1914 – World War I: The “”Christmas truce”” begins. A much-studied event in war and peace studies, the Christmas Truce was a brief unofficial ceasefire between British and German troops along the Western Front of World War I. During the truce, soldiers from both sides sang carols, shared food, exchanged gifts and played football (soccer). Subsequent attempts to hold similar ceasefires around Christmas time failed.
0563 – The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is inaugurated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes.
1476 – 400 Burgundian soldiers freeze to death during siege of Nancy
1565 – Compromise of the Nobles in Habsburg Netherlands closes against inquisition
1584 – Basque whaler Joanes de Echaniz dictates his last will and testament at Carol’s Cove, near Red Bay Labrador, it is the oldest surviving will in Canadian history
1734 – Royal Alcázar of Madrid burns down in Madrid with the lost of many artworks, though paintings of Velázquez are saved
1777 – Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook
1799 – Jacobin plot against Napoleon uncovered
1814 – The War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.
1818 – Franz Gruber of Oberndorf, Germany composed the music for “Silent Night” to words written by Josef Mohr.
1826 – “Grog Mutiny: – Eggnog riots begin at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York
1832 – First US Negro hospital founded by whites chartered, Savannah GA
1851 – A fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, destroying about 35,000 volumes.
1865 – Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, TN, called the Ku Klux Klan.
1900 – Foreign powers present the Chinese Empress with their list of ‘irrevocable conditions’ before their nations will withdraw troops from China
1904 – German SW Africa abolishes slavery of young children
1914 – World War I: The “”Christmas truce”” begins.
A much-studied event in war and peace studies, the Christmas Truce was a brief unofficial ceasefire between British and German troops along the Western Front of World War I. During the truce, soldiers from both sides sang carols, shared food, exchanged gifts and played football (soccer). Subsequent attempts to hold similar ceasefires around Christmas time failed. https://www.history.com/news/christmas-truce-1914-world-war-i-soldier-accounts
1930 – Sukarno sentenced to four years in prison by Indonesian authorities in Bandung, Dutch East Indies
1936 – 1st radioactive isotope medicine administered in Berkeley, California
1941 – World War II: Hong Kong falls to the Japanese Imperial Army.
1942 – World War II: French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates Vichy French Admiral Franois Darlan in Algiers.
1943 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces as part of Operation Overlord.
1944 – A German submarine torpedoed the Belgian transport ship S.S. Leopoldville with 2,235 soldiers aboard. About 800 American soldiers died. The soldiers were crossing the English Channel to be reinforcements at the battle that become known as the Battle of the Bulge.
1948 – The first completely solar-heated house became occupied in Dover, MA.
1951 – Libya achieved independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, under King Idris.
1955 NORAD’s Santa tracking service begins
The event is now a Christmas tradition where the North American Aerospace Defense Command tracks Santa Claus as he travels around the world delivering presents to children. The event began after a printing error in a Sears catalog asking children to call Santa Claus. The number that was printed was the number of Colorado Springs’ Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center.
1966 – Luna 13 landed on the moon.
1968 – Three astronauts, James A. Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman, reached the moon. They orbited the moon 10 times before coming back to Earth. Seven months later man first landed on the moon.
1970 – 9 Jews are convicted in Lenningrad of hijacking a plane
1973 – District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.
1979 – Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in support of the country’s Marxist government.
1981 – In Eastern Kazakh/Semipalatinsk, the Soviet Union performed a nuclear test.
1986 – French hostage Aurel Cornea, held in Lebanon for 9 months, released
1989 – Ousted Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega took refuge at the Vatican’s diplomatic mission in Panama City.
1990 – Saddam says Israel will be Iraq’s main target
1992 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.
1997 – Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as “Carlos the Jackal,” was sentenced by a French court to life in prison for the 1975 murders of two French investigators and a Lebanese national.
1999 – Ivory Coast President Henri Konan Bédié was overthrown in a coup.
2000 – The “Texas 7,” seven convicts that had escaped a Texas prison, robbed a sports store in Irving, TX. The suspects killed Officer Aubrey Hawkins, stole $70,000, 25 weapons and clothing. The men had escaped on December 13.
2003 – The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid’s busy Chamartn Station.
2005 – Chad declares a state of war against Sudan in the wake of the Dec. 18 attack on the town of Adre, in which approximately 100 people were killed
2008 – Lord’s Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, begins a series of attacks on Democratic Republic of the Congo, massacring more than 400.
2009 – A woman jumped barriers in St. Peter’s Basilica and knocked down Pope Benedict XVI as he was walking down the main aisle to begin Christmas Eve Mass; the pope was unhurt.
2011 – The Cuban government has announced that it will free 2,900 prisoners, some political, as a goodwill gesture towards families and religious organizations that had been asking for the release of some prisoners.
2012 – Eleven kindergarten children were killed after a minivan plunged into a roadside pond in Jiangxi, China.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
