What’s Observed on February 25
Born on February 25: Pisces ♓
Pisces, the twelfth and final sign of the zodiac, spans February 19 to March 20 and is symbolized by two fish swimming in opposite directions, tied together by a cord, representing the tension between fantasy and reality, or the conscious and subconscious mind. Ruled by Neptune, the planet of dreams, intuition, and illusion, Pisces is widely regarded as the most emotionally sensitive and imaginative sign of the zodiac. As a Water sign, Pisces navigates the world primarily through feeling and empathy, often absorbing the moods of people around it as though they were its own. Its Mutable modality reflects a deep adaptability and fluidity, comfortable going with the flow rather than forcing rigid plans. People born under this sign are often drawn to art, music, and other creative or spiritual pursuits where their vivid imagination can take shape. Compassionate to a fault, Pisces individuals are frequently the ones quietly caring for others, sometimes at the expense of their own boundaries and needs.
Personality Traits
Strengths
- Deeply empathetic and compassionate
- Highly imaginative and artistic
- Intuitive and perceptive
- Selfless and generous
- Adaptable to change
Weaknesses
- Prone to escapism or avoidance
- Overly trusting, can be taken advantage of
- Difficulty setting boundaries
- Tends toward melancholy
- Indecisive
Compatible Signs
Fun Facts
- Pisces' symbol of two fish bound together swimming in opposite directions comes from a Greek myth in which Aphrodite and Eros transformed into fish and tied themselves together to escape the monster Typhon.
- As the twelfth and final sign of the zodiac, Pisces is often described as embodying traits of all the preceding signs, a kind of culmination of the zodiac wheel.
- Neptune, Pisces' modern ruling planet, is the Roman god of the sea, discovered in 1846 and named for its blue, oceanic appearance.
- Notable Pisces include Albert Einstein, Rihanna, Steve Jobs, and Kurt Cobain.
- Classical astrology assigns Jupiter as Pisces' ruler, before Neptune's discovery in the 19th century gave the sign its modern ruling planet.
Born on February 25
- 1841
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Leading French Impressionist painter
- 1873
Enrico Caruso
World-renowned Italian operatic tenor
- 1917
Anthony Burgess
Author of "A Clockwork Orange"
- 1918
Bobby Riggs
Tennis champion known for the "Battle of the Sexes" match
- 1937
Tom Courtenay
English stage and film actor
- 1943
George Harrison
Guitarist and songwriter for The Beatles
- 1949
Ric Flair
Professional wrestling legend known as "The Nature Boy"
On This Day in History
- 1836
Samuel Colt is granted a U.S. patent for his revolving-cylinder firearm, a design that would revolutionize personal weaponry.
Colt's revolver used a rotating cylinder to hold multiple bullets, allowing several shots to be fired without reloading, a major advance over single-shot firearms. Mass production techniques Colt pioneered helped establish interchangeable-parts manufacturing as a hallmark of American industry.
- 1870
Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi is sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American to serve in Congress.
Revels, a minister and educator, was sworn into the Senate seat once held by Jefferson Davis before the Civil War, a symbolically powerful moment of Reconstruction-era political change, though systematic disenfranchisement would push Black political representation back for generations afterward.
- 1916
German forces capture Fort Douaumont, a key stronghold in the French defenses, during the Battle of Verdun.
Fort Douaumont, considered the strongest fortification defending Verdun, fell to a small German raiding party who found it nearly undefended after French commanders had stripped it of most of its garrison, a stunning early setback that shocked French military leadership.
- 1932
Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship through a bureaucratic appointment, a necessary step that allowed him to run for the German presidency.
Hitler's citizenship, granted through a minor state government post arranged by Nazi sympathizers, resolved his previously stateless status as an Austrian who had renounced his citizenship years earlier, a legal technicality required before he could legally run for the German presidency later that year.
- 1948
Czechoslovakia's Communist Party seizes complete control of the government in a coup, aligning the country firmly within the Soviet bloc.
The Czechoslovak coup, orchestrated by Soviet-backed Communist Party leader Klement Gottwald amid a government crisis, eliminated the country's fragile postwar democracy and firmly aligned it within the Soviet bloc for the following four decades until the peaceful Velvet Revolution of 1989.
- 1956
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivers his "Secret Speech," denouncing Joseph Stalin's crimes and cult of personality to a stunned Communist Party congress.
Khrushchev's speech, delivered in a closed session and not officially published in the Soviet Union for decades, detailed Stalin's purges, mass killings, and cult of personality, sending shockwaves through the international communist movement and sparking uprisings in Eastern Europe later that year.
- 1980
A military coup led by Dési Bouterse overthrows the government of Suriname.
Bouterse's coup ended Suriname's brief period of post-independence civilian government, ushering in a period of military rule marked by human rights abuses, including the killing of political opponents, before democracy was eventually restored years later.
- 1986
Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos flees the country amid the People Power Revolution, and Corazon Aquino is sworn in as the nation's first female president.
Marcos's decades-long authoritarian rule, marked by martial law, corruption, and human rights abuses, collapsed after a rigged election triggered the largely peaceful "People Power" uprising. Aquino, widow of an assassinated opposition leader, became a symbol of the democratic transition as the Philippines' first female president.
- 1991
Member states formally dissolve the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet-led military alliance that had counterbalanced NATO throughout the Cold War.
The dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, formalized as communist governments across Eastern Europe had already collapsed and the Soviet Union itself neared its end, removed the Cold War's Eastern military counterweight to NATO, reshaping the European security landscape for decades to come.
- 1994
An American-born Israeli settler opens fire on Muslim worshippers at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, killing 29 people before being beaten to death by survivors.
The Hebron massacre, carried out by an American-born extremist during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, killed dozens of worshippers and triggered a wave of retaliatory violence that severely damaged the fragile Israeli-Palestinian peace process underway at the time.