December 26

2023 Calendar

December 26 is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are five days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

268 - Pope Dionysius
418 - Pope Zosinos
831 - Euthymius of Sardis, Byzantine bishop and saint (b. 754)
865 - Empress Dowager Zheng of China
1350 - Jean de Marigny, French archbishop
1458 - Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (b. 1393)
1476 - Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1444)
1530 – Babur, Mughal Emperor (b. 1483)
1624 – Simon Marius, German astronomer (b. 1573)
1780 - John Fothergill, English physician (b. 1712)
1784 – Seth Warner, American revolutionary leader (b. 1743)
1786 - Gasparo Gozzi, Italian playwright and critic (b. 1713)
1811 - George William Smith, Governor of Virginia (b. 1762)
1867 – Jozsef Kossics, Slovenian writer (b. 1788)
1869 - Jean Leonard Marie Poiseuille, French physician and physiologist (b. 1797)
1890 - Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist (b. 1822)

1901 – 1950

1902 - Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan, Russian writer (d. 1980)
1903 – Elisha Cook Jr., actor (d. 1995)
1904 – Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (d. 1980)
1905 – Anfilogino Guarisi, Brazilian-Italian footballer (d. 1974)
1905 - Mario Varglien, Italian footballer (d. 1978)
1906 – Imperio Argentina, Argentine-Spanish actress and singer (d. 2003)
1907 - Albert Gore, Sr., American politician (d. 1998)
1909 - Matt Gordy, American pole vaulter (d. 1989)
1911 – Princess Takamatsu of Japan (d. 2004)
1912 - Henk de Looper, Dutch field hockey player (d. 2006)
1913 - Elizabeth David, English cookery writer (d. 1992)
1914 – Richard Widmark, American actor (d. 2008)
1918 – George Rallis, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2006)
1921 – Steve Allen, American actor, comedian, composer, and writer (d. 2000)
1923 - Richard Artschwager, American artist (d. 2013)
1926 – Gina Pellón, Cuban painter
1926 - Earle Brown, American composer (d. 2002)
1927 – Alan King, American comedian and actor (d. 2004)
1927 - Stu Miller, American baseball player (d. 2015)
1931 - Roger Piantoni, French footballer
1933 – Caroll Spinney, American puppeteer
1935 – Gnassingbé Eyadéma, President of Togo (d. 2005)
1937 - John Horton Conway, British mathematician
1938 - Bahram Bayzai, Iranian director, screenwriter and producer
1939 - Fred Schepisi, Australian director
1939 – Phil Spector, American music producer
1940 – Edward C. Prescott, American economist
1941 - Daniel Schmid, Swiss movie director
1942 – Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo, 28th President of Guatemala
1942 – Gray Davis, former Governor of California
1945 – John Walsh, American talk show host
1947 – Carlton Fisk, American Baseball Hall of Famer
1947 - Liz Lochhead, Scottish poet
1949 – José Ramos-Horta, East Timorean human rights activist and former President of East Timor
1949 - Mikhail Boyarsky, Russian actor and singer
1950 - Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, former Prime Minister of Pakistan

1951 – 2000

1963 - The Beatles release the singles I Want to Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There in the United States, starting the so-called Beatlemania internationally.
1966 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.
1973 – Comet Kohoutek reaches perihelion but is not such a display as expected.
1973 - The horror movie The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin, is released in US cinemas.
1973 – Soyuz 13 lands.
1974 – Salyut 4 launched.
1975 – Tupolev Tu-144 goes into service in the Soviet Union.
1976 – Foundation of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist).
1978 - The first Paris to Dakar Rally starts in Paris.
1979 – Soviet Special forces troops take over presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.
1980 – Aeroflot puts the Ilyushin Il-86 into service.
1982 – TIME magazine's Man of the Year was for the first time given to a non-human; the personal computer.
1984 – Princess Astrid of Belgium marries Archduke Lorenz of Austria-Este.
1986 – The first long-running American television soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, airs its final episode after thirty-five years on the air.
1988 – Start of the Nanjing Anti-African protests.
1991 – Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR.
1996 – JonBenét Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty queen, was found murdered in her family's basement in Boulder, Colorado.
1996 – United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification goes into force.
1997 - The Soufriere Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat explodes.
1998 – Iraq announced its intention to fire upon US and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern "no-fly zones".
1998 – Severe gales over Ireland, northern England, and southern Scotland. Widespread disruption, widespread power outages in Northern Ireland and southern Scotland.
1999 – On the 26-28th, France and countries to the east, including Germany, are hit by severe storms and rain. Over 100 people were killed, and the storm caused extensive damage to property and trees and the French national power grid.

From 2001

2001 – Nigel Hawthorne, English actor (b. 1929)
2004 – Marianne Heiberg, Norwegian mediator (b. 1945)
2004 – Khun Bhumi Jensen, Thai royal (b. 1983) (2004 Indian Ocean earthquake)
2004 - Angus Ogilvy, British businessman (b. 1928)
2005 - Kerry Packer, Australian businessman (b. 1937)
2005 – Vincent Schiavelli, American actor (b. 1948)
2006 – Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States (b. 1913)
2006 - Ivar Formo, Norwegian cross-country skier (b. 1951)
2009 - Giuseppe Chiappella, Italian footballer (b. 1924)
2010 – Salvador Jorge Blanco, President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1926)
2010 – Teena Marie, American singer-songwriter (b. 1956)
2011 - Sarekoppa Bangarappa, Indian politician (b. 1932)
2011 – Sam Rivers, American jazz musician and composer (b. 1923)
2011 - Pedro Armendariz, Jr., Mexican actor (b. 1940)
2012 - Gerry Anderson, British writer, director and producer (b. 1929)
2012 - Fontella Bass, American singer (b. 1940)
2013 - Marta Eggerth, Hungarian-American actress (b. 1912)
2013 - Dr. Tangalanga, Argentine comedian (b. 1916)
2014 - Leo Tindemans, 43rd Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1922)
2014 - James B. Edwards, American politician, 110th Governor of South Carolina and 3rd United States Secretary of Energy (b. 1927)
2014 - Roberto Delmastro, Chilean politician (b. 1945)
2015 - Jim O'Toole, American baseball player (b. 1937)
2016 - Ashot Anastasian, Armenian chess player (b. 1964)
2017 - Shahnon Ahmad, Malaysian writer (b. 1933)
2017 - Johnny Bower, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1924)
2017 - Gualtiero Marchesi, Italian chef (b. 1930)

Births

1951 – 1975

1951 - C. J. Henderson, American writer, critic and editor (d. 2014)
1951 - John Scofield, American jazz guitarist and composer
1952 - Alexander Ankvab, Abkhazian politician
1953 – Henning Schmitz, German musician (Kraftwerk)
1953 – Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia
1953 – Leonel Fernandez, former President of the Dominican Republic
1953 - Michel Guimond, Canadian politician (d. 2015)
1954 - Peter Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and son of Edmund Hillary
1954 - Susan Butcher, American dogsledder (d. 2006)
1954 - Tony Rosato, Italian-born Canadian actor (d. 2017)
1954 – Ozzie Smith, American Baseball Hall of Famer
1955 – Evan Bayh, US Senator from Indiana
1956 – David Sedaris, American essayist
1957 - Dermot Murnaghan, British newsreader
1959 – Koji Morimoto, Japanese director
1959 - Hans Nielsen, Danish speedway rider
1960 - Andrew Graham-Dixon, British art historian and broadcaster
1962 - James Kottak, German musician
1963 – Lars Ulrich, Danish musician (Metallica)
1969 – Thomas Linke, German footballer
1969 – Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, American-born German equestrian
1971 – Mika Nurmela, Finnish footballer
1971 – Jared Leto, American actor, singer and musician
1975 – Marcelo Rios, Chilean tennis player

From 1976

1976 – Lea De Mae, Czech actress (d. 2004)
1976 - Janina Karolchyk-Pravalinska, Belarussian athlete
1977 - Fatih Akyel, Turkish footballer
1979 - Fabian Carini, Uruguayan footballer
1979 – Mark Cueto, English rugby player
1979 – Chris Daughtry, American singer
1981 - Ilia Kandelaki, Georgian footballer
1982 - Shun Oguri, Japanese actor and model
1982 – Aksel Lund Svindal, Norwegian skier
1984 - Alex Schwazer, Italian race walker
1985 - Beth Behrs, American actress
1986 - Hugo Lloris, French footballer
1986 - Kit Harington, English actor
1987 - Mikhail Kukushkin, Kazakhstani tennis player
1989 - Yohan Blake, Jamaican athlete
1989 - Sofiane Feghouli, Algerian footballer
1990 - Andy Biersack, American singer
1990 – Aaron Ramsey, Welsh footballer
1990 - Denis Cheryshev, Russian footballer
1991 - Eden Sher, American actress
1992 - Jade Thirlwall, English singer (Little Mix)
1994 – Souleymane Coulibaly, Ivorian footballer
1994 - Stephanie Boscarino, American actress
1994 - Luisa Hartema, German model
1995 – Zach Mills, American actor

Deaths

1901 – 2000

1909 - Frederic Remington, American painter and illustrator (b. 1761)
1923 - Dietrich Eckart, German journalist and politician (b. 1868)
1931 - Melvil Dewey, American librarian (b. 1851)
1933 – Anatoly Lunacharsky, Russian literary critic and politician (b. 1875)
1960 - Tetsuro Watsuji, Japanese philosopher (b. 1889)
1970 – Lillian Board, British athlete (b. 1948)
1972 – Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (b. 1884)
1973 – Harold B. Lee, American Mormon leader (b. 1899)
1974 - Farid al-Atrash, Syrian-Egyptian singer-songwriter, musician and actor (b. 1915)
1977 - Howard Hawks, American director (b. 1896)
1981 - Savitri, Indian actress, director and producer (b. 1937)
1983 - Violet Carson, English actress (b. 1898)
1985 – Dian Fossey, American gorilla specialist (b. 1932)
1985 - Harold P. Warren, American movie director (b. 1928)
1986 – Elsa Lanchester, British actress (b. 1902)
1994 - Pietro Pavan, Italian cardinal (b. 1903)
1999 – Shankar Dayal Sharma, President of India (b. 1918)
1999 – Curtis Mayfield, American musician (b. 1942)
2000 - Jason Robards, American actor (b. 1922)

Observances

Boxing Day in the Commonwealth of Nations, except if 26 December happens to be a Sunday. If it is a Sunday, it is moved to December 27 by Royal Proclamation.
Saint Stephen's Day in Roman Catholicism, holiday in some European countries
First Day of Kwanzaa (United States)
Second Day of Christmas