March 25th:

31- 1st Easter, according to calendar-maker Dionysius Exiguus

1807- British Parliament abolishes slave trade throughout the British Empire; penalty of £120 per slave introduced for ship captains

1669- Mount Etna in Sicily erupts, destroying Nicolosi, killing 20,000

1776- Continental Congress authorizes a medal for George Washington

1811- Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for his publication of the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism

1851- Yosemite Valley discovery made public by Major James D. Savage and Captain John Boling after being shown by Indian guides in California

1863- 1st US Army Medal of Honor awarded to six army soldiers by US Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in Washington

1863- Skirmish at Brentwood, Tennessee/ 1864- Battle of Paducah, Kentucky (Forrest’s raid)/ 1865- Battle of Bluff Spring, Florida/ 1865- Battle of Petersburg: In an unsuccessful counter attack, Confederate forces attack Fort Stedman/ 1865- Battle of Mobile, Alabama (Spanish Fort, Fort Morgan, Fort Blakely)

1865- SS General Lyon at Cape Hatteras catches fire & sinks, killing 400

1882- 1st demonstration of pancake making, held at a department store in NYC

1898- Writer O. Henry sentenced to 5 years in prison for embezzling $854 from a bank reportedly to pay for his sick wife’s medical bills. Goes on to write many classics while in jail including “Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking”.

1900- US Socialist Party forms in Indianapolis

My source and more facts at On This Day