What Happened on April 25?
April 25 is World Penguin Day and ANZAC Day — and the day Nature published the DNA double-helix paper in 1953. Jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald was also born on this date in 1917.
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1915 — Australian and New Zealand troops land at Gallipoli on ANZAC Day
On April 25, 1915, ANZAC soldiers waded ashore at Gallipoli in Turkey — beginning a brutal campaign now remembered every year as ANZAC Day. Read the full story →
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1945 — Delegates open the San Francisco Conference to create the United Nations
On April 25, 1945, fifty nations gathered in San Francisco to draft a charter for the United Nations — hoping to prevent another world war. Read the full story →
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1953 — Nature publishes Watson and Crick's DNA double-helix discovery
On April 25, 1953, the journal Nature printed a one-page paper revealing DNA's twisted-ladder structure — unlocking the code of life. Read the full story →
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1953 — Nature publishes companion papers confirming DNA's structure
The same April 25, 1953 issue of Nature carried Wilkins and Franklin's X-ray evidence plus Watson and Crick's helix model — science's most famous triple debut. Read the full story →
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1983 — Pioneer 10 becomes the first spacecraft to pass beyond all planets
On April 25, 1983, NASA's Pioneer 10 crossed Neptune's orbit — the first human-made object to leave the planetary neighborhood of the solar system. Read the full story →
Famous birthdays
Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) · Al Pacino (1940) · Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937) · Renée Zellweger (1969)
Days & observances
World Penguin Day · ANZAC Day · DNA Day · National Telephone Day · Red Hat Society Day