25 June

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 25 June:

1. Born on this date in 1852 was Antonio Gaudi, the Spanish architect famous for his highly individualistic designs. He designed the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
2. On this date in 1903, Eric Arthur Blair, who would become better known as George Orwell, was born. His books include Down and Out in Paris and London, Animal Farm, Homage to Catalonia and 1984.
3. Custer's Last Stand took place at Little Bighorn, Montana on this date in 1876. Sioux Indians, led by Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, killed Colonel George Armstrong Custer and all 264 soldiers of his 7th US Cavalry. The only survivor was a Horse called Comanche.
4. In 1960, Madagascar gained independence from France.
5. In 1921, the word "robot" entered the world's languages when Karel Capek's play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) premièred in Czechoslovakia. There, "robota" referred to the two or three days of the week when peasants were obliged to leave their own fields and work without remuneration on the lands of noblemen. Robota continued to be used to describe work that wasn't done voluntarily or for fun.
6. In 1797, at 2pm during the battle off Santa Cruz, Admiral Nelson was wounded in the right arm by grapeshot and had it amputated that afternoon.
7. In 1977, Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning for the seventh time in his life while on a fishing trip. He's the only man in the world to have been struck by lightning that many times. However, Lightning didn’t kill him – he committed suicide in 1983 because of a failed love affair.
8. In 1991, Francis Johnson's world record 8.7 ton ball of twine, which he'd been building since 1950, was moved to a prominent place in Darwin, Minnesota, where more people could see it.
9. This date in 1969 saw the longest Wimbledon men’s singles match ever when Charlie Passarell was beaten by Pancho Gonzalez 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9.
10. In 1996, England beat Germany 3-0 at topless darts.

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