December 25 is Christmas Day, when billions of Christians across the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Though Christmas is likely the first thing people think of when December 25 comes around, over the years many additional memorable and even infamous events unrelated to the holiday have taken place on this unique day on the calendar.
• 333: The Roman Emperor Constantine elevates his youngest son, Constans, to the rank of Caesar. This designation establishes Constans as Constantine’s heir apparent.
• 1000: Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
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• 1046: Pope Clement crowns Henry III of Germany as Holy Roman Emperor. This decision on the part of Pope Clement frees the Vatican from dependence on the Roman nobility and lays the foundation for its authority across the empire.
• 1261: Eleven-yearold John IV Doukas Laskaris, who would be the last emperor from the prominent Laskarid dynasty that ruled the Empire of Nicaea, is intentionally blinded on the orders of Michael VIII, making John IV ineligible for the throne.
• 1492: The merchant ship Santa Maria, commanded by Christopher Columbus, runs onto a reef off the coast of Haiti.
• 1758: German astronomer Johann Georg Palitzsch sights Halley’s Comet, which confirms Edmund Halley’s prediction of the comet’s passage. The sighting marks the first passage of a comet that was predicted ahead of time.
• 1776: George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at night. The crossing enables the army’s attack on Hessian forces serving Great Britain in Trenton, New Jersey, the following day.
• 1809: American physician and pioneering surgeon Ephraim McDowell performs the first surgical removal of an ovary or ovaries. McDowell performed the surgery at his home in Danville, Kentucky, removing a 22.5-pound tumor without the use of anesthesia. McDowell’s patient, Jane Todd Crawford, made an uncomplicated recovery and lived another 32 years.
• 1826: A drunken riot at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, concludes a day after it began. Known as the “eggnog riot,” the conflict began a day earlier and 70 cadets were implicated, with 20 of them being courtmartialed. Jefferson Davis, future Confederate States President, was among the implicated cadets.
• 1831: One-fifth of Jamaica’s slaves mobilize in an ultimately unsuccessful fight for freedom. The Great Jamaican Slave Revolt lasts for 11 days and involves up to 60,000 enslaved individuals.
• 1868: United States President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardons to all Confederate veterans in the aftermath of the American Civil War.
• 1932: Nearly 300 people are killed when a magnitude 7.6 earthquake strikes Gansu, China.
• 1950: Scottish nationalist students take the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey. The coronation stone of British monarchs is eventually found in Scotland in April 1951.
• 1951: Harry T. Moore is killed instantly and his wife, Harriette, is fatally wounded when a bomb explodes at the home of the Civil Rights Movement leaders in Mims, Florida. No one was ever prosecuted for the bombing and murders.
• 1986: Sixty-three people are killed when the hijacked Iraqi Airways Flight 163 crashes in Arar, Saudi Arabia. Forty passengers aboard the plane survive the ordeal, and pro-Iranian group Islamic Jihad Organization claims responsibility for the hijacking.
• 1991: Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union. The union itself is dissolved the following day.
• 1996: The body of sixyear- old American child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is found in her family home in Boulder, Colorado. Her death is ruled a homicide and the case remains unsolved.
