Events
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 abdicate his title (Caesar).
Constantius allows him to live as a private citizen
on a state pension.
496 – Clovis I, king of the Franks, is baptized
into the Catholic faith at Rheims, by Saint Remigius.
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 defeat the Spanish conquistadors and executes
the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia.
1643 – Christmas Island found and named by Captain
William Mynors of the East India Company vessel,
the Royal Mary.
1776 – George Washington and the Continental Army
cross the Delaware River to attack the Kingdom
of Great Britain's Hessian mercenaries in Trenton,
New Jersey.
1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military
Academy concludes after beginning the previous
evening.
1837 – Battle of Lake Okeechobee.
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 – 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) maneuver,
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 President
of Romania and his wife, First-Deputy Prime-Minister
Elena are condemned to death and executed after
a flawed and summary trial.
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.
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
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)
For details, contact Datacentre
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