December 26

December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. There are 5 days remaining.

Events:

1620 - Elizabeth Bathory's crimes are uncovered
1776 - American Revolutionary War: The British were defeated in the Battle of Trenton
1825 - The Erie Canal opens
1860 - 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 Great Britain
1908 - Jack Johnson becomes the first African American heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia
1933 - The Nissan Motor Company was organized in Tokyo, Japan
1933 - FM radio is patented
1944 - The play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams was first publicly performed).
1944 - American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne
1966 - The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach
1982 - Time magazine's Man of the Year was for the first time given to a non-human; a computer.
1991 - Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR.
1996 - JonBenet Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty queen, was found murdered in her family's basement in Boulder, Colorado.
1998 - Iraq announced its intention to fire upon US and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern "no-fly zones".

Births:

1194 - Frederick II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (+ 1250)
1716 - Thomas Gray, poet and letter-writer († 1771)
1751 - Clement Mary Hofbauer, Redemptorist missionary (+ 1820)
1791 - Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor of computing machines (+ 1871)
1837 - George Dewey, Admiral in the United States Navy (+ 1917)
1883 - Maurice Utrillo, painter (+ 1955)
1891 - Henry Miller, writer (+ 1980)
1893 - Mao Zedong, Chinese politician and dictator (+ 1976)
1903 - Elisha Cook Jr, actor (+ 1995)
1914 - Richard Widmark, actor
1921 - Steve Allen, actor, comedian, composer, author (+ 2000)
1927 - Alan King, comedian, actor
1940 - Phil Spector, music producer
1942 - Gray Davis, Governor of California
1945 - John Walsh, talk show host, television presenter
1954 - Ozzie Smith, Baseball Hall of Famer
1971 - Jared Leto, actor

Deaths:

Holidays and Observances:

Boxing Day in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia
St. Stephen's Day, a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland
First day of Kwanzaa
Feast day of Saint Stephen (in the western Christian church), holiday in Croatia.

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