December 25

Christmas Day

Birthdays:

1971 ~ Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister and son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

1959 ~ Michael P. Anderson (d. Feb. 1, 2003), American astronaut who perished in the Columbia shuttle explosion.  He was 41 at the time of his death.

1954 ~ Annie Lennox, Scottish singer.

1950 ~ Karl Rove, American presidential advisor to President George W. Bush.

1949 ~ Sissy Spacek (née Mary Elizabeth Spacek), American actress.

1947 ~ Bruce Wasserstein (d. Oct. 14, 2009), American investment banker whose deals made for high drama.  He died at age 61.

1946 ~ Jimmy Buffett (né James William Buffett), American singer and songwriter.

1945 ~ Ken Stabler (né Kenneth Michael Stabler, d. July 8, 2015), American football and one of the National Football League’s most successful quarterback.  He partied as hard as he threw.  He was 69 years old.

1936 ~ Ismail Merchant (d. May 25, 2005), Indian-born film producer.  He died following surgery at age 68.

1935 ~ Anne Roiphe, American author and feminist.

1924 ~ Rod Serling (né Rodman Edward Serling, d. June 28, 1975), American television producer and author.  He is best known for hosting The Twilight Zone.  He died at age 50 following heart surgery.

1918 ~ Anwar Sadat (d. Oct. 6, 1981), 3^rd President of Egypt and recipient of the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize.  He was assassinated at age 62.

1908 ~ Quentin Crisp (né Denis Charles Pratt, d. Nov. 21, 1999), English author.  He died about a month before his 91^st birthday.

1907 ~ Cabell “Cab” Calloway, III (d. Nov. 18, 1994), American Jazz singer and bandleader.  He died at age 86.

1906 ~ Ernst Ruska (d. May 27, 1988), German physicist and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in electron optics.  He died at age 81.

1904 ~ Gerhard Herzberg (d. Mar. 3, 1999), German-born Canadian physicist and chemist.  He was the recipient of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to the knowledge of electron structure and geometry of molecules, especially free radicals.  He died at age 94.

1899 ~ Humphrey Bogart (d. Jan. 14, 1957), American actor.  He died of esophageal cancer 20 days after his 57^th birthday.

1890 ~ Robert Ripley (né LeRoy Robert Ripley, d. May 27, 1949) American cartoonist and collector of odd facts.  He founded the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! newspaper.  He died of a heart attack at age 58.

1889 ~ Lila Bell Wallace (d. May 8, 1984), American magazine publisher.  She co-founded Reader’s Digest with her husband, DeWitt Wallace.  She died at age 94 of heart failure.

1887 ~ Conrad Hilton, Sr. (d. Jan. 3, 1979), American hotelier and founder of the Hilton Hotels.  He died 9 days after his 91^st birthday.

1884 ~ Evelyn Nesbit (née Florence Evelyn Nesbit, d. Jan. 14, 1967), American actress.  She is best known for her relationship with the much older architect, Stanford White.  In 1906, her jealous husband, Harry Kendall Thaw, murdered White.  She died 20 days after her 82^nd birthday.

1878 ~ Louis-Joseph Chevrolet (b. June 6, 1941), Swiss-born American racecar driver and co-founder of the Chevrolet Car Company.  He died at age 62.

1876 ~ Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus (d. June 9, 1959), German chemist and recipient of the 1928 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on sterols and their relation to vitimins.  He died at age 82.

1872 ~ Helena Rubinstein (née Chaja Rubinstein, d. Apr. 1, 1965), Polish-American business woman and cosmetics manufacturer.  She founded the Helena Rubinstein Cosmetics, Inc.  She died at age 92.

1821 ~ Clara Barton (née Clarissa Harlowe Barton, d. Apr. 12, 1912), American nurse known as the “Angel of the Battlefield”.  She was the founder of the American Red Cross.  She was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts.  She died at age 90.

1757 ~ Benjamin Pierce (d. Apr. 1, 1839), 11^th Governor of New Hampshire.  He was Governor for 1 year, from June 1827 through June 1828.  He was the father of President Franklin Pierce.  He died at age 81.

1717 ~ Pope Pius VI (né Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, d. Aug. 29, 1799).  He reigned as Pope from February 15, 1775 until his death on this date 24 years later.  He was 81 years old.

1642 ~ Sir Isaac Newton (d. Mar. 20, 1727), English scientist, astronomer and mathematician.  He is credited with inventing a branch of mathematics called calculus.  Under the new calendar (the Gregorian calendar), Newton’s birthdate would fall on January 4, 1643, so that date is sometime listed as his actual birthdate.  He is believed to have been 84 at the time of his death.

Events that Changed the World:

1991 ~ The Soviet Union was dissolved after Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931) resigned as President of the Soviet Union.  The Ukraine’s referendum was finalized and the Ukraine officially left the Soviet Union.

1989 ~ Former Romanian President Nicolae Ceauşescu (1918 ~ 1989) and his wife, Elena (1916 ~ 1989), the former First-Deputy Prime Minister, were executed after a summary trial for crimes against humanity.

1977 ~ Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Began (1913 ~ 1992) met with Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat (1918 ~ 1981), in Egypt to discuss peace negotiations.

1941 ~ Admiral Chester Nimitz (1885 ~ 1966) took command of the US Pacific Fleet after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1932 ~ A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Gansu, China, killing 275 people.

1926 ~ Prince Hirohito (1901 ~ 1989) succeeded his father, Taishō (1879 ~ 1926), as emperor of Japan.

1914 ~ A series of unofficial truces began on the Western Front during World War I so the soldiers on both sides celebrated Christmas together.

1868 ~ President Andrew Johnson (1808 ~ 1875) granted unconditional pardons to all Civil War Confederate soldiers.

1809 ~ Dr. Ephraim McDowell (1777 ~ 1820) performed the first known successful ovariotomy when he removed a 22-pound tumor from his patient.  He is considered the Father of Abdominal Surgery.

1776 ~ George Washington (1732 ~ 1799) and his men crossed the Delaware River to Trenton, New Jersey in the American Revolutionary War to attack the Hessian mercenaries.

1643 ~ William Mynors, captain of the East India Company ship, the Royal Mary, found and named Christmas Island.

1066 ~ William the Conqueror (1028 ~ 1087) was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey in London.

1000 ~ King Stephen I of Hungary established Hungary as a Christian kingdom.

800 ~ Charlemagne (c. 742 ~ 814) was crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor.

496 ~ Clovis I (466 ~ 511), King of the Franks, was baptized as a Catholic at Rheims.

336 ~ The first documentary sign of Christmas celebration in Rome.

Good-Byes:

2016 ~ George Michael (b. June 25, 1963), British singer-songwriter.  He died at age 53.

2009 ~ Knut Magne Haugland (b. Sept. 23, 1917), Norwegian commando and resistance fighter during World War II who sailed on Kon-Tiki.  He died at age 92.

2008 ~ Eartha Kitt (b. Jan. 17, 1927), American singer and actress.  She died 23 days before her 82^nd birthday.

2006 ~ James Brown (b. May 3, 1933), American singer-songwriter.  He died of congestive heart failure at age 73.

1996 ~ JonBenét Ramsey (b. Aug. 6, 1990), American child beauty queen and murder victim.  She was 6 years old.

1995 ~ Dean Martin (né Dino Paul Crocetti, b. June 7, 1917), American singer and actor.  He was 78 years old.

1989 ~ Billy Martin (né Alfred Manuel Pesano, Jr., b. May 16, 1928), American baseball player and manager of the New York Yankees.  He was killed on Christmas day in a single car accident.  He was 61 years old.

1989 ~ Nicolae Ceauşescu (b. Jan. 26, 1918), 11^th Romanian president and husband of Elena Ceauşescu.  He was executed for crimes against humanity after a brief summary trial.  He was executed a month before his 72^nd birthday.

1989 ~ Elena Ceauşescu (b. Jan. 7, 1916), Romanian politician and wife of former Romanian president, Nicolae Ceauşescu, who was executed for her crimes against humanity.  She died 13 days before her 74^th birthday.

1983 ~ Joan Miró (b. Apr. 20, 1893), Spanish painter.  He died at age 90.

1977 ~ Sir Charles Spencer “Charlie” Chaplin (b. Apr. 16, 1889), English film star.  He died at age 88.

1975 ~ Gunnar Kangro (b. Nov. 21, 1913), Estonian mathematician.  He died just over a month after his 62^nd birthday.

1961 ~ Otto Loewi (b. June 3, 1873), German pharmacologist and recipient of the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of how acetylcholine helped enhance medical therapy.  He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, but immigrated to the United States.  He died at age 88.

1961 ~ Owen Brewster (né Ralph Owen Brewster, b. Feb. 22, 1888), 54^th Governor of Maine.  He served as governor from 1925 to 1929.  He died at age 73.

1946 ~ W.C. Fields (né William Claude Dunkenfield, b. Jan. 29, 1880), American comedian, actor and writer, best known for his comic persona as a misanthropic egotist.  He died just over a month before his 67th birthday.

1938 ~ Karel Čapek (b. Jan. 9, 1890), Czech author best known for coining the term Robot.  He died of pneumonia 15 days before his 49^th birthday.

1926 ~ Emperor Taishō (b. Aug. 31, 1870), Emperor of Japan.  He died at age 47.

1868 ~ Linus Yale, Jr. (b. Apr. 4, 1821), American mechanical engineer and inventor, best known for his invention of the cylinder locks.  He died of a heart attack at age 47.

1635 ~ Samuel de Champlain (b. 1567), French explorer.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but baptismal records show he was baptized on August 13, 1574.  He died at age 61.

1553 ~ Pedro de Valdiva (b. Apr. 17, 1500), Spanish-Chilean explorer and 1^st Royal Governor of Chile.  He was captured and killed in a campaign against the Araucanian Indians.  The city of Valdivia, Chile is named in his honor.  He was 56 at the time of his death.

795 ~ Pope Adrian I (b. 700).  He was Pope from February 772 until his death on this date 23 years later.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been 95 at the time of his death.