1974 Australia -- Cyclone Tracy
1974 : Thousands are left homeless and more than 30 people are feared dead after cyclone Tracy with winds of up to 135mph hits the northern Australian city of Darwin on Christmas Day.
1900 U.S.A. -- Small Pox Epidemic
In Kentucky a small pox epidemic was raging with hundreds of people stricken. The mortality rate was 20% and health authorities demanded that every person in the state be vaccinated.
1914 France -- World War I Christmas Truce
The soldiers of Germany, Russia, France, and Britain call a Christmas truce with soldiers crossing the area of no mans land calling out "Merry Christmas" in their enemies' native tongues.
1926 Japan -- Emperor Hirohito
1926 : Hirohito becomes the 124th Emperor of Japan, succeeding his father, Emperor Yoshihito.
1927 India -- Sailors Revolt Over Visiting America
Sixteen Indian sailors revolted and quit their posts when they heard that their ship was going to America. They were terrified that they would perish to death from the cold. The rebellious sailors were thrown in prison.
1933 North Africa -- French Pilots
A long tour of 16,000 miles over North Africa was made by 27 French pilots in the air corps. They returned at Christmas and got a wildly enthusiastic response at home.
1948 Great Britain -- No Customs For Charity Relief Packages
An Anglo-American pact signed in London would allow certain gifts to the British from the U.S. to be mailed without customs or freight charges. Charitable organizations sending relief packages to groups or individuals in Britain were exempt from tariffs.
1950 Korea -- Lonely Christmas
U.N. soldiers fighting communists in a very cold Korea celebrated Christmas with 42 Catholic priest and double that amount of Protestant ministers. One soldier commented, "This is the loneliest day of the year."
1952 England -- Queens Speech
The young Queen Elizabeth gives her first Christmas broadcast on BBC radio from the study at Sandringham House
1969 Vietnam -- Casualties
Reporter William F. Buckley, writing in The Kokomo Tribune, had visited South Vietnam and observed that 80% of the casualties were South Vietnamese and 20% were American troops. He felt that the U.S. was going about the war in the wrong way.
1978 Iran -- Anti American Feeling
In a wave of hatred against America and the Shah a Colorado oil individual was attacked by three terrorists with machine guns and killed. In the sacred city of Mashad 9 demonstrators were murdered and 81 wounded.
1989 Soviet Union -- Glasnost
In the new atmosphere of glasnost that Mikhail Gorbachev ushered in 70 Soviet children went to 3 American schools in the wealthy Riverdale section of the Bronx.
1989 Romania -- Ex President Shot By Firing Squad
Ex Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena have been shot by a firing squad after a secret military tribunal found them both guilty of genocide and other crimes against the state.
1991 Soviet Union -- Mikhail Gorbachev Stands Down
Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union for almost seven years and executive president for nearly two, steps down from office.
1999 Canada -- Truckers Work Hours
Statistics Canada made public a study on truckers which observed that one in five truckers worked 60 hours a week. Some truckers manipulated their records and worked over 100 hours a week. New legislation would allow them to work 70 hours a week which is 14 hours a day.
2000 China -- Fire At Christmas party
A fire at a Christmas party at an unlicensed disco kills more than 300 people in Luoyang, China
2003 Space -- Beagle 2 Lost
Scientists lose contact with the British-built Mars probe, Beagle 2 is less than a meter across and had travelled to the red planet "piggyback" on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. Nasa successfully landed Spirit rover on Mars in 2004 which did send back astonishing images of the planet's surface.
2006 Somalia -- War Planes Ethiopia
2006 : Ethiopia supported the UN backed government in Somalia and sent war planes into Somalia to bomb villages that supported the Islamic movement.
2006 United States -- James Brown Dies
2006 : James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, has died. He was 73. Admitted to hospital in Atlanta after being diagnosed with severe pneumonia he died at 01.45 Eastern time. Brown was famous for hits including I Got You (I Feel Good), Papa's Got a Brand New Bag and Living in America.
2006 Iraq -- Iranian Officials Arrested
The Iraqi government protested on Monday after U.S. forces arrested a number of Iranian officials in Baghdad, allegedly because they were inciting attacks in the country. Two of the men detained were Iranians that had been invited to Iraq by President Talabani as part of an agreement to build better security links between the two countries. ( Most Officials were released a few days later and asked to leave the country )
2007 United States -- Tiger kills a zoo visitor and wounds two others
One San Francisco Zoo visitor was killed and two others injured this evening when a tiger escaped from its cage. The tiger was fatally shot while it was attacking a patron, said San Francisco Fire Department spokesman Lt. Ken Smith. The attack happened shortly after the zoo's 5 p.m. closing time at a cafe on the east end of the zoo. The tiger cages are located near the center of the zoo.
2008 United States -- Eartha Kitt dies
Singer, dancer and actress Eartha Kitt has died at the age eighty-one. She died of colon cancer on Christmas Day her publicist said. Her famous hits included Old Fashioned Girl, C'est Si Bon and Santa Baby, and she was blacklisted in the U.S. in the late 1960s from having spoken out about the Vietnam War at a White House function.
2009 Afghanistan -- The Taleban release a video of captured U.S. soldier
The U.S. has condemned the Taleban video of an American soldier that was captured by the militants in June as an affront to his family at Christmas. The man in the film, who identifying himself as Private Bowe Bergdahl, criticises the U.S. over the Afghan War and relations with Muslims. A Taleban spokesman then called for the release of captured insurgents in exchange for their prisoner. His parents responded by appealing for his release.
2009 United States -- Attempted bomb plot on Detroit-bound aircraft
2009 : Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was arriving at Detroit from the Netherlands. The flight was a failed al-Qaeda bombing attempt on Christmas Day in which a passenger tried to set off the plastic explosives that had been sewn to his underwear. There were two hundred and ninety passengers on the flight. The attempted bomber was an Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was twenty-three years old. The plastic explosives had failed to detonate properly, resulting in flames and popping noises. A Dutch passenger tackled and restrained him.
2012 France -- Notre Dame Celebrates 850 Years
25th December, 2012 : Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France celebrated its 850th anniversary and commenced a year-long festival in honor of the historic landmark.
2013 China -- Hong Kong Tunnel Found
Authorities discovered an incomplete tunnel connecting Hong King to China. Chinese authorities believe the tunnel was being made with the intention of smuggling goods into Hong Kong to avoid tariffs.
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