From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
December 26 is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 5 days remaining until the end of the year.
[edit] Events
- 1481 - Battle of Westbrook - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht.
- 1613 - Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, marries Frances Howard, occasioning John Donne's "Eclogue".
- 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.
- 1805 - Austria and France sign the Treaty of Pressburg.
- 1806 - Battles of Pultusk and Golymin: Russian forces hold French forces under Napoleon.
- 1811 - A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable.
- 1825 - Several Imperial Russia army officers lead circa 3000 soldiers on the Senate Square in the failed Decembrist uprising.
- 1848 - The Phi Delta Theta fraternity is founded at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
- 1860 - The first ever inter-club football match takes place between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at the Sandygate Road ground in Sheffield, England.
- 1861 - American Civil War: The Trent Affair: 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 - Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.
- 1862 - The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, killing 39.
- 1870 - The 12.8-km long Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps is completed.
- 1871 - Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years.
- 1883 - The Harbour Grace Affray between Irish Catholics and Protestant Orangemen causes five deaths in Newfoundland.
- 1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
- 1916 - Joseph Joffre is made Marshal of France.
- 1919 - Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee.
- 1925 - The Communist Party of India is founded.
- 1925 - Turkey adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
- 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 Royal Navy late the previous evening.
- 1944 - World War II: U.S. troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.
- 1945 - CFP franc and CFA franc are created.
- 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 as spectacular 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 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 is for the first time 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.
- 1986 - World Population reaches 5 billion according to www.ibiblio.org world population tracker.
- 1988 - The Nanjing Anti-African protests in Nanjing, the People's Republic of China begin.
- 1991 - The Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR.
- 1996 - Start of the largest strike in South Korean history.
- 1996 - The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification goes into force.
- 1996 - Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado.
- 1997 - The Soufriere Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat explodes, creating a small tsunami offshore.
- 1998 - Iraq announces 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, trees and the French national power grid (see Lothar).
- 2003 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam.
- 2004 - A 9.3 magnitude earthquake 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 230,000 people.
- 2005 - Boxing Day shooting on a busy shopping street in Toronto.
- 2006 - The 2006 Hengchun earthquake with 7.1 magnitude hit Taiwan.
[edit] Births
- 1194 - <a href="/wiki/Frederick_II,_Holy_Roman_