December 25
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Events on This Day
---- - Just when is Christmas Day, people ask? Is it really December 25? Actually it is; but it wasn’t officially, until sometime between the years 337 and 352 A.D. This means that the date celebrated as the birth of Christ was not set until the time of Julius I, Bishop of Rome. To that time, the day known as Christmas was celebrated on one of three dates in the first 352 years of the Julian calendar: January 6, March 29 and September 29. January 6th, the Day of Epiphany, is still considered Christmas Day to many folks around the world; especially those who are Eastern Orthodox. Some of us receive gifts on both days, some on January 1 -- right down the middle. Others celebrate for days, beginning December 6, 13th, 16th or 21st and ending on January 6th. You’ve heard of the twelve days of Christmas? Well, it’s not just a song! It’s a schedule.
1896 - Getting a little tired of Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Merry Christmas Darling, Jingle Bell Rock, Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer and all the rest? You are not alone. John Philip Sousa wrote the melody to a song that had haunted him for days. On Christmas Day, that melody was finally titled, The Stars and Stripes Forever. Either that, or Mr. Sousa really thought it was the Fourth of July instead. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt, please.
1917 - The play, Why Marry?, opened at the Astor Theatre in New York City. Jesse Lynch Williams won a Pulitzer the following year; Why Marry? was the first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize.
1930 - The Mt. Van Hoevenberg bobsled run at Lake Placid, NY opened to the public. It was the first bobsled track of international specifications to open in the United States.
1931 - Lawrence Tibbett was the featured vocalist as radio came to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The first opera was Hansel und Gretel, heard on the NBC network of stations. In between acts of the opera, moderator Olin Downes would conduct an opera quiz, asking celebrity guests opera-related questions. The program’s host and announcer was Milton Cross. He worked out of the Met’s Box 44.
1934 - The Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, was read by Lionel Barrymore on The Campbell Playhouse on CBS radio. The reading of the tale became an annual radio event for the next 20 years.
1937 - Arturo Toscanini conducted the first broadcast of Symphony of the Air over NBC radio.
1942 - The longest, sponsored program in the history of broadcasting was heard on NBC radio’s Blue network. The daylong Victory Parade’s Christmas Party of Spotlight Bands was heard over 142 radio stations. The marathon broadcast was sponsored by Coca-Cola.
1946 - Film comedian W.C. Fields died. He was 56 years old. Fields died of a severe stomach hemorrhage, brought on by years of excessive drinking.
1949 - Dick Tracy got married on Christmas Day. The comic strip hero married Tess Trueheart. The couple later became parents of a daughter. The little girl’s name was Bonnie Braids.
1950 - NBC-TV got Walt Disney to lend his creative genius to a one-hour special which marked the cartoonist’s first jump into TV.
1958 - Alan Freed’s Christmas Jubilee continued it’s 10-day run (it opened Dec 24) at Loews State Theatre in Manhattan. The concert series featured seventeen acts, including Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Jackie Wilson, Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie Avalon, The Everly Brothers, The Moonglows and Johnnie Ray. Added at the last minute was newcomer Ritchie Valens.
1964 - Goldfinger opened in Hollywood U.S.A., three days after its premiere in New York City. Goldfinger was the third James Bond film, as well as the third to star Sean Connery as MI6 agent 007.
1971 - The longest pro-football game finally ended when Garo Yepremian kicked a field goal in the second quarter of a sudden death overtime. Miami’s Dolphins nipped the Kansas City Chiefs, 27-24. The game lasted 82 minutes and 40 seconds.
1973 - Skylab 4 astronauts took a seven-hour walk in space and photographed the comet Kohoutek.
1977 - Silent film star Charles Chaplin died in Vevey, Switzerland. He was 88 years old. Chaplin had been a popular pioneer in silent films, delighting movie audiences with his guileless Little Tramp character and being innovative in the fledgling industry. He won an Oscar for The Circus; and for co-writing original score of Limelight; and honorary Oscars. Chaplin was inducted into the National Comedy Hall of Fame and the Entertainment Hall of Fame. He also was co-foundeder of United Artists (with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith).
1979 - Joan Blondell died of leukemia at age 73. The actress was best known for playing brassy blondes in films during the 1930s and 1940s. Once married to producer Mike Todd, Blondell died one year after the release of the hit film, Grease, in which she played Vi, the friendly waitress.
1985 - Ending the year, hot hits included: Swatches, those trendy Swiss-made watches, and Cherry Coke, which grabbed about four percent of the total beverage market after being reintroduced in the early spring. Back in the 1950s, there was a lot of Cherry Coke sipping; especially at the corner drugstore.
1989 - Former baseball manager Billy Martin was killed when his pickup truck, driven by a friend, skidded off an icy upstate New York road and rammed into a culvert. He was 61 years old. The man who would grow up to be Yankee #1 was born in Berkeley, California, on May 16, 1928 as Alfred Manuel Martin. Over his sixteen-year career as a major-league baseball manager, Billy Martin won five divisional titles, two American League Championships, and one World Series. He had a .553 winning percentage -- among the all-time top twenty. That mark is even more impressive considering his striking turnarounds, particularly of the Rangers and the A’s. Billy remains the only manager to take two teams from a dismal record of one hundred losses to winning campaigns the very next season.
1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation as President of the USSR. During his leadership (1985 to 1991), Gorbachev brought about sweeping internal reforms, created greater openness in political and cultural affairs and set the stage for historic developments throughout Eastern Europe with his program of economic, political, and social restructuring, known as ‘perestroika’.
1993 - Mariah Carey had the #1 single in the U.S., Hero, from the #1 album in the U.S., Music Box. The single topped the charts for four weeks. The album was up there for eight weeks.
1995 - Legendary singer/crooner, actor, comedian, and Rat-Pack member Dean Martin died at age 78 in Beverly Hills, California. Martin was famous for his many films, dozens hit recordings, and 1950s his partnership with comedian Jerry Lewis. On his tomb at Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles is the epitaph, “EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY SOMETIME”.
1996 - These films debuted in the U.S.: Michael, (drama, fantasy, comedy and romance) with John Travolta, Andie MacDowell and William Hurt; and The Portrait of a Lady (the screen adaptation of the classic Henry James novel), starring Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey and Mary- Louise Parker.
1997 - These blockbusters had openings in the U.S.: An American Werewolf in Paris (“Things are about to get a little hairy.”), with Tom Everett Scott and Julie Delpy; As Good as It Gets, starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt who won Academy Awards for their efforts; Jackie Brown (“Six players on the trail of a half a million in Cash. There's only one question... Who's playing who?”), with Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda and Robert Deniro; Mr. Magoo (“Look Out!”), starring Leslie Nielsen; and The Postman, starring (and directed by) Kevin Costner.
1998 - New movies in the U.S. -- and there were lots of choices: A Civil Action, starring John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Stephen Fry, James Gandolfini, Dan Hedaya, Zeljko Ivanek, John Lithgow, William H. Macy, Kathleen Quinlan, Tony Shalhoub, Bruce Norris and Sydney Pollack; Down in the Delta, with Alfre Woodard, Wesley Snipes, Al Freeman Jr., Esther Rolle, Mary Alice and Loretta Devine; The Faculty, starring Jordana Brewster, Clea Duvall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hatosy, Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Chris Mcdonald, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick and Elijah Wood; Mighty Joe Young, with Bill Paxton, Charlize Theron, Rade Sherbedgia, Regina King, Peter Firth, Naveen Andrews, David Paymer, Robert Wisdom, Christian Clemenson, Geoffrey Blake, Lawrence Pressman and John Alexander; Patch Adams, starring Robin Williams, Monica Potter, Daniel London, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bob Gunton and Peter Coyote; Stepmom, with Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Ed Harris, Jena Malone and Liam Aiken; and The Thin Red Line, starring Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Elias Koteas, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly, Arie Verveen, Dash Mihok and John Savage.
1998 - Seven days into their journey, American millionaire Steve Fossett, British mogul Richard Branson and Per Lindstrom of Sweden set down their ICO Global Challenger balloon in the Pacific Ocean near Honolulu. They had been attempting to circumnavigate the world.
1999 - Galaxy Quest opened in the U.S. The action, adventure comedy stars Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell, Enrico Colantoni, Robin Sachs, Patrick Breen, Missi Pyle, Jed Rees and Justin Long.
2000 - U.S. first run for these films: All The Pretty Horses, starring Matt Damon, Henry Thomas, Penelope Cruz, Lucas Black, Ruben Blades, Miriam Colon, Bruce Dern, Robert Patrick and Sam Shepard; An Everlasting Piece, starring Barry McEvoy Brian O'Byrne Anna Friel Billy Connolly Colum Convey Pauline McLynn Ruth McCabe; Malèna, with Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro; Vatel, starring Gerard Depardieu, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth and Julian Sands.
2000 - 309 young people were killed in a fire at an unlicensed disco in Luoyang city in Central China.
2001 - Ali opened in the U.S. The boxing drama stars Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, Mario Van Peebles, Ron Silver, Jeffrey Wright, Mykelti Williamson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Paul Rodriguez, Levar Burton, Michael Bentt, James Toney and Charles Shufford.
2002 - Andrew ‘Jack’ Whittaker of Hurricane, WV won the Powerball lottery for $314.9 million.
2002 - A winter storm left up to three feet of snow across the Northeast U.S. The storm claimed 23 people in a week-long march across the U.S.
2003 - Movies opening in the U.S.: Cheaper by the Dozen, with Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Piper Perabo, Tom Welling, Hilary Duff; Cold Mountain, starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Kathy Baker, James Gammon, Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Hunnam, Jena Malone, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Ethan Suplee, Donald Sutherland, Ray Winstone, Lukas Black; Paycheck, starring Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Michael C. Hall, Aaron Eckhart, Kathryn Morris, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore, Joe Morton; Peter Pan, with Jason Isaacs, Ralph Fiennes, Jeremy Sumpter, Ludivine Sagnier, Olivia Williams, Rachel Hurd Wood; and The Young Black Stallion, starring Biana Tamini, Patrick Elyas, Richard Romanus Gérard Rudolf.
2003 - Fourteen people were killed and two children were missing at a youth camp Near San Bernadino, CA as mudslides, triggered by heavy rain, swept down the San Gabriel Mountains that had been scorched by wildfire.
2004 - President Fidel Castro said a 100-million-barrel crude oil deposit had been discovered off Cuba by Canadian firms.
2005 - Films debuting in U.S. theatres: Rumor Has It..., a romantic comedy with Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Ruffalo, Mena Suvari, Steve Sandvoss and Jenny Wade; and Wolf Creek, a horror flick starring John Jarratt, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi and Nathan Phillips.
2006 - The creepy Black Christmas opened in U.S. theatres. The horror, thriller stars Michelle Trachtenberg, Lacey Chabert, Andre Martin, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jessica Harmon, Katie Cassidy and Oliver Hudson.
2006 - A fire blamed on illegally sold firecrackers swept through a department store in the central Philippines on Christmas Day, killing 24 people.
2006 - James Brown, the ‘Godfather of Soul’, died at 73 years of age. Brown became one of the most influential artists in popular American music, often credited with turning R&B into soul and soul into funk with hits like Please, Please, Please, I Got You (I Feel Good) and Sex Machine. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1992 and was a 2003 Kennedy Center honoree.
2007 - New movies in U.S. theatres: Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem, with David Paetkau, John Ortiz, Johnny Lewis, Reiko Aylesworth, Sam Trammell, Shareeka Epps and Steven Pasquale; The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington, Columbus Short, Forest Whitaker, Kimberly Elise, Jermaine Williams, Nate Parker, Justice Leak, J.D. Evermore, Charissa Allen, Robert X. Golphin and Gina Ravera; Persepolis, starring Sean Penn, Gena Rowlands, Catherine Deneuve, Iggy Pop and Chiara Mastroianni; and The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, with Emily Watson, Alex Etel, Ben Chaplin, David Morrissey and Brian Cox.
2007 - A Siberian tiger escaped its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo, killing one person and mauling two others. Police later learned that one of the three victims was intoxicated and admitted to yelling and waving at the animal while standing atop the railing of the big cat’s enclosure.
2008 - Movies debuting in the U.S.: Bedtime Stories, starring Adam Sandler, Keri Russell, Russell Brand, Guy Pearce, Teresa Palmer, Richard Griffiths, Lucy Lawless, Courteney Cox, Keri Russell, Aisha Tyler and Jonathan Pryce; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Taraji P. Henson, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Julia Ormond; Marley & Me, with Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson, Alan Arkin and Eric Dane; Will Eisner’s The Spirit, with Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Paz Vega, Jamie King, Dan Lauria, Stana Katic, Johnny Simmons and Louis Lombardi; and Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Houten, Eddie Izzard, Halina Reijn, Kevin McNally, Christian Berkel, Terence Stamp and David Schofield.
2008 - A German military helicopter chased away pirates who were trying to board an Egyptian ship off the coast of Somalia. One of the ship’s crew was shot in the attack.
2008 - Singer, dancer and actress Eartha Kitt died in New York City at 81 years of age. Kitt perhaps best known for her highly sultry singing style and her 1953 hit Christmas song Santa Baby. She took on the role of Catwoman for the third season of the 1960s Batman TV series. Kitt won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for a third. Orson Welles once called her, “the most exciting girl in the world.”
2009 - Films opening in the U.S.: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, with Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield, Verne Troyer, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law; It’s Complicated, starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Krasinski, Zoe Kazan, Lake Bell, Hunter Parrish, Pat Finn and Rita Wilson; and Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Kelly Reilly and Eddie Marsan.
2009 - A Chinese court sentenced dissident Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison. It was the longest term ever handed down for subversion charges. Rights groups said that the sentence meant the government was taking an increasingly hard line against activists.
2010 - A burqa-clad, female, suicide bomber attacked a crowd of people in Pakistan as hundreds from the Salarzai tribe headed toward a food distribution center in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border. 45 people were killed. The Salarzais are a major regional anti-Taliban tribe, which had been backing army operations against the militants.
2011 - Movies opening in the U.S.: The Darkest Hour, with Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, Rachael Taylor and Joel Kinnaman; War Horse, with Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Jeremy Irvine and Toby Kebbell; and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close starring Tom Hanks, Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Zoe Caldwell, Dennis Hearn and Paul Klementowicz.
2011 - Russian opposition activist Sergei Udaltsov enjoyed half an hour of freedom
before being sentenced to ten more days in jail. It was the 14th time in 2011 that the leader of the Left Front had been detained. (And Udaltsov’s troubles with Vladimir Putin continued after 2011.)2012 - Motion pictures making Christmas debuts in the U.S.: Django Unchained, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, James Remar, Amber Tamblyn, Walton Goggins and Zoe Bell; "Les Miserables", the musical drama, Les Misérables, featuring Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Hugh Jackman, Helena Bonham Carter, Russell Crowe, Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks and Isabelle Allen; Parental Guidance, starring Marisa Tomei, Bailee Madison, Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, Madison Lintz, Tom Everett Scott, Christine Lakin and Rhoda Griffis; and West of Memphis, with Michael Baden, Jason Baldwin, Holly Ballard, Jamie Clark Ballard and Jennifer Bearden.
2013 - Christmas day movie openings in the U.S. included: 47 Ronin, with Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Kô Shibasaki; the documentary, Justin Bieber’s Believe; Grudge Match, starring Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Jon Bernthal, Kim Basinger, Kevin Hart, Alan Arkin, Steffie Grote and Nicole Andrews; The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, starring Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Jon Daly and Kathryn Hahn; The Wolf of Wall Street, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Jon Bernthal and Cristin Milioti; August: Osage County, starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor, Margo Martindale, Sam Shepard and Dermot Mulroney.
2013 - A United Van Lines migration study reported that the state of New Jersey had the highest number of outbound moves in the U.S. And Migration out of Michigan had slowed to a virtual halt after 16 straight years. Oregon was the top moving destination for 2013, with 63 percent of interstate moves inbound. South Carolina had the second-highest percentage of inbound moves, then North Carolina. South Dakota was fourth and the District of Columbia fifth.
2014 - Saudi Arabia announced a planned raise in government spending (by 0.6 percent) to a record high. This, while covering a large budget deficit due to plunging oil prices on its huge fiscal reserves. Projected 2015 revenues would drop to 715 billion riyals from 855 billion in the 2014 plan, leaving a deficit of 145 billion.
2014 - Movies opening in U.S. theatres included: The Interview, starring James Franco, Seth Rogen and Randall Park; the funny, creepy Into the Woods, starring Anna Kendrick, Meryl Streep and Chris Pine; Unbroken, with Jack O’Connell, Domhnall Gleeson and Jai Courtney; American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller and Brian Hallisay; the bio-drama Big Eyes, with Christoph Waltz, Amy Adams and Krysten Ritter; and the historical drama, Selma, starring David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson.
2015 - Motion pictures debuting in the U.S. included: Concussion, starring Will Smith, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin and Luke Wilson; Daddy’s Home, with Linda Cardellini, Mark Wahlberg and, Will Ferrell; Joy, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro; and Point Break, with Teresa Palmer, Luke Bracey and Édgar Ramírez.
2015 - Russia’s environment ministry said the country was warming more than twice as fast as the average for the rest of the world. The government had reported that temperatures in Russia had warmed by 0.42 degrees Celsius per decade since 1976, or 2.5 times quicker than the global warming trend of 0.17 degrees. “Climate change leads to growth of dangerous meteorological phenomena,” the ministry said in a comment to the report. Out-of-control fires and deadly floods have hit Russia nearly every year for a decade, and the emergency situations ministry in October conceded it had to come up with a strategy.
2016 - Motion pictures opening in the U.S. included: 20th Century Women, starring Annette Bening, Elle Fanning and Greta Gerwig; and Toni Erdmann, with Peter Simonischek, Sandra Hüller and Michael Wittenborn.
2016 - British pop star George Michael died of apparent heart failure at 53 years of age. Michael had rocketed to stardom with his group, WHAM!, and went on to enjoy a long and celebrated solo career.
2016 - Thousands of people were evacuated from coastal areas of southern Chile following a powerful 7.6 magnitude Christmas Day earthquake.
2017 - The Lucky Man opened in U.S. movie theatres. The action drama stars Jesse James, Burton Gilliam and Brad Hawkins. Also opening on this day was the drama Phantom Thread, with Vicky Krieps, Daniel Day-Lewis and Lesley Manville.
2017 - Swiss police said three people had died during the previous 48 hours in separate avalanche incidents in the Swiss Alps.
2017 - Topless activist Alisa Vinogradova from the feminist group Femen tried to snatch the statue of the baby Jesus from the Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. She was stopped by police as she grabbed it.
2018 - New movies in the U.S. included: Holmes & Watson, starring Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and Ralph Fiennes; Vice, with Alison Pill, Amy Adams and Steve Carell; Destroyer, starring Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell and Tatiana Maslany; and On the Basis of Sex, the story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer and Justin Theroux.
2018 - In northern Thailand two South Korean tourists died after the golf cart they were riding was hit from behind by another cart -- and fell into the Nan river. (A search taking some 50 hours retrieved the bodies around 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) and 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from where the accident happened.)
2018 - Many New Delhi residents were forced to spend Christmas indoors as air quality remained at severe levels for a fourth day in India’s capital city -- the worst smog crisis of the year.
2019 - Movies opening in U.S. theatres on this day included: Little Women, starring Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson and Timothée Chalamet; the animated, Spies in Disguise, featuring characters voiced by Karen Gillan, Rachel Brosnahan, Tom Holland, Will Smith, Rashida Jones, Ben Mendelsohn, Stefania Spampinato and Reba McEntire; 1917, starring Andrew Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch and Mark Strong; Just Mercy, starring Brie Larson, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx; and The Song of Names, with Clive Owen, Tim Roth and Jonah Hauer-King.
2019 - After several weeks of relative calm, protests spread through Hong Kong, with some demonstrators donning reindeer costumes for the holiday. Rallies ended in clouds of tear gas, with one police officer pointing his gun at the crowd -- but not firing.
2020 - Movies scheduled to open in the U.S. included: News of the World, starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Marvel and Ray McKinnon; Promising Young Woman, with Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham and Laverne Cox; Wonder Woman 1984, starring Pedro Pascal, Gal Gadot and Connie Nielsen; and One Night in Miami, with Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree and Aldis Hodge.
2020 - A large explosion shook downtown Nashville, Tennessee. A bomb was detonated inside a parked recreational vehicle (RV). 41 buildings were damaged, and communications systems, including residential and cell phone service and 911 call centers, went out. An investigation later found that Anthony Quinn Warner of Antioch, Tennessee, acting alone, built and ultimately detonated the vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. His actions were “determined to not be related to terrorism.”
2021 - NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was launched from French Guiana inside the cargo bay of an Ariane 5 rocket. The telescope was built to give the world its first glimpse of the universe as it existed when the earliest galaxies formed.
2021 - U.S. airlines canceled some 900 flights on this second straight day of massive cancellations. This, as surging COVID-19 infections sidelined some pilots and other crew members, upending plans for tens of thousands of holiday travelers over the Christmas weekend.
2022 - Dozens of ethnic Rohingya were rescued in Indonesia after spending more than a month adrift on a dilapidated boat without food or water. At least 58 people were rescued from the boat, though more than 130 were still missing. Many of those are women and children, and the majority were presumed to have drowned. Nearly 2,400 Rohingya had left Bangladesh by boat in 2022.
2022 - Chinese military staged a show of force against Taiwan as provocations between the two territories increased. Taiwanese officials said China had dispatched at least 71 warplanes to fly in the immediate area surrounding the island, and had sent an additional seven naval vessels to patrol Taiwan's shores. The military show from China came a day after President Biden signed an $858 million defense bill that included additional funding to boost Taiwan's defenses.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day December 25
1642 - Sir Isaac Newton
mathematician, apple fancier: “What goes up must come down. Ouch!”; author: Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica; died Mar 20, 17271821 - Clara Barton
nurse: founder of American Red Cross; died Apr 12, 19121876 - Mohammed Ali Jinnah
founder: Republic of Pakistan: governor general; died Sep 11, 19481878 - Louis-Joseph Chevrolet
engineer, race car enthusiast: founded Chevrolet Motor Car Company [1911]; died Jun 6, 19411887 - Conrad Hilton
hotel magnate; died Jan 3, 19791890 - Robert Leroy Ripley
traveller, cartoonist, author: creator of the Ripley’s Believe It or Not newspaer, TV feature; died May 27, 19491895 - Cal Farley
‘America’s greatest foster father’: founded Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch [1939]; died Feb 19, 19671899 - Humphrey (DeForest) Bogart
Academy Award-winning actor: The African Queen [1951]; The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Caine Mutiny, The Barefoot Contessa, Tokyo Joe, Key Largo, Action in the North Atlantic, High Sierra, The Harder They Fall, We’re No Angels, Sabrina [over 50 films]; died Jan 14, 19571907 - Cab Calloway (Cabell Calloway III)
‘Highness of Hi-De-Ho’: bandleader, singer: Minnie the Moocher, Blues in the Night; films: Stormy Weather, St. Louis Blues; The Cotton Club Comes to the Ritz; died Nov 18, 19941913 - Tony Martin (Alvin Morris)
singer: It’s a Blue World, To Each His Own, Kiss of Fire, Stranger in Paradise, Here; actor: Casbah, Hit the Deck; married to dancer Cyd Charisse; died Jul 27, 20121915 - Pete Rugolo
bandleader, chief arranger for Stan Kenton; musical director for Capitol Records: Peggy Lee, Mel Torme, Miles Davis, Harry Belafonte; wrote and scored theme from TV’s The Fugitive, Run for Your Life; died Oct 16, 20111918 - Anwar el-Sadat
Egyptian president; Nobel Peace Prize winner with Israel’s Menachim Begin [1978]; assassinated Oct 6, 19811924 - Rod (Edwin Rodman) Serling
script writer: The Twilight Zone, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Planet of the Apes, Seven Days in May; died June 28, 19751927 - Nellie Fox (Jacob Nelson Fox)
Baseball Hall of Famer [second base]: Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago White Sox, Houston Colt .45’s; died Dec 1, 19751937 - O’Kelly Isley
singer: Grammy Award-winning group: The Isley Brothers: It’s Your Thing [1969]; Shout, Twist and Shout, That Lady, This Old Heart of Mine; died Mar 31, 19861943 - Hanna Schygulla
actress: Dead Again, The Summer of Miss Forbes, Forever, Lulu, Casanova, Delta Force, Berlin Alexanderplatz, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Gods of the Plague1944 - Henry Vestine
musician: guitar: group: Canned Heat: On the Road Again, Going Up the Country; sideman for Frank Zappa; died Oct 20, 19971945 - Noel Redding
musician: bass: Noel Redding Band; group: The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hey Joe, Purple Haze, The Wind Cries Mary, Burning of the Midnight Lamp, All Along the Watchtower; died May 13, 20031945 - Gary Sandy
actor: WKRP in Cincinnati, All That Glitters, Troll, Hail1945 - Ken Stabler
Pro Football Hall of Famer (‘The Snake’): Oakland Raiders quarterback: Super Bowl XI; died Jul 8, 20151946 - Jimmy Buffett
songwriter, singer: Margaritaville, Come Monday, Changes in Latitudes - Changes in Attitudes; main ‘Parrot Head’; died Sep 1, 2023; more1946 - Larry Csonka
Pro Football Hall of Famer: Miami Dolphins running back: Super Bowl VI, VII, VIII1948 - Barbara Mandrell
singer: CMA Entertainer of the Year [1980, 1981], Female Vocalist of the Year [1979]; Standing Room Only, I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool, Sleeping Single in a Double Bed, If Loving You Is Wrong1949 - Ron Foos
musician: bass: group: Paul Revere & the Raiders: Indian Reservation [The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian], Steppin’ Out, Kicks, Let Me, Hungry, Just Like Me1949 - Sissy (Mary) Spacek
Academy Award-winning actress: Coal Miner’s Daughter [1980]; Missing, The River, Carrie, The Migrants1950 - Karl Rove
right wing political consultant and policy advisor: White House Deputy Chief of Staff [2005-2007]; Senior Advisor to the President [George W. Bush: 2001-2007]; political analyst, contributor: FOX News, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal1950 - Manny (Jesus Manuel Marcano) Trillo
baseball: Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs [all-star: 1977], Philadelphia Phillies [World Series: 1980/all-star: 1981, 1982], Cleveland Indians [all-star: 1983], Montreal Expos, SF Giants, Cincinnati Reds1952 - CCH Pounder
actress: The Shield, Avatar, Warehouse 13, Sons of Anarchy, NCIS: New Orleans1954 - Robin Campbell
musician: guitar, singer: group: UB40: King, Food for Thought, My Way of Thinking, I Think It’s Going to Rain, Dream a Lie, The Earth Dies Screaming, Red Red Wine, Sing Our Own Song1954 - Annie Lennox
singer: group: Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams are Made of This, Belinda, Never Gonna Cry Again, Love is a Stranger, Who’s That Girl, Right by Your Side, Here Comes the Rain Again, Sexcrime; [w/Aretha Franklin]: Sisters [Are Doin’ It for Themselves]; solo: It’s Alright [Baby’s Coming Back], When Tomorrow Comes1954 - Steve Wariner
musician: guitar [sideman for Bob Luman], singer: Your Memory, By Now, All Roads Lead to You, Midnight Fire, What I Didn’t Do, Some Fools Never Learn, You Can Dream of Me, Life’s Highway, Small Town Girl, The Weekend, Lynda, Where Did I Go Wrong, I Got Dreams, If I Didn’t Love You, Longneck Bottle, Holes in the Floor of Heaven1957 - Shane MacGowan
songwriter, musician: guitar, singer: group: The Pogues: Transmetropolitan, Streams of Whiskey, Dark Streets of London, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, Dirty Old Town, Sally MacIennane, A Pair of Brown Eyes1958 - Rickey (Henley) Henderson
baseball: Oakland Athletics [all-star: 1980, 1982-1984, 1990, 1991/World Series: 1988, 1989/Baseball Writers’ Award, American League: 1990]; NY Yankees [all-star: 1985-1988], Toronto Blue Jays [World Series: 1993], SD Padres1958 - Christina Romer
professor of economics: Univ of California, Berkeley; Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration [2009-2010]1961 - Darren Wharton
musician: keyboards: groups: Thin Lizzy: Whiskey in the Jar, Rocker, She Knows, Still in Love With You, Showdown, Rosalie, Wild One, Fighting My Way Back; Dare: LPs: Out of the Silence, Blood from Stone, Calm Before The Storm, Belief, Beneath the Shining Water, The Power of Nature, Arc of the Dawn1968 - Jim Dowd
hockey [center]: NHL: New Jersey Devils, Vancouver Canucks, New York Islanders, Calgary Flames, Nashville Predators, Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks1970 - Stu Barnes
hockey [center]: NHL: Winnipeg Jets, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres, Dallas Stars1971 - Dido (Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong)
singer: LPs: No Angel, Life for Rent, Safe Trip Home; singles: Everything to Lose, Quiet Times, Don’t Believe in Love, Sand in My Shoes, Don’t Leave Home, White Flag, Paris1971 - Noelle Parker
actress: Sisters, NewsBreak, A Kiss So Deadly, Clerks, Amy Fisher: My Story, Ernest Saves Christmas, At Close Range1971 - Justin Trudeau
politician: 23rd/current Prime Minister of Canada [2015- ]1978 - Jasmin Gerat
actress: Madchen Madchen 2, Falsche Liebe - Die Internetfalle, I Love You, Baby, Ein Scheusal zum Verlieben, Caipiranha1981 - Katie Wright
actress: The Good Things, The David Cassidy Story, Hairshirt, Abduction of Innocence, When Friendship Kills, Melrose Place1984 - Georgia Moffett
actress: The Bill, Doctor Who, Merlin, White Van Man1985 - Perdita Weeks
actress: Magnum P.I. [2018], The Tudors, Lost in Austen, The Great Fire, The Musketeers, Rebellion, Penny Dreadful, Ready Player One1987 - Demaryius Thomas
football [wide receiver]: Denver Broncos [2010–2018]: 2014 Super Bowl XLVIII; 2016 Super Bowl 50 champs; Houston Texans [2018]; New England Patriots [2019]; New York Jets [2019]
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day December 25
1951Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (facts) - Gene Autry
White Christmas (facts) - Bing Crosby
1960
1969
1978
1987
1996
2005
2014
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
TWtD Calendar
