History of the Day for:
December 26
- 1492: The first Spanish settlement in the new world was founded by Columbus at La Navidad, now Haiti; it was later destroyed by the native Indians.
- 1776: Gen. George Washington's troops captured 1,000 Hessian soldiers in the Battle of Trenton, a major setback for the British.
- 1862: 38 Santee Sioux Indians were hanged in Mankato, Minn., for their roles in an uprising that claimed the lives of hundreds of white settlers.
- 1865: James H. Mason of Franklin, Mass., patented the coffee percolator.
- 1919: The Yankees and the Red Sox reached an agreement on the transfer of Babe Ruth.
- 1924: Judy Garland, billed as Baby Frances, made her show business debut at the age of 2˝ as part of her family's vaudeville act on the New Grand Theater stage.
- 1928: Johnny Weissmuller announced his retirement from amateur swimming after never losing a free-style race in 8 years of competition. He held all world records for free-style swimming from 50 to 880 yards.
- 1931: George Gershwin's musical, "Of Thee I Sing," opened in New York City. The show became the first American musical to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
- 1944: Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" had its first public performance at the Civic Theatre in Chicago; In the Battle of the Bulge, the embattled U.S. 101st Airborne Division, surrounded by German forces in Belgium, was relieved by units of the fourth Armored Division.
- 1954: One of radio's most popular programs, "The Shadow," aired for the last time.
- 1955: RKO became the first major studio to announce the sale of its film library to TV.
- 1963: The Beatles released the single "I Want To Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There," their first U.S. smash, and marked the beginning of Beatlemania and the British Invasion in America.
- 1967: The Dave Brubeck Quartet formally disbanded after saxman Paul Desmond left the group.
- 1968: Led Zeppelin made its concert debut in Boston as the opening act for Vanilla Fudge; Bruin Ted Green set the NHL penalty record, with three minors, two majors and two game misconducts in a matchup against the NY Rangers.
- 1973: "The Exorcist," starring Linda Blair and rated X, premiered in theaters.
- 1982: For the first time, TIME's Man of the Year was a non-human. A computer received the honors as 1982's "greatest influence for good or evil."
- 1986: Doug Jarvis, 31, set an NHL record when he skated in his 916th consecutive game. He holds the individual record for most consecutive games played (964).
- 1986: World Population reaches 5 billion according to www.ibiblio.org world population tracker.
- 1990: Results of a national referendum for independence of Slovenia were published.
- 1991: The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the USSR.
- 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.
- 1996: The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification goes into force.
- 1997: The Soufriere 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.
- 1998: Severe gales over Ireland, northern England, and southern Scotland cause widespread disruption and widespread power outages in Northern Ireland and southern Scotland.
- 1999: Severe weather in France kills over 100 people and causes extensive damage to property, trees and the French national power grid (see Lothar).
- 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 9.0 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 230,000 people.
- 2005: Boxing Day shooting on a busy shopping street in Toronto.
- 2006: The 2006 Hengchun earthquake with 7.1 magnitude hit Taiwan.