December 26

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 - The Phi Iota Alpha 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 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.
• 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 9.0 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)
• 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)
• 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)
• 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)
• 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 - Jay Heimowitz, American poker player
• 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
• 1961 - John Lynch, Northern Irish actor
• 1963 - Lars Ulrich, Danish drummer (Metallica)
• 1971 - Jared Leto, American actor
• 1971 - Jonathan M. Parisen, American film director
• 1976 - Lea De Mae, Czech actress (d. 2004)

Deaths

• 268 - Pope Dionysius
• 418 - Pope Zosimus
• 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, 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 - Sir Alan Bates, British actor (b. 1934)
• 2004 - Marianne Heiberg, Norwegian mediator (b. 1945)
• 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 Rememberance) 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)
• The First day of Hanukkah in the year 2005

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• Today in History: December 26

December 25 - December 27 - November 26 - January 26 -- listing of all days