1925 in the United States

← 1924 1923 1922 1925 in the United States → 1926 1927 1928
Decades:	1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s
See also:	History of the United States (1918–1945) Timeline of United States history (1900–1929) List of years in the United States

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 (originally from 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: vacant (until March 4), Charles Curtis (R-Kansas) (starting March 4)
• Congress: 68th (until March 4), 69th (starting March 4)

Governors and Lieutenant Governors
Governors 2 Lieutenant Governors 2

Events

January–March

• January 5 – Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes Governor of Wyoming, the first female governor in the United States.
• 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 by Harold Ross.
• 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 (original name "The Aztecs") is founded on the campus of Arkansas State Teacher's College in Conway, Arkansas (now the 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 was 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.
• May 5 – Scopes Trial: Dayton, Tennessee, biology teacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.
• 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, DC. The images are viewed by representatives of the National Bureau of Standards, the U.S. Navy, the Commerce Department, and others. Jenkins calls this "the first public demonstration of radiovision".
• June 29 – 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake: A 6.3 earthquake destroys downtown Santa Barbara, California.

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.

October–December

• 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.

Ongoing

• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
• Prohibition (1919–1933)
• Roaring Twenties (1920–1929)

Births

• January 11 – William Styron, writer (died 2006)
• January 17 – Duane Hanson, sculptor (died 1996)
• January 26
  • Joan Leslie, actress
  • Paul Newman, film actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist (died 2008)
• January 29
  • Harold C. Agerholm, soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1944)
  • Robert W. McCollum, epidemiologist (died 2010)
• January 30
  • Douglas Engelbart, pioneer in human–computer interaction (died 2013)
  • Dorothy Malone, actress
• February 8 – Jack Lemmon, actor and film director (died 2001)
• February 18 – George Kennedy, actor
• February 22 – Edward Gorey, illustrator and writer (died 2000)
• March 25 – Flannery O'Connor, author (died 1964)
• April 14
  • Gene Ammons, jazz saxophonist (died 1974)
  • Rod Steiger, film actor (died 2002)
• April 18 – Bob Hastings, actor (died 2014)
• April 19 – Hugh O'Brian, actor
• May 1 – Scott Carpenter, astronaut (died 2013)
• May 11 – William Glasser, American psychiatrist and author (died 2013)
• May 12 – Yogi Berra, baseball player (died 2015)
• May 19 – Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, African American Muslim minister and human rights activist (killed 1965)
• June 3 – Tony Curtis, film actor (died 2010)
• June 6 – Fitzhugh L. Fulton, pilot (died 2015)
• June 7 – John Biddle, yachting cinematographer (died 2008)
• June 8
  • Barbara Bush, born Barbara Pierce, wife of the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, First Lady and mother of the 43rd President George W. Bush and of the 43rd Governor of Florida Jeb Bush
  • Del Ennis, American baseball player and coach (d. 1996)
• June 14 – Pierre Salinger, U.S. Senator from California in 1964 (died 2004)
• June 17 – Alexander Shulgin, psychopharmacologist (died 2014)
• June 25 – Robert Venturi, architect
• June 27 – Doc Pomus, born Jerome Solon Felder, songwriter (died 1991)
• July 4 – Cathy Berberian, mezzo-soprano and composer (died 1983)
• July 6 – Bill Haley, pop singer (died 1981)
• July 11 – Mattiwilda Dobbs, African American coloratura soprano
• August 12 – Dale Bumpers, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1975 to 1981
• August 19 – Frederic Richards, biochemist and biophysicist (died 2009)
• August 29 – Earle Brucker, Jr., baseball player (died 2009)
• September 13 – Mel Tormé, singer (died 1999)
• September 16 – B.B. King, African American blues guitarist (died 2015)
• September 19 – Franklin Sousley, U.S. Marine flag raiser on Iwo Jima (killed in action 1945)
• October 3 – Gore Vidal, writer (died 2012)
• October 5
  • Gail Davis, actress (died 1997)
  • Robert B. Morgan, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1975 to 1981
• October 7 – Mildred Earp, baseball player
• October 11 – Elmore Leonard, novelist (died 2013)
• October 13 – Lenny Bruce, comic (died 1966)
• October 16 – Daniel J. Evans, U.S. Senator from Washington from 1983 to 1989
• October 22 – Robert Rauschenberg, painter (died 2008)
• October 23 – Johnny Carson, television host (died 2005)
• October 24 – Al Feldstein, comic book artist (died 2014)
• October 27 – Warren Christopher, diplomat (died 2011)
• October 29 – Dominick Dunne, writer (died 2009)
• November 11 – Jonathan Winters, actor and comedian (died 2013)
• November 15 – Howard Baker, U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1967 to 1985 (died 2014)
• November 17 – Rock Hudson, born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., film actor (died 1985)
• November 18 – Gene Mauch, baseball manager (died 2005)
• November 20
  • Kaye Ballard, comedian
  • Robert F. Kennedy, politician and Attorney General of the United States (assassinated 1968)
  • Mark Miller, actor
• November 23 – Maria di Gerlando, operatic soprano (died 2010)
• November 24 – William F. Buckley, Jr., journalist (died 2008)
• November 26 – Eugene Istomin, classical pianist (died 2003)
• November 30 – Maryon Pittman Allen, U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1978
• December 1 – Martin Rodbell, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 1998)
• December 2 – Julie Harris, actress (died 2013)
• December 8 – Sammy Davis Jr., African American singer, dancer, musician and actor (died 1990)
• December 11 – Paul Greengard, neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• December 13 – Dick Van Dyke, actor, singer, dancer and comedian (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
• December 15 – Kasey Rogers, actress (died 2006)
• December 19 – Robert B. Sherman, songwriter (died 2012)
• December 21 – Dorothy Kamenshek, baseball player (died 2010)
• December 25 – Dorothy Mueller, baseball player (died 1985)

Deaths

• March 30 – William J. McConnell, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1890 to 1891 (born 1839)
• August 7 – George Gray, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1885 to 1899 (born 1840)
• November 1 – Lester Cuneo, actor (born 1888)
• November 3 – Lucile McVey, silent film comedy actress (born 1890)

External links

• Media related to 1925 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons