December 26 - Events

Events

• 1481 – Battle of Westbroek: Holland defeats troops of Utrecht.
• 1613 – Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, marries Frances Howard.
• 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 – Second Battle of Wissembourg: French defeat Austrians.
• 1793 – The wedding of Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia and Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz takes place.
• 1799 – Four thousand people attend George Washington's funeral where Henry Lee declares him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
• 1805 – Austria and France sign the Treaty of Pressburg.
• 1806 – Battles of Pultusk and Golymin: Russian forces hold French forces under Napoleon.
• 1811 – A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable.
• 1860 – The first ever inter-club football match takes place between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at theSandygate Road ground in Sheffield, England.
• 1861 – American Civil War: The Trent Affair: 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.
• 1862 – Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.
• 1862 – The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Native Americans die.
• 1870 – The 12.8-km long Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps is completed.
• 1871 – Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years.
• 1883 – The Harbour Grace Affray between Irish Catholics and Protestant Orangemen causes five deaths in Newfoundland.
• 1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
• 1919 – Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee.
• 1925 – Turkey adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
• 1933 – FM radio is patented.
• 1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.
• 1943 – World War II: German warship Scharnhorst is sunk off of Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces.
• 1944 – World War II: Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.
• 1945 – CFP franc and CFA franc are created.
• 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.
• 1972 – Vietnam War: As part of Operation Linebacker II, 120 American B-52 Stratofortress bombers attacked Hanoi, including 78 launched from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the largest single combat launch in Strategic Air Command history.
• 1975 – The Tupolev Tu-144 goes into service in Soviet Union.
• 1976 – The Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) is founded.
• 1980 – Aeroflot puts the Ilyushin Il-86 into service.
• 1982 – Time Magazine's Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer.
• 1986 – The first long-running American television soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, airs its final episode after thirty-five years on the air.
• 1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the USSR.
• 1994 – Four Armed Islamic Group hijackers seize control of Air France Flight 8969. When the plane lands at Marseille, a French Gendarmerie assault team boards the aircraft and kills the perpetrators.
• 1996 – Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado.
• 1996 – Start of the largest strike in South Korean history.
• 1997 – The Soufriere Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat explodes, creating a small tsunami offshore.
• 1998 – Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones.
• 1999 – The storm Lothar sweeps across Central Europe, killing 137 and causing US$1.3 billion in damage.
• 2003 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam.
• 2004 – A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, theMaldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 230,000 people including over 1700 on a moving train.
• 2004 – Orange Revolution: The final run-off election is held under heavy international scrutiny.
• 2005 – A gang-related shooting on a busy shopping street in Toronto kills one and injures six.
• 2006 – A 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Hengchun, Pingtung, Taiwan, killing two people and causing severe communication disruptions in southeast Asia.
• 2006 – An oil pipeline in Lagos, Nigeria explodes, killing at least 260.