October 25
2010
2010 Mentawai earthquake and tsunami
On October 25, 2010, a shallow, large earthquake (Mw ≈ 7.7) struck offshore of the Mentawai Islands, west of Sumatra. In minutes, tsunami waves hammered low‑lying fishing villages, killing hundreds, destroying boats and homes, and revealing how submarine slope failure can turn a local quake into a local catastrophe. Read more
2009
25 October 2009 Baghdad bombings
On 25 October 2009, a string of coordinated car bombs and suicide attacks struck crowded commercial districts across Baghdad, killing well over a hundred people and wounding several hundred more. The blasts — aimed at marketplaces and other public gathering places — shattered a fragile calm in a city still grappling with insurgency, sectarian division, and the political uncertainties of an approaching election. Read more
2003
Cedar Fire (San Diego County, October 2003)
The Cedar Fire began on October 25, 2003, in the Cleveland National Forest near Ramona, California, and—fanned by hot, dry Santa Ana winds—swept through chaparral and foothill communities to burn roughly 273,246 acres, destroy about 2,820 structures, and claim 15 civilian lives. The blaze forced mass evacuations, stretched emergency resources during a region-wide fire emergency, and reshaped California’s approach to wildland–urban risk and fire preparedness. Read more
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1944
Battle off Samar
On the morning of October 25, 1944, a small group of U.S. escort carriers and their thin escort of destroyers and destroyer escorts — Task Unit 77.4.3, known as "Taffy 3" — met the heavy guns of Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita’s Center Force off the coast of Samar. Outgunned and outnumbered, the Americans launched desperate torpedo attacks, improvised air strikes, and smoke-screen maneuvers that together persuaded Kurita to break off an attack that might have devastated the Leyte invasion fleet. The clash was a tactical defeat in ships lost but a strategic turning point that preserved the invasion and marked the last time the Imperial Japanese Navy could operate as a coherent surface threat.
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1927
Sinking of the SS Principessa Mafalda
On October 25, 1927, the Italian passenger liner SS Principessa Mafalda foundered off the coast of Brazil, in the approaches to Santos and São Vicente, after progressive flooding and an uncontrollable list. Carrying hundreds of emigrants, passengers and crew on the Italy–South America run, the ship’s chaotic evacuation and the imperfect rescue that followed left several hundred dead and reshaped public scrutiny of emigrant shipping practices.
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