25 APRIL

1899 - The Chief of Operations of the Philippine forces informs Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo about the fierce gunbattles between Filipino troops and imperialist enemy soldiers in the province of Bulacan during the Philippine-American War;  Gen. Antonio Luna reports on:  the death of 200 Filipinos and 700 Americans, spirited resistance of Bagbag's defenders until the lack of ammunition forced their retreat; and the successful repulsion of imperialist forces in Calumpit followed by their strategic destruction of military bridges and abandonment of said town.

1953 - The "secret of life" is revealed with the publication of the structure of the DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, in the Nature magazine article by Cambridge University scientists James D Watson and Francis Crick; the discovery of the two double-helix double strands coiling around each other will win for Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins the 1962 Nobel Prize and will lead to the development of powerful and controversial technologies such as stem cell research, genetic engineering and DNA fingerprinting.

1980 - The top-secret rescue mission attempted by the United States in the bid to free American hostages held in Tehran, Iran collapses in failure as eight soldiers die, with US President Jimmy Carter announcing the disastrous mission over broadcast media and taking full personal responsibility for the operation and cancellation; the failure of the plan, which began yesterday when six Hercules C130 transport planes embarked to meet with nine helicopters, was met with celebration by thousands of jubilant Iranians.

1983 - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Premier Yuri Andropov writes American 5th-grade student Samantha Smith, inviting her to visit his country during the waning years of the Cold War; the Soviet leader's letter comes in response to December 1982 letter of Smith (who would later accept the invitation) asking him whether his country was planning to begin a nuclear war with the United States.