| Today In History | |
| December 26th | |
| Events | |
| 1481 - Battle of Westbroek - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht. 1620 - Elizabeth Báthory's crimes are uncovered. 1620 - Pilgrim Fathers land at what becomes New Plymouth in Massachusetts. 1776 - American Revolutionary War: The British are defeated in the Battle of Trenton. 1790 - Louis XVI of France gives his public assent to Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution. 1792 - The final trial of Louis XVI of France begins in Paris. 1793 - Battle of Geisberg: French defeat Austrians. 1793 - The wedding of Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia and Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz takes place. 1825 - Several Imperial Russia army officers lead circa 3000 soldiers on the Senate Square in the failed Decembrist uprising. 1825 - The Erie Canal opens. 1848 - The Phi Delta Theta fraternity is founded. 1860 - The first ever inter-club football match takes place between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at Sandygate in Sheffield, England. 1861 - American Civil War: Confederate diplomatic envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and Britain. 1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou begins. 1862 - The largest mass-hanging in US history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, killing 39. 1870 - The 12.8-km long Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps is completed. 1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium. 1908 - Jack Johnson becomes the first African American heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia. 1916 - Joseph Joffre is made Marshal of France. 1925 - The Communist Party of India is founded. 1925 - Turkey adopts the Gregorian Calendar. 1931 - Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest existing Latino fraternity is founded. 1933 - The Nissan Motor Company is organized in Tokyo, Japan. 1933 - FM radio is patented. 1943 - World War II: The German warship Scharnhorst sinks off the coast of North Cape in Norway after being attacked by the British Royal Navy late the previous evening. 1944 - The play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is first publicly performed. 1944 - World War II: U.S. troops repulse German forces at Bastogne. 1945 - CFP franc and CFA franc are created. 1946 - The Flamingo Hotel opens in Las Vegas. 1947 - Twenty-six inches of snow falls in 16 hours in New York City. 1948 - Cardinal Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy. 1966 - The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach. 1973 - Comet Kohoutek reaches perihelion but is not such a display as expected. 1973 - Soyuz 13 lands on earth after a week in orbit. 1974 - Salyut 4 is launched. 1975 - The Tupolev Tu-144 goes into service in Soviet Union. 1976 - The Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) is founded. 1979 - Soviet Special forces troops take over presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. 1979 - Opening night of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea at the Hammersmith Odeon; a benefit concert for the citizens of Cambodia who were victims of dictator Pol Pot 1980 - Aeroflot puts the Ilyushin Il-86 into service. 1982 - TIME magazine's Man of the Year was for the first time given to a non-human, the personal computer. 1986 - The first long-running American television soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, airs its final episode after thirty-five years on the air. 1988 - The Nanjing Anti-African protests in Nanjing, the People's Republic of China begin. 1991 - Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR. 1991 - Mount Pinatubo erupts. 1996 - The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification goes into force. 1998 - Iraq announced its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones. 1998 - Severe gales over Ireland, northern England, and southern Scotland cause widespread disruption and widespread power outages in Northern Ireland and southern Scotland. 1999 - Severe weather in France kills over 100 people and causes extensive damage to property and trees and the French national power grid (see Lothar). 2002 - French Raelian scientist Brigitte Boisselier says Clonaid has delivered the first of a supposed five clone babies through cesarean section. 2003 - A major earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam. 2004 - An earthquake measuring 9.3 on the Richter magnitude scale creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing more than 300,000. |
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| Births | |
| 1194 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1250) 1532 - Guilielmus Xylander, German classical scholar (d. 1576) 1536 - Yi I, Korean Confucian scholar (d. 1584) 1646 - Robert Bolling, English settler in Virginia (d. 1709) 1687 - Johann Georg Pisendel, German musician (d. 1755) 1716 - Thomas Gray, English writer (d. 1771) 1716 - Jean François de Saint-Lambert, French poet (d. 1803) 1723 - Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm, German writer (d. 1807) 1736 - Antonio Caldara, Italian composer (b. 1670) 1737 - Prince Josias of Coburg, Austrian general (d. 1815) 1751 - Clement Hofbauer, Austrian missionary and saint (d. 1820) 1780 - Mary Fairfax Somerville, British mathematician (d. 1872) 1782 - Filaret Drozdov, Metropolitan of Moscow (d. 1867) 1791 - Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor (d. 1871) 1819 - E. D. E. N. Southworth, American novelist (d. 1899) 1822 - Dion Boucicault, Irish actor and playwright (d. 1890) 1837 - George Dewey, U. S. admiral (d. 1917) 1853 - René Bazin, French novelist (d. 1932) 1859 - William Stephens, U.S. political figure (d. 1944) 1872 - Norman Angell, British politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1967) 1873 - Thomas Wass, English cricketer (d. 1953) 1887 - Arthur Ernest Percival, British Army officer (d. 1966) 1890 - Uncle Charlie Osborne, American fiddler (d. 1992) 1891 - Henry Miller, American writer (d. 1980) 1893 - Mao Zedong, Chinese military leader and politician (d. 1976) 1902 - Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan, Russian painter (d. 1980) 1903 - Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (d. 1995) 1904 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (d. 1980) 1906 - Imperio Argentina, Argentine actress and singer (d. 2003) 1914 - Richard Widmark, American actor 1914 - Annemarie Wendl, German actress (d. 2006) 1921 - Steve Allen, American actor, comedian, composer, and author (d. 2000) 1927 - Alan King, American comedian and actor (d. 2004) 1927 - Denis Quilley, British actor (d. 2003) 1927 - Stu Miller, baseball player 1930 - Donald Moffat, English-born actor 1933 - Ugly Dave Gray, Australian television personality 1933- Caroll Spinney, American puppeteer 1935 - Abdul "Duke" Fakir, American singer (The Four Tops) 1935 - Norm Ullman, Canadian hockey player 1937 - John Horton Conway, British mathematician 1937 - Jay Heimowitz, American poker player 1938 - Bahram Beizai, Iranian playwright and film director 1940 - Edward C. Prescott, American economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner 1940 - Phil Spector, American music producer 1942 - Gray Davis, Governor of California 1944 - Jane Lapotaire, British actress 1945 - John Walsh, American talk show host 1947 - Carlton Fisk, baseball player 1949 - José Ramos Horta, Foreign Minister of East Timor, Nobel laureate 1954 - Ozzie Smith, baseball player 1954 - Steve Steen, English actor 1955 - Evan Bayh, American politician 1956 - David Sedaris, American essayist 1959 - Koji Morimoto, Japanese animated film director 1960 - Temuera Morrison, New Zealand actor 1961 - John Lynch, Irish actor 1963 - Lars Ulrich, Danish-born drummer (Metallica) 1966 - Sandra Taylor, American model and actress 1968 - Dennis Knight, American professional wrestler 1970 - James Mercer (musician), guitarist and vocalist (The Shins) 1971 - Jared Leto, American actor 1971 - Jonathan M. Parisen, American film director 1975 - Marcelo Ríos, Chilean tennis player 1976 - Lea De Mae, Czech actress (d. 2004) 1978 - Kaoru Sugayama, Japanese volleyball player 1979 - Chris Daughtry, American singer 1987 - Adam Walker, British flutist |
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| Deaths | |
| 1350 - Jean de Marigny, French bishop 1458 - Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (b. 1393) 1476 - Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1444) 1530 - Babur, Emperor of the Mogul empire (b. 1483) 1574 - Charles of Guise, French cardinal (b. 1524) 1624 - Simon Marius, German astronomer (b. 1573) 1731 - Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French writer (b. 1672) 1771 - Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher (b. 1715) 1780 - John Fothergill, English physician (b. 1712) 1784 - Seth Warner, American revolutionary leader (b. 1743) 1786 - Gasparo Gozzi, Italian critic and dramatist (b. 1713) 1869 - Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille, French physiologist (b. 1797) 1890 - Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist (b. 1822) 1909 - Frederic Remington, American artist (b. 1861) 1933 - Anatoly Lunacharsky, Russian literary critic and politician (b. 1875) 1960 - Watsuji Tetsuro, Japanese philosopher (b. 1889) 1963 - George Wagner, American professional wrestler and television personality (b. 1915) 1970 - Lillian Board, British athlete (b. 1948) 1972 - Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (b. 1884) 1973 - Harold B. Lee, 11th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1899) 1974 - Jack Benny, American comedian (b. 1894) 1977 - Howard Hawks, American film director and writer (b. 1896) 1981 - Savithri, Indian actress 1983 - Violet Carson, British actress 1985 - Dian Fossey, American gorilla specialist (b. 1932) 1986 - Elsa Lanchester, British-born actress (b. 1902) 1996 - JonBenét Ramsey, American child beauty queen (b. 1990) 1997 - Cornelius Castoriadis, philosopher (b. 1922) 1999 - Curtis Mayfield, American musician (b. 1942) 1999 - Shankar Dayal Sharma, President of India (b. 1918) 2000 - Jason Robards, American actor (b. 1922) 2001 - Nigel Hawthorne, English actor (b. 1929) 2002 - Herb Ritts, American photographer (b. 1952) 2002 - Armand Zildjian, American cymbal manufacturer (b. 1921) 2003 - Alan Bates, British actor (b. 1934) 2004 - Marianne Heiberg, Norwegian mediator (b. 1945) 2004 - Troy Broadbridge, Australian football player (b. 1980) 2004 - Aki Sirkesalo, Finnish musician (b. 1962) 2004 - Reggie White, American football player (b. 1961) 2005 - Kerry Packer, Australian businessman (b. 1937) 2005 - Vincent Schiavelli, American actor (b. 1948) 2005 - Erich Topp, German submarine commander (b. 1914)
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