Retrospective 1925

Politics and international affairs

• Calvin Coolidge is president of the United States, George V rules the United Kingdom, and Paul von Hindenburg is elected president of the Weimar Republic.  
• Joseph Stalin consolidates his power within the Communist Party in the USSR.  
• In Italy, Benito Mussolini, already known as the "Duce", strengthens his fascist regime.  
• Mein Kampf, written by Hitler with the help of Rudolf Hess, is published in Germany.  
• The Locarno Treaties aim to secure peace in Europe, particularly with Germany.  
• The Geneva Protocol bans the use of chemical and biological weapons.

Culture, arts, and society

• The Roaring Twenties are in full swing, with the Charleston, jazz, and a new social freedom.  
• Josephine Baker captivates Paris audiences with her modern and daring dance.  
• The International Exposition of Decorative Arts in Paris launches the Art Deco style.  
• The Surrealist movement gains influence, while Expressionism continues to inspire.  
• The Bauhaus school spreads its innovative ideas in architecture and design.

Literature and thought

• F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby, a defining novel of the decade.  
• Virginia Woolf explores stream-of-consciousness narrative in Mrs Dalloway.  
• Franz Kafka dies before the posthumous publication of The Trial, a landmark of modern literature.  
• George Bernard Shaw remains a sharp, socially engaged voice in theatre.  
• André Gide and Sinclair Lewis contribute to the major intellectual debates of their time.

Music, cinema, and media

• Charlie Chaplin wins global acclaim with The Gold Rush, a silent film success.  
• Sergei Eisenstein makes a mark with Battleship Potemkin, a Soviet cinema milestone.  
• Louis Armstrong rises as a leading figure of jazz.  
• The New Yorker is founded in New York, heralding a new era in cultural journalism.  
• John Logie Baird experiments with the first television images.  
• Films like The Phantom of the Opera and The Jazz Singer pave the way for sound cinema.

Science, technology, and economy

• Edwin Hubble advances astronomy with his observations of an expanding universe.  
• Quantum mechanics takes a decisive theoretical leap forward.  
• Industrial giants such as Ford Motor Company and United States Steel Corporation dominate the U.S. economy.  
• The motel emerges as a new form of lodging linked to automobile travel.  
• The Soviet news agency TASS becomes a central tool of state propaganda.

Births and deaths

• Births of Paul Newman, Richard Burton, Angela Lansbury, Malcolm X, Salvador Dalí, Pol Pot, Margaret Thatcher, Robert F. Kennedy.  
• Death of Sun Yat-sen, founding figure of the Chinese Republic.