November 25
1715 - Sybilla Thomas Masters became the first American to be granted an English patent for cleaning and curing Indian corn.
1758 - During the French and Indian War, the British captured Fort Duquesne at what is now known as Pittsburgh.
1783 - During the Revolutionary War, the British evacuated New York. New York was their last military position in the U.S.
1837 - William Crompton patented the silk power loom.
1850 - Texas relinquished one-third of its territory in exchange for $10 million from the U.S. to pay its public debts and settle border disputes.
1867 - Alfred Nobel patented dynamite.
1882 - The first of 400 performances of "lolnathe" took place.
1884 - J.B. Meyenberg received the patent for evaporated milk.
1936 - The Anti-Comintern Pact, an agreement between Japan and Germany, was signed.
1947 - Movie studio executives meeting in New York agreed to blacklist the "Hollywood 10," who were cited a day earlier and jailed for contempt of Congress when they failed to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
1952 - Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" opened in London.
1955 - In the U.S., the Interstate Commerce Commission banned racial segregation on interstate trains and buses.
1957 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a stroke.
1970 - Japanese author Yukio Mishima committed ritual suicide after giving a speech attacking Japan's post-war constitution.
1973 - Greek President George Papadapoulos was ousted in military coup.
1976 - O.J. Simpson (Buffalo Bills) ran for 273 yards against the Detroit Lions.
1983 - Mediators from Syria and Saudi Arabia announced a cease-fire in the PLO civil war in Tripoli, Lebanon.
1985 - Ronald W. Pelton was arrested on espionage charges. Pelton was a former employee of the National Security Agency. He was later convicted of 'selling secrets' to Soviet agents.
1986 - U.S. President Reagan and Attorney Gen. Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to rebels in Nicaragua. National Security Advisor John Poindexter resigned and Oliver North was fired.
1990 - Poland held its first popular presidential election.
1992 - The Czech parliament voted to split the country into separate Czech and Slovak republics beginning January 1, 1993.
1993 - Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Sedki escaped an attempt on his life when a bomb was detonated by Islamic militants near his motorcade.
1995 - Serbs protested in the streets of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo The protest was against a peace plan.
1998 - Britain's highest court ruled that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose extradition was being sought by Spain, could not claim immunity from prosecution for the crimes he committed during his rule.
1998 - President Jiang Zemin arrived in Tokyo for the first visit to Japan by a Chinese head of state since World War II.
1998 - The IMF (International Monetary Fund) approved a $5.5 billion bailout for Pakistan.
