Post by Evon on Dec 25, 2013 22:12:31 GMT -5
December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.
There are five days remaining until the end of the year.
Days until coming elections:
www.daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1065 The first building of Westminster Abbey in England was dedicated.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Abbey
1356 Emperor Charles IV (1316–1378) issued the famous Golden Bull, the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire until 1806.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_IV,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
A stained glass portrayal of Luther
1531 German reformer Martin Luther declared: 'The inner man is a saint; the outer man is a sinner. That is why we confess in the Creed that the church is holy but pray for forgiveness of sins in the Lord's Prayer.'
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
Seal of Plymouth Colony
1620 Plymouth Colony was settled by the "Mayflower" colonists. (In 1691 Plymouth joined other neighboring settlements to form the royal colony of Massachusetts.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony
1724 Benjamin Franklin arrives in London. Because of repeated quarrels with his brother James, Franklin left Boston at the age of 17 and made his way to Philadelphia, where he arrived in October 1723. There he soon found work as a printer and made numerous friends. Among them was Sir William Keith, the governor of Pennsylvania, who encouraged Franklin to go to London to complete his training as a printer and to purchase the printing equipment he would need. Young Franklin took this advice, arriving in London in December 1724 and obtained employment at two of the foremost printing houses in London. He spent a year and a half in London.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
1767 Marie Durand released from prison. On this day, December 26, 1767, the day after Christmas, thirty-six prisoners, some of them sick and broken, stumbled out of the Tower of Constance. Among them was Marie Durand. She had been in the tower thirty-eight years.
The Tower of Constance stood on swampy land near the Rhone River, in Aigues Mortes, France, not far from the Mediterranean Sea. Built by Duke Philip the Bold, the tower was designed in imitation of Jerusalem architecture. The stronghold also served as a lighthouse, with a lantern in the top-most tower, known as "the beacon of Charlemagne."
During the French Civil Wars between Protestants and Catholics following the Reformation, the tower fell into Protestant control. But in 1632 Louis XIII regained it. King Louis XIV converted it to a women's prison.
The female prisoners were kept in the upper room. A little light and air came through narrow windows. In the center of the floor was an opening onto the guardroom below. The authorities saw this as the perfect place to hold and torture those they considered to be heretics. But at least one prisoner refused to yield. Inscribed on the wall is the slogan "Register," meaning "Resist!"
In 1730 a fifteen-year-old Huguenot girl was arrested and taken from her home in Bouchet-de-Pransles. Her name was Marie Durand; her crime was to have a brother who was a Protestant minister; they held Protestant meetings in their home. Pierre Durand was known as the "Pastor of the Desert," a reference to the mysterious woman described in Revelation 12:6.
Unable to lay hands on Pierre, the government arrested Marie's father in 1728. Before he was taken to prison, Etienne Durand married his young daughter to Matthew Serres, whom he hoped could protect her. Marie's arrest separated the young couple. Matthew was soon imprisoned with his father-in law at a fort. In 1732, Pierre was captured and hanged.
When Marie entered the Tower--so cold in Winter and so hot in Summer--it was as if a ray of sunshine had penetrated its darkness and despair. Although just fifteen, she became the tireless Christian focus of the Tower, and remained the spiritual leader of the prisoners for thirty-eight years. She nursed the ailing, wrote letters for those who could not write, and (after a psalter was allowed) read psalms aloud each evening. She encouraged her fellow-prisoners to sing Huguenot hymns. Not all the women were Christians. Some were crude. But the prisoners knew her family; they sympathized with her youth and they respected her for her piety. All were blessed through her.
Marie wrote to churches and government officials with appeals for improved prison conditions. Her appeals were even relayed to the philosophers Voltaire and Rousseau. Thanks to Marie's efforts, the prisoners were allowed a copy of the Psalms and permitted to take air on the rooftop. She never recanted her faith.
Disgusted with prison conditions, the governor of Languedoc ordered the captives released despite the objections of King Louis XV. After her release, Marie returned to her childhood home. Her husband and father were dead. An Amsterdam Walloon church supported her for the rest of her life. She died in 1776.
www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/marie-durand-released-at-last-11630273.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Huguenots_under_Louis_XV
Battle of Trenton, by H. Charles McBarron, Jr., 1975
1776 American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of Trenton, the Continental Army attacks and successfully defeats a garrison of Hessian mercenaries.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trenton
1790 Louis XVI of France gives his public assent to Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XVI_of_France
1799 Four thousand people attend George Washington's funeral where Henry Lee III declares him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington#Legacy
Battle of Pułtusk 1806
1806 Battles of Pultusk and Golymin: Russian forces hold French forces under Napoleon.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pu%C5%82tusk
George William Smith
1811 A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_William_Smith_(politician)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_B._Venable
Nicholas I
1825 Advocates of liberalism in Russia rise up against Czar Nicholas I and are put down in the Decembrist revolt in Saint Petersburg.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_I_of_Russia
1838 Wake Forest College was chartered in Wake Forest, North Carolina. It was founded under Baptist auspices in 1834.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Forest_College
The pass above Truckee Lake (here photographed in the 1870s), 7,088 feet (2,160 m) high, became blocked by early snow in November 1846. Both the pass and the lake are now called Donner.
1846 Trapped in snow in the Sierra Nevadas and without food, members of the Donner Party resort to cannibalism.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party
1860 The first ever inter-club association football match takes place between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at the Sandygate Road ground in Sheffield, England, United Kingdom.
Jefferson as the young Rip Van Winkle
1860 Joseph Jefferson's "Rip Van Winkle" premieres in New York NY. George Frederick Bristow has the distinction of composing the second American opera. "Rip van Winkle" premiered in Nibb's theatre in 1855 and had a successful run for four weeks.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jefferson#Early_career
1861 American Civil War: The Trent Affair: Confederate diplomatic envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and United Kingdom.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Affair
1861 The Battle of Chustenahlah was fought in Osage County, Oklahoma, (then Indian Territory) during the American Civil War. A band of 9,000 pro-Union Native Americans was forced to flee to Kansas in bitter cold and snow in what became known as the Trail of Blood on Ice.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chustenahlah
1862 American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou begins.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chickasaw_Bayou
1862 Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Red_Rover_(1859)
1862 The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Native Americans die. On December 26, 1862, the US Army carried out the largest mass execution in U.S. history at Mankato following the Dakota War of 1862. Thirty-eight Dakota Native Americans were hanged for their parts in the uprising. A military tribunal had sentenced 303 to death. President Lincoln reviewed the record and pardoned 265, believing they had been involved in legitimate defense against military forces. Episcopal Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple had urged leniency in the case, but his position was not politically popular in Minnesota. Lincoln's intervention was not popular at the time. Two commemorative statues are located on the site of the hangings (now home to the Blue Earth County Library and Reconciliation Park).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_War_of_1862#Execution
The Tunnel entrance from the Italian side (Bardonecchia)
1870 The 12.8-km long Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps is completed.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9jus_Rail_Tunnel
Illustration of Thespis by D. H. Friston from The Illustrated London News, 1872, shows Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, Thespis and Mercury (r.)
1871 Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thespis_(opera)
1883 The Harbour Grace Affray between Irish Catholics and Protestant Orangemen causes five deaths in Newfoundland.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_General_Assembly_of_Newfoundland
Marie Skłodowska Curie, c. 1920
1898 Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Curie
The lighthouse on Eilean Mòr. The Chapel of St Flannan can be seen on the slope to the right of the lighthouse.
1900 A relief crew arrives at the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles of Scotland, UK, only to find the previous crew has disappeared without a trace.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannan_Isles_Lighthouse
1919 Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth#MLB.2C_Boston_Red_Sox_.281914.E2.80.9319.29
1925 Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar#Adoption
1941 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)#1942_to_present
1943 World War II: German warship Scharnhorst is sunk off of Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scharnhorst-class_battleship
1944 World War II: George S. Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastogne#World_War_II
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton#Battle_of_the_Bulge
1948 Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy. Freedom to practice religion was a rare commodity in Hungary during the Nazi occupation and under the Communist tyranny that followed it. Any religious leader who resisted either of these totalitarian regimes was in danger of life and liberty. One who was pinched in the jaws of both states was Jozsef Mindszenty. A bishop in the Roman Church during the Nazi occupation, he was imprisoned during 1944 and 1945 for protesting the arrest of Jews.
After World War II, Mindszenty was made a Cardinal of the church. As the highest official of the Church of Rome in Hungary, he became a target of Communist harassment, especially when he resisted nationalization of Polish church schools. He called churchgoers to boycott government newspapers and radio stations, because the media carried propaganda and lies.
Late in 1948, the cardinal realized he was about to he arrested. He scribbled a note to his mother: "I have taken no part in any conspiracy of any kind. I shall not resign from my Episcopal see. I shall not make a confession. But if despite what I now say you should read that I have confessed or resigned, and even see it authenticated by my signature, bear in mind that it will have been only the result of human frailty. In advance, I declare all such actions null and void."
On this day, December 26, 1948, Mindszenty was arrested in Budapest by the Soviet stooges who governed the nation. Accused of treason, the cardinal was convicted in a show trial and given a stiff sentence the following February.
For twenty-three years he would suffer imprisonment and isolation. During that time he was unwavering in his love for God.
The Hungarian Revolt of 1956 brought a change in his circumstances. Local peasants, armed with hoes, pitchforks and other farm tools demanded freedom for Mindszenty and food for the people. The soldiers guarding the cardinal gave him up.
Shortly afterward, Mindszenty appeared at the United States Embassy in Budapest, requesting asylum. The soldiers on duty were not sure what to do but decided to admit him. Washington telexed a few moments later to say every courtesy should be extended to the cardinal. Cardinal Mindszenty remained in the embassy fifteen years. In 1971, Pope Paul VI ordered him to Rome.
Free at last, Mindszenty toured among Hungarian refugees, but the Vatican placed a gag on his words. Rome had cut a deal with the Hungarian Communists. But Mindszenty wasn't the sort of man to remain silent. Asked to resign, he refused to do so, upon which the pope relieved him of his responsibilities. The cardinal died in exile in Vienna in 1975. His eulogy accused both the Communists and the Vatican of forcing him into needless suffering. For their part, his opponents accused him of fascism and antisemetism.
www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901-2000/arrest-of-valiant-cardinal-mindszenty-11630796.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindszenty
1963 The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles#.22British_Invasion.22
2003 Kwanzaa celebration with its founder, Maulana Karenga, and others
1966 The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maulana_Karenga
1970 American missionary and apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'We can fail after we are truly Christians because becoming a Christian does not rob us of our true humanity.'
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Schaeffer
B-52 Stratofortress on bomb run
1972 Vietnam War: As part of Operation Linebacker II, 120 American B-52 Stratofortress bombers attacked Hanoi, including 78 launched from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the largest single combat launch in Strategic Air Command history.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Linebacker_II
1982 Time's Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer.
fortune.com/2011/10/24/steve-jobs-cried-when-he-read-times-1982-man-of-the-year/
1991 The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union
1994 Four Armed Islamic Group hijackers seize control of Air France Flight 8969. When the plane lands at Marseille, a French Gendarmerie assault team boards the aircraft and kills the hijackers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_8969
1996 Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_JonBenét_Ramsey
1997 The Soufrière Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat explodes, creating a small tsunami offshore.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soufrière_Hills
1998 Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein#International_relations_and_sanctions_on_Iraq
1999 The storm Lothar sweeps across Central Europe, killing 137 and causing US$1.3 billion in damage.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclones_Lothar_and_Martin
2003 A magnitude 6.6 earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bam,_Iran#2003_earthquake
2004 A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 230,000.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami
2006 An oil pipeline in Lagos, Nigeria explodes, killing at least 260.
www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/world/africa/27nigeria.html
Births
1716 Thomas Gray, English poet and scholar (d. 1771)
1751 Clemens Maria Hofbauer, Austrian missionary, priest, and saint (d. 1820)
1830 William Caven, Scottish Canadian Presbyterian leader. He taught at Knox College, in Toronto, the last 39 years of his life. Though staunchly conservative, Caven was genuinely interested in social issues and thoroughly committed to missions.
1837 Morgan Bulkeley, American politician, 54th Governor of Connecticut (d. 1922)
1837 George Dewey, American admiral (d. 1917)
1859 William Stephens, American politician, 24th Governor of California (d. 1944)
1887 Charles Brandon Booth, American social reformer and head of the Volunteers of America, 1949-58. Booth was the son of Ballington Booth and Maud Elizabeth Charlesworth and a grandson of Salvation Army founder William Booth. (d Apr 1975)
records.ancestry.com/Charles_Brandon_Booth_records.ashx?pid=98737621
1890 Uncle Charlie Osborne, American fiddler (d. 1992)
1891 Henry Miller, American author and painter (d. 1980)
1893 Mao Zedong, Chinese military leader and politician (d. 1976)
1894 Jean Toomer, American author and poet (d. 1967)
1903 Elisha Cook, Jr., American actor (d. 1995)
1905 William Loeb III, American publisher (d. 1981)
1907 Albert Gore, Sr., American politician (d. 1998)
1914 Richard Widmark, American actor (d. 2008)
1921 Steve Allen, American actor, comedian, and singer (d. 2000)
1923 Richard Artschwager, American painter, illustrator, and sculptor (d. 2013)
1924 Frank Broyles, American football player and coach
1926 Earle Brown, American composer (d. 2002)
1927 Alan King, American comedian and actor (d. 2004)
1927 Stu Miller, American baseball player
1933 Caroll Spinney, American puppeteer and voice actor
1935 Abdul "Duke" Fakir, American singer (Four Tops)
1937 John Horton Conway, English-American mathematician
1937 Jay Heimowitz, American poker player
1938 Robert Hamerton-Kelly, South African-American pastor, scholar, and author (d. 2013)
1939 Phil Spector, American singer-songwriter and producer (The Teddy Bears)
1940 Edward C. Prescott, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
1940 Ray Sadecki, American baseball player
1942 Catherine Coulter, American author
1942 Gray Davis, American politician, 37th Governor of California
1942 Dan Massey, American activist and author (d. 2013)
1945 John Walsh, American television host, producer, and activist, created America's Most Wanted
1946 Alan Frumin, American politician
1947 James T. Conway, American general
1947 Richard Levis McCormick, American historian and academic
1948 Candy Crowley, American journalist
1949 Bob Hartman, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Petra)
1951 John Scofield, American guitarist and composer (Trio Beyond)
1953 Richard Aitson (born December 26, 1953) is a Kiowa-Kiowa Apache bead artist, curator, and poet from Oklahoma.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Aitson
1954 Ozzie Smith, American baseball player
1955 Evan Bayh, American politician, 46th Governor of Indiana
1956 David Sedaris, American comedian, author, and radio host
1960 Jim Toomey, American cartoonist
1962 Mark Starr, American wrestler (d. 2013)
1963 Lars Ulrich, Danish-American drummer, songwriter, and producer (Metallica)
1964 Elizabeth Kostova, American author
1966 Jay Farrar, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, and Gob Iron)
1966 Tim Legler, American basketball player
1966 Sandra Taylor, American model and actress
1966 Jay Yuenger, American guitarist and producer (White Zombie)
1968 Tricia Leigh Fisher, American actress and singer
1968 Dennis Knight, American wrestler
1970 James Mercer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Shins and Broken Bells)
1971 Jared Leto, American singer-songwriter, actor, producer, and director (Thirty Seconds to Mars)
1971 Jonathan M. Parisen, American director
1973 Zach Blair, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Hagfish, Gwar, Rise Against, and Only Crime)
1973 Reichen Lehmkuhl, American model and actor
1974 Tiffany Brissette, American actress
1974 Joshua John Miller, American actor
1979 Chris Daughtry, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Daughtry)
1980 Todd Dunivant, American soccer player
1985 Beth Behrs, American actress
1990 Andy Biersack, American singer-songwriter (Black Veil Brides)
1994 Samantha Boscarino, American actress
1995 Zach Mills, American actor
2000 Samuel Sevian, American chess player
Deaths
268 Pope Dionysius
418 Pope Zosimus
1350 Jean de Marigny, French bishop
1530 Babur, Mongolian emperor (b. 1483)
1574 Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine (b. 1524)
1784 Seth Warner, American soldier (b. 1743)
1900 J. A. F. W. Mueller, the first graduate of the Missouri Synod log cabin college in Perry County, Missouri, in Chester, Illinois (b. 29 October 1825).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=M&word=MULLER.JOHANNANDREASFRIEDRICHWILHELM
1909 Frederic Remington, American painter and illustrator (b. 1861)
1925 Jan Letzel, Czech architect, designed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (b. 1880)
1944 John Robert Fox (b May 18, 1915) American soldier who was killed in action when he deliberately called for artillery fire on his own position, after his position was overrun, in order to defeat a German attack in the vicinity of Sommocolonia, northern Italy, during World War II. He posthumously received the Medal of Honor in 1997, for willingly sacrificing his life.[
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Fox
1931 Melvil Dewey, American librarian and educator, created the Dewey Decimal Classification (b. 1851)
1963 George Wagner, American wrestler (b. 1915)
1968 Kenneth Scott Latourette (b. 6 August 1884), American Baptist church historian
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Scott_Latourette
1971 Erhardt Albert Henry Riedel, missionary and professor in China and Taiwan, died (b. 12 June 1889 at Lincoln, Illinois).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=r&word=RIEDEL.ERHARDTALBERTHENRY
1972 Harry S Truman, American army officer and politician, 33rd President of the United States (b. 1884)
1973 Harold B. Lee, American religious leader, 11th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1899)
1974 Jack Benny, American comedian and actor (b. 1894)
1977 Howard Hawks, American director and screenwriter (b. 1896)
1980 Tony Smith, American sculptor (b. 1912)
1984 Sheila Andrews, American country music singer (b. 1953)
1986 Elsa Lanchester, English-American actress (b. 1902)
1988 Glenn McCarthy, American businessman, founded the Shamrock Hotel (b. 1907)
1990 Gene Callahan, American production designer (b. 1923)
1999 Curtis Mayfield, American singer-songwriter and producer (The Impressions) (b. 1942)
2000 Jason Robards, American actor (b. 1922)
2002 Herb Ritts, American photographer (b. 1952)
2002 Armand Zildjian, American businessman, founded the Avedis Zildjian Company (b. 1921)
2004 Poom Jensen, American son of Ubolratana Rajakanya (b. 1983)
2004 Reggie White, American football player (b. 1961)
2005 Eula "Pearl" Carter Scott (1915–2005) became the youngest pilot in the United States on September 12, 1929, when she took her first solo flight at the age of 13. She was taught to fly by the notable pioneer aviator Wiley Post. She was a stunt pilot. In 1972 she became one of the Chickasaw Nation's first community health representatives; her mother was an original enrollee of the Chickasaw Nation. Scott was elected to the Chickasaw legislature in 1983 and served three terms there.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eula_Pearl_Carter_Scott
2005 Vincent Schiavelli, American actor (b. 1948)
2006 Gerald Ford, American politician, 38th President of the United States (b. 1913)
2007 John A. Garraty, American author (b. 1920)
2007 Stu Nahan, American sportscaster (b. 1926)
2009 Felix Wurman, American cellist and composer (b. 1958)
2010 Teena Marie, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1956)
2011 Houston Antwine, American football player (b. 1939)
2011 Joe Bodolai, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1948)
2011 Sam Rivers, American flute player and composer (b. 1923)
2011 James Rizzi, American painter (b. 1950)
2012 Fontella Bass, American singer (b. 1940)
2012 Paul T. Bateman, American theorist (b. 1919)
2012 E. Porter Hatcher Jr., American politician (b. 1936)
2012 Gerald McDermott, American filmmaker and author (b. 1941)
2012 Rebecca Tarbotton, Canadian-American activist (b. 1973)
Holidays and observances
Boxing Day, except when December 26 is a Sunday. If it is a Sunday, Boxing Day is transferred to December 27 by Royal Proclamation. (Commonwealth of Nations), and its related observances: Day of Good Will (South Africa and Namibia)
Christian Feast Day:
Abadiu of Antinoe (Coptic Church)
Earliest day on which Feast of the Holy Family can fall, celebrated on Sunday after Christmas or 30 if Christmas falls on a Sunday.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Family
James the Just (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Stephen (Western Church)
Synaxis of the Theotokos (Eastern Orthodox Church)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaxis
December 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Feasts
Second Day of the Feast of the Nativity.
Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaxis
Commemoration of the Flight into Egypt of the Most Blessed Theotokos.
Saints
Saint Archelaus, Bishop of Harran in Northern Mesopotamia (c. 280)
Saint Zeno (Zenon), Bishop of Majuma (the port of Gaza), in Palestine (4th century)
Hieromartyr Euthymius of Sardis (Euthymios the Confessor), Bishop of Sardis (840)
Venerable Evaristus (Evarestos), Monk of the Studion Monastery (825)
Venerable Constantine, Monk of Synnada, the former Jew (9th century)
Pre-schism Western saints
Saint Dionysius, Pope of Rome (268)
Saint Marinus, the son of a senator in Rome, he was martyred by beheading under Numerian (283)
Saint Zosimus, a Greek Pope of Rome (418)
Saint Tathai (Tathan, Tathaeus, Athaeus), Abbot of Llantathan (early 6th century)
Saint Jarlath, first Bishop of Tuam, founder of the monastery of Cluain Fois, near Tuam (Ireland) (c. 540)
Saint Theodore the Sacrist, a holy man and contemporary of St Gregory the Great in Rome (6th century)
Saint Amaethlu (Maethlu); a church founded by him in the village of Llanfaethlu in Anglesey, Wales, is named after him (6th century)
Post-schism Orthodox saints
Saint Nicodemus of Tismana, Romania (1406)
New Hieromartyr Constantius the Russian, Priest at Constantinople, by beheading (1743)
New martyrs and confessors
New Hieromartyrs Alexander and Demetrius, Priests (1918)
New Hieromartyrs Nicholas, and Nicholas, Priests, and Michael, Deacon (1930)
New Hieromartyr Leonidas (Antoshchenko), Bishop of Mariisk (1937)
New Hieromartyr Basil (Mazurenko), Hieromonk (1937)
New Martyr Augusta (Zashchuk), Schema-Nun (1937)
Virgin-martyrs Anthisa and Makaria (1937)
New Hieromartyr Andrew, Bishop of Ufa (1937)
New Martyr, Valentina, (1937)
Hieromartyr Alexander, Priest (1937)
Venernable New Hieromartyr Isaac II (Bobrikov), Archimandrite of Optina Monastery (1938)
New Hieromartyr Gregory, Priest (1938)
Virgin-martyrs Augusta and Mary (1938)
Martyr Agrippina (1938)
Other commemorations
Repose of Abbot Barlaam of Valaam and Optina Monasteries (1849)
Repose of Archimandrite Irenarchus (Rosetti) of Mt. Tabor (1859)
Icons/
Icon of the "Mother of God of "Vilna" ("Vilen-Ostrabramsk", "Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn").
Icon of the Mother of God "the Three Joys".
Icon of the Mother of God "Merciful" (Greek: Eleousa).
Icon of the Mother of God "the Blessed Womb" or "Barlovsk" (1392)
Icon of the Mother of God "Baibuzsk" (Baibuskaya) (1852)
The second day of Christmas (Western Christianity)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas
St. Stephen's Day (public holiday in Alsace, Austria, Catalonia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland), and its related observances: Father's Day (Bulgaria)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen%27s_Day
2003 Kwanzaa celebration with its founder, Maulana Karenga, and others
The first day of Kwanzaa, celebrated until January 1 (United States)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa
Mauro Hamza Day (Houston, Texas)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_26
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_26_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1226.htm
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
www.christianity.com/church/church-history/
www.amug.org/~jpaul/dec24.html