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MMVIII

December 25 in recent years

2008 (Thursday)

2007 (Tuesday)

2006 (Monday)

2005 (Sunday)

2004 (Saturday)

2003 (Thursday)

2002 (Wednesday)

2001 (Tuesday)

2000 (Monday)

December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 6 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 274 - Roman Emperor Aurelian dedicates a temple to Sol Invictus on the supposed day of the winter solstice and day of rebirth of the Sun.
• 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 - Coronation of William the Conqueror as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
• 1100 - Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned as the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity
• 1130 - Roger II of Sicily is crowned as the first King of Sicily
• 1223 - St. Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene.
• 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 exetutes the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia.
• 1599 - The city of Natal, Brazil is founded.
• 1643 - Christmas Island founded and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Ship 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.
• 1837 - Battle of Lake Okeechobee: United States forces defeat 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.
• 1932 - A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills ~70,000 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.
• 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 were 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.
• 1973 - The ARPANET crashes when a programming bug causes all ARPANET traffic to be routed through the server at Harvard University, causing the server to freeze.
• 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.
• 1979 - The Soviet Union airlifts forces into Afghanistan to begin its costly occupation.
• 1989 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, former communist dictator of Romania, and his wife 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.
• 2003 - The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe which was 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.

Births

For the birth of Jesus Christ, who is not confirmed to have been born on December 25, see the Christmas holiday.

• 1250 - John IV Laskaris, Byzantine Emperor (d. circa 1305)
• 1461 - Christina of Saxony, queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1521)
• 1583 - Orlando Gibbons, English composer (d. 1625)
• 1587 - Margarita of Austria, queen of Philip III of Spain (d. 1611)
• 1628 - Noël Coypel, French painter (d. 1707)
• 1642 (O.S.) - Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician (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)
• 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)
• 1810 - Alexandros Rhizos Rhankaves, Greek poet and statesman (d. 1892)
• 1821 - Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross (d. 1912)
• 1856 - Hans von Bartels, German painter (d. 1913)
• 1856 - Pud Galvin, American professional baseball pitcher (d. 1902)
• 1860 - Manuel Dimech, Maltese philosopher and social reformer (d. 1921)
• 1861 - Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Indian founder of Banaras Hindu University (d. 1946)
• 1863 - Charles Pathé, French pioneer of film and record industries (d. 1957)
• 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 Cardinal Innitzer, Austrian archbishop (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)
• 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 - 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)
• 1911 - Louise Bourgeois, sculptor
• 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, French 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)
• 1926 - Enrique Jorrín, Cuban composer and musician (d. 1987)
• 1927 - Nellie Fox, baseball player (d. 1975)
• 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 - Al Jackson, baseball player
• 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
• 1940 - Pete Brown, English poet and lyricist
• 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)
• 1945 - Noel Redding, English musician (d. 2003)
• 1945 - Rick Berman, Star Trek producer
• 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
• 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 - 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, from Aberdeen
• 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 - Hanford Dixon, American football player
• 1958 - Rickey Henderson, baseball player
• 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
• 1967 - Jason Thirsk, American bass player (d. 1996)
• 1968 - Helena Christensen, Danish model
• 1968 - Jim Dowd, American ice hockey player
• 1971 - Dido, English singer
• 1971 - Justin Trudeau, Canadian media personality
• 1971 - Noel Hogan, Irish musician
• 1972 - Josh Freese, American drummer
• 1972 - Mac Powell, American musician, singer/songwriter (lead singer of 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
• 1976 - Tuomas Holopainen, Finnish keyboardist and songwriter
• 1976 - Armin van Buuren, Dutch DJ & Producer
• 1977 - Jim Greco, American skateboarder
• 1977 - Uhm Ji-won, South Korean actress
• 1977 - Israel Vasquez, Current WBC Super bantamweight champion
• 1978 - Joel Porter, Australian footballer
• 1978 - Simon Jones, English cricketer
• 1980 - Marcus Trufant, American football player (Seattle Seahawks)
• 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
• 1982 - Shawn Andrews, American football player
• 1982 - Rob Edwards, Welsh footballer
• 1982 - Shystie, British rapper-songwriter
• 1984 - Chris Cahill, Samoan footballer
• 1984 - Alastair Cook, English cricketer
• 1984 - Georgia Moffett, British actress
• 1984 - Jessica Origliasso, Australian Singer (The Veronicas)
• 1984 - Lisa Origliasso, Australian Singer (The Veronicas)
• 1985 - Leon Pisani, Welsh singer
• 1985 - Perdita Weeks, British actress
• 1986 - Doug Loft, English footballer
• 1988 - Eric Gordon, American Basketball Player

Deaths

• 795 - Pope Adrian I
• 1156 - Peter the Venerable, Benedictine abbot of Cluny (b. c. 1092)
• 1635 - Samuel de Champlain, French explorer and founder of Quebec City (b. 1567)
• 1676 - Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England (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)
• 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 Federal Councillor (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, 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, was Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1886)
• 1950 - Neil Francis Hawkins, British fascist (b. 1903)
• 1953 - Patsy Donovan, Irish-born American baseball player (b. 1865)
• 1954 - Johnny Ace, American singer (b. 1929)
• 1961 - Otto Loewi, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)
• 1961 - Owen Brewster, U.S. Senator from Maine (b. 1888)
• 1963 - Tristan Tzara, Romanian-born writer (b. 1896)
• 1973 - İsmet İnönü, Turkish statesman (b. 1884)
• 1973 - Gabriel Voisin, French aviation pioneer (b. 1880)
• 1975 - Gaston Gallimard, French publisher (b. 1881)
• 1977 - Charlie Chaplin, English actor (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, Romanian dictator (executed) (b. 1918)
• 1989 - Elena Ceauşescu, Romanian politician (executed) (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 - JonBenet Ramsey, American beauty queen and murder victim (b. 1990)
• 1997 - Denver Pyle, American actor (b. 1920)
• 1998 - Bryan MacLean, American singer, 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

Holidays and observances

• Christmas Day Christian Feast Day to celebrate the birth of Jesus, instituted in Rome circa 250
• (Re) birth of Sol Invictus. The winter solstice feast in the Roman Empire from 274 to 391
• Quaid-e-Azam's Day - Pakistan
• Constitution Day - Republic of China now based in Taiwan
• The feast day of Anastasia of Sirmium
• Yule

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: December 25

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