148 things happened on 25 December, from AD 274 to 2024. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1758 · 268 years ago
German astronomer Johann Georg Palitzsch spotted a comet in the sky on Christmas Day. Its return had been predicted in 1705 by the English astronomer Edmond Halley, who realised the same comet kept coming back. Halley had died before his prediction came true,…
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
Augustine, who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, baptised thousands of people in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Kent on Christmas Day. Baptism is a Christian ceremony that welcomes someone into the Church. Kent's King Æthelberht had already let these missionaries from Rome preach freely. Pope Gregory I, who had sent them, later claimed that more than 10,000 people were baptised, though the number may be exaggerated.
UK story
Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, took control of the Danelaw and was proclaimed King of England. The Danelaw was the part of eastern and northern England where Danish laws applied, after Danish Vikings had settled there. Sweyn ruled England only briefly, as he died in 1014. His son Cnut later became King of England too.
UK story
William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day. Earlier that year he had defeated the Anglo-Saxon army of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. William became the first Norman king of England. However, he faced rebellions for several years and was not secure on the throne until after 1072.
UK story
German astronomer Johann Georg Palitzsch spotted a comet in the sky on Christmas Day. Its return had been predicted in 1705 by the English astronomer Edmond Halley, who realised the same comet kept coming back. Halley had died before his prediction came true, but the comet was later named Halley's Comet after him.
UK story
By Christmas Day, the British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee had finished the first version of WorldWideWeb, the first web browser. A web browser is a program for viewing pages on the World Wide Web, which Berners-Lee also invented. He wrote it in about two months on a NeXT computer while working at CERN, a European research centre. The browser became available to the public in August 1991.
UK story
Beagle 2, a British lander carried to Mars by the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission, was due to land on Christmas Day. Named after Charles Darwin's ship HMS Beagle, it was designed to look for signs of past life on Mars. No signal ever came back. In 2015, pictures from a NASA spacecraft showed it had landed safely, but some solar panels had not opened, blocking its antenna.
UK story
Henry III was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement II.
UK story
American Revolutionary War: General George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at night to attack Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey, the next day.
UK story
Rev. Samuel Marsden holds the first Christian service on land in New Zealand at Rangihoua Bay.
UK story
The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on April 11, 1951.
Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned emperor in Rome on Christmas Day. He had united most of Western and Central Europe under his rule. He was the first recognised emperor in the west since the fall of the Western Roman Empire about three centuries earlier. The changes made during his reign influenced Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
In a speech shown on television across the country, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union. He had led the country since 1985 and was its last leader. The Soviet Union was a huge communist country made up of Russia and other republics. The next day, it was formally dissolved, which means it officially stopped existing.
The James Webb Space Telescope was launched into space on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the largest telescope in space and studies infrared light, which our eyes cannot see. It can spot objects too old, distant or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope, helping scientists study the first stars and galaxies. It was built by NASA with the European and Canadian space agencies.
A temple to Sol Invictus is dedicated in Rome by Emperor Aurelian.
Roman Emperor Constantine the Great elevates his youngest son Constans to the rank of Caesar.
First documented sign of Christmas celebration in Rome.
Vetranio meets Constantius II at Naissus (Serbia) and is forced to abdicate his imperial title. Constantius allows him to live as a private citizen on a state pension.
Clovis I, king of the Franks, is baptized into the Catholic faith at Reims, by Saint Remigius.
The foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
Coronation of Mieszko II Lambert as king of Poland.
Coronation of Bolesław II the Generous as king of Poland.
Baldwin I was crowned the first king of Jerusalem (depicted) in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first king of Sicily.
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, promulgates the Golden Bull, a constitution for his empire.
The carrack Santa María, commanded by Christopher Columbus, runs onto a reef off Haiti due to an improper watch.
Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeat the Spanish conquistadors and executes the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia.
Johann Sebastian Bach led the first performance of Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, based on the Christmas hymn written by Martin Luther in 1524.
J. S. Bach led the first performance of the Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, making laughter audible in singing.
Mapuches in Chile launch a series of surprise attacks against the Spanish starting the Mapuche uprising of 1766.
Northwest Indian War: General "Mad Anthony" Wayne and a 300 man detachment identify the site of St. Clair's 1791 defeat by the large number of unburied human remains at modern Fort Recovery, Ohio.
American physician Ephraim McDowell performed the world's first removal of an ovarian tumor.
The Handel and Haydn Society, oldest continually performing arts organization in the United States, gives its first performance.
Second Seminole War: American general Zachary Taylor leads 1,100 troops against the Seminoles at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee.
Pardons for ex-Confederates: United States President Andrew Johnson grants an unconditional pardon to all Confederate veterans.
Wagner's Siegfried Idyll is first performed.
Disfellowshipped Adventist lay preacher Felix Manalo begins the new religious movement known as the Iglesia ni Cristo with the baptism of its first members.
World War I: A series of unofficial truces occur across the Western Front to celebrate Christmas.
The National Protection War breaks out against the Empire of China, as military leaders Cai E and Tang Jiyao proclaim the independence of Yunnan and begin a campaign to restore the Republic.
B. R. Ambedkar and his followers burn copies of the Manusmriti in Mahad, Maharashtra, to protest its treatment of Dalit people.
The Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng, a revolutionary socialist political party that sought Vietnamese independence from French colonial rule, was formed in Hanoi.
Second World War: The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when Mark Aitchison Young, the Governor of Hong Kong, surrendered the territory to Japan after 18 days of fierce fighting.
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, appointed commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet on December 17, arrives at Pearl Harbor.
Admiral Émile Muselier seizes the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which become the first part of France to be liberated by the Free French Forces.
The first European self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is initiated within the Soviet Union's F-1 nuclear reactor.
The Soviet Union conducts its final above-ground nuclear weapon test, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots are forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.
Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with its president Anwar Sadat.
Russian president Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill officially adopting a new national anthem, with music by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov originally composed for the anthem of the Soviet Union.
The Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.
A fire destroyed Longford's 19th-century St Mel's Cathedral, considered the "flagship cathedral" of the Irish midlands.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year did this happen: “Tim Berners-Lee finishes WorldWideWeb, the first web browser”?
C: 1990. 1990 — that’s 36 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “Halley's Comet returns, just as Edmond Halley predicted”?
B: 1758. 1758 — that’s 268 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
C: William the Conqueror is crowned King of England. 1758: Halley's Comet returns, just as Edmond Halley predicted · 1990: Tim Berners-Lee finishes WorldWideWeb, the first web browser · 1066: William the Conqueror is crowned King of England Find it on the page
“William the Conqueror is crowned King of England” happened in 1066. How many years ago was that?
B: 960 years. 2026 − 1066 = 960. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 25 December.
UK story
Isaac Newton was an English mathematician and physicist and one of the most important scientists in history. He worked out the laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. He also built the first reflecting telescope and showed that a prism splits white light into the colours of the rainbow. He was born on Christmas Day 1642, using the calendar England followed at the time.
Well-known people who died on 25 December.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 25 December somewhere in the world.
Christmas Day is the festival when Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke in the Bible say Jesus was born in Bethlehem to Mary, who was engaged to Joseph. The earliest record of Christmas being celebrated in Rome dates from the year 336. Christmas Day is now a public holiday in many countries, and many people who are not Christians enjoy it too.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
Stories with a heading have been written for young readers by A Day in the Past, using the linked articles as sources. Other entries show text from Wikipedia’s “December 25” page and its “On this day” feed, written by Wikipedia contributors and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Each “Read more” link goes to the article an entry is based on. Photos are credited under each picture. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us.