1 B.C.
Birth of Saint John the Baptist, son of Elizabeth and Zachary and cousin of Jesus Who would not be born for another six months. John, who spent most of his adult life preaching in the desert, would be the one to baptize Our Lord during his first year of public ministry. See DAILY LITURGY
1209 A.D.
Pope Innocent III launches a crusade against the Albigensians and their heresy in southern France after a papal legate had been murdered a year earlier.
1537 A.D.
Founders of the Society of Jesus - Saint Ignatius Loyola and Saint Francis Xavier, along with fellow seminarians Nicholas Bobadilla, Peter Favre, Diego Laynez, Simon Rodriguez, and Alfonso Salmeron are ordained in Venice.
1542 A.D.
Birth of Juan de Yepes y Alvarez, son of a silk weaver in Spain. The young man would go on to become a Carmelite priest and be appointed spiritual director to Saint Teresa of Avila. He would join her in a massive reform movement of the Carmelite order as well as write the book "Dark Night of the Soul." He was, of course, Saint John of the Cross.
1559 A.D.
A dark day in England for Catholics as Queen Elizabeth I outlaws all Catholic services in Britain, allowing Anglicanism - the Church of England - to take a firm hold with no opposition from Rome to the detriment of loyal Catholics.
1888 A.D.
Pope Leo XIII issues the encyclical to Ireland Saepe Nos directed to the Irish bishops regarding the boycotting prevalent in the emerald isle.
1967 A.D.
Pope Paul VI issues the meaningful encyclical on celibacy and the priesthood for the world Sacerdotalis caelibatus.
1981 A.D.
The Blessed Virgin Mary appears in a vision on Podrbo - a rocky hillside in Medjugorje, in the former Yugoslavia. She did not speak on this day, but did so the next to the six visionaries present, thus making the anniversary the 25th of the month, rather than the feast of Saint John the Baptist which has significance in Our Lady choosing this date to first appear to the children as one making ready the way of the Lord - her Divine Son.