On This Day – March 25

• 1995 WikiWikiWeb, the world’s first wiki, is launched

  Ward Cunningham introduced the wiki, or user-editable website. Today, Wikipedia is the world’s most well known and widely used wiki.

• 1988 Thousands of people join the first peaceful demonstrations against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia

  The Candle Demonstration was brutally dispersed by the Police but was the first step towards the Velvet Revolution that resulted in the establishment of democracy in the country.

• 1975 King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is assassinated by his nephew

  Despite the king’s dying wish that the life of the assassin be spared, Faisal bin Musaid was publicly executed on June 18, 1975.

• 1957 6 countries found the European Economic Community

  The EEC’s establishment was an important step towards European integration and the creation of the European Union (EU).

• 1949 The Soviet Union begins deporting some 90,000 Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians to some of Russia’s most inhospitable areas

  Operation Priboi, also known as March deportation, was designed to weaken the Baltic nationalist movement. Most of the deportees, labeled “enemies of the people” by the Soviet authorities, were women and children.