On this day in History - Dec. 26

• 0268 - Pope Dionysius dies.
• 0418 - Pope Zosimus dies.
• 0795 - St. Leo III began his reign as Catholic Pope.
• 1194 - Frederick II was born in Iesi, Italy. German Emperor (1212-1250)/King of Sicily.
• 1481 - Battle of Westbroek - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht
• 1492 - Christopher Columbus established the first Spanish settlement in the New World.
• 1532 - Guilielmus Xylander was born (d. 1576). German classical scholar.
• 1536 - Yi I, was born (d. 1584). Korean Confucian scholar.
• 1620 - Elizabeth Báthory's crimes are uncovered.
• 1620 - Plymouth Colony was settled by the Mayflower colonists. In 1691 Plymouth joined other neighbouring settlements to form the royal colony of Massachusetts.
• 1634 - Liberdade de religião é concedida a todas as pessoas do Brasil – judeus e católicos.
• 1716 - Thomas Gray was born (d. 1771). English writer.
• 1716 - Jean François de Saint-Lambertwas born (d. 1803). French poet.
• 1751 - Clement Hofbauer was born (d. 1820). Austrian missionary and saint.
• 1776 - American Revolutionary War: The British were defeated in the Battle of Trenton )
• 1778 - Juan Lovera was born in Venezuela (d. 1841). Artist, (‘artist of independence’: originator of Venezuelan historical painting: paintings commemorate Venezuela’s independence dates).
• 1780 - Mary Fairfax Somerville was gorn (d. 1872). British mathematician.
• 1790 - Louis XVI of France gives his public assent to Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution
• 1791 - Charles Babbage was born (d. 1871). English mathematician and inventor
• 1792 - Final trial of Louis XVI of France begins in Paris.
• 1793 - Battle of Geisberg - French defeat Austrians.
• 1793 - Wedding of Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia and Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
• 1805 - La France signe la paix de Presbourg avec l'Autriche
• 1806 - Battle of Pultusk - indecisive battle between Napoleon and the Russians
• 1807 - Uma força militar britânica, comandada pelo general Beresford, ocupou a ilha da Madeira.
• 1812 - Delaware and Chesapeake blockaded during the War of 1812
• 1815 - Casimiro Marcó del Pont reemplaza a Mariano Osorio en la Capitanía General de Chile. Fue el ultimo gobernador español en Chile.
• 1819 - E. D. E. N. Southworth was born (d. 1899). American novelist.
• 1822 - Dion Boucicault was born (d. 1890). Irish actor and playwright.
• 1825 - Several Imperial Russia army officers lead circa 3000 soldiers on the Senate Square in the failed Decembrist uprising.
• 1825 - The Erie Canal opens.
• 1830 - Gaetano Donizetti's opera Anna Bolena premiered in Milan.
• 1831 - Vincenzo Bellini's opera Norma premiered in Milan.
• 1837 - George Dewey was born (d. 1917). U. S. admiral.
• 1848 - Phi Delta Theta Fraternity founded.
• 1853 - René Bazin was born (d. 1932). French novelist.
• 1861 - Confederate diplomatic envoys James Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and Britain .
• 1862 - 38 Dakota Amerindians are hanged after a brief rebellion accused of murder and rape
• 1862 - American Civil War: Start of the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou.
• 1865 - James H. Mason of Franklin, Massachusetts patented the coffee percolator.
• 1872 - Norman Angell was born (d. 1967). British politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1873 - Thomas Wass was born (d. 1953). English cricketer.
• 1890 - Uncle Charlie Osborne was born (d. 1992). American fiddler.
• 1891 - Henry Miller, was born (d. 1980). Writer (Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer, Sexus).
• 1893 - Mao Tse-Tung was born in Shao-shan, Hunan (d. 9 Sep 1976). Chinese chairman of the Chinese People's Communist Party and leader of the People's Republic of China
• 1894 - Antonio Molina was born. Composer.
• 1898 - Radium was discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie and G. Bemont.
• 1900 - Antoni Zygmund was born in Poland; mathematician who exerted a major influence on 20th-century mathematics, particularly in harmonic analysis. In 1940 Zygmund escaped with his wife and son from German controlled Poland to the USA.Zygmund's book Trigonometric Series (1935) is a classic, definitive work on the subject.
• 1901 - Uganda railroad from Mombassa to Lake Victoria is completed.
• 1903 - Arminda Correia was born in Lagos (d. 1988). Portuguese lyric singer.
• 1903 - Elisha Cook Jr. was born (d. 1995). American actor.
• 1904 - Alejo Carpentier was born (d. 1980). Cuban writer.
• 1908 - Jack Johnson becomes the first African American heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia .
• 1914 - Richard Widmark, was born; American actor (Madigan, Judgment at Nuremberg, Murder on the Orient Express, The Halls of Montezuma, How the West was Won, The Alamo, Against All Odds, True Colors).
• 1915 - The German gunboat, the Kingani, is captured by the British on Lake Tanganyika. It is removed by portage through the jungle of the Belgian Congo .
• 1916 - Joseph Joffre is made Marshal of France .
• 1921 - Steve Allen, was born (d. 2000). Actor, comedian, composer, author.
• 1925 - Communist Party of India founded .
• 1925 - Turkey adopts Gregorian Calendar.
• 1927 - Alan King was born (d. 2004). American comedian and actor.
• 1927 - Denis Quilley was born (d. 2003). British actor.
• 1931 - Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity was founded.
• 1932 - An earthquake killed 70,000 in Kansu, China.
• 1933 - The Nissan Motor Company was organized in Tokyo, Japan.
• 1933 - FM radio is patented.
• 1933 - Ugly Dave Grey was born. Australian television personality.
• 1935 - Abdul "Duke" Fakir was born. American singer (The Four Tops)
• 1936 - É fundada a Orquestra Filarmônica de Israel.
• 1937 - Alberto Pimenta was born. Portuguese essayst and poet. Ler "Discurso sobre o Filho da Puta"
• 1938 - A declaração do Peru contra toda a intervenção estrangeira é aprovada pela Conferência Pan-americana.
• 1939 - Sucesso brasileiro nos USA. Carmen Miranda inicia seu caminho de sucesso em palcos internacionais. Uns afirmam que ela viajou para criar uma imagem positiva do Brasil no exterior, com patrocínio de Getúlio Vargas. Outros já afirmavam que a única razão de ter sido escolhida provinha de seu talento.
• 1940 - Edward C. Prescott was born. American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1940 - Phil Spector was born. American music producer
• 1941 - Os Estados Unidos declaram a Manila, capital das Filipinas, como cidade aberta durante a II Guerra Mundial.
• 1941 - Winston Churchill é nomeado primeiro ministro britânico.
• 1942 - Gray Davis was born. Governor of California, 1998-2003
• 1943 - The German warship Scharnhorst sinks off the coast of North Cape in Norway after being attacked by the British Royal Navy late the previous evening.
• 1944 - The play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams was first publicly performed.
• 1944 - American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne
• 1945 - CFP franc and CFA franc are created .
• 1946 - Flamingo Hotel opens in Las Vegas .
• 1948 - Cardinal Mindszenty arrested in Hungary .
• 1949 - José Ramos Horta was born. East Timorean Human Rights activist. Awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace prize with joint recipient, Bishop Ximenes Belo.
• 1953 - Se realiza en París el primer trasplante de riñón de un donante vivo bajo la dirección del cirujano francés Jean Hamburger.
• 1955 - Sergi Mateu was born. Spanish actor.
• 1959 - Mariano Barroso was born. Spanish film director.
• 1964 - American Max Conrad sets a new world non-stop-flight record with his 7,878 mile journey from Cape Town, south Africa, to St Petersburg, Florida.
• 1966 - The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach .
• 1966 - Time magazine awarded its Man of the Year cover to 'The Younger Generation'
• 1970 - Radka Zrubakova was born in Bratislava. Slovakian tennis star (1994 Futures-Germany).
• 1972 - The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, died in Kansas City, Mo.
• 1973 - Comet Kohoutek reaches perihelion but is not such a display as expected.
• 1973 - The Exorcist starring Linda Blair premiered. It was classified as an X rated film.
• 1973 - Soyuz 13 lands .
• 1974 - Salyut 4 launched .
• 1975 - 1st supersonic transport (USSR- Tupolev Tu-144) goes into service in Soviet Union .
• 1975 - Marcelo Ríos, Born this day, Marcelo Rios, in Santiago, Chile, tennis star (1995 Amsterdam).
• 1975 - Cariango, Angola is taken by Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, (MPLA, Popular Liberation Movement of Angola) guerrillas.
• 1976 - Foundation of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist).
• 1976 - Lea De Mae was born (d. 2004). Czech adult film actress.
• 1977 - Howard Hawks, American film director (Rio Lobo, Hatari!), dies at 81.
• 1978 - India's former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, was released from jail.
• 1979 - Soviet Special forces troops take over presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.
• 1980 - Aeroflot puts the Ilyushin Il-86 into service.
• 1981 - Paulo Renato dies (b. 23 Oct 1924). Portuguese actor.
• 1982 - TIME magazine's Man of the Year was for the first time given to a non-human; a computer .
• 1983 - Yasuhiro Nakasone, es reelegido primer ministro del Japón por la Cámara Baja del Parlamento.
• 1984 - Princess Astrid of Belgium marries Archduke Lorenz of Austria-Este .
• 1986 - The first long-running American television soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, airs its final episode after thirty-five years on the air.
• 1988 - Start of the Nanjing Anti-African protests.
• 1990 - Garry Kasparov beat Antatoly Karpov to retain the chess championship.
• 1991 - Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR .
• 1991- el integrista Frente Islámico de Salvación (FIS) obtiene la mayoría absoluta en la primera vuelta de las elecciones argelinas.
• 1993 - Antonov-26 crashes at Gyumri, Armenia, 36 killed .
• 1994 - Sylvia Koscina dies at 61. Croatian/Italian actress (Hercules).
• 1996 - United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification goes into force .
• 1998 - Iraq announced its intention to fire upon US and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern "no-fly zones" .
• 1998 - Severe gales over Ireland, northern England, and southern Scotland. Widespread disruption, widespread power outages in Northern Ireland and southern Scotland.
• 1999 - Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, scored a resounding victory in Guatemala's first peacetime presidential elections in nearly 40 years.
• 1999 - On the 26-28th, France and countries to east hit by severe storms and rain. Over 100 people were killed, and the storm caused extensive damage to property and trees and the French national power grid.
• 1999 - Shankar Dayal Sharma dies (b. 1918). President of India
• 2002 - French Raelian scientist Brigitte Boisselier says Clonaid has delivered the first of a supposed five clone babies through cesarean section .
• 2003 - Major earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, with up to 43,300 killed, and 90,000 homeless; the citadel of Arg-é Bam destroyed.
• 2003 - Sir Alan Bates dies (b. 1934). British actor.
• 2004 - In the Ukraine, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko [23 Feb 1954~] wins, against prime minister Viktor Yanukovich.[09 July 1950~], the rerun of the 21 November runoff presidential election, which was rigged to make Yanukovich the winner and was declared invalid by the Supreme Court, after massive protest demonstrations in the streets.
• 2004 - An earthquake measuring 9.0 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. The death toll is currently estimated at more than 300,000. Officials say the true toll may never be known, due to rapid burials. Indonesia was worst affected with as many as 219,000 people killed.