What happened on November 25: The world lost Maradona and Castro, and got the father of automobiles in Benz
Before we look back in time, let us acknowledge the fact that we truly lost some influential people on November 25. First and foremost and what can only be termed as a double whammy in the worst year known to the modern world, we lost Diego Maradona in 2020. Maradona, who led his country, Argentina, to a football World Cup victory in 1986, had managed to score what can only be termed as the most memorable goal in football history — his 'Hand of God' goal, where he scored the first goal of the quarterfinal match against England. It so happened that the goal, which the referee thought was a header, was actually a handball, something the player later admitted. Argentina went on to win the match and the title and Maradona won the world's hearts.
November 25 is also the death anniversary of Fidel Castro, Cuba's and the world's longest-serving head of state who was not of royal blood. A Marxist-Leninist, Castro was the first and only leader to bring communism to the West. He served as both Prime Minister and President of Cuba and ruled the Latin American nation from 1959 to 2008. It was in 2016, at the age of 90, when Castro, whose cause of death was not disclosed to the public, breathed his last. Opinions on Castro's rule remain polarised and the jury is still out on whether he was a dictator or whether his championing of anti-imperialism and socialism were great for the nation.
With so much death around, let's move on to some births. German mechanical engineering Karl Benz, who gave the world its first automobile that ran on an internal combustion engine, was born on November 25, 1844. What we now know as Mercedes-Benz today, actually began in 1885, when Benz developed a three-wheeled car. Later, in 1893, Benz produced the first four-wheeler and then went on to produce racing cars by 1899. It was after a merger with Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1926 that the cars we now know as Mercedes-Benz began manufacturing.
