Chuck Berry had a degree in cosmetology from the Gibbs Beauty College.
Fifty years before women were allowed to enrol into medical school, Margaret Ann Bulkley dressed as a man to study medicine and become her alter-ego, Dr James Barry. She obtained a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, then served first in Cape Town, South Africa and subsequently in many parts of the British Empire. It was only when she died from dysentery on July 25, 1865 that her secret was exposed after 46 years working as an army doctor.
Photograph of Dr James Barry; approx late 1840s
Harriet Beecher Stowe rewrote Uncle Tom's Cabin when she had dementia in her later years. She imagined that she was engaged in the original composition, and for several hours every day she penned long passages of the book almost exactly word for word.
German judge Daniel Paul Schreber was born on July 25, 1842. A paranoid schizophrenic, Schreber believed he was receiving cosmic rays through his anal glands by God in order to transform him into a woman so that he could herald and breed a new race. He described his mental illness in his book Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, an account which served as Sigmund's Freud's primary source to understand the condition.
English chemist Rosalind Franklin was born on July 25, 1920. She is considered to be the unsung hero of DNA research; James Watson and Francis Crick got the Nobel Prize for discovering the double helix after Franklin's lab partner showed Watson one of her best images — an X-ray labelled ‘photograph 51'. Many believe she should have shared in their Nobel Prize.
The world's first test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born on July 25, 1978 at Oldham General Hospital, in Oldham, England. She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces (2.608 kg) at birth. Her parents, Lesley and John Brown, had been trying to conceive for nine years.
For more July 25 anniversaries, including the marriage of Mary I of England to Philip of Spain, the first recorded railroad accident in U.S. history and the first man to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, check out OnThatDay.
King James was the eldest son of Mary I, Queen of Scots and of her second husband, Henry Stuart, When Mary was forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in 1567 he became James VI (of Scotland)at just thirteen months old.
As Queen Elizabeth I was the last of Henry VIII's descendants, James was seen as the most likely heir to the English throne through his great-grandmother Margaret Tudor, who was Henry VIII's oldest sister. In March 1603, with the Queen clearly dying, her chief minister Sir Robert Cecil sent James a draft proclamation of his accession to the English throne.
After succeeding Elizabeth I on the English throne, James left Edinburgh for London, promising to return every three years (a promise he did not keep). Local lords received him with lavish hospitality along the route and James was amazed by the wealth of his new land and subjects. When he entered London just over a month later, he was mobbed by a crowd of spectators.
His English coronation took place on July 25, 1603, with elaborate allegories provided by dramatic poets such as Thomas Dekker and Ben Jonson. Below is "England and Scotland with Minerva and Love," an allegorical work of the Union of the Crowns by Peter Paul Rubens.
James had been a popular and successful monarch in Scotland, but the same was not true in England. He was unable to deal with a hostile English Parliament; the refusal on the part of the House of Commons to impose sufficiently high taxes crippled the royal finances. His taste for political absolutism, mismanagement of the kingdom's funds and cultivation of unpopular favorites established the foundation for the English Civil War.
Louis Blériot made the first flight across the English Channel in a plane on July 25, 1909. Blériot's flight across the English Channel demonstrated conclusively the international potential of aeroplanes. The French aviator flew from Calais, France to Dover, England in 37 minutes in a small, 24 horse-powered monoplane, winning a £1,000 prize from the London Daily Mail which had been offered to the first person to fly across the Channel.
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