Car racers Giedo van der Garde

Events in 1985 and 25-4

Events in the world in the birth year of Giedo van der Garde

• Soviet leader Chernenko dies at 73 and is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, 54 (March 11). Under the slogans of glasnost and Perestroika, Gorbachev initiates a broad program of reform and liberalization. Background: Rulers of Russia since 1533
• Two Shi'ite Muslim gunmen capture TWA airliner with 133 aboard, 104 of them Americans (June 14); 39 remaining hostages freed in Beirut (June 30).
• PLO terrorists hijack Achille Lauro, Italian cruise ship, with 80 passengers, plus crew (Oct. 7); American, Leon Klinghoffer, killed (Oct. 8); Italian government toppled by political crisis over hijacking (Oct. 16).
• Reagan and Gorbachev meet at summit (Nov. 19); agree to step up arms control talks and renew cultural contacts (Nov. 21). Background: nuclear disarmament
• Terrorists seize Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner after takeoff from Athens (Nov. 23); 59 dead as Egyptian forces storm plane on Malta (Nov. 24).

Birthday Giedo van der Garde (25-4) in history

• Day 25-4 year 1901: New York became the first state to require license plates on cars.
• Day 25-4 year 1915: British, Australian, and New Zealand forces landed at Gallipoli.
• Day 25-4 year 1928: The first seeing eye dog was presented to Morris S. Frank.
• Day 25-4 year 1945: Delegates met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations.
• Day 25-4 year 1953: The Francis Crick and James Watson article describing the double helix of DNA is published in the magazine Nature.
• Day 25-4 year 1959: The St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping.
• Day 25-4 year 1990: Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua.
• Day 25-4 year 1992: Islamic forces took over most of Kabul, Afghanistan after the Soviet-controlled government collapsed.
• Day 25-4 year 2003: The Georgia legislature voted to scrap the "Confederate flag" design from its state flag.