On this day in history

December 25

25 births · 24 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

Soviet-Afghan War

46 years ago

Born this day

1642

Isaac Newton

Died aged 84

Photo (modified): Godfrey Kneller · Public domain

Oldest record

472nd

Pedro de Valdivia

death anniversary

View profile

Famous births25

1642 · 383 yrs

Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) was an English polymath who was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, historian and inventor. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 84

View profile Photo (modified): Godfrey Kneller · Public domain

1717 · 308 yrs

Pius VI

Pope Pius VI (Italian: Pio VI; born Count Angelo Onofrio Melchiorre Natale Giovanni Antonio called Giovanni Angelo or Giannangelo Braschi, 25 December 1717 – 29 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 81

View profile Photo (modified): Pompeo Batoni · Public domain

1871 · 154 yrs

Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (6 January 1872 – 27 April 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. Initially influenced by Frédéric Chopin, he composed in a relatively tonal, late-Romantic idiom.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 43

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1876 · 149 yrs

Adolf Windaus

Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus (German pronunciation:; 25 December 1876 – 9 June 1959) was a German chemist who won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1928 for his work on sterols and their relation to vitamins. He was the doctoral advisor of Adolf Butenandt who also won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 149

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1876 · 149 yrs

Mohammad Ali Jinnah

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, statesman, and the founder of Pakistan.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 149

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1899 · 126 yrs

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey DeForest Bogart ( BOH-gart; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. Often known for his leading roles as both gangsters and detectives in film noirs, his performances in classic Hollywood cinema made him an American cultural icon.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 126

View profile Photo (modified): WCCO (AM) , a CBS affiliate--the network where the program originated. This local affiliate intended to use the photo in · Public domain

1904 · 121 yrs

Gerhard Herzberg

Gerhard Heinrich Friedrich Otto Julius Herzberg, (German:; December 25, 1904 – March 3, 1999) was a German-Canadian pioneering physicist and physical chemist, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1971, "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 121

View profile Photo (modified): Willy Pragher · CC BY 4.0

1906 · 119 yrs

Ernst Ruska

Ernst August Friedrich Ruska (German pronunciation:; 25 December 1906 – 27 May 1988) was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986 for his work in electron optics, including the design of the first electron microscope.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 119

View profile Photo (modified): J Brew , uploaded on the English-speaking Wikipedia by en:User:Hat'nCoat . · CC BY-SA 3.0

1911 · 114 yrs

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (French:; 25 December 1911 – 31 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 114

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY-SA 4.0

1916 · 109 yrs

Ahmad ibn Billah

Ahmed Ben Bella (Arabic: أحمد بن بلّة, romanized: Aḥmad bin Billah; 1916 – 11 April 2012) was an Algerian politician, soldier and revolutionary who served as the head of government of Algeria from 27 September 1962 to 15 September 1963 and then the first president of Algeria from 15 September 1963 until his overthrow…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 109

View profile Photo (modified): République Algérienne · Public domain

1918 · 107 yrs

Anwar Sadat

Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who was the third president of Egypt from 1970 until his assassination in 1981.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 107

View profile Photo (modified): Press · Public domain

1925 · 100 yrs

Carlos Castañeda

Carlos Castaneda (December 25, 1925– April 27, 1998) was a Peruvian-American writer, trained as an anthropologist. Starting in 1968, Castaneda published a series of books that describe alleged training in shamanism that he received under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named Don Juan Matus.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 100

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Showing 12 of 25

Famous deaths24

1553 · 472 yrs

Pedro de Valdivia

Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva (Spanish pronunciation:; April 17, 1497 – December 25, 1553) was a Spanish conquistador and the first Governor of Colonial Chile.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 56

View profile Photo (modified): Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz · Public domain

1635 · 390 yrs

Samuel de Champlain

Samuel de Champlain (French:; baptized 13 August 1574 – 25 December 1635) was a French explorer, navigator, cartographer, soldier, geographer, diplomat, and chronicler who founded Quebec City and established New France as a permanent French colony in North America.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ExplorationDied aged 68

View profile Photo (modified): Samuel de Champlain · Public domain

1921 · 104 yrs

Vladimir Korolenko

Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko (Russian: Влади́мир Галактио́нович Короле́нко, Ukrainian: Володи́мир Галактіо́нович Короле́нко, romanized: Volodymyr Halaktionovych Korolenko; 27 July 1853 – 25 December 1921) was a Russian writer, journalist and humanitarian of Ukrainian origin.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 68

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1926 · 99 yrs

Emperor Taishō

Emperor Taishō (31 August 1879 – 25 December 1926), personal name (imina) Yoshihito, was Emperor of Japan from 29 July 1912 until his death in 1926. His reign was marked by a domestic political shift toward liberal democracy, called Taishō Democracy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyWould be 147

View profile Photo (modified): Ministry of the Imperial Household · Public domain

1935 · 90 yrs

Paul Bourget

Paul Charles Joseph Bourget (French:; 2 September 1852 – 25 December 1935) was a French poet, novelist and critic. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 83

View profile Photo (modified): Charles Gallot · Public domain

1938 · 87 yrs

Karel Čapek

Karel Čapek (Czech:; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright, critic and journalist. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel War with the Newts (1936) and play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots, 1920), which introduced the word robot.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 136

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1948 · 77 yrs

Pompeu Fabra

Pompeu Fabra i Poch (Catalan pronunciation:; 20 February 1868 – 25 December 1948) was a Catalan engineer, linguist, and grammarian. He was the main author of the normative reform of the contemporary Catalan language and is considered the father of modern Catalan grammar.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipDied aged 80

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1961 · 64 yrs

Otto Loewi

Otto Loewi (German:; 3 June 1873 – 25 December 1961) was a German-born pharmacologist and psychobiologist who discovered the role of acetylcholine as an endogenous neurotransmitter.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 88

View profile Photo (modified): Albert Hilscher · Public domain

1972 · 53 yrs

C. Rajagopalachari

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji, the Scholar Emeritus), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence activist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 147

View profile Photo (modified): Gandhi_Rajagopalachari.jpg : Unknown author Unknown author derivative work: Ganeshk ( talk ) · Public domain

1973 · 52 yrs

İsmet İnönü

Mustafa İsmet İnönü (24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish politician and military officer who served as the president of Turkey from 1938 to 1950, and as its prime minister three times: from 1923 to 1924, 1925 to 1937, and 1961 to 1965.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 142

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown. Official photo of President. · Public domain

1977 · 48 yrs

Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, singer, film editor and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 137

View profile Photo (modified): Strauss-Peyton Studio · Public domain

1983 · 42 yrs

Joan Miró

Joan Miró i Ferrà ( mirr-OH, US also mee-ROH, Catalan:; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist from Spain. His work has been interpreted as Surrealist with a personal style, sometimes also veering into Fauvism and Expressionism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 133

View profile Photo (modified): Carl Van Vechten · Public domain

Showing 12 of 24

Events5

1914 · 111 yrs

Christmas truce

The Christmas truce was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires mainly along the Western Front of the First World War around Christmas in 1914. The truce occurred five months after hostilities had begun.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

1941 · 84 yrs

Japanese occupation of Hong Kong

The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the governor of Hong Kong, Mark Aitchison Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. His surrender occurred after 18 days of fierce fighting against the Japanese forces that invaded the territory.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1979 · 46 yrs

Soviet-Afghan War

The Soviet–Afghan War took place in Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 47-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Communist-led Afghan military fight against the rebelling Afghan mujahideen.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

2016 · 9 yrs

2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash

On 25 December 2016, a Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner of the Russian Defence Ministry crashed into the Black Sea shortly after taking off from Sochi International Airport, Russia, while en route to Khmeimim Air Base, Syria, during the Russian military intervention in the war in Syria.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2024 · 1 yrs

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, to Kadyrov Grozny International Airport near Grozny, Russia, operated by Azerbaijan Airlines.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

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