December 25

2024 Calendar

December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are six days remaining until the end of the year. Christmas is celebrated on this day in many Christian and Western countries.

Events[change | change source]

Up to 1900[change | change source]

333 - Roman Emperor Constantine I promotes his youngest son Constans to the rank of Caesar.
336 - Ancient Rome holds its first documented Christmas celebration.
496 - Clovis I, King of the Franks, is baptized into the Roman Catholic faith in Reims by Saint Remigius.
597 - Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow labourers baptize over 10,000 Anglo-Saxons in Kent.
800 – Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.
1000 - Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
1066 – Coronation of William the Conqueror as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
1130 - Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first King of Sicily.
1223 – Saint Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene.
1495 - Spanish forces defeat the Guanches, the native people of the Canary Islands, in the Battle of La Victoria de Acentejo - Tenerife is the last island to be taken over by Spain.
1553 - Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeat the Spanish conquistadors and execute Governor of Chile Pedro de Valdivia.
1599 – The city of Natal, Brazil is founded.
1643 - Christmas Island is found and named in the Indian Ocean near present-day Indonesia by Captain William Mynors.
1758 – Halley's Comet passes by Earth, just as Edmond Halley had predicted.
1776 – George Washington and his army cross the Delaware River to attack the monarchy's Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey.
1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" (Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria).
1837 – Battle of Okeechobee – United States forces defeat Seminole Native Americans.
1868 – US President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War rebels.
1868 – Ezo Republic founded in Hokkaido by Shogunate rebels.
1896 - John Philip Sousa composes The Stars and Stripes Forever.

1901 – 2000[change | change source]

1914 – Just after midnight on Christmas morning, German troops on the Western Front cease firing their guns and artillery and start singing Christmas carols. Crossing the No man's land, they trade gifts with the enemy forces that face them. The Christmas truce lasts for several days, depending on the location.
1917 – Why Marry?, first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre in New York City.
1926 – Hirohito becomes Emperor of Japan, succeeding the Taisho Emperor (Yoshihito).
1927 - The Vietnamese Nationalist Party is founded.
1932 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills ~70,000 people
1939 – Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was read on radio for the first time (CBS radio)
1939 – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is introduced by Montgomery Ward stores
1941 – Hong Kong surrenders to the Japanese.
1946 - The first European artificial chain reaction is initiated by the Soviet nuclear reactor F-1.
1947 – The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.
1952 – Queen Elizabeth II broadcasts her first Christmas message.
1953 – A fire broke out in Shek Kip Mei, Hong Kong.
1968 - Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans-Earth injection maneuver, sending crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from lunar orbit.
1968 - 42 Dalits are burned alive in Kilavenmani village in Tamil Nadu, India, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages from Dalit labourers. The Dalits are at the bottom of India's class system, which consists of castes.
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, Australia.
1974 - Marshall Fields drives a vehicle through the gates of the White House, resulting in a four-hour stand-off.
1977 – Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with President of Egypt Anwar Sadat
1989 – Nicolae Ceausescu, former communist dictator of Romania, and his wife Elena were condemned to death and executed under a wide range of charges by a court perceived by many as illegitimate.
1990 – First trial run of the World Wide Web
1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day).

From 2001[change | change source]

2002 – New Delhi Metro was introduced.
2003 – The space probe Beagle 2 goes missing on the planet Mars.
2004 – Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which will land on Saturn's moon, Titan on January 14, 2005.
2007 – A tiger escapes from San Francisco Zoo and attacks three people, killing one.
2009 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempts a terrorist attack, while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
2016 - A Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev-154 aircraft crashes into the Black Sea shortly after take-off from Sochi, killing all 92 people on board.