December 25, 496 – Clovis I, king of the Franks, was baptized into the Catholic faith at Reims, by Saint Remigius. 597 – Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow-labourers baptized more tan 10,000 Anglo-Saxons in Kent. 800 – Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome. 1000 – The foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary was established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary. 1066 – William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy was crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London. 1100 – Baldwin of Boulogne (brother of Godfrey of Bouillon) was crowned the 1st King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity. 1261 – John IV Laskaris of the restored Eastern Roman Empire was deposed and blinded on his 11th birthday by orders of his co-ruler Michael VIII Palaiologos. 1492 – The carrack Santa María captained by Christopher Columbus was run onto reefs off Haiti due to a proper watch not being kept. Local natives helped to save food, armory and ammunition but not the ship. 1553 – Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeated the Spanish conquistadors and executed the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia, at the Battle of Tucapel. 1643 – Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean was discovered and named by Captain William Mynors of the English East India Company vessel, the Royal Mary. 1776 – George Washington and his army crossed the Delaware River to attack the Hessian mercenaries in Trenton. 1809 – Dr. Ephraim McDowell performed the 1st ovariotomy, removing a 22 pound tumor. 1818 – The 1st performance of Silent Night took place at the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria. 1837 – General Zachary Taylor led a force of 1100 troops against the Seminoles at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee. 1868 – President Andrew Johnson granted unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers. 1914 – A series of unofficial truces occurred across the Western Front to celebrate Christmas. 1941 – Admiral Chester W Nimitz assumed command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. 1946 – The 1st artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in Europe was initiated within a Soviet F-1 nuclear reactor. 1968 – Apollo 8 performed the 1st Trans Earth Injection (TEI) maneuver, sending it back to Earth from Lunar orbit. 1968 – Kilvenmani massacre, 44 Dalits (untouchables) were burned to death in Kizhavenmani village, Tamil Nadu, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages by Dalit laborers. 1977 – Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin met in Egypt with its president Anwar Sadat. 1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary of the Soviet Union (the union itself was dissolved the next day). Ukraines referendum was finalized and Ukraine officially left the Soviet Union.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 06:04:50 +0000
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