Tuesday, December 18, 2012

December 26 in history


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DEC 25      INDEX      DEC 27
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Events

1135 – Coronation of King Stephen of England.

1481 – Battle of Westbroek: Holland defeats troops of Utrecht.

1489 – The forces of the Catholic Monarchs, Fernando and Isabel, take control of Almería from the Nasrid ruler of Granada, Muhammad XIII.

1559 – Pope Pius IV is elected.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Trenton:  After crossing the Delaware River the previous night, George Washington led a surprise attack in Trenton, New Jersey. The Continental Army successfully defeats a garrison of Hessian mercenaries.

1790 – Louis XVI of France gives his public assent to Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution.

1793 – Second Battle of Wissembourg: France defeats Austria.

1793 – The wedding of Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia and Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz takes place.

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."

1805 – Austria and France sign the Treaty of Pressburg.

1806 – Battles of Pultusk and Golymin: Russian forces hold French forces under Napoleon.

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.

1825 – Advocates of liberalism in Russia rise up against Czar Nicholas I and are put down in the Decembrist revolt in Saint Petersburg.

1846 – Trapped in snow in the Sierra Nevadas and without food, members of the Donner Party resort to cannibalism.

1854 – Wood-pulp paper is first introduced in Buffalo, NY.

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.

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.

1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou begins.

1862 – The first U.S. Navy hospital ship begins service. Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.

1862 – The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Native Americans died.

1870 – The 12.8-km long Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps is completed.

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.

1883 – The Harbour Grace Affray between Irish Catholics and Protestant Orangemen causes five deaths in Newfoundland.

1895 – New Empire Theatre, in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England was destroyed by fire

1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.

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.

1917:  Eight months after the United States enters World War I on behalf of the Allies, President Woodrow Wilson announces the nationalization of a large majority of the country's railroads under the Federal Possession and Control Act.

1919 – Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee, allegedly establishing the Curse of the Bambino superstition.

1925 – Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar.

1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

1941:  Less than three weeks after the American entrance into World War II, Winston Churchill becomes the first British prime minister to address Congress. Churchill, a gifted orator, urged Congress to back President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal that America become the "great arsenal of democracy" and warned that the Axis powers would "stop at nothing" in pursuit of their war aims.

1943 – World War II: German warship Scharnhorst is sunk off of Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces.

1944 – World War II: George S. Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.

1948 – Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy.

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.

1966 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

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.

1976 – The Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist–Leninist) is founded.

1982 – Time's Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer.

1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves 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.

1996 – Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado.

1996 – Start of the largest strike in South Korean history.

1997 – The Soufrière Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat explodes, creating a small tsunami offshore.

1998 – Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones.

1999 – The storm Lothar sweeps across Central Europe, killing 137 and causing US$1.3 billion in damage.

2003 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam.

2004 – A 9.3 magnitude earthquake, the world’s most powerful earthquake in 40 years, 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.

2004 – Orange Revolution: The final run-off election in Ukraine is held under heavy international scrutiny.

2006 – An oil pipeline in Lagos, Nigeria explodes, killing at least 260.

2009 – China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou.



Saints' Days and Holy Days

Traditional Western

Stephen, the First Martyr.     Double of the Second Class.
Commemoration of the Octave of Christmas


Contemporary Western

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
James the Just (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Stephen (Western Church)


Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran



Eastern Orthodox
Feasts

Second Day of the Feast of the Nativity
Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos
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)
Venerable Evaristus of the Studion Monastery  (825)
Hieromartyr Euthymius, Bishop of Sardis  (840)

Venerable Constantine of Synnada, Monk of Jewish descent (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, Michael, and Nicholas, Priests,
      and Michael, Deacon (1930)
New Hieromartyr Leonidas (Antoshchenko), Bishop of Mariisk (1937)
New Hieromartyr Basil (Mazurenko), Hieromonk (1937)
Hieromartyr Alexander, Priest (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)
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)



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