Today in History - December 25th
800: Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor
1066: William the Conqueror was crowned King William I of England
1075: Pope Gregory VII kidnapped while saying Mass
1223: St. Francis of Assisi assembled one of the first Nativity scenes, in Greccio, Italy.
1642: British mathematician, physicist and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton born
1776: General George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey
1868: President Andrew Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all persons involved in the Southern rebellion that resulted in the Civil War.
1896: John Philip Sousa wrote the melody to a song that had haunted him for days. On Christmas Day, that melody was finally titled, "The Stars and Stripes Forever."He had hoped the song would be a ballad - but alas, another march
1899: Actor Humphrey Bogart (The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Caine Mutiny, The Barefoot Contessa, Tokyo Joe, Key Largo) born
1907: Singer and band leader Cab (Cabell) Calloway (`Highness of Hi-De-Ho' Minnie the Moocher) born
1918: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (Nobel Peace Prize winner with Israel's Menachim Begin in1978) born
1924: Scriptwriter Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Planet of the Apes, Seven Days in May) born
1926: Hirohito became emperor of Japan, suceeding his father, Emperor Yoshihito (Hirohito was formally enthroned almost two years later).
1958: Baseball outfielder Ricky Henderson born
1989: Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed following a popular uprising.
1990: Romania's former monarch, King Michael, arrived on his first visit to his homeland since Communist rulers forced him to abdicate four decades earlier -- but he was deported by the new Bucharest government less than 12 hours later.
1991: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on television to announce his resignation as the eighth and final leader of a Communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.
and...
1 AD (approx.) God became Man, and our Lord and Savior was born