25 January in Indian and World History is celebrated, observed, and remembered for various reasons. 25 January is the birth anniversary of Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Rajendra Awasthi.
25 January is also observed as the death anniversary of Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, Ananta Singh, and Vijayaraje Scindia.
Birth Anniversary
25 January in Indian history is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the following personalities:
Michael Madhusudan Dutt (25 January 1824 – 29 June 1873), a famous Bengali poet, litterateur, and playwright. His Hindu name was Madhusudan Dutt, but after accepting Christianity and marrying a Christian girl, his name became ‘Michael Madhusudan Dutt’. He was the representative of the youth of his generation in Bengal, who were dissatisfied with the political and cultural life of the then Hindu society. He was a very emotional person. This sentiment was pervasive in his early English writings and his later Bengali works as well. He was born on 25 January 1824.
Rajendra Awasthi (25 January 1930 – 30 December 2009), an Indian litterateur and journalist. He was the editor of ‘Kadambini Patrika’. While he set many standards as a journalist, he had also achieved amazing success in his literary creation. Rajendra Awasthi had also been the editor of ‘Nav Bharat’, ‘Sarika’, ‘Nandan’ and ‘Weekly Hindustan’. He composed many famous novels, stories, and poems. He was also the President of the ‘Author Guild of India’. The Hindi Academy of Delhi Government honored him with a literary work in the year 1997-1998. Rajendra Awasthi had created a special readership of his own through the ‘Kalchintan’ column of ‘Kadambini’. He was born on 25 January 1930 in Jabalpur.
Read More: 24 January in Indian and World History
Death Anniversary
25 January in Indian history is observed as the death anniversary of the following personalities:
Nalini Ranjan Sarkar (1882 – 25 January 1953), an Indian businessman, industrialist, economist and public leader. He also became the Chief Minister of Bengal for some time in 1949. Sarkar died on 25 January 1953.
Ananta Singh (1 December 1903 – 25 January 1969), one of the famous revolutionaries of India. He was skilled in making bombs and gun bullets among his fellow revolutionaries. Many associates of Ananta Singh were arrested by the police as a result of ‘Chittagong incident’. When he came to know about this incident, he himself appeared before the police. Under life imprisonment, he was sent to the Andaman jail in 1932, from where he was released in 1946. He died on 25 January 1969.
Vijayaraje Scindia (12 October 1919 – 25 January 2001), a prominent leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. She was known as the “Rajmata of Gwalior”. Vijayaraje Scindia died on 25 January 2001 in Gwalior.
Read More: 23 January in Indian and World History
Notable events on 25 January in Indian and World history
25 January 1554 – The city of So Paulo in Brazil was founded.
25 January 1565 – The Vijayanagara Empire was destroyed in the Battle of Tellikota.
25 January 1579 – The Dutch Republic was established.
25 January 1688 – Juraj Jánošík, a Slovak highwayman known as the Slovak Robin Hood, was born.
25 January 1755 – Moscow University was founded.
25 January 1759 – Robert Burns, a Scottish poet and lyricist, was born.
25 January 1831 – The Parliament of Poland declared independence.
25 January 1839 – The earthquake in Chile killed more than 10,000 people.
25 January 1880 – The Indian Brahmo Samaj was started by the famous social reformer Keshav Chandra Sen.
25 January 1881 – Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Alva Edison founded the Oriental Telephone Company.
25 January 1904 – a coal mine explosion in Cheswick, Pennsylvania killed 179 people.
25 January 1917 – Ilya Romanovich Prigogine a physical chemist, and Nobel Laureate, was born.
25 January 1923 – Arvid Carlsson, a Swedish pharmacologist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
25 January 1924 – The first Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France.
25 January 1927 – Tom Jobim, a Brazilian composer, pianist, guitarist, and songwriter, was born.
25 January 1935 – J. G. Farrell, an English-born novelist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
25 January 1939 – Giorgio Gaber, an Italian singer, composer, actor, and playwright, was born.
25 January 1949 – Paul Nurse, a British biologist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
25 January 1952 – There was a dispute between Germany and France over the administration of the Saar.
25 January 1955 – Panama and the US signed the Canal Treaty.
25 January 1959 – Britain signed a trade agreement with East Germany.
25 January 1867 – Adelaide Cabete, a Portuguese feminist, humanitarian, physician, and activist, was born.
25 January 1969 – Peace talks between northern Vietnam and the United States began in Paris.
25 January 1970 – Eiji Tsuburaya – a Japanese special effects director, filmmaker, and cinematographer – died.
25 January 1971 – Himachal Pradesh was declared a full-fledged state.
25 January 1975 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the President of Bangladesh.
25 January 1980 – After a gap of three years, civilian honors like Padma Vibhushan, Bharat Ratna, were again conferred.
25 January 1980 – Famous philanthropist Mother Teresa was awarded the Bharat Ratna.
25 January 1983 – Acharya Vinoba Bhave was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award.
25 January 1990 – About 50 people, including children, were killed by a hurricane in England.
25 January 1991 – Frank Soo – a pioneering British footballer of Chinese descent who played for Stoke City – died.
25 January 1994 – Turkey’s first telecommunications satellite ‘Turksat I’ fell in the Atlantic Ocean.
25 January 1999 – The 1999 earthquake in Colombia, South America, killed about 300 people and injured 1000 others.
25 January 2002 – Arjun Singh became the first ‘Air Marshal’ of the Indian Air Force.
25 January 2003 – China’s pro-democracy leader Fang Xu was deported.
25 January 2004 – The spacecraft Opportunity successfully landed on Mars.
25 January 2005 – more than 300 died in a stampede at a temple of a goddess in Maharashtra’s Satara.
25 January 2009 – The Central Government announced Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awards.
25 January is celebrated as National Tourism Day every year in India to raise awareness and educate people about the importance of tourism and the role it plays in the Indian economy.
25 January is also Observed as National Voters Day or Rashtriya Matdata Diwas. It is celebrated to encourage young voters to take part in the political process. In 2011 first time this day was celebrated to mark Election Commission’s Foundation Day.