Events
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 – William the Conqueror is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
1100 – Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity.
1130 – Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned 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 executes the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia.
1599 – The city of Natal, Brazil is founded.
1643 – Christmas Island found 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.
1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.
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.
1927 – The Vietnamese Nationalist Party is founded.
1932 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills 275 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.
1946 – The first in Europe artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated within Soviet nuclear reactor F-1.
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 are 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) maneouver, 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.
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.
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.
2000 – Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a bill into law that officially establishes a new National Anthem of Russia, with music adopted from the anthem of the Soviet Union that was composed by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov.
2003 – The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, 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.
2009 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab unsuccessfully attempts a terrorist attack against the US while on board a flight to Detroit Metro Airport Northwest Airlines Flight 253
1250 – John IV Laskaris, Byzantine Emperor (d. c. 1305)
1461 – Christina of Saxony, queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1521)
1583 – Orlando Gibbons, English composer (d. 1625)
1584 – Margaret of Austria, queen of Spain and Portugal (d. 1611)
1628 – Noël Coypel, French painter (d. 1707)
1642 – Isaac Newton, English scientist (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)
1745 – Chevalier de Saint-Georges - "Black Mozart", African–French Swordsman, Soldier of Fortune, and Composer (d. 1799)
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)
1829 – Patrick Gilmore, Irish-American composer (d. 1892)
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)
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 Innitzer, Austrian cardinal (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)
1883 – Hugo Bergmann, German and Israeli Jewish philosopher (d. 1975)
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 – Noel Odell, British mountaineer (d. 1987)
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)
1908 – Ernest L. Massad, U.S. Army general (d. 1993)
1911 – Louise Bourgeois, sculptor (d. 2010)
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)
1927 – Ram Narayan, Indian sarangi player
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 – Stephen Barnett, American legal scholar who opposed the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 (d. 2009)
1935 – Al Jackson, baseball player
1935 – Anne Roiphe, American author and feminist
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
1939 – Bob James, American composer and musician
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)
1944 – Nigel Starmer-Smith, English Rugby Union commentator.
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 – Peter Boardman, British mountaineer (d. 1982)
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
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
1958 – Cheryl Chase, American voice actor
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
1965 – David Rath, Czech politician
1966 – Toshihiro Arai, Japanese rally driver
1967 – Jason Thirsk, American bass player (d. 1996)
1968 – Helena Christensen, Danish model
1968 – Jim Dowd, American ice hockey player
1970 – Emmanuel Amuneke, Nigerian footballer
1971 – Dido, English singer
1971 – Justin Trudeau, Canadian media personality and politician
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
1973 – Ewen Macintosh, English Actor
1974 – Nagma, Indian actress
1975 – Marcus Trescothick, English cricketer
1975 – Hideki Okajima, Japanese baseball player
1975 – Rob Mariano, American reality show contestant
1975 – Choi Sung-Yong, South Korean footballer
1976 – Tuomas Holopainen, Finnish keyboardist and songwriter (Nightwish)
1976 – Armin van Buuren, Dutch DJ & Producer
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
1979 – Hyun Young-Min, South Korean footballer
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
1982 – Trenesha Biggers, American professional wrestler
1984 – Chris Cahill, Samoan footballer
1984 – Alastair Cook, English cricketer
1984 – Georgia Moffett, British actress
1984 – The Veronicas, Australian singers (twin sisters)
1985 – Leon Pisani, Welsh singer
1985 – Perdita Weeks, British actress
1986 – Doug Loft, English footballer
1987 – Justin Sweeney, Australian rules footballer
1988 – Eric Gordon, American basketball player
1988 – Lukas Hinds-Johnson, German rugby player
Deaths
795 – Pope Adrian I
820 – Leo V, Byzantine Emperor (b. 775)
1156 – Peter the Venerable, French Benedictine abbot of Cluny (b. c.1092)
1635 – Samuel de Champlain, French explorer (b. 1567)
1676 – Matthew Hale, English jurist (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)
1763 – Suraj Mal, Sinsiwar Jat ruler of Bharatpur (b. 1707)
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 jurist (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, American politician (b. 1886)
1949 – Leon Schlesinger, American film producer (b. 1884)
1950 – Neil Francis Hawkins, British fascist (b. 1903)
1952 – Margrethe Mather, photographer (b. 1886)
1953 – Patsy Donovan, Irish-born American baseball player (b. 1865)
1954 – Johnny Ace, American singer (b. 1929)
1956 – Robert Walser, Swiss writer (b. 1878)
1957 – Charles Pathé, French pioneer of film and record industries (b. 1863)
1961 – Otto Loewi, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)
1961 – Owen Brewster, American politician (b. 1888)
1963 – Tristan Tzara, Romanian writer (b. 1896)
1973 – İsmet İnönü, Turkish statesman (b. 1884)
1973 – Gabriel Voisin, French aviator (b. 1880)
1975 – Gaston Gallimard, French publisher (b. 1881)
1977 – Charlie Chaplin, English actor and film director (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 in revolution) (b. 1918)
1989 – Elena Ceauşescu, Romanian politician(executed in revolution) (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)
1996 – Bill Hewitt, Canadian sportscaster (b. 1928)
1997 – Anatoli Boukreev, Kazakh mountaineer (b. 1958)
1997 – Denver Pyle, American actor (b. 1920)
1998 – Bryan MacLean, American 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)
2008 – Eartha Kitt, American actress and singer (b. 1927)
2009 – Vic Chesnutt, American singer and songwriter (b. 1964)
Holidays and observances
Christian Feast Day:
Anastasia of Sirmium (Catholic Church)
December 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Christmas Day, Christian holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. (International)
Constitution Day (Taiwan)
Malkh-Festival (Nakh peoples of Chechenya and Ingushetia)
Quaid-e-Azam's Day (Pakistan)
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