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Today in History, November 25th

On November 25, 1783, the last British troops left New York City, ending the occupation. Plus The Mousetrap, Los Alamos, and more.

By Today in History Updated November 9, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published November 25, 2025 · Last updated November 9, 2026

November 25 is best known as Evacuation Day, when the last British troops left New York City in 1783, ending seven years of occupation after the American Revolution. It is also the day The Mousetrap opened in London in 1952 and the day President Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in 1963.

The big story: The last British troops leave New York (1783)

The British captured New York City in September 1776 and held it for the rest of the Revolutionary War. Even after the Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783, the redcoats took nearly three more months to pack up and go. On November 25, the last British soldiers finally sailed out. American troops under General Henry Knox moved in, and George Washington and New York Governor George Clinton rode into lower Manhattan to cheering crowds. The departing British left one last parting gift: they greased the flagpole at the fort on the Battery and cut its ropes, so the Stars and Stripes could not easily go up. A young sailor nailed on cleats, climbed up, and raised the flag anyway. New Yorkers celebrated “Evacuation Day” every year for more than a century, at times rivaling the Fourth of July. Its popularity faded as the eyewitnesses died, and the last official observance came in 1916.

More events on November 25

Year	What happened
1120	William the Aetheling, heir to England’s King Henry I, died when his ship sank on the way to England, leaving the throne without a male heir.
1863	Union forces stormed Missionary Ridge, driving the Confederate army away from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and into Georgia.
1936	Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, aimed against the Soviet Union.
1942	Leslie Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer picked Los Alamos, New Mexico, as the site for the secret lab that would build the first atomic bomb.
1952	Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap opened in London. It became the longest continuously running play in history.
1960	The Mirabal sisters, leaders of the resistance to Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, were killed by his secret police. The UN later chose this date for its International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
1963	President John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1975	Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands.
1986	Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret U.S. arms sales to Iran had been diverted to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, breaking open the Iran-Contra affair.
2016	Fidel Castro, who made Cuba the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere, died at age 90.
2020	Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona died at age 60.

Born on November 25

1562: Lope de Vega, Spanish playwright and poet of the Golden Age.
1835: Andrew Carnegie, steel magnate and philanthropist, born in Dunfermline, Scotland.
1846: Carry Nation, American temperance crusader famous for smashing saloons with a hatchet.
1914: Joe DiMaggio, New York Yankees center fielder and one of baseball’s best all-around players.