26 December History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 1776    -    After crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey, George Washington leads an attack on Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, and takes 900 men prisoner.
  • 1786    -    Daniel Shay leads a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt.
  • 1806    -    Napoleon's army is checked by the Russians at the Battle of Pultusk.
  • 1862    -    38 Santee Sioux are hanged in Mankato, Minnesota for their part in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. Little Crow has fled the state.
  • 1866    -    Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, head of the Department of the Platte, receives word of the Fetterman Fight in Powder River County in the Dakota territory.
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  • 1917    -    As a wartime measure, President Woodrow Wilson places railroads under government control, with Secretary of War William McAdoo as director general.
  • 1925    -    Six U.S. destroyers are ordered from Manila to China to protect interests in the civil war that is being waged there.
  • 1932    -    Over 70,000 people are killed in a massive earthquake in China.
  • 1941    -    General Douglas MacArthur declares Manila an open city in the face of the onrushing Japanese Army.
  • 1943    -    The German battleship Scharnhorst is sunk by British ships in an Arctic fight.
  • 1944    -    Advancing Soviet troops complete their encirclement of Budapest in Hungary.
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  • 1945    -    The United States, Soviet Union and Great Britain, end a 10-day meeting, seeking an atomic rule by the UN Council.
  • 1953    -    The United States announces the withdrawal of two divisions from Korea.
  • 1962    -    Eight East Berliners escape to West Berlin, crashing through gates in an armor-plated bus.
  • 1966    -    Dr. Maulana Karenga celebrates the first Kwanza, a seven-day African-American celebration of family and heritage.
  • 1979    -    The Soviet Union flies 5,000 troops to intervene in the Afghanistan conflict.
  • 2006    -     Former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford dies at age 93. Ford was the only unelected president in America's history.
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  • 26 December Birthdays

  • 1716    -    Thomas Gray, English poet.
  • 1792    -    Charles Babbage, English mathematician who perfected the calculating machine.
  • 1891    -    Henry Miller, American writer.
  • 1893    -    Mao Tse-tung, founding father of the People's Republic of China.