December 25
Events
Pre-1600
- 36 - Forces of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han, under the command of Wu Han, conquer the separatist Chengjia empire, reuniting China.
- 274 - A temple to Sol Invictus is dedicated in Rome by Emperor Aurelian.
- 333 - Roman Emperor Constantine the Great elevates his youngest son Constans to the rank of Caesar.
- 336 - First documented sign of Christmas celebration in Rome.
- 350 - Vetranio meets Constantius II at Naissus and is forced to abdicate his imperial title. Constantius allows him to live as a private citizen on a state pension.
- 508 - Clovis I, king of the Franks, is baptized into the Catholic faith at Reims, by Saint Remigius.
- 597 - Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow-labourers baptise in Kent more than 10,000 Anglo-Saxons.
- 800 - The coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.
- 820 - Eastern Emperor Leo V is murdered in a church of the Great Palace of Constantinople by followers of Michael II.
- 1000 - The foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
- 1013 - Sweyn Forkbeard takes control of the Danelaw and is proclaimed king of England.
- 1025 - Coronation of Mieszko II Lambert as king of Poland.
- 1046 - Henry III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement II.
- 1066 - William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
- 1076 - Coronation of Bolesław II the Generous as king of Poland.
- 1100 - Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
- 1130 - Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first king of Sicily.
- 1261 - Eleven-year-old John IV Laskaris of the restored Eastern Roman Empire is deposed and blinded by orders of his co-ruler Michael VIII Palaiologos.
- 1492 - The carrack Santa María, commanded by Christopher Columbus, runs onto a reef off Haiti due to an improper watch.
- 1553 - Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeat the Spanish conquistadors and executes the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia.
- 1559 - Pope Pius IV is elected, four months after his predecessor's death.
1601–1900
- 1724 - J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 91, in Leipzig, based on Luther's 1524 Christmas hymn.
- 1725 - J. S. Bach leads the first performance of the Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, making laughter audible in singing.
- 1758 - Halley's Comet is sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch, confirming Edmund Halley's prediction of its passage. This was the first passage of a comet predicted ahead of time.
- 1766 - Mapuches in Chile launch a series of surprise attacks against the Spanish starting the Mapuche uprising of 1766.
- 1776 - American Revolutionary War: General George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at night to attack Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey, the next day.
- 1793 - Northwest Indian War: General "Mad Anthony" Wayne and a 300 man detachment identify the site of St. Clair's 1791 defeat by the large number of unburied human remains at modern Fort Recovery, Ohio.
- 1809 - Dr. Ephraim McDowell performs the first ovariotomy, removing a 22-pound tumor.
- 1814 - Rev. Samuel Marsden holds the first Christian service on land in New Zealand at Rangihoua Bay.
- 1815 - The Handel and Haydn Society, oldest continually performing arts organization in the United States, gives its first performance.
- 1826 - The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.
- 1831 - The Great Jamaican Slave Revolt begins; up to 20% of Jamaica's slaves mobilize in an ultimately unsuccessful fight for freedom.
- 1837 - Second Seminole War: American general Zachary Taylor leads 1,100 troops against the Seminoles at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee.
- 1868 - Pardons for ex-Confederates: United States President Andrew Johnson grants an unconditional pardon to all Confederate veterans.
- 1870 - Wagner's Siegfried Idyll is first performed.
1901–present
- 1914 - World War I: A series of unofficial truces occur across the Western Front to celebrate Christmas.
- 1915 - The National Protection War breaks out against the Empire of China, as military leaders Cai E and Tang Jiyao proclaim the independence of Yunnan and begin a campaign to restore the Republic.
- 1927 - B. R. Ambedkar and his followers burn copies of the Manusmriti in Mahad, Maharashtra, to protest its treatment of Dalit people.
- 1932 - A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills 275 people.
- 1941 - Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, appointed commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet on December 17, arrives at Pearl Harbor.
- 1941 - World War II: Battle of Hong Kong ends, beginning the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.
- 1941 - Admiral Émile Muselier seizes the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which become the first part of France to be liberated by the Free French Forces.
- 1946 - The first European self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is initiated within the Soviet Union's F-1 nuclear reactor.
- 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.
- 1951 - A bomb explodes at the home of Harry T. Moore and Harriette V. S. Moore, early leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, killing Harry instantly and fatally wounding Harriette.
- 1962 - The Soviet Union conducts its final above-ground nuclear weapon test, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
- 1963 - Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots are forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.
- 1968 - Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the first successful Trans-Earth injection maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
- 1968 - Kilvenmani massacre: Forty-four Dalits are burnt to death in Kizhavenmani village, Tamil Nadu, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages by Dalit laborers.
- 1971 - A fire at the Daeyeonggak Hotel in Seoul, South Korea kills 164 people.
- 1976 - EgyptAir Flight 864, a Boeing 707-366C, crashes on approach to Don Mueang International Airport, killing 71 people.
- 1977 - Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with its president Anwar Sadat.
- 1986 - Iraqi Airways Flight 163, a Boeing 737-270C, is hijacked and crashes in Arar, Saudi Arabia, killing 63 people.
- 1989 - Romanian Revolution: Deposed President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, are condemned to death and executed after a summary trial.
- 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union. Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.
- 1996 - The body of American child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey was found in her family's Boulder, Colorado, home. Her murder remains unsolved.
- 1999 - Cubana de Aviación Flight 310, a Yakovlev Yak-42, crashes near Bejuma, Carabobo State, Venezuela, killing 22 people.
- 2003 - UTA Flight 141, a Boeing 727-223, crashes at the Cotonou Airport in Benin, killing 141 people.
- 2003 - The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express spacecraft on December 19, stops transmitting shortly before its scheduled landing.
- 2004 - The Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.
- 2007 - A Siberian tiger named Tatania escapes her exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo and attacks three people, killing one and injuring two more.
- 2012 - An Antonov An-72 plane crashes close to the city of Shymkent, killing 27 people.
- 2012 - Air Bagan Flight 011, a Fokker 100, crashes on approach to Heho Airport in Heho, Myanmar, killing two people.
- 2016 - A Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 carrying members of the Alexandrov Ensemble crashes into the Black Sea shortly after takeoff, killing all 92 people on board.
- 2019 - Twenty people are killed and thousands are left homeless by Typhoon Phanfone in the Philippines.
- 2020 - An explosion in Nashville, Tennessee, occurs, leaving three civilians in the hospital.
- 2021 - The James Webb Space Telescope is launched.
- 2024 - Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crashes in Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 of its occupants.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1250 - John IV Laskaris, Byzantine emperor
- 1281 - Alice de Lacy, 4th Countess of Lincoln
- 1400 - John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
- 1424 - Margaret Stewart, Dauphine of France
- 1461 - Christina of Saxony, Queen consort of Denmark
- 1490 - Francesco Marinoni, Italian Roman Catholic priest
- 1493 - Antoinette de Bourbon, French noblewoman
- 1505 - Christine of Saxony, German noblewoman
- 1564 - Johannes Buxtorf, German Calvinist theologian
- 1583 - Orlando Gibbons, English organist and composer
- 1584 - Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain
1601–1900
- 1601 - Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha
- 1628 - Noël Coypel, French painter and educator
- 1642 - Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician
- 1652 - Archibald Pitcairne, Scottish physician, anatomist, and scholar
- 1665 - Lady Grizel Baillie, Scottish-English poet and songwriter
- 1674 - Thomas Halyburton, Scottish minister and theologian
- 1686 - Giovanni Battista Somis, Italian violinist and composer
- 1700 - Leopold II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau
- 1711 - Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, French violinist and composer
- 1716 - Johann Jakob Reiske, German physician and scholar
- 1717 - Pope Pius VI
- 1728 - Johann Adam Hiller, German composer and conductor
- 1730 - Filippo Mazzei, Italian-American physician and philosopher
- 1745 - Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Caribbean-French violinist, composer, and conductor
- 1757 - Benjamin Pierce, American general and politician, 17th Governor of New Hampshire
- 1766 - Christmas Evans, Welsh Nonconformist preacher
- 1771 - Dorothy Wordsworth, English diarist and poet
- 1776 - Sydney, Lady Morgan, Irish author and poet
- 1810 - L. L. Langstroth, American apiarist, clergyman and teacher
- 1821 - Clara Barton, American nurse and humanitarian, founder of the American Red Cross
- 1825 - Stephen F. Chadwick, American lawyer and politician, 5th Governor of Oregon
- 1829 - Patrick Gilmore, Irish-American composer and bandleader
- 1856 - Pud Galvin, American baseball player and manager
- 1861 - Francis Henry Buzzacott, American hunter, explorer and army scout famous for writing Buzzacott's Masterpiece
- 1861 - Madan Mohan Malaviya, Indian educator, lawyer, and politician, President of the Indian National Congress
- 1865 - Evangeline Booth, English 4th General of The Salvation Army
- 1869 - Charles Finger, English-American journalist and author
- 1872 - Helena Rubinstein, Polish-American businesswoman and philanthropist
- 1873 - Otto Frederick Hunziker, Swiss-American agriculturalist and educator
- 1874 - Lina Cavalieri, Italian soprano and actress
- 1875 - Francis Aveling, Canadian psychologist and priest
- 1875 - Theodor Innitzer, Austrian cardinal
- 1876 - Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and politician, 1st Governor-General of Pakistan
- 1876 - Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1878 - Louis Chevrolet, American race car driver and businessman, co-founded Chevrolet
- 1878 - Noël, Countess of Rothes, British philanthropist, social leader and heroine of Titanic disaster
- 1878 - Joseph M. Schenck, Russian-American film producer
- 1883 - Hugo Bergmann, Czech-Israeli philosopher and academic
- 1883 - Hana Meisel, Belarusian-Israeli agronomist and politician
- 1884 - Samuel Berger, American boxer
- 1884 - Evelyn Nesbit, American model and actress
- 1886 - Malak Hifni Nasif, Egyptian poet and activist
- 1886 - Kid Ory, American trombonist and bandleader
- 1887 - Conrad Hilton, American entrepreneur
- 1889 - Lila Bell Wallace, American publisher and philanthropist, co-founded Reader's Digest
- 1890 - Noel Odell, English geologist and mountaineer
- 1891 - Kenneth Anderson, Indian-English general and politician, Governor of Gibraltar
- 1891 - Clarrie Grimmett, New Zealand-Australian cricketer
- 1899 - Humphrey Bogart, American actor