December 26......

December 26 is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 5 days remaining in the year on this date.

EVENTS

● 268 - St Dionysius ends his reign as Catholic Pope

● 418 - St Zosimus ends his reign as Catholic Pope

● 795 - St Leo III begins his reign as Catholic Pope

● 1198 - French bishop Odo van Sully condemns Zottenfeest

● 1481 - Battle of Westbroek - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht.

● 1492 - 1st Spanish settlement in New World founded, by Columbus

● 1531 - German reformer Martin Luther declared: 'The inner man is a saint; the outer man is a sinner. That is why we confess in the Creed that the church is holy but pray for forgiveness of sins in the Lord's Prayer.'

● 1568 - Uprising of Morisco's against suppression in Granada

● 1620 - Elizabeth Báthory's crimes are uncovered.

● 1620 - The Pilgrim Fathers landed at New Plymouth, MA, to found Plymouth Colony, with John Carver as Governor. Plymouth Colony was settled by the "Mayflower" colonists. (In 1691 Plymouth joined other neighboring settlements to form the royal colony of Massachusetts.)

● 1659 - Long Parliament reforms in Westminster

● 1748 - France & Austria signs treaty about Southern Netherlands

● 1773 - Expulsion of tea ships from Philadelphia

● 1776 - American Revolutionary War: The British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton. This was the result of Washington crossing the Delaware River the night before.

● 1787 - Anti-Federalist mob, displeased that a Pennsylvania State Convention ratified the U.S. Constitution, attack a framer of the document, James Wilson (key voter for Declaration of Independence as well), with barrel staves and nearly kill him.

● 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.

● 1799 - George Washington is eulogized by Colonel Henry Lee as ''first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.''

● 1805 - Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts established, Philadelphia

● 1805 - Austria and France signed the Treaty of Pressburg.

● 1806 - Battles of Pultusk and Golymin: Russian forces hold French forces under Napoleon.

● 1813 - Zamose, Modlin, Torgau surrender to allied armies

● 1825 - Several Imperial Russia army officers lead about 3000 soldiers on the Senate Square in the failed Decembrist uprising.

● 1825 - The Erie Canal opens.

● 1830 - Birth of William Caven, Scottish-born Canadian Presbyterian leader. He taught at Knox College, in Toronto, the last 39 years of his life. Though staunchly conservative, Caven was genuinely interested in social issues and thoroughly committed to missions.

● 1848 - The Phi Delta Theta fraternity is founded.

● 1848 - 1st gold seekers arrive in Panamá en route to San Francisco

● 1848 - William & Ellen Craft escape from slavery in Georgia

● 1854 - Wood-pulp paper 1st exhibited, Buffalo

● 1854 - Nisqually tribe makes treaty at Medicine Creek, Wash., ceding all lands to the U.S.

● 1860 - Maiden voyage of 1st steamship owned by 1 man (C. Vanderbilt)

● 1860 - Major Robert Anderson, under cover of darkness, concentrated his small force at Fort Sumter

● 1860 - The first ever inter-club football match takes place between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at Sandygate in Sheffield, England.

● 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.

● 1862 - 39 Santee Lakota simultaneously hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Mankato, Minn.

● 1862 - 1st US navy hospital ship enters service

● 1865 - James H. Mason of Franklin, Massachusetts, patents 1st US coffee percolator

● 1870 - The 12.8-km long Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps is completed.

● 1872 - England: Birth of Peace advocate Norman Angell.

● 1872 - 4th largest snowfall in NYC recorded history (18")

● 1877 - US: Workingmen's Party reorganized as the Socialist Labor Party. Liberty, holds 1st national convention and fly an inverted U.S. flag as a signal of distress.

● 1878 - 1st US store to install electric lights, Philadelphia

● 1887 - Birth of Charles Brandon Booth, American social reformer and head of the Volunteers of America, 1949-58. Booth was the grandson of Salvation Army founder William Booth.

● 1890 - King Mwanga of Uganda signs contract with East Africa Company

● 1893 - Mao Tse-tung, the Chinese statesman who led the communist revolution in China and became its first communist leader, was born.

● 1894 - Birth of African American novelist Jean Toomer. Known as part of the "Harlem Renaissance."

● 1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium, the first known radioactive element.

● 1899 - Mafeking: Bathe-Powells failed assault up fort Game Tree: 24 killed

● 1902 - England: Constitutive Congress of the Federation of the Anarchist Groups of Yiddish language of the United Kingdom and Paris held in London.

● 1908 - Texan boxer "Galveston Jack" Johnson becomes the first African American heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia in 14 rounds by TKO.

● 1913 - Writer and scathing social critic Ambrose Bierce ("The Devil's Dictionary"), travelling with Pancho Villa's army in Mexico, writes his last letter and is never heard from again.

● 1916 - Joseph Joffre is made Marshal of France.

● 1917 - Birth of Jose Peiro Olives. Son of Juan Peiro Belis, theorist and militant of Spanish anarcho-syndicalism. In 1936, volunteered in a confederal column and fought Franco's fascists at the fronts in Aragon, Raising, and Catalonia. With the defeat of the Republic, sought refuge in France and was interned in refugee camps. Participated in the resistance in France and Spanish exile organizations, agitating for the re-establishment of freedoms in Spain.

● 1917 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson orders federal government to seize control of the railroads for the duration of WW I.

● 1921 - The Catholic Irish Free State became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain.

● 1924 - Judy Garland, age 2½, billed as Baby Frances, show business debut

● 1925 - The Communist Party of India is founded.

● 1925 - Turkey adopts the Gregorian Calendar.

● 1925 - NHL record 141 shots as New York Americans (73) beat Pittsburgh Pirates (68) 3-1. New York's Jake Forbes makes 67 saves; Pittsburgh's Ray Waters makes 70 saves.

● 1928 - Johnny Weissmuller announces his retirement from amateur swimming

● 1931 - SS-Sturmbannführer Reinhard Heydrich marries Lina von Osten

● 1931 - Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest existing Latino fraternity is founded.

● 1932 - Earthquake kills 70,000 in Kansu China

● 1933 - U.S. government forswears armed intervention in Western Hemisphere nations. Simultaneous with invention of first laugh track.

● 1933 - The Nissan Motor Company is organized in Tokyo, Japan.

● 1933 - FM radio is patented.

● 1936 - Israel Philharmonic Orchestra forms

● 1939 - Earthquake in East Anatolia Turkey

● 1939 - Mine strikes in Borinage Brussels

● 1941 - Winston Churchill becomes 1st British PM to address a joint meeting of Congress, warning that the Axis would "stop at nothing"

● 1943 - World War II: The German warship Scharnhorst sinks off the coast of North Cape in Norway after being attacked by the Royal Navy late the previous evening.

● 1944 - Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago, IL.

● 1944 - World War II: U.S. troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.

● 1944 - Budapest surrounded by Soviet army

● 1945 - CFP franc and CFA franc are created.

● 1946 - The Flamingo Hotel opens in Las Vegas. (start of an era)

● 1947 - British transfer Heard & McDonald Islands (Indian Ocean) to Australia

● 1947 - Heavy snow blankets Northeast, buries NYC under 25.8" of snow in 16 hours; that same day, Los Angeles set a record high of 84º F. The severe weather was blamed for about 80 deaths.

● 1948 - Cardinal Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy.

● 1953 - "Big Sister" was heard for the last time on CBS Radio. The show ran for 17 years.

● 1954 - "The Shadow" aired on radio for the last time.

● 1955 - RKO is 1st to announce sale of its film library to TV

● 1956 - Fidel Castro attempted a secret landing in Cuba to overthrow the Batista regime. All but 11 of his supporters were killed.

● 1959 - The first charity walk took place, along Icknield Way, in aid of the World Refugee Fund.

● 1963 - Beatles release "I Want To Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There"

● 1963 - US furnishes cereal to USSR

● 1964 - Beatles' "I Feel Fine" single goes #1 & stays #1 for 3 weeks

● 1964 - Moors Murderers claim last victim

● 1965 - Paul McCartney is interviewed on pirate radio station Radio Caroline

● 1966 - Time magazine declares "The Younger Generation" Man of the Year.

● 1966 - The first Kwanzaa celebration is organized in Los Angeles, California, by Dr. Maulana Karenga, chairman of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach. Establishes Kwanzaa as a non-religious African-American holiday to celebrate family, community, and culture for seven days, today through New Year's Day. After the Watts riots in Los Angeles, Karenga searched for ways to bring African Americans together as a community. He researched African "first fruit" harvest celebrations, and combined aspects of several, such as those of the Ashanti and the Zulu, to form the basis of Kwanzaa. The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase matunda ya kwanza, which means "first fruits" in Swahili. Each family celebrates Kwanzaa in its own way, but celebrations often include songs and dances, African drums, storytelling, poetry reading, and a large traditional meal.

● 1967 - The BBC broadcasts "The Magical Mystery Tour"

● 1967 - Dave Brubeck Quartet formally disbands

● 1968 - Arab terrorists in Athens fire on El Al plane, kills 1

● 1968 - Led Zeppelin's concert debut in Boston as opener for Vanilla Fudge

● 1970 - 'Golden girl' of British athletics dies; British Olympic medalist Lillian Board MBE has died after losing her battle against a virulent form of cancer. She was only 22.

● 1970 - American missionary and apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'We can fail after we are truly Christians because becoming a Christian does not rob us of our true humanity.'

● 1971 - Two dozen Vietnam Veterans Against the War "liberate" the Statue of Liberty with a sit-in to protest resumed bombings in Vietnam, and fly an inverted U.S. flag from the crown as a signal of distress.

● 1972 - Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, died in Kansas City, Mo., at age 88. Famous for his "The Buck Stops Here"; he had no middle name just the initial S.

● 1972 - A study rates conditions in half of Washington's state prisons to be "inhuman."

● 1973 - Comet Kohoutek reaches perihelion but is not such a display as expected.

● 1973 - Soyuz 13 lands on earth after a week in orbit.

● 1973 - 2 Skylab 3 astronauts walk in space for a record 7 hours

● 1973 - "The Exorcist", starring Linda Blair & rated X (God only knows why), premieres

● 1974 - Comedian Jack Benny died at age 80.

● 1974 - Salyut 4 is launched.

● 1975 - The Tupolev Tu-144 goes into service in Soviet Union. It is the 1st supersonic transport service.

● 1976 - The Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) is founded.

● 1977 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1978 - India's former PM, Indira Gandhi, released from jail

● 1979 - Joy as guerrillas fly in to Rhodesia; A group of Patriotic Front guerrillas receive a joyous welcome as they arrive back in Rhodesia to help monitor the ceasefire.

● 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.

● 1981 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds right of three Indian tribes to use gill nets to fish in Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron.

● 1982 - TIME magazine's Man of the Year was for the first time given to a non-human, the personal computer.

● 1982 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1983 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1984 - Belgian princess Astrid marries arch duke Otto L van Austrian-Este

● 1986 - The first long-running American television soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, airs its final episode after thirty-five years on the air.

● 1986 - Hijackers take over an Iraqi Airways Boeing 737 with 91 people on board during a flight from Baghdad to Amman - it lands in Arar, Saudi Arabia where it explodes, killing 62 people.

● 1986 - Doug Jarvis, age 31, set a National Hockey League (NHL) record as he skated in his 916th consecutive game. Jarvis eventually set the individual record for most consecutive games played with 964.

● 1988 - First clue to Lockerbie crash found; Crash investigators uncover wreckage which may hold the key to the Lockerbie air disaster.

● 1988 - Funeral of Chico Mendes, activist murdered for his leadership in struggle against the destruction of Amazon rainforests, Brazil.

● 1988 - The Nanjing Anti-African protests in Nanjing, the People's Republic of China begin.

● 1990 - Iranian leader upholds Rushdie fatwa; Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said the death sentence on writer Salman Rushdie for alleged blasphemy will remain in force.

● 1990 - Garry Kasparov beats Antatoly Karpov to retain chess championship

● 1991 - Chuck Knolls retires as NFL coach after 23 years

● 1991 - Jack Ruby's gun sells for $220,000 in auction

● 1991 - Militant Sikhs kill 55 & wound 70 in India

● 1991 - Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR.

● 1992 - Women In Black begin campaign against rape in war, Belgrade, Serbia.

● 1993 - Antonov-26 crashes at Gyumri, Armenia, 36 killed

● 1993 - Comedian Rodney Dangerfield (72) weds Joan Child (41)

● 1993 - Floyd, Nicklaus & Rodriguez win Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge Golf Tourn

● 1994 - Actor Jason Hervey (22) weds Kelley Patricia O'Neill (27)

● 1994 - French commandos terminate Air France hijacking in Marseille

● 1994 - President's ½ brother Roger Clinton (37) weds 8-month pregnant Molly Nartin (25)

● 1995 - Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority.

● 1996 - The body of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, CO. The slaying remains unsolved.

● 1996 - Start of the largest strike in South Korean history.

● 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).

● 1999 - Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, won Guatemala's first peacetime presidential elections in 40 years.

● 1999 - Soul singer and songwriter Curtis Mayfield died at age 57.

● 2000 - Michael McDermott, age 42, opened fire at his place of employment killing seven people. McDermott had no criminal history.

● 2000 - Actor Jason Robards died at age 78.

● 2002 - French Raelian scientist Brigitte Boisselier announced on the 27th that Clonaid has delivered the first of a supposed five clone babies through cesarean section on this date.

● 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.

● 2004 - Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts broke Dan Marino's single-season touchdown pass record when he threw his 48th and 49th of the season in a victory over San Diego.

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(20? NYT) - 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(73? NYT) - Norman Angell, British politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1967)

● 1873 - Thomas Wass, English cricketer (d. 1953)

● 1887 - Arthur Ernest Percival, British Army officer (d. 1966)

● 1890 - Uncle Charlie Osborne, American fiddler (d. 1992)

● 1891 - Henry Miller, American writer (d. 1980)

● 1893 - Mao Zedong, Chinese statesman and leader of his nation's communist revolution (d. 1976)

● 1899 - Leopold Mannes, American co-developer of Kodachrome film (d. 1964)

● 1902 - Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan, Russian painter (d. 1980)

● 1903 - Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (d. 1995)

● 1904 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (d. 1980)

● 1906 - Imperio Argentina, Argentine actress and singer (d. 2003)

● 1914 - Richard Widmark, American actor

● 1914 - Annemarie Wendl, German actress (d. 2006)

● 1921 - Steve Allen, American actor, comedian, composer, and author (d. 2000)

● 1922 - Richard Mayes, English stage and television actor (d. 2006)

● 1927 - Alan King, American comedian and actor (d. 2004)

● 1927 - Denis Quilley, British actor (d. 2003)

● 1927 - Stu Miller, baseball player

● 1930 - Donald Moffat, English-born actor

● 1933 - Ugly Dave Gray, Australian television personality

● 1933 - Caroll Spinney, American puppeteer

● 1935 - Abdul "Duke" Fakir, American singer (The Four Tops)

● 1935 - Norm Ullman, Canadian hockey player

● 1937 - John Horton Conway, British mathematician

● 1937 - Jay Heimowitz, American poker player

● 1938 - Bahram Beizai, Iranian playwright 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

● 1944 - Jane Lapotaire, British actress

● 1945 - John Walsh, American talk show host (''America's Most Wanted'')

● 1946 - Bob Carpenter, Country musician (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)

● 1947 - Carlton Fisk, American baseball Hall of Fame member

● 1949 - José Ramos Horta, Foreign Minister of East Timor, Nobel laureate

● 1954 - Ozzie Smith, American baseball player and Hall of Fame member

● 1954 - Steve Steen, English actor

● 1955 - Evan Bayh, U.S. senator, D-Ind.

● 1956 - David Sedaris, American essayist

● 1959 - Koji Morimoto, Japanese animated film director

● 1960 - Temuera Morrison, New Zealand actor

● 1961 - John Lynch, Irish actor

● 1962 - James Kottak, Rock musician (The Scorpions)

● 1962 - Brian Westrum, Country musician (Sons of the Desert)

● 1963 - Lars Ulrich, Danish-born drummer (Metallica)

● 1965 - Nadia Dajani, Actress

● 1966 - Sandra Taylor, American model and actress

● 1967 – J, Rock musician

● 1967 – Audrey Wiggins, Country singer

● 1968 - Dennis Knight, American professional wrestler

● 1969 - Peter Klett, Rock musician (Candlebox)

● 1970 - James Mercer (musician), guitarist and vocalist (The Shins)

● 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 singer (''American Idol'')

● 1987 - Adam Walker, British flutist

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)

● 1970 - Lillian Board, British athlete (b. 1948)

● 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, Indian actress

● 1983 - Violet Carson, British actress

● 1985 - Dian Fossey, American gorilla specialist (b. 1932)

● 1986 - Elsa Lanchester, British-born actress (b. 1902)

● 1988 - Glenn McCarthy, American oil tycoon and businessman (b. 1907)

● 1996 - JonBenét Ramsey, American child beauty queen (b. 1990)

● 1997 - Cornelius Castoriadis, philosopher (b. 1922)

● 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 - 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, German submarine commander (b. 1914)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Stephen, deacon, the 1st martyr
● St. Vincentia Maria Lopez Y Vicuna, foundress
● St. Neol Chabanel
● St. Amaethlu
● St. Archelaus
● St. Zeno
● St. Zosimus
● St. Tathal
● St. Theodore the Sacrist
● St. Pope Dionysius
● St. Marinus

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 13 (Civil Date: December 26)
● Nativity Fast. Wine And Oil allowed.
● Martyrs Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugene, Mardarius, and Orestes at Sebaste
● Virgin Martyr Lucy of Syracuse.
● St. Arsenius of Latros.
● St. Gabriel, Archbishop of Serbia.
● St. Mardarius, recluse of the Kiev Caves.

● Greek Calendar:
● St. Ares, monk.
● Schemamonk Pantileimon "the Resurrected" of Glinsk Hermitage (1895).

● Anglican and Lutheran:
● St. Stephen, deacon, the 1st martyr

● 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.

● 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.

● This Holiday is only applicable when this date does fall on Saturday or Sunday
● Canada, United Kingdom (except Scotland), Australia, New Zealand : Boxing Day

● 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

● Africa, US: First day of Kwanzaa (1966)

● Mandala Pooja at Sabarimala in Kerala, India

● China People's Republic : Mao Tse-Tung's Birthday

● Czechoslovakia : Day of Rest

● West Germany : 2nd Day of Christmas

● 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)

Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

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