Today In History - December 26

268 St. Dionysius ends his reign as Catholic Pope
418 St. Zosimus ends his reign as Catholic Pope
795 St. Leo III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1198 French bishop Odo van Sully condemns Zottenfeest
1481 Battle at Westbroek: Dutch army beats Utrecht
1492 1st Spanish settlement in New World founded, by Columbus
1568 Uprising of Morisco's against suppression in Granada
1620 Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, MA
1659 Long Parliament reforms in Westminster
1748 France and Austria signs treaty about Southern Netherlands
1773 Expulsion of tea ships from Philadelphia
1776 Battle of Trenton-major British defeat
1776 George Washington defeats Hessians at Trenton
1805 France and Austria signs Peace of Pressburg
1805 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts established, Philadelphia
1809 English invasionary troop leaves Vlissingen
1813 Zamose, Modlin, Torgau surrenders to allied armies
1825 Erie Canal opens
1830 Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Anna Bolena," premieres in Milan
1831 Vincenzo Bellini's opera "Norma," premieres in Milan
1848 1st gold seekers arrive in Panama en route to SF
1848 William and Ellen Craft escape from slavery in Georgia
1860 Maiden voyage of 1st steamship owned by 1 man (C Vanderbilt)
1860 Major Robert Anderson, under cover of darkness, concentrated his small force at Ft. Sumter
1862 1st U.S. Navy hospital ship enters service
1862 38 Santee Sioux Indians hanged in Mankato Minn, due to their uprising
1862 Battle of Dumfries, VA
1865 James H Mason (Mass) patents 1st U.S. coffee percolator
1872 4th largest snowfall in New York City history (18")
1877 Socialist Labor Party of North America holds 1st national convention
1878 1st U.S. store to install electric lights, Philadelphia
1879 John Brahms' "Tragic Ouverture," premieres
1890 King Mwanga of Uganda signs contract with East Africa Company
1892 Opera "Cristoforo Colombo" is produced (La Scala)
1899 Mafeking: Bathe-Powells failed assault up fort Game Tree: 24 killed
1902 Most knock downs in a fight, Oscar Nelson (5) and Christy Williams (42)
1908 Jack Johnson TKOs Tommy Burns in 14 for heavyweight boxing title
1916 Joseph Joffre becomes marshal of France
1917 1st NHL defensemen to score a goal: Toronto Maple Leaf Harry Cameron
1917 Fed government took over operation of American RR for duration of WW I
1918 1st day of 1st-class cricket in Aust after WW I (Vic vs. NSW)
1919 Yanks and Red Sox reach agreement on transfer of Babe Ruth
1924 Judy Garland, 2, billed as Baby Frances, show business debut
1925 1st East West football game at Ewing Park before 25,000 fans
1925 NHL record 141 shots as New York Americans (73) beat Pitt Pirates (68) 3-1
1925 Turkey adopts Gregorian calendar
1926 Prince-regent Hirohito becomes emperor of Japan
1928 Johnny Weissmuller announces his retirement from amateur swimming
1928 World record 10th wicket stand 307 (Kippax / Hooker) NSW vs. Vic
1931 George/Ira Gershwin's "Of Thee I Sing," premieres in New York City
1931 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical play "Of Thee I Sing" opens on Bdwy
1931 SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich marries Lina von Osten
1932 Earthquake kills 70,000 in Kansu China
1933 Bradman scores 187* NSW vs. Victoria, 294 mins, 13 fours
1933 US forswears armed intervention in Western Hemisphere
1934 Yomiuri Giants, Japan's 1st professional baseball team forms
1935 Stalin views Dmitri Sjostakovitsj' opera "Lady Macbeth"
1936 Israel Philarmonic Orch forms
1938 Bradman scores 225 South Aust vs. Qld before Christ gets him out
1938 Tom Goddard takes a cricket hat-trick for England vs. South Africa
1939 Earthquake in East Anatolia Turkey
1939 Mine strikes in Borinage Brussels
1940 1st-class debut of Arthur Morris, who scores 148
1940 JA Fields/J Chodorov's "My Sister Eileen," premieres in New York City
1943 British sink German battle cruiser Scharnhorst
1943 Earl Claus von Stauffenberg vain with bomb to Hitlers headquarter
1944 Battle of Bastogne-US Gen Patton's 4th Pantzers repulse Germans
1944 Budapest surrounded by soviet army
1944 Tennessee Williams' play "Glass Menagerie," premieres in Chicago
1946 "Beggar's Holiday" opens at Broadway Theater New York City for 111 performances
1946 "Toplitzky of Notre Dame" opens at Century Theater New York City for 60 performances
1946 35th Davis Cup: USA beats Australia in Melbourne (5-0)
1946 Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas opens (start of an era)
1947 "Cradle Will Ruck" opens at Mansfield Theater New York City for 34 performances
1947 British transfer Heard and McDonald Is (Indian Ocean) to Australia
1947 Heavy snow blankets Northeast, buries New York City under 25.8" of snow in 16 hours That same day, LA set a record high of 84 degrees F
1948 Hungarian cardinal Mindszenty arrested
1950 Gillette and Mutual buy All Star and World Series rights ($6M for 6 yrs)
1954 "The Shadow," airs for last time on radio
1954 Cleveland Browns win NFL Championship, beating Detroit 56-10
1955 Cleveland Browns win NFL Championship, beating LA 38-14
1955 RKO is 1st to announce sale of its film library to TV
1957 Roger Sessions' 3rd Symphony premieres in London
1960 Musical "Do re mi" with Phil Silvers premieres in New York City
1960 Philadelphia Eagles beat Green Bay Packers 17-13 in NFL championship game
1963 "Double Dublin" opens at Little Theater New York City for 4 performances
1963 Beatles release "I Want To Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There"
1964 Beatles' "I Feel Fine," single goes #1 and stays #1 for 3 weeks
1965 "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand closes on Broadway
1965 Buffalo Bills beat San Diego Chargers 23-0 in AFL championship game
1966 Maulana Karenga establishes Kwanzaa (1st fruits of harvest) holiday
1967 BBC broadcasts "Magical Mystery Tour"
1967 Dave Brubeck Quartet formally disbands
1968 Arab terrorists in Athens fire on El Al plane, kills 1
1968 Bruin Ted Green sets NHL penalty record of 3 minors, 2 majors and 2 game misconducts in a game against New York Rangers in New York's MSG
1968 Jay Allens "Forty Carats," premieres in New York City
1968 Led Zeppelin's concert debut in Boston as opener for Vanilla Fudge
1973 2 Skylab 3 astronauts walk in space for a record 7 hours
1973 Soyuz 13 returns to Earth
1975 1st supersonic transport service (U.S.S.R.-Tupolev-144)
1975 A crowd of 85661 attends the 1st day of the Aust-WI MCG Test Cricket
1976 "Music Is" closes at St. James Theater New York City after 8 performances
1977 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk U.S.S.R.
1978 India's former PM, Indira Gandhi, released from jail
1981 One of the great day's Test Cricket at the MCG Aust vs. WI
1982 TIME's Man of the Year is a computer
1982 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk U.S.S.R.
1983 Test Cricket debut of Gregory Richard John Matthews, vs. Pakistan MCG
1984 Belgian princess Astrid marries arch duke Otto L van Austrian-Este
1985 Test Cricket debut of Steve Waugh, vs. India at the MCG
1986 Captured Iraqi Airways Boeing-737 in Saudi Arabia, about 60 killed
1986 Doug Jarvis, 31, sets NHL record of 916 consecutive games
1987 "Les Miserables" opens at National Theatre of Iceland, Reykjavik
1988 Anti African student rebellion in China PR
1989 ODI debut for Mark Taylor and Sanath Jayasuriya at cricket MCG
1990 Garry Kasparov beats Antatoly Karpov to retain chess championship
1990 Reggie Williams becomes 1st GM of WLAF's NY-New Jersey Knights
1990 Senior Professional Baseball Association folds
1991 Chuck Knolls retires as NFL coach after 23 years
1991 Jack Ruby's gun sells for $220,000 in auction
1991 Militant Sikhs kill 55 and wound 70 in India
1991 New York Islander Derek King ties New Jersey Devils 5-5 with second left
1992 NY Jet announcer Marty Glickman retires at 75
1993 Antonov-26 crashes at Gyumri, Armenia, 36 killed
1993 Comedian Rodney Dangerfield (72) weds Joan Child (41)
1993 Floyd, Nicklaus and Rodriguez wins Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge Golf Tourn
1994 Actor Jason Hervey (22) weds Kelley Patricia O'Neill (27)
1994 French commando's terminate Air France hijacking in Marseille
1994 President brother Roger Clinton (37) weds 8-mo pregnant Molly Nartin (25)
1995 Muttiah Muralitharan no-balled for throwing (SL vs. Aust, MCG)

Today In History - December 26

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