December 26

is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. There are 5 days remaining.

Events

1481 - Battle of Westbroek - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht.
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.
1825 - Several Imperial Russia army officers lead circa 3000 soldiers on the Senate Square in the failed Decembrist uprising.
1825 - The Erie Canal opens.
1848 - The Phi Delta Theta fraternity is founded.
1861 - American Civil War: 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.
1870 - The 12.8-km long Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps is completed.
1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
1908 - Jack Johnson becomes the first African American heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.
1916 - Joseph Joffre is made Marshal of France.
1925 - The Communist Party of India is founded.
1925 - Turkey adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
1931 - Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest existing Latino fraternity is founded.
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 British Royal Navy late the previous evening.
1944 - The play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is first publicly performed.
1944 - World War II: U.S. troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.
1945 - CFP franc and CFA franc are created.
1946 - The Flamingo Hotel opens in Las Vegas.
1947 - Twenty-six inches of snow falls in 16 hours in New York City.
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 such 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 troops 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 was for the first time given to a non-human, the personal computer.
1984 - Princess Astrid of Belgium marries Archduke Lorenz of Austria-Este.
1986 - The first long-running American television soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, airs its final episode after thirty-five years on the air.
1988 - The Nanjing Anti-African protests in Nanjing, China begin.
1991 - Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR.
1991 - Mount Pinatubo erupts.
1996 - JonBenét Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty queen, is found murdered in her family's basement in Boulder, Colorado.
1996 - The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification goes into force.
1998 - Iraq announced 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 and trees and the French national power grid (see Lothar).
2002 - French Raelian scientist Brigitte Boisselier says Clonaid has delivered the first of a supposed five clone babies through cesarean section.
2003 - A major earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam.
2004 - An earthquake measuring 9.3 on the Richter magnitude scale 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 more than 300,000.

Births

1194 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1250)
1532 - Guilielmus Xylander, German classical scholar (d. 1576)
1536 - Yi I, Korean Confucian scholar (d. 1584)
1646 - Robert Bolling, English settler in Virginia (d. 1709)
1687 - Johann Georg Pisendel, German musician (d. 1755)
1716 - Thomas Gray, English writer (d. 1771)
1716 - Jean François de Saint-Lambert, French poet (d. 1803)
1723 - Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm, German writer (d. 1807)
1736 - Antonio Caldara, Italian composer (b. 1670)
1737 - Prince Josias of Coburg, Austrian general (d. 1815)
1751 - Clement Hofbauer, Austrian missionary and saint (d. 1820)
1780 - Mary Fairfax Somerville, British mathematician (d. 1872)
1782 - Filaret Drozdov, Metropolitan of Moscow (d. 1867)
1791 - Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor (d. 1871)
1819 - E. D. E. N. Southworth, American novelist (d. 1899)
1822 - Dion Boucicault, Irish actor and playwright (d. 1890)
1837 - George Dewey, U. S. admiral (d. 1917)
1853 - René Bazin, French novelist (d. 1932)
1859 - William Stephens, U.S. political figure (d. 1944)
1872 - Norman Angell, British politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1967)
1873 - Thomas Wass, English cricketer (d. 1953)
1890 - Uncle Charlie Osborne, American fiddler (d. 1992)
1891 - Henry Miller, American writer (d. 1980)
1893 - Mao Zedong, Chinese military leader and politician (d. 1976)
1902 - Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan, Russian painter (d. 1980)
1903 - Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (d. 1995)
1904 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (d. 1980)
1914 - Richard Widmark, American actor
1921 - Steve Allen, American actor, comedian, composer, and author (d. 2000)
1927 - Alan King, American comedian and actor (d. 2004)
1927 - Denis Quilley, British actor (d. 2003)
1933 - Ugly Dave Grey, Australian television personality
1935 - Abdul "Duke" Fakir, American singer (The Four Tops)
1935 - Norm Ullman, Canadian ice hockey player
1937 - John Horton Conway, British mathematician
1937 - Jay Heimowitz, American poker player
1938 - Bahram Beyzayi, Iranian play writer and film director
1940 - Edward C. Prescott, American economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner
1940 - Phil Spector, American music producer
1942 - Gray Davis, Governor of California, 1998-2003
1945 - John Walsh, American talk show host
1947 - Carlton Fisk, baseball player
1949 - José Ramos Horta, Foreign Minister of East Timor, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
1954 - Ozzie Smith, baseball player
1954 - Steve Steen, English actor
1955 - Evan Bayh, U.S. Senator from Indiana
1956 - David Sedaris, American essayist
1959 - Koji Morimoto, Japanese animated film director
1960 - Temuera Morrison, New Zealand actor
1961 - John Lynch, Northern Irish actor
1963 - Lars Ulrich, Danish drummer (Metallica)
1971 - Jared Leto, American actor
1971 - Jonathan M. Parisen, American film director
1975 - Marcelo Ríos, Chilean tennis player
1976 - Lea De Mae, Czech actress (d. 2004)
1978 - Kaoru Sugayama, Japanese volleyball player
1979 - Chris Daughtry, American Idol contestant

Deaths

268 - Pope Dionysius
418 - Pope Zosimus
1350 - Jean de Marigny, French bishop
1458 - Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (b. 1393)
1476 - Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1444)
1530 - Babur, Emperor of the Mogul empire (b. 1483)
1574 - Charles of Guise, French cardinal (b. 1524)
1624 - Simon Marius, German astronomer (b. 1573)
1731 - Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French writer (b. 1672)
1771 - Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher (b. 1715)
1780 - John Fothergill, English physician (b. 1712)
1784 - Seth Warner, American revolutionary leader (b. 1743)
1786 - Gasparo Gozzi, Italian critic and dramatist (b. 1713)
1869 - Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille, French physiologist (b. 1797)
1890 - Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist (b. 1822)
1909 - Frederic Remington, American artist (b. 1861)
1933 - Anatoly Lunacharsky, Russian literary critic and politician (b. 1875)
1960 - Watsuji Tetsuro, Japanese philosopher (b. 1889)
1963 - George Wagner, American professional wrestler and television personality (b. 1915)
1972 - Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (b. 1884)
1973 - Harold B. Lee, 11th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1899)
1974 - Jack Benny, American comedian (b. 1894)
1977 - Howard Hawks, American film director and writer (b. 1896)
1981 - Savithri, Telugu, Tamil Actress
1983 - Violet Carson, OBE, British actress
1985 - Dian Fossey, American gorilla specialist (b. 1932)
1986 - Elsa Lanchester, British-born actress (b. 1902)
1999 - Curtis Mayfield, American musician (b. 1942)
1999 - Shankar Dayal Sharma, President of India (b. 1918)
2000 - Jason Robards, American actor (b. 1922)
2001 - Nigel Hawthorne, English actor (b. 1929)
2002 - Herb Ritts, American photographer (b. 1952)
2002 - Armand Zildjian, American cymbal manufacturer (b. 1921)
2003 - Bomi Bulsara, father of rock singer Freddie Mercury (b. 1908)
2003 - Sir Alan Bates, British actor (b. 1934)
2004 - Marianne Heiberg, Norwegian mediator (b. 1945)
2004 - Troy Broadbridge, Australian football player (b. 1980)
2004 - Aki Sirkesalo, Finnish musician (b. 1962)
2004 - Reggie White, American football player (b. 1961)
2005 - Kerry Packer, Australian businessman (b. 1937)
2005 - Vincent Schiavelli, American actor (b. 1948)
2005 - Erich Topp, World War Two U-Boat Ace (b. 1914)

Holidays and observances

December 26 is a public holiday in most Christian countries, a notable exception being the United States (unless Christmas Day falls on a Sunday like it did in 2005 and will again in 2011, in which it is the observed federal holiday). In Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Scandinavia, Christmas Day and the following day are called First and Second Christmas Day.

R.C. Saints - Saint Stephen
St. Stephen's Day, a public holiday in Catalonia, Croatia, Czech Republic, and the Republic of Ireland.
The first day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
Boxing Day in the Commonwealth of Nations.
Wren day in Ireland and the Isle of Man.
Australia - Proclamation Day (South Australian public holiday), for the foundation of the Australian state of South Australia on December 28 1836 but commemorated on this day.
Slovenia - Independence and Unity Day (1990)
South Africa - Day of Goodwill, a public holiday
First day of Kwanzaa
Mandala Pooja at Sabarimala in Kerala, India
Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia - Tsunami Awareness Day/Tsunami Memorial (or Remembrance) Day

Other annual occurrences

Period of Ursids meteor shower ends about this day
Wrenboys celebrate Wren in Ireland
First day of Junkanoo street parade in the Bahamas (the second day is on the New Year's Day)

External links