December 25
Today is
Christmas Day, a
Christian holiday commemorating the birth of
Jesus Christ.
There are
6 days remaining in 2016.
Events
333 – Roman Emperor
Constantine the Great elevates his youngest son,
Constans, to the rank of Caesar.
336 – First documentary sign of
Christmas celebration in Rome.
597 –
Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow-labourers baptise, in Kent, more than 10,000 Anglo-Saxons.
800 – The
Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.
1000 – The foundation of the
Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by
Stephen I of Hungary.
1025 – Coronation of
Mieszko II Lambert as king of Poland.
1066 –
William the Conqueror,
Duke of Normandy, is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
1076 – Coronation of
Bolesław II the Generous as king of Poland.
1100 –
Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned the first
King of Jerusalem in the
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
1130 – Count
Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first king of Sicily.
1492 – The carrack
Santa María, commanded by
Christopher Columbus, runs onto a reef off the Haitian coast due to an improper watch.
1776 –
George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at night to attack Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey, the next day.
1815 – The
Handel and Haydn Society, oldest continually performing arts organization in the United States, gives its first performance.
1826 – The
Eggnog Riot at the
United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.
1837 –
Second Seminole War: American general
Zachary Taylor leads 1100 troops against the
Seminoles at the
Battle of Lake Okeechobee.
1868 – United States President
Andrew Johnson grants an unconditional pardon to all Confederate veterans.
1914 – A
series of unofficial truces occur across the
Western Front to celebrate Christmas.
1941 – Admiral
Chester W. Nimitz arrives at Pearl Harbor to assume command of the
U.S. Pacific Fleet.
1950 – The
Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on April 11, 1951.
1954 -
Johnny Ace shot himself dead backstage at the City Auditorium in Houston, Texas. The R&B singer was playing with a revolver during a break between sets, someone in the room said "Be careful with that thing’’ and he said ‘It’s OK the gun’s not loaded, see’’ and pointed it at himself with a smile on his face. He was 25.
1968 – Apollo program:
Apollo 8 performs the very first successful
Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from
Lunar orbit.
1991 –
Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the
Soviet Union (
the union itself is dissolved the next day).
1991 – Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.
2003 – The ill-fated
Beagle 2 probe, released from the
Mars Express spacecraft on December 19, stops transmitting shortly before its scheduled landing.
2004 – The Cassini orbiter releases the
Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon
Titan on January 14, 2005.
2006 -
James Brown the ‘Godfather of Soul’, died at the age of 73 after being diagnosed with severe pneumonia. Brown went to his dentist in Atlanta the previous day who told him something was wrong, and sent him to a doctor immediately.
Births
1642 (OS) – Isaac Newton; 1821 – Clara Barton (founded the American Red Cross); 1878 – Louis Chevrolet (yeah,
that one); 1886 – Kid Ory♪ ♫; 1887 – Conrad Hilton (Hilton Hotels & Resorts); 1889 – Lila Bell Wallace (co-founded Readers' Digest); 1890 – Robert Ripley (believe it, or not); 1899 – Humphrey Bogart; 1907 – Cab Calloway♪ ♫; 1907 – Mike Mazurki; 1909 – Zora Arkus-Duntov (considered The Father of the Corvette); 1913 – Tony Martin♪ ♫; 1918 – Anwar Sadat; 1924 – Rod Serling (hosted
The Twilight Zone); 1937 – O'Kelly Isley Jr.♪ ♫(Isley Bros); 1939 – Bob James♪ ♫(wrote theme song for tv series
Taxi); 1940 – Pete Brown♪ ♫; 1945 – Noel Redding
(The Jimi Hendrix Experience); 1945 – Ken Stabler; 1946 – Jimmy Buffett♪ ♫:devil); 1946 – Larry Csonka; 1948 – Barbara Mandrell; 1949 – Sissy Spacek; 1950 – Karl Rove; 1952 – C. C. H. Pounder (
NCIS: New Orleans); 1954 – Annie Lennox♪ ♫(The Eurythmics); 1954 – Steve Wariner♪ ♫; 1958 – Rickey 'The Man of Steal' Henderson (holds MLB records for most stolen bases, runs, unintentional walks, & lead off home runs); 1958 – Alannah Myles♪ ♫(sang "Black Velvet"); 1971 – Dido♪ ♫; 1971 – Justin Trudeau
Deaths
1635 – Samuel de Champlain (namesake of Lake Champlain); 1946 – W. C. Fields; 1957 – Charles Pathé (Pathé records); 1977 – Charlie Chaplin; 1979 – Joan Blondell; 1989 – Benny Binion (Binion's Horseshoe Casino); 1989 – Nicolae & Elena Ceaușescu; 1989 – Billy Martin; 1997 – Denver Pyle ('Uncle Jesse' on
The Dukes of Hazzard); 2006 – James Brown 'The Godfather of Soul'♪ ♫; 2008 – Eartha Kitt♪ ♫; 2009 – Vic Chesnutt♪ ♫; 2015 – George Clayton Johnson (co-wrote the novel
Logan's Run, wrote scripts for
The Twilight Zone, wrote script for the first televised episode (
The Man Trap)of
Star Trek TOS, wrote the story that became
Ocean's Eleven)
Merry Christmas Urrbody!!!!