Events

• 274 – Roman Emperor Aurelian dedicates a temple to Sol Invictus on the supposed day of the winter solstice and day of rebirth of the Sun.

• 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 as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.

• 1100 – Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned as the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity.

• 1130 – Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned as 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 founded 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.

• 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.

• 1932 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills ~70,000 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.

• 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.

• 1973 – The ARPANET crashes when a programming bug causes all ARPANET traffic to be routed through the server at Harvard University, causing the server to freeze.

• 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.

• 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.

Births

• 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)

• 1587 – Margarita of Austria, queen of Philip III of Spain (d. 1611)

• 1628 – Noël Coypel, French painter (d. 1707)

• 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)

• 1863 – Charles Pathé, French pioneer of film and record industries (d. 1957)

• 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 Cardinal Innitzer, Austrian archbishop (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)

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

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)

• 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)

• 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 (b. 1918)

• 1989 – Elena Ceauşescu, Romanian politician (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)

• 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)

Holidays and observances

• Christmas Day Christian Feast Day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

• (Re) birth of Sol Invictus. The winter solstice feast in the Roman Empire from 274 to 391

• Quaid-e-Azam's Day – Pakistan

• Constitution Day – Republic of China now based in Taiwan

• The feast day of Anastasia of Sirmium

• Yule

• Malkh-Festival. Sun festival in pre-Islamic pagan religion of Nakh people. Chechenya and Ingushetia