What Happened on December 26th in History
30 historical events on this date
World premiere of Sibelius's tone poem Tapiola.
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped...
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving US president and the only one to have...
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.
Winston Churchill's first address to the U.S. Congress was a 30-minute World War II-era radio-broadcast speech made in the chamber of the United States Senate on December 26, 1941. The prime...
World War II: German warship Scharnhorst is sunk off Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: George S. Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.
George Smith Patton Jr. was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, then the Third Army in France and Germany after the...
Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy.
József Mindszenty was a Hungarian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Esztergom and leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary from 1945 to 1973. According to the Encyclopedia...
The last Soviet troops withdraw from North Korea.
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's...
The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band in...
The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.
Kwanzaa is an annual celebration of African-American culture from December 26 to January 1, culminating in a communal feast called Karamu, usually on the sixth day. It was created by activist...
The Communist Party of the Philippines is established by Jose Maria Sison, breaking away from the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930.
The Communist Party of the Philippines is a far-left, Marxist–Leninist–Maoist revolutionary organization and communist party in the Philippines, formed by Jose Maria Sison on 26 December 1968.
Pan Am Flight 799 crashes during takeoff from Elmendorf Air Force Base, killing three.
Pan Am Flight 799 was an international cargo flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Cam Ranh Airport in South Vietnam that crashed on December 26, 1968, near Anchorage, Alaska. The...
Vietnam War: As part of Operation Linebacker II, 120 American B-52 Stratofortress bombers attacked Hanoi, including 78 launched from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the largest single combat launch in Strategic Air Command history.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
Tu-144, the world's first commercial supersonic aircraft, surpassing Mach 2, goes into service.
The Tupolev Tu-144 is a Soviet supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev that operated commercially from 1975 to 1983, including 1977–1978 passenger service.
The inaugural Paris-Dakar Rally begins.
The Dakar Rally or simply "The Dakar", formerly known as the Paris–Dakar Rally, is an annual rally organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). It is a rally raid, an off-road endurance race,...
Witnesses report the first of several sightings of unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom, an incident called "Britain's Roswell".
The Rendlesham Forest incident was a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights near Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, England, in December 1980, which became linked with alleged UFO landings....
United Express Flight 2415 crashes on approach to the Tri-Cities Airport in Pasco, Washington, killing all six people on board.
United Express Flight 2415 was a regularly scheduled flight in the northwest United States from Seattle to Pasco, Washington, operated using a BAe Jetstream 31. Late on Tuesday, December 26, 1989,...
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War.
The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSUSSR) was the highest organ of state authority of the Soviet Union from 1936 to 1991. Based on the principle of unified power, it was...
Kuban Airlines Flight 5719 crashes during a go-around at Gyumri Shirak International Airport, killing 35 of the 36 people on board.
On 26 December 1993, Kuban Airlines Flight 5719, a scheduled international flight flying from Krasnodar International Airport, Russia, to Gyumri Shirak International Airport, Armenia, stalled and...
Four Armed Islamic Group hijackers seize control of Air France Flight 8969. When the plane lands at Marseille, a French Gendarmerie assault team boards the aircraft and kills the hijackers.
The Armed Islamic Group was one of the two main Islamist insurgent groups that fought the Algerian government and army in the Algerian Civil War.
Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones.
Ba'athist Iraq, officially the Iraqi Republic (1968–1992) and later the Republic of Iraq (1992–2003), was the Iraqi state between 1968 and 2003 under the one-party rule of the Iraqi regional branch...
The storm Lothar sweeps across Central Europe, killing 137 and causing US$1.3 billion in damage.
Cyclone Lothar is regarded as the worst European windstorm recorded during the 20th century. Crossing France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany between 25 December and 27 December 1999, Cyclone...
The 6.6 Mw Bam earthquake shakes southeastern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving more than 26,000 dead and 30,000 injured.
An earthquake struck the Kerman province of southeastern Iran at 01:56 UTC on December 26, 2003. The Mw 6.6 strike-slip shock had a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). The earthquake was...
The 9.1–9.3 Mw Indian Ocean earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). One of the largest observed tsunamis, it affected coastal and partially mainland areas of Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia; death toll is estimated at 227,898.
On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7), a Mw 9.2–9.3 earthquake struck with its epicenter off the west coast of Aceh, in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake,...
Orange Revolution: The final run-off election in Ukraine is held under heavy international scrutiny.
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests that led to political upheaval in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005. It gained momentum primarily due to the initiative of the general...
Two earthquakes in Hengchun, Taiwan measuring 7.0 and 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale kill two and disrupt telecommunications across Asia.
The 2006 Hengchun earthquakes occurred on December 26 at 20:26 and 20:34 local time off the southwest coast of Taiwan in the Luzon Strait, which connects the South China Sea with the Philippine Sea....
China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou.
The high-speed rail network in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is almost entirely owned and operated by the China State Railway Group Co. under the brand China Railway High-speed (CRH),...
An Irkut-Avia Antonov An-12 crashes on approach to Irkutsk Northwest Airport, killing all nine people on board.
The JSC Yakovlev Corporation is a Russian aircraft manufacturer, headquartered in the Aeroport District, Northern Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is the manufacturer of the Sukhoi Su-30 family of...
A violent EF-4 tornado hits Garland, Texas, killing nine and injuring almost 500 others.
On the night of December 26, 2015, a violent EF4 tornado struck the Dallas suburbs of Sunnyvale, Garland, and Rowlett, located in Texas. It caused $20–26 million in damages, killed 10 people, making...
Three people are killed when a 14-year-old opens fire on civilians at a Texaco convenience store in Garland, Texas.
On December 26, 2021, a mass shooting took place at a Texaco convenience store in Garland, Texas, United States. Three teenage boys were killed and another was seriously injured before the...
Israel recognises Somaliland as an independent state, becoming the first country to do so.
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the...