Happy Birthday June 25

The Reverend Samuel Marsden was born on June 25, 1765 in Farsley, near Pudsey, Yorkshire in England. After emigrating to Australia on 1793 he became the colony's senior Anglican cleric. Marsden developed an interest in evangelizing New Zealand. and in late 1814 he took his brig, the "Active" on an exploratory journey to the Bay of Islands, during which time he conducted the first Christian service on New Zealand soil to a 400-strong Māori congregation.

Marsden 1833

English writer George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903, in Motihari, Bengal Presidency (present-day Bihar), in the then British colony of India. His father worked there for the Opium Department of the Civil Service. With his characteristic humor, Orwell would later describe his family's background as "lower-upper-middle class." Eric's mother brought him to England at the age of one. Orwell is best known for his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

For more June 25 anniversaries, including the first female student in history to receive a PhD, the invention of barbed wire and the publication of the first Sherlock Holmes story, check out OnThatDay.