Dark revelations, medical firsts.

Tuskegee Experiment: A Betrayal Exposed in 1972

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment began in 1932 and ran for 40 years. The U.S. Public Health Service and the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama enrolled poor, rural Black men who had syphilis. Researchers never told the men their diagnosis. They also never gave them treatment — even after penicillin became a proven cure in the 1940s, according to Journal Gazette.

When the story broke on July 25, 1972, the public was outraged. More than 100 men had died. Dozens of wives were infected. Children were born with the disease. The scandal led directly to sweeping reforms in medical research ethics and rules about patient consent, according to News-Gazette.

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Grant's Historic Promotion and Puerto Rico's New Status

Two earlier July 25 milestones reshaped American power and geography. In 1866, Ulysses S. Grant was named General of the Army of the United States — the first officer ever to hold that rank. It was a title created specifically to honor his leadership during the Civil War, according to Lima Ohio.

In 1898, Puerto Rico became a self-governing U.S. commonwealth. The change came at the end of the Spanish-American War. It gave Puerto Rico more control over its own affairs while keeping it tied to the United States, according to Journal Gazette.

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Atomic Blast, Test-Tube Baby, and Concorde's Only Crash

In 1946, the United States detonated an atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It was the first-ever underwater test of a nuclear device. The blast was part of a series of postwar tests meant to study the weapon's power, according to WDRB.

In 1978, Louise Joy Brown was born in Oldham, England — the world's first baby conceived outside the womb, earning her the nickname 'test-tube baby.' Then in 2000, an Air France Concorde jet crashed just outside Paris on a flight bound for New York. All 109 people on board died, along with four people on the ground. It was the first and only crash of the famous supersonic jet, according to HNG News.

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Pope Francis Apologizes for Indigenous Residential Schools

On July 25, 2022, Pope Francis issued a historic apology on behalf of the Catholic Church. He said sorry for the Church's role in running Indigenous residential schools — institutions that forced Indigenous children to abandon their languages, cultures, and families. It was one of the most significant apologies in the modern history of the Church, according to KULR8.

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