December 25

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MMXI

December 25 in recent years

2010 (Saturday)

2009 (Friday)

2008 (Thursday)

2007 (Tuesday)

2006 (Monday)

2005 (Sunday)

2004 (Saturday)

2003 (Thursday)

2002 (Wednesday)

2001 (Tuesday)

December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are six days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 274 – Emperor Aurelian makes Sol Invictus to an official cult, it becomes the state religion of Rome.
• 333 – Emperor Constantine the Great elevates his youngest son Constans to the rank of Caesar.
• 350 – Vetranio meets Constantius II at Naissus (Serbia) and is forced to abdicated his title (Caesar). Constantius allows him to live as a private citizen on a state pension.
• 800 – 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.
• 1066 – William the Conqueror is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
• 1100 – Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity.
• 1130 – Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first King of Sicily.
• 1261 – John IV Lascaris of the restored Eastern Roman Empire is deposed and blinded by orders of his co-ruler Michael VIII Palaeologus.
• 1553 – Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeats the Spanish conquistadors and executes the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia.
• 1599 – The city of Natal, Brazil is founded.
• 1691 – Jagannath Temple, Ranchi is built.
• 1643 – Christmas Island found and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Company vessel, the Royal Mary.
• 1776 – George Washington and his army cross the Delaware River to attack the Kingdom of Great Britain's Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey.
• 1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
• 1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.
• 1837 – Battle of Lake Okeechobee: United States forces defeated by Seminole Native Americans.
• 1868 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers.
• 1914 – World War I: Known as the Christmas truce, German and British troops on the Western Front temporarily cease fire.
• 1926 – Emperor Taishō of Japan dies. His son, Prince Hirohito succeeds him as Emperor Shōwa.
• 1927 – The Vietnamese Nationalist Party is founded.
• 1932 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills 275 people.
• 1941 – Admiral Chester W Nimitz arrives at Pearl Harbor to assume command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet
• 1941 – World War II: Battle of Hong Kong ends, beginning the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong.
• 1941 – the Admiral Émile Muselier seizes the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which become the first part of France to be liberated by the Free French Forces.
• 1946 – The first in Europe artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is initiated within Soviet nuclear reactor F-1.
• 1947 – The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.
• 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.
• 1963 – Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots are forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.
• 1965 – The Yemeni Nasserite Unionist People's Organisation is founded in Taiz
• 1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans Earth Injection (TEI) maneouver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
• 1968 – 42 Dalits are burned alive in Kilavenmani village, Tamil Nadu, India, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages by Dalit labourers.
• 1974 – Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Northern Territory Australia.
• 1974 – Marshall Fields drives a vehicle through the gates of the White House, resulting in a four-hour standoff.
• 1977 – Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat.
• 1989 – Nicolae Ceauşescu, former communist dictator and President of Romania and his wife, First-Deputy Prime-Minister Elena are condemned to death and executed under a wide range of charges.
• 1990 – The first successful trial run of the system which would become the World Wide Web.
• 1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.
• 2000 – Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a bill into law that officially establishes a new National Anthem of Russia, with music adopted from the anthem of the Soviet Union that was composed by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov.
• 2003 – The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express Spacecraft on December 19, disappears shortly before its scheduled landing.
• 2004 – Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.
• 2007 – A tiger at the San Francisco Zoo escapes from its enclosure and attacks three people, killing one.
• 2009 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab unsuccessfully attempts a terrorist attack against the US while on board a flight to Detroit Metro Airport Northwest Airlines Flight 253

Births

• 1250 – John IV Laskaris, Byzantine Emperor (d. c. 1305)
• 1461 – Christina of Saxony, queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1521)
• 1583 – Orlando Gibbons, English composer (d. 1625)
• 1584 – Margaret of Austria, queen of Spain and Portugal (d. 1611)
• 1628 – Noël Coypel, French painter (d. 1707)
• 1642 – Isaac Newton, English scientist (d. 1727)
• 1652 – Archibald Pitcairne, Scottish physician (d. 1713)
• 1665 – Lady Grizel Baillie, Scottish songwriter (d. 1746)
• 1667 – Ehrengard von der Schulenburg, English royal mistress (d. 1743)
• 1674 – Thomas Halyburton, Scottish theologian (d. 1712)
• 1700 – Leopold II of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian general (d. 1758)
• 1711 – Jean Joseph de Mondonville, French composer (d. 1772)
• 1716 – Johann Jakob Reiske, German scholar and physician (d. 1774)
• 1730 – Philip Mazzei, Italian physician and friend of Thomas Jefferson (d. 1816)
• 1742 – Charlotte von Stein, German friend of Goethe (d. 1827)
• 1745 – Chevalier de Saint-Georges – "Black Mozart", African–French Swordsman, Soldier of Fortune, and Composer (d. 1799)
• 1757 – Benjamin Pierce, U.S. politician (d. 1839)
• 1763 – Claude Chappe, French telecommunications pioneer (d. 1805)
• 1771 – Dorothy Wordsworth, English diarist and sister of William Wordsworth (d. 1855)
• 1776 – Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan), Irish writer (alleged date of birth) (d. 1859)
• 1810 – Alexandros Rhizos Rhankaves, Greek poet and statesman (d. 1892)
• 1821 – Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross (d. 1912)
• 1829 – Patrick Gilmore, Irish-American composer (d. 1892)
• 1856 – Hans von Bartels, German painter (d. 1913)
• 1856 – Pud Galvin, American professional baseball pitcher (d. 1902)
• 1860 – Manwel Dimech, Maltese philosopher and social reformer (d. 1921)
• 1861 – Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Indian founder of Banaras Hindu University (d. 1946)
• 1864 – Thomas Cahill, American soccer coach (d. 1951)
• 1865 – Evangeline Booth, the 4th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1950)
• 1870 – Helena Rubinstein, Polish-born American cosmetics industrialist (d. 1965)
• 1873 – Otto Frederick Hunziker, Swiss-born American dairy educator (d. 1959)
• 1874 – Lina Cavalieri, Italian soprano (d. 1944)
• 1875 – Theodor Innitzer, Austrian cardinal (d. 1955)
• 1876 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan (d. 1948)
• 1876 – Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, Nobel laureate (d. 1959)
• 1878 – Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver (d. 1941)
• 1883 – Hugo Bergmann, German and Israeli Jewish philosopher (d. 1975)
• 1884 – Evelyn Nesbit, American actress (d. 1967)
• 1886 – Kid Ory, American musician (d. 1973)
• 1887 – Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (d. 1979)
• 1889 – Lila Bell Wallace, American magazine publisher (Reader's Digest) (d. 1984)
• 1890 – Noel Odell, British mountaineer (d. 1987)
• 1890 – Robert Ripley, collector of odd facts (d. 1949)
• 1891 – Clarrie Grimmett, Australian cricketer (d. 1980)
• 1899 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (d. 1957)
• 1901 – Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (d. 2004)
• 1902 – Barton MacLane, American actor (d. 1969)
• 1904 – Gerhard Herzberg, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
• 1906 – Lew Grade, Ukrainian-born film producer (d. 1998)
• 1906 – Ernst Ruska, Nobel laureate (d. 1988)
• 1907 – Cab Calloway, American bandleader (d. 1994)
• 1907 – Glenn McCarthy, American oil tycoon and businessman (d. 1988)
• 1907 – Mike Mazurki, Ukrainian-born actor (d. 1990)
• 1908 – Quentin Crisp, English author (d. 1999)
• 1908 – Jo-Jo Moore, baseball player (d. 2001)
• 1908 – Zora Arkus-Duntov, Belgian-American automotive engineer (d. 1996)
• 1908 – Ernest L. Massad, U.S. Army general (d. 1993)
• 1911 – Louise Bourgeois, French American sculptor (d. 2010)
• 1912 – Tony Martin, American singer and actor
• 1912 – Natalino Otto, Italian singer (d. 1969)
• 1913 – Henri Nannen, German journalist (d. 1966)
• 1914 – James Muir Cameron Fletcher, New Zealand industrialist (d. 2007)
• 1915 – Pete Rugolo, Italian-born composer
• 1918 – Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, Nobel laureate (d. 1981)
• 1918 – Ahmed Ben Bella, politician, first President of Algeria
• 1919 – Naushad Ali, Indian music director (d. 2006)
• 1919 – Paul David, Canadian cardiologist, founder of the Montreal Heart Institute (d. 1999)
• 1919 – Noele Gordon, English actress (d. 1985)
• 1921 – Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah, Pakistani journalist (d. 2000)
• 1923 – Rene Girard, French historian, literary critic and philosopher
• 1924 – Rod Serling, American television writer (d. 1975)
• 1924 – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister of India
• 1925 – Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-born author (d. 1998)
• 1925 – Ned Garver, American baseball player
• 1926 – Enrique Jorrín, Cuban composer and musician (d. 1987)
• 1927 – Nellie Fox, baseball player (d. 1975)
• 1927 – Ram Narayan, Indian sarangi player
• 1928 – Dick Miller, American actor
• 1929 – Stuart Hall, British radio and television presenter
• 1929 – Chris Kenner, American singer and songwriter (d. 1976)
• 1930 – Emmanuel Agassi, Iranian boxer and father of Andre Agassi
• 1930 – Salah Jaheen, Egyptian poet and cartoonist (d. 1986)
• 1932 – Mabel King, American actress (d. 1999)
• 1935 – Stephen Barnett, American legal scholar who opposed the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 (d. 2009)
• 1935 – Jeanne Hopkins Lucas, American politician (d. 2007)
• 1935 – Al Jackson, American baseball player
• 1935 – Sadiq al-Mahdi, Prime Minister of Sudan
• 1935 – Anne Roiphe, American author and feminist
• 1936 – HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent
• 1936 – Ismail Merchant, Indian-born film producer (d. 2005)
• 1937 – O'Kelly Isley, Jr., American singer (The Isley Brothers) (d. 1986)
• 1938 – Noel Picard, Quebec ice hockey player
• 1938 – Duane Armstrong, American painter
• 1939 – Bob James, American composer and musician
• 1940 – Pete Brown, English poet and lyricist
• 1940 – Phil Spector, American music producer
• 1942 – Francoise Durr, French tennis player
• 1942 – Enrique Morente, Spanish flamenco singer (d. 2010)
• 1943 – Hanna Schygulla, German actress
• 1943 – Wilson Fittipaldi Júnior, Brazilian racing driver
• 1944 – Jairzinho, Brazilian footballer
• 1944 – Kenny Everett, British entertainer (d. 1995)
• 1944 – Henry Vestine, American musician (d. 1997)
• 1944 – Nigel Starmer-Smith, English Rugby Union commentator.
• 1945 – Noel Redding, English musician (d. 2003)
• 1945 – Rick Berman, Star Trek producer
• 1945 – Ken Stabler, Oakland Raiders quarterback
• 1945 – Gary Sandy, American actor
• 1945 – Mike Pringle, Scottish politician
• 1946 – Jimmy Buffett, American singer and songwriter
• 1946 – Larry Csonka, American football player
• 1946 – Gene Lamont, American baseball player and manager
• 1947 – Twink Caplan, American actress and comedian
• 1948 – Barbara Mandrell, American singer and actress
• 1948 – Alia al Hussein, of Jordan (d. 1977)
• 1948 – Joel Natalino Santana, Brazilian soccer coach
• 1949 – Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan
• 1949 – Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira, Singer and icon of the Brazilian music
• 1949 – Sissy Spacek, American actress
• 1949 – Joe Louis Walker, American musician
• 1950 – Peter Boardman, British mountaineer (d. 1982)
• 1950 – Manny Trillo, baseball player
• 1950 – Yehuda Poliker, Israeli singer-songwriter
• 1950 – Karl Rove, former American presidential advisor
• 1952 – CCH Pounder, Guyana-born actress
• 1952 – Desireless, French singer
• 1954 – Annie Lennox, Scottish singer
• 1954 – Steve Wariner, American country music singer
• 1955 – Alannah Myles, Canadian singer
• 1957 – Chris Kamara, English footballer and commentator
• 1957 – Shane MacGowan, Irish musician
• 1958 – Cheryl Chase, American voice actor
• 1958 – Hanford Dixon, American football player
• 1958 – Rickey Henderson, baseball player
• 1958 – Martin Wiesner, German footballer
• 1959 – Michael P. Anderson, astronaut (d. 2003)
• 1960 – Ron Bottitta, British actor
• 1961 – Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian senator
• 1962 – Dean Cameron, American actor
• 1962 – Darren Wharton, British keyboardist (Thin Lizzy and Dare)
• 1964 – Gary McAllister, Scottish footballer
• 1964 – Tim Royes – Music Video Director and Editor
• 1964 – Bob Stanley, English musician (Saint Etienne), filmmaker and journalist
• 1965 – David Rath, Czech politician
• 1966 – Toshihiro Arai, Japanese rally driver
• 1967 – Jason Thirsk, American bass player (d. 1996)
• 1968 – Helena Christensen, Danish model
• 1968 – Jim Dowd, American ice hockey player
• 1970 – Emmanuel Amuneke, Nigerian footballer
• 1971 – Dido, English singer
• 1971 – Justin Trudeau, Canadian media personality and politician
• 1971 – Noel Hogan, Irish musician
• 1972 – Josh Freese, American drummer
• 1972 – Mac Powell, American musician, singer/songwriter (Third Day)
• 1973 – Robbie Elliott, English footballer
• 1973 – Chris Harris, American professional wrestler
• 1973 – Alexandre Trudeau, Canadian journalist
• 1974 – Nagma, Indian actress
• 1975 – Marcus Trescothick, English cricketer
• 1975 – Hideki Okajima, Japanese baseball player
• 1975 – Rob Mariano, American reality show contestant
• 1975 – Choi Sung-Yong, South Korean footballer
• 1976 – Tuomas Holopainen, Finnish keyboardist and songwriter (Nightwish)
• 1976 – Armin van Buuren, Dutch DJ & Producer
• 1977 – Uhm Ji-won, South Korean actress
• 1977 – Israel Vasquez, Mexican boxer
• 1978 – Joel Porter, Australian footballer
• 1978 – Simon Jones, English cricketer
• 1979 – Hyun Young-Min, South Korean footballer
• 1979 – Rob Huff, British racing driver
• 1980 – Marcus Trufant, American football player
• 1980 – Reika Hashimoto, Japanese actress
• 1980 – Locó, Angolan footballer
• 1980 – Laura Sadler, British actress (d. 2003)
• 1981 – Katie Wright, American actress
• 1981 – Willy Taveras, baseball player
• 1981 – Trenesha Biggers, American professional wrestler
• 1982 – Shawn Andrews, American football player
• 1982 – Rob Edwards, Welsh footballer
• 1982 – Shystie, British rapper-songwriter
• 1982 – Dev, Tollywood Actor
• 1984 – Chris Cahill, Samoan footballer
• 1984 – Alastair Cook, English cricketer
• 1984 – Georgia Moffett, British actress
• 1984 – The Veronicas, Australian singers (twin sisters)
• 1985 – Leon Pisani, Welsh singer
• 1985 – Perdita Weeks, British actress
• 1986 – Doug Loft, English footballer
• 1987 – Jorgie Porter, English actress
• 1987 – Justin Sweeney, Australian rules footballer
• 1988 – Eric Gordon, American basketball player
• 1988 – Lukas Hinds-Johnson, German rugby player

Deaths

• 795 – Pope Adrian I
• 820 – Leo V, Byzantine Emperor (b. 775)
• 1156 – Peter the Venerable, French Benedictine abbot of Cluny (b. c.1092)
• 1635 – Samuel de Champlain, French explorer (b. 1567)
• 1676 – Matthew Hale, English jurist (b. 1609)
• 1676 – William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, English soldier (b. 1592)
• 1683 – Kara Mustafa, Ottoman general (b. 1634)
• 1758 – James Hervey, English clergyman (b. 1714)
• 1763 – Suraj Mal, Sinsiwar Jat ruler of Bharatpur (b. 1707)
• 1765 – Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech theologian and natural scientist (b. 1698)
• 1784 – Yosa Buson, Japanese painter (b. 1716)
• 1824 – Barbara Juliana, Baroness von Krüdener, Russian writer (b. 1764)
• 1868 – Linus Yale, Jr., American mechanical engineer and inventor (b. 1821)
• 1875 – Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1851)
• 1880 – Fridolin Anderwert, Swiss jurist (b. 1828)
• 1916 – St. Albert Chmielowski, Polish Catholic saint (b. 1845)
• 1921 – Vladimir Korolenko, Russian writer (b. 1853)
• 1925 – Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (b. 1877)
• 1926 – Emperor Taishō of Japan (b. 1879)
• 1933 – Francesc Macià i Llussà, Catalonian statesman (b. 1859)
• 1935 – Paul Bourget, French novelist and critic (b. 1852)
• 1938 – Karel Čapek, Czech author (b. 1890)
• 1940 – Agnes Ayres, American actress (b. 1898)
• 1944 – George Steer, British journalist (b. 1909)
• 1946 – W. C. Fields, American comedian (b. 1880)
• 1947 – Gaspar G. Bacon, American politician (b. 1886)
• 1949 – Leon Schlesinger, American film producer (b. 1884)
• 1950 – Neil Francis Hawkins, British fascist (b. 1903)
• 1952 – Margrethe Mather, photographer (b. 1886)
• 1953 – Patsy Donovan, Irish-born American baseball player (b. 1865)
• 1954 – Johnny Ace, American singer (b. 1929)
• 1956 – Robert Walser, Swiss writer (b. 1878)
• 1957 – Charles Pathé, French pioneer of film and record industries (b. 1863)
• 1961 – Otto Loewi, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)
• 1961 – Owen Brewster, American politician (b. 1888)
• 1963 – Tristan Tzara, Romanian writer (b. 1896)
• 1973 – İsmet İnönü, Turkish statesman (b. 1884)
• 1973 – Gabriel Voisin, French aviator (b. 1880)
• 1975 – Gaston Gallimard, French publisher (b. 1881)
• 1977 – Charlie Chaplin, English actor and film director (b. 1889)
• 1979 – Joan Blondell, American actress (b. 1906)
• 1979 – Jordi Bonet, Quebec muralist and sculptor (b. 1932)
• 1983 – Joan Miró, Catalan painter (b. 1893)
• 1988 – Ooka Shohei, Japanese novelist (b. 1909)
• 1988 – Edward Pelham-Clinton, 10th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne (b. 1920)
• 1989 – Nicolae Ceauşescu, President of S.R.Romania (b. 1918)
• 1989 – Elena Ceauşescu, Romanian politician (b. 1916)
• 1989 – Billy Martin, American baseball manager (b. 1928)
• 1992 – Monica Dickens, British writer (b. 1915)
• 1993 – Pierre Victor Auger, French physicist (b. 1899)
• 1994 – Zail Singh, President of India (b. 1916)
• 1995 – Dean Martin, American singer (b. 1917)
• 1995 – Emmanuel Levinas, French philosopher (b. 1906)
• 1996 – JonBenét Ramsey, American beauty queen and murder victim (b. 1990)
• 1996 – Bill Hewitt, Canadian sportscaster (b. 1928)
• 1997 – Anatoli Boukreev, Kazakh mountaineer (b. 1958)
• 1997 – Denver Pyle, American actor (b. 1920)
• 1998 – Bryan MacLean, American musician and songwriter (Love) (b. 1946)
• 1998 – John Pulman, English snooker player (b. 1926)
• 1999 – Peter Jeffrey, English actor (b. 1929)
• 2000 – Neil Hawke, Australian cricketer and footballer (b. 1939)
• 2000 – Willard Van Orman Quine, American philosopher (b. 1908)
• 2002 – William T. Orr, American television producer (b. 1917)
• 2003 – Nicholas Mavroules, American politician (b. 1929)
• 2004 – Gennady Strekalov, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1940)
• 2005 – Derek Bailey, English guitar virtuoso (b. 1930)
• 2005 – Birgit Nilsson, Swedish opera singer (b. 1918)
• 2005 – Robert Barbers, Philippine senator (b. 1944)
• 2006 – James Brown, American singer (b. 1933)
• 2006 – Hiroaki Hidaka, Japanese serial killer (b. 1962)
• 2007 – Desmond Barrick, English Cricketer (b. 1927)
• 2007 – Mighty King Kong, Kenyan reggae musician (b. 1973)
• 2007 – Jim Beauchamp, American baseball player (b. 1939)
• 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)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Anastasia of Sirmium (Catholic Church)
  • December 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Christmas Day, Christian holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. (International)
• Constitution Day (Republic of China)
• Malkh-Festival (Nakh peoples of Chechenya and Ingushetia)
• Quaid-e-Azam's Day (Pakistan)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

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