1915 – Today the British Cabinet recognizes the true nature of the war by deciding to institute compulsory military service, with single men to be conscripted before married ones
1926 – Imperial Airways begins mail and passenger service from England to India
1949 – 20th Century Fox announces it will produce TV programs
1953 – WLBT TV channel 3 in Jackson, Mississippi (NBC) begins broadcasting
1964 – Premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich’s cantata “The Execution of Stepan Razin”
1984 – Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress party wins the general election in India
1994 – American country singer Tammy Wynette admitted to the hospital with bile duct infection
2019 – Jihadist fundamentalist group al-Shabaab sets off a truck bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia, killing at least 84 people and wounding over 150
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 27th December 2025
1703 – England and Portugal sign Methuen-Asiento-trade agreement
1939 – 1st American skimobiles (North Conway, NH)
1943 – France transfers most of her powers in Lebanon to Lebanese government
1960 – France performs nuclear test
1960 – 1961 NFL Draft: Tommy Mason from University of Tulane first pick by Minnesota Vikings
1986 – Musical “Les Misérables” opens in the US at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
1996 – Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram air base which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul.
2001 – The People’s Republic of China is granted permanent normal trade relations with the United States.
Historical Events for 26th December 2025
1825 – Decembrist uprising in Russia against Tsar Nicholas I begins [O.S. 14 December]
1877 – Socialist Labor Party of North America holds 1st national convention
1878 – 1st US store to install electric lights, Philadelphia
1972 – Ballon d’Or: Bayern Munich defender Franz Beckenbauer wins award for best European football player ahead of tied fellow German duo of Gerd Müller and Günter Netzer
1976 – AFC Championship, Oakland Coliseum: Oakland Raiders beat Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-7
1988 – Anti African student rebellion in Nanjing, China
1990 – Senior Professional Baseball Association folds
1991 – Militant Sikhs kill 55 and wounds 70 in India
Historical Events for 25th December 2025
1000 – Monarch Istvan crowned king of Hungary
1688 – British King James II lands in Ambleteuse, France
1899 – Shelling on besieged Ladysmith during the Boer War includes one shell containing a plum pudding
1921 – Last major Potlatch (ceremony) by Chief Daniel Cranmer (Kwakwaka’wakw) from Alert Bay, British Columbia. Twenty-six people arrested, their masks and regalia sold by Canadian government.
1930 – Tasmania all out 280, WI 2-139 at Hobart Crowd 2,500
1942 – Soviet artillery and tank battle on German armies at Stalingrad
1973 – Arab oil ministers cancel January 5 percent production cut; Saudi Arabian oil minister promises 10 percent OPEC production rise
1997 – For 1st time US movie box office receipts pass $6 billion
Historical Events for 24th December 2025
1924 – School in Babb’s Switch, Oklahoma, catches fire, 36 die
1963 – Greeks and Turks riot in Cyprus
1973 – Ferryboat capsized off coast of Equador, drowning 200
1974 – The Sporting News bestows St Louis Cardinals outfielder Lou Brock their MLB Player of the Year Award
1977 – “Ghost to the Post”, Raiders tight end Dave Casper (“The Ghost”) catches a 42-yard reception to set up the Raiders’ tying field goal near the end of regulation (Raiders win in OT)
1984 – Palace coup in Mauritania
1989 – Charles Taylor starts the First Liberian Civil War when he enters the country at the head of the guerrilla group National Patriotic Front of Liberia to overthrow President Samuel Doe
1991 – Ballon d’Or: Marseille forward Jean-Pierre Papin is named Europe’s best football player; first from the French League to win the trophy
Historical Events for 23rd December 2025
1815 – “Emma” novel by Jane Austen is published by John Murray in London
1941 – Japan begins assault on Rangoon, Burma
1962 – AFL Championship, Jeppesen Stadium, Houston: Dallas Texans beat Houston Oilers, 20-17; Tommy Brooker lands winning 25-yard field goal in overtime
1966 – Britain’s rock TV show “Ready Steady Go” last program
1970 – USSR performs nuclear test
1990 – Comedy “Lettice and Lovage” closes at Barrymore Theater, NYC after 284 performances
1997 – Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson is quickest to reach 500 wins (682 games)
2016 – United Nations Security Council adopts a landmark resolution demanding a halt to all Israeli settlement in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. Resolution 2334 was moved by New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela and passed 14-0 with a US abstention.
Historical Events for 22nd December 2025
1890 – Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between Kingsport and Kentville, Nova Scotia.
1894 – Claude Debussy’s first orchestral masterpiece “Prélude à l’apres-midi d’un faune” premieres in Paris
1930 – Convention of Economic Rapprochement/Oslo Agreesments signed between some European countries in response to the Great Depression
1940 – World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon
2017 – UN Security Council votes 15 to 0 for additional sanctions on North Korea, including measures to slash the country’s petrol imports by up to 90%
2018 – Partial shutdown of US federal government begins
2022 – US Drug Enforcement Administration says it seized enough fentanyl in 2022 to kill every American, more than 379 million doses
Historical Events for 21st December 2025
1864 – US Civil War: General Sherman’s Union Army captures Savannah, Georgia, which surrenders to him, at the end of his March To the Sea Campaign
1933 – Dried human blood serum is first prepared at the University of Pennsylvania
1951 – Pioneering telenovela “Sua Vida Me Pertence” premieres in Brazil
1958 – Charles de Gaulle wins a seven-year term as the first President of the Fifth Republic of France
1962 – Angolin leaves Comecon
1966 – USSR launches Luna 13; soft-landed in Oceanus Procellarum
1990 – Steve and Mark Waugh complete 464* partnership for NSW v WA
2020 – Hawaiian vocalist Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s official music video for his rendition of Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg’s “Over the Rainbow” reaches a billion views on YouTube
Historical Events for 20th December 2025
1448 – Pope Nicholas V appoints Rudolf of Diepholt, Bishop of Utrecht, as cardinal
1823 – Play “Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus” by Helmina von Chézy with incidental music by Franz Schubert premieres in Vienna
1915 – WWI: ANZAC troops complete their withdrawal from Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula
1941 – Free France under adm Muselier occupies St-Pierre et Miquelon
1985 – Denis Potvin passes Bobby Orr as NHL defenseman scorer (916 points)
1991 – “Father of the Bride” film comedy starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, and Martin Short, premieres; film is a re-make of 1950 vehicle for Spencer Tracy and ELizabeth Taylor
1999 – Portugal returns Macau to China
2018 – New figures show average US male weighs 198 pounds and stands 5 feet 9 inches, women 171 pounds and 5 feet 4 inches
Historical Events for 19th December 2025
1487 – Opening ceremony of the sixth Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) 4,000 prisoners of war are sacrificed to Aztec gods over four days
1910 – Rayon 1st commercially produced in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania
1934 – Japan agrees to naval treaty of 1922 and 1930
1975 – The Red Hand Commandos, a very secretive Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, explode a no-warning car bomb in Dundalk, killing 2 civilians and wounding 20
1981 – Romuald Spasowski, Polish ambassador to the United States defects to show support for the Solidarity movement amid a crackdown
1983 – The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro
2004 – World’s largest indoor water park Tropical Islands Resort, opens in the Aerium, an old airship hanger, in the world’s largest free-standing hall, south of Berlin, Germany
2018 – Houston Rockets set NBA single-game record with 26 three-pointers in 136-118 victory over Washington Wizards; 8 players hit from deep as Rockets shoot 26-of-55 (47.3%); James Harden leads charge, shooting 6-of-11 on 3s