Today in History: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was forced to resign in 1943

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on July 25:

306 - Constantine I is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops

1909 – Frenchman Louis Bleriot made the first crossing of the English Channel by air, flying his monoplane from Les Baraques, near Calais, to Dover.

1934 – Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated in Vienna by Nazis.

1943 – Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was forced to resign after a meeting of his Grand Council. King Victor Emmanuel appointed Marshal Badoglio as prime minister.

1944 - World War II: Operation Spring - one of Canada's bloodiest days, 18,444 casualties and 5,021 killed.

1978 – The world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Joy Brown, was born at Oldham General Hospital in Lancashire, England.

1994 – Israeli and Jordanian leaders signed a historic declaration in Washington ending the state of war between them.

1997 - Scientists announce the first human stem cells to be cultured in a laboratory using tissue taken from aborted human embryos.

1998 – Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jesse Orosco makes his 1000th career appearance.

2000 – Air France Concorde crashes in Gonesse, killing at least 110 people.

2001 – Phoolan Devi, India’s “Bandit Queen” turned parliamentarian was shot dead outside her home in New Delhi.

2006 – Victoria, Military Crosses sold at world record price of A$1,214,500 ($916,000) in Sydney.

2007 – German actor Ulrich Muehe, whose haunting portrayal of an East German secret police agent in the Oscar-winning drama “The Lives of Others” won him international renown, died at the age of 54.

2012 – Eleven-year-old piano player Ethan Bortnick enters record books as youngest solo musician to headline his own tour.

(Reuters)