December 25
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are six days remaining until the end of the year.
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Births [change]
- 4 BC – AD 1 – Jesus, Christian icon (The exact day and year are argued over.) (d. circa 33)
- 1424 – Margaret Stewart, Dauphine of France (d. 1445)
- 1583 – Orlando Gibbons, English composer (d. 1625)
- 1628 – Noël Coypel, French painter (d. 1707)
- 1642 – (OS) – 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 Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal and Munster
- 1674 – Thomas Halyburton, Scottish theologian (d. 1712)
- 1700 – Leopold II of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian general (d. 1758)
- 1717 – Pope Pius VI, Roman Catholic pope during the French revolution. (d. 1799)
- 1720 – Anna Maria Mozart, mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d. 1778)
- 1742 – Charlotte von Stein, friend of Goethe (d. 1827)
- 1757 – Benjamin Pierce, U.S. politician (d 1839)
- 1763 – Claude Chappe, telecommunications pioneer (d. 1805)
- 1771 – Dorothy Wordsworth, English diarist and sister of William Wordsworth (d. 1855)
- 1821 – Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross (d. 1912)
- 1856 – Hans von Bartels, German painter (d. 1913)
- 1861 – Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, founder of Banaras Hindu University (d. 1946)
- 1875 – Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, Archbishop of Vienna (d. 1955)
- 1876 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan (d. 1948)
- 1876 – Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
- 1878 – Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver and automotive pioneer (d. 1941)
- 1883 – Maurice Utrillo, French artist (d. 1955)
- 1884 – Evelyn Nesbit, actress (d. 1967)
- 1886 – Kid Ory, jazz musician (d. 1973)
- 1887 – Conrad Nicholson Hilton, American hotelier (d. 1979)
- 1890 – Noel Odell, British mountaineer (d. 1987)
- 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, German-Canadian physicist (d. 1999)
- 1906 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
- 1906 – Sir Lew Grade, movie producer (d. 1998)
- 1907 – Cab Calloway, bandleader (d. 1994)
- 1908 – Quentin Crisp, British author, activist for homosexuals (d. 1999)
- 1908 – Helen Twelvetrees, actress (d. 1958)
- 1913 – Henri Nannen, journalist and publisher (d. 1966)
- 1918 – Ahmed Ben Bella, first President of Algeria (d. 2012)
- 1918 – Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (d. 1981)
- 1924 – Moktar Ould Daddah, first President of Mauritania (d. 2003)
- 1924 – Rod Serling, American television scriptwriter (d. 1975)
- 1924 – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister of India
- 1925 – Carlos Castaneda, author (d. 1998)
- 1927 – Nellie Fox, baseball player (d. 1975)
- 1927 – Ram Narayan, Indian musician
- 1928 – Dick Miller, actor
- 1936 – Princess Alexandra of Kent, British royal
- 1936 – Ismail Merchant, movie producer (d. 2005)
- 1943 – Hanna Schygulla, actress
- 1944 – Jairzinho, Brazilian footballer
- 1945 – Noel Redding, British bassist (d. 2003)
- 1945 – Gary Sandy, actor
- 1945 – Kenny Stabler, American football player
- 1946 – Jimmy Buffett, singer, songwriter
- 1946 – Larry Csonka, American football player
- 1946 – Gene Lamont, American baseball player and manager
- 1948 – Barbara Mandrell, singer, actress
- 1949 – Sissy Spacek, American actress
- 1949 – Joe Louis Walker, American blues musician
- 1949 – Nawaz Sharif, Pakistani politician
- 1950 – Manny Trillo, baseball player
- 1950 – Karl Rove, political advisor to President George W. Bush
- 1954 – Robin Campbell, guitarist and singer (UB40)
- 1954 – Annie Lennox, Scottish singer (Eurythmics)
- 1957 – Shane MacGowan, Irish musician
- 1958 – Hanford Dixon, American football player
- 1958 – Rickey Henderson, American baseball player
- 1959 – Michael P. Anderson, American astronaut (d. 2003)
- 1961 – Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian senator
- 1962 – Dean Cameron, American actor
- 1967 – Jason Thirsk, American bass player (Pennywise)
- 1968 – Helena Christensen, Danish model
- 1971 – Dido, English singer
- 1971 – Noel Hogan, guitarist and main co-songwriter of The Cranberries band
- 1975 – Marcus Trescothick, English cricketer
- 1976 – Tuomas Holopainen, keyboardist and composer (Nightwish)
- 1976 – Armin van Buuren, Dutch DJ
- 1980 – Reika Hashimoto, Japanese actress and model
- 1984 – The Veronicas, Australian singers
- 1984 – Alistair Cook, English cricketer
- 1984 – Georgia Moffett, English actress
Deaths [change]
- 820 – Leo V, Byzantine Emperor (b. 775)
- 1635 – Samuel de Champlain, French explorer (b. 1567)
- 1875 – Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1851)
- 1926 – Yoshihito, Emperor of Japan (b. 1879)
- 1946 – WC Fields, American movie actor (b. 1880)
- 1957 – Charles Pathe, French pioneer of movie and record industries (b. 1863)
- 1961 – Otto Loewi, German doctor, won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)
- 1973 – Ismet Inonu, Turkish politician (b. 1884)
- 1977 – Charles Chaplin, English movie actor (b. 1889)
- 1983 – Joan Miro, Catalan artist (b. 1893)
- 1989 – Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian dictator (executed) (b. 1918)
- 1989 – Elena Ceausescu, First Lady of Romania (executed) (b. 1918)
- 1994 – Zail Singh, President of India (b. 1916)
- 1995 – Dean Martin, American singer (b. 1917)
- 2000 – Willard Van Orman Quine, American philosopher (b. 1908)
- 2005 – Birgit Nilsson, Swedish soprano (b. 1918)
- 2006 – James Brown, American singer (b. 1933)
- 2008 – Eartha Kitt, American singer (b. 1927)
- 2009 – Vic Chesnutt, American musician (b. 1964)
- 2009 – Knut Haugland, Norwegian explorer (b. 1917)
- 2010 – Carlos Andres Perez, President of Venezuela (b. 1922)
Events [change]
- 800 – Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.
- 1066 – Coronation of William the Conqueror as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
- 1223 – Saint Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene.
- 1599 – The city of Natal, Brazil is founded.
- 1758 – Halley's Comet passes by Earth, just as Edmond Halley had predicted.
- 1776 – George Washington and his army cross the Delaware River to attack the monarchy's Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey.
- 1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" (Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria).
- 1837 – Battle of Okeechobee – United States forces defeat Seminole Native Americans.
- 1868 – US President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War rebels.
- 1868 – Ezo Republic founded in Hokkaido by Shogunate rebels.
- 1914 – Just after midnight on Christmas morning, German troops on the Western Front cease firing their guns and artillery and start singing Christmas carols. Crossing the No man's land, they trade gifts with the enemy forces that face them. The Christmas truce lasts for several days, depending on the location.
- 1917 – Why Marry?, first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre in New York City
- 1926 – Hirohito becomes Emperor of Japan, succeeding the Taisho Emperor.
- 1932 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills ~70,000 people
- 1939 – Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was read on radio for the first time (CBS radio)
- 1939 – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is introduced by Montgomery Ward stores
- 1941 – Hong Kong surrenders to the Japanese.
- 1947 – The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.
- 1952 – Queen Elizabeth II broadcasts her first Christmas message.
- 1953 – A fire broke out in Shek Kip Mei, Hong Kong.
- 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, Australia
- 1977 – Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with President of Egypt Anwar Sadat
- 1989 – Nicolae Ceausescu, former communist dictator of Romania, and his wife Elena were condemned to death and executed under a wide range of charges by a court perceived by many as illegitimate.
- 1990 – First trial run of the World Wide Web
- 1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day).
- 2002 – New Delhi Metro was introduced.
- 2003 – The space probe Beagle 2 goes missing on the planet Mars.
- 2004 – Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which will land on Saturn's moon, Titan on January 14, 2005.
- 2007 – A tiger escapes from San Francisco Zoo and attacks three people, killing one.
- 2009 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempts a terrorist attack, while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
Holidays [change]
- Christmas Day (Western Christianity), official holiday in many countries
- Public holiday in Pakistan, celebrating the birthday of Muhammad Ali Jinnah
