25 August

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 25 August

1. This date in 1530 saw the birth of Ivan IV, better known as Ivan the Terrible, Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533, and "Tsar of All Russia" from 1547. He killed his eldest son during an argument.
2. In 2016, President Barack Obama expanded the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off the coast of Hawaii, making it the largest national park in the world.
3. 1951 The Lubbock Lights first appeared on this date in 1951. A couple in Albuquerque saw a V shaped object outlined by blue-green lights. Twenty minutes later, in Lubbock, three hundred miles away, a group of college professors spotted the same thing. There were several more sightings over the next two weeks.
4. In 1981, Voyager II came within 63,000 miles of Saturn, sending back data about the ringed planet; in its closest approach to Saturn, Voyager confirmed that Saturn has not just a few, but thousands of rings.
5. And it kept on going, and on this date in 1989 Voyager II made its closest approach to the planet Neptune, becoming the first spacecraft to photograph the planet. It revealed two additional moons previously unknown to scientists.
6. The first daily scheduled international airline began between London Hounslow and Paris Le Bourget on this date in 1919. The plane was a converted bomber and carried mostly freight and just one passenger, a man named George Stephenson-Reece.
7. In 1875, British swimmer Matthew Webb became the first documented person to swim across the English Channel. The day before, he'd smeared himself in porpoise oil for insulation, and left Dover. 21 hours and 45 minutes later he waded ashore at Cape Gris Nez, near Calais.
8. In 1900, Arthur Conan Doyle, playing Cricket for MCC in his first match, bowled out the great WG Grace, who was batting for London County.
9. In 1999, a coven of Witches performed a pagan ritual to try and stop a 53ft Vodafone mast being built near the chalk giant known as Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex. Kevin Carlyon, the High Priest of British White Witches, performed a full moon ceremony assisted by Sheena Weston, 19, a member of the Covenant of Earth Magic. "The police attended to make sure we weren't invaded by hippies and they were quite respectful of what we were doing," said Mr Carlyon. "The ceremony lasted about 30 minutes and we all linked hands and chanted `Vodafone begone' and I had my Vodafone mobile under my robe and just hoped it wouldn't melt. We all felt a very strong surge of energy and we held our mobile phones aloft in honour of the Wilmington giant and the ley-lines," he added. A spokesman for Wealden District Council said the matter would be considered in the light of the fact that the Long Man is a grade one scheduled monument in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
10. Fake news is nothing new. In 1835 The New York Sun published the story that Sir John Hershel had observed little men living on the surface of the moon. The stories brought the paper record circulation. 

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