Others who died on August 25

Take a focused look at the others who passed away on August 25. Dive into curated bios, achievements, and cultural milestones verified by our editors.

• 1985 Samantha Smith

  Samantha Smith was an American schoolgirl, peace activist, and child actress who became famous in the early 1980s for her letter to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, seeking to understand why Soviet-American relations were so tense during the Cold War. Her subsequent visit to the Soviet Union was widely covered in the media, and she became a symbol of youthful hope … [bio]