Today December 25th In History

Today in History
December 25
Merry Christmas!




Christmas is the festival celebrating the birth of Christ and is observed in most countries on December 25. Christmas is sometimes
called Yule (from the Anglo-Saxon) or Noel (from the French).

1 – 1st Christmas, according to calendar-maker Dionysus Exiguus

376 In Milan, Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, forces the emperor Theodosius to perform public penance for his massacre.

800 The pope crowns Charlemagne emperor in Rome.

1066 William I is crowned king of England.

1621 The governor of New Plymouth prevents newcomers from playing cards.

1651 The General Court of Boston levies a five shilling fine on anyone caught “observing any suchday as Christmas.”

1776 Patriot General George Washington crosses the Delaware River with 5,400 troops during the American Revolution.
Washington hoped to surprise a Hessian force celebrating Christmas at their winter quarters inTrenton, New Jersey.

1861 Stonewall Jackson spends Christmas with his wife; their last together.

1862 John Hunt Morgan and his raiders clash with Union forces near Bear Wallow, Kentucky.

1862 President and Mrs. Lincoln visit hospitals in the Washington D.C. area on this Christmas Day.

1912 Italy lands troops in Albania to protect its interests during a revolt there.

1914 German and British troops on the Western Front declare an unofficial truce to celebrate Christmas during World War
I.

1918 A revolt erupts in Berlin.

1925 U.S. troops in Nicaragua disarm insurgents in support of the Diaz regime.

1927 The Mexican congress opens land to foreign investors, reversing the 1917 ban enacted to preserve the domestic
economy.

1939 Finnish troops enter Soviet territory.

1941 Free French troops occupy the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon off the Canadian coast.

1944 Prime Minister Winston Churchill goes to Athens to seek an end to the Greek civil war.

1946 Chiang Kai-shek offers a new Chinese constitution in Nanking pledging universal suffrage.

1950 Scottish nationalists steal the Stone of Scone from the British coronation throne in Westminster Abbey. The 485
pound stone was recovered in April 1951.

1962 The Bay of Pigs captives, upon their return to the United States, vow to return to Cuba and topple Fidel Castro.

1965 Entertainer Chris Noel gives her first performance for the USO at two hospitals in California, she will eventually
entertain in Vietnam.

1973 U.S. astronauts onboard the Skylab space station take a seven-hour walk in space and photograph the comet Kohoutek.

1976 Over 100 Muslims, returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, die when their boat sinks.

1979 Egypt begins major restoration of the Sphinx.

1991 Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s first and last executive president, resigns. The Soviet Union no longer
exsists.

2006 James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul”, dies at age 73.
Famous Weddings

1949 – British born actor “Notorious” Cary Grant (45) weds actress Betsy Drake (26)

1950 – Dick Tracy marries Tess Truehart

1997 – Actress Rue McClanahan (64) weds actor-producer Morrow Wilson (58) at Manhattan’s Waldorf-Astoria
Born on December 25

1642 Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and scientist who enunciated the laws of motion and the law of gravity.

1841 Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross.

1870 Rosa Luxemburg, Polish-born founder of theSpartacus League which later became the German Communist Party.

1907 Cab Calloway, band leader, the first Jazz singer to sell a million records.

1918 Anwar Sadat, Egyptian president (1970 to

1981) and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Famous Deaths

795 – Adrian I, Italian Pope (772-95), dies aged 95

1961 – Otto Loewi, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)

1961 – Owen Brewster, U.S. Senator from Maine (b. 1888)

1980 – Oscar Romero, archbishop of El Salvador, murdered

1989 – Billy Martin, NY Yankee manager, killed in a car accident at 61

1989 – Elena Ceausescu, wife of Romania’s dictator Nicolea, executed

1989 – Nicolea Ceausescu, dictator of Romania, executed

1994 – Zail Singh, president of India (1982-87), dies at 78

2007 – Desmond Barrick, English Cricketer (b. 1927)

2007 – Mighty King Kong, Kenyan reggae musician. (b. 1973)

2008 – Eartha Kitt, American actress and singer (b. 1927)

2009 – Vic Chesnutt, American singer and songwriter (b. 1964)

2010 – Carlos Andrés Pérez, former President of Venezuela (b. 1922)


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