Catholic university is founded in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2000, it becomes the only Catholic university to have been founded by a saint. (Another university's founder is canonized in 2006.) October 15 – The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Washington Senators, 4 games to 3, to win their 2nd World Series Title in baseball. November 11 – City of Chicago, Illinois renames Municipal Grant Park Stadium, as Soldier Field, in honor of US soldiers killed in combat during World War I. November 21 – Lava Beds National Monument is established in California. 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 12 – The first motel in the world, the Milestone Mo-Tel (later the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo), opens in San Luis Obispo, California (architect: Arthur Heineman). December 16 – Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity, is founded at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.
Undated New York City becomes the largest city in the world, taking the lead from London. Calvin Coolidge signs into law the act establishing a U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services System. 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.
Ongoing Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937) U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934) Prohibition (1920–1933) Roaring Twenties (1920–1929)
Births January
January 1 – Charlie Capps, American politician (d. 2009) January 2 – Larry Harmon, American entertainer and television producer (d. 2008) January 4 Henry Gleitman, American academic (d. 2015) Johnny Lujack, American football player (d. 2023)Notre Dame football legend, Heisman winner Johnny Lujack dead at 98 January 6 – John DeLorean, American car maker (d. 2005) January 7 – Harry Stradling Jr., American cinematographer (d. 2017) January 8 – Tharon Musser, American designer (d. 2009)Notice of Tharon Musser' death, Live Design Online, April 19, 2009 January 9 Diana Decker, American-English actress and singer (d. 2019) Lee Van Cleef, American actor (d. 1989) January 10 – Elizabeth Virginia Hallanan, American judge (d. 2004) January 11 Betty Bumpers, American childhood immunizations activist (d. 2018) William Styron, American writer (d. 2006) January 12 Bill Burrud, American child star, television host and producer (d. 1990) Katherine MacGregor, American actress (d. 2018) January 13 Rosemary Murphy, American actress (d. 2014) Nat Peck, American jazz trombonist (d. 2015) C. O. Simpkins Sr., American dentist, civil rights activist and politician (d. 2019) Gwen Verdon, American actress and dancer (d. 2000) January 15 – Ruth Slenczynska, American pianist (d. 2026) January 16 Harold "Slim" Switzer, child actor (d. 1967) Jesse J. Taylor, United States Navy naval aviator (d. 1965) January 17 Duane Hanson, American sculptor (d. 1996) Edgar Ray Killen, Ku Klux Klan leader and convicted murderer (d. 2018) Blanche Marvin, American-born British theater critic (d. 2026) January 18 – Art Paul, American graphic designer (d. 2018) January 21 – Charles Aidman, American actor (d. 1993) January 22 – Bobby Young, American professional baseball player (d. 1985) January 24 – Maria Tallchief, American ballerina (d. 2013) January 25 – Barbara Carroll, American jazz pianist (d. 2017) January 26 Joan Leslie, American actress (d. 2015) Paul Newman, American actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist (d. 2008) January 29 Harold C. Agerholm, soldier, posthumous Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1944) (killed in action in the Mariana Islands) Dub Garrett, American football player (d. 1976) Robert W. McCollum, American epidemiologist (d. 2010) January 30 – Douglas Engelbart, pioneer in human–computer interaction (d. 2013) January 31 – Benjamin Hooks, American civil rights activist, minister, and attorney (d. 2010)
February
February 1 Mary Nesbitt Wisham, American baseball player (d. 2013) Gus Stavros, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2022) John F. Yardley, American aeronautical engineer (d. 2001) February 2 – Elaine Stritch, American actress (d. 2014) February 3 Shelley Berman, American comedian (d. 2017) John Fiedler, American actor (d. 2005) February 8 – Jack Lemmon, American actor and film director (d. 2001) February 9 John B. Cobb, American theologian and philosopher (d. 2024) Bobby Lewis, American R&B singer (d. 2020) Billy Williamson, American musician (d. 1996) February 11 Virginia E. Johnson, American sexologist (d. 2013) Kim Stanley, American actress (d. 2001) Marvin Stein, American comics artist, animator and illustrator (d. 2010) February 15 Angella D. Ferguson, American pediatrician (d. 2026) Jerome Waldie, American politician (d. 2009) February 17 – Hal Holbrook, American actor (d. 2021) February 18 – George Kennedy, American actor (d. 2016) February 20 – Robert Altman, American film director (d. 2006) February 21 – Sam Peckinpah, American film director (d. 1984) February 22 Edward Gorey, American illustrator and writer (d. 2000) Gerald Stern, American poet, essayist and educator (d. 2022) February 23 – Patricia Broderick, American playwright and painter (d. 2003) February 24 – Bud Day, United States Air Force colonel (d. 2013) February 25 Maddy English, American female baseball player (d. 2004) Lisa Kirk, American actress and singer (d. 1990) February 26 Arthur S. Abramson, American linguist (d. 2017) Lefty Kreh, American sports photojournalist, author and sport fisherman (d. 2018) Dave Pell, American jazz musician (d. 2017) Robert F. Williams, African-American civil rights activist and author (d. 1996) February 27 Samuel Dash, Watergate Congressional counsel (d. 2004) Ed Quirk, American football player (d. 1962) February 28 – Louis Nirenberg, Canadian-American mathematician (d. 2020)
March March 1 – Keith Harvey Miller, American politician (d. 2019) March 4 – Dale Barnstable, American basketball player (d. 2019) March 5 Jimmy Bryant, American guitarist (d. 1980) Leroy Chollet, American basketball player (d. 1998) March 6 – Clyde Biggers, American football coach (d. 1976) March 7 – Rene Gagnon, U.S. Marine (d. 1979) March 8 John Harland Bryant, American physician (d. 2017) Gladys Stone Wright, American band director (d. 2025) March 9 – G. William Miller, American politician (d. 2006) March 12 – G. William Whitehurst, American politician March 13 Roy Haynes, American jazz drummer (d. 2024) John Tate, American mathematician (d. 2019)