On this day: December 25

Events on December 25

• 336 First documented sign of Christmas celebration in Rome. Wikipedia
• 350 Vetranio meets Constantius II at Naissus (Serbia) and is forced to abdicate his imperial title. Constantius allows him to live as a private citizen on a state pension. Wikipedia
• 1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London. Wikipedia
• 1492 The carrack Santa María, commanded by Christopher Columbus, runs onto a reef off Haiti due to an improper watch. Wikipedia
• 1553 Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeat the Spanish conquistadors and executes the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia. Wikipedia
• 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach led the first performance of Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, based on the Christmas hymn written by Martin Luther in 1524. Wikipedia
• 1724 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 91, in Leipzig, based on Luther's 1524 Christmas hymn. Wikipedia
• 1725 J. S. Bach led the first performance of the Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, making laughter audible in singing. Wikipedia
• 1725 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of the Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, making laughter audible in singing. Wikipedia
• 1776 American Revolutionary War: General George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at night to attack Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey, the next day. Wikipedia
• 1831 The Great Jamaican Slave Revolt begins; up to 20% of Jamaica's slaves mobilize in an ultimately unsuccessful fight for freedom. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: A series of unofficial truces occur across the Western Front to celebrate Christmas. Wikipedia
• 1941 Second World War: The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when Mark Aitchison Young, the Governor of Hong Kong, surrendered the territory to Japan after 18 days of fierce fighting. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: Battle of Hong Kong ends, beginning the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. Wikipedia
• 1946 The first European self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is initiated within the Soviet Union's F-1 nuclear reactor. Wikipedia
• 1950 The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on April 11, 1951. Wikipedia
• 1962 The Soviet Union conducts its final above-ground nuclear weapon test, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Wikipedia
• 1963 Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots are forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation. Wikipedia
• 1968 Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit. Wikipedia
• 1971 A fire at the Daeyeonggak Hotel in Seoul, South Korea kills 164 people. Wikipedia
• 2000 Russian president Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill officially adopting a new national anthem, with music by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov originally composed for the anthem of the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
• 2003 UTA Flight 141, a Boeing 727-223, crashes at the Cotonou Airport in Benin, killing 141 people. Wikipedia
• 2004 The Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005. Wikipedia
• 2016 A Tupolev Tu-154 of the Russian Defence Ministry crashed into the Black Sea shortly after taking off from Sochi International Airport, killing all 92 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2016 A Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 carrying members of the Alexandrov Ensemble crashes into the Black Sea shortly after takeoff, killing all 92 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2019 Twenty people are killed and thousands are left homeless by Typhoon Phanfone in the Philippines. Wikipedia

Born on December 25

• 1642 Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician (died 1727) Wikipedia
• 1717 Pope Pius VI (died 1799) Wikipedia
• 1876 Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and politician, 1st Governor-General of Pakistan (died 1948) Wikipedia
• 1876 Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1959) Wikipedia
• 1878 Louis Chevrolet, American race car driver and businessman, co-founded Chevrolet (died 1941) Wikipedia
• 1899 Humphrey Bogart, American actor (died 1957) Wikipedia
• 1904 Gerhard Herzberg, German-Canadian physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1999) Wikipedia
• 1906 Ernst Ruska, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1988) Wikipedia
• 1911 Louise Bourgeois, French-American sculptor and painter (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1916 Ahmed Ben Bella, Algerian soldier and politician, 1st President of Algeria (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1917 Arseny Mironov, Russian scientist, engineer, pilot, oldest active researcher in aircraft aerodynamics and flight testing (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1924 Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indian poet and politician, 10th Prime Minister of India (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1925 Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-American anthropologist and author (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1927 Ram Narayan, Indian sarangi player (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1943 Hanna Schygulla, German actress Wikipedia
• 1944 Jairzinho, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia
• 1949 Nawaz Sharif, Pakistani politician, 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan Wikipedia
• 1954 Annie Lennox, Scottish singer-songwriter and pianist Wikipedia
• 1961 Íngrid Betancourt, Colombian political scientist and politician Wikipedia
• 1971 Justin Trudeau, Canadian educator and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Canada Wikipedia
• 1976 Armin van Buuren, Dutch DJ and record producer Wikipedia
• 1985 Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukrainian politician, 19th Prime Minister of Ukraine Wikipedia

Died on December 25

• 795 Pope Adrian I Wikipedia
• 1926 Emperor Taishō of Japan (born 1879) Wikipedia
• 1938 Karel Čapek, Czech author and playwright (born 1890) Wikipedia
• 1961 Otto Loewi, German-American pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1873) Wikipedia
• 1963 Tristan Tzara, Romanian-French poet, playwright, painter, and critic (born 1896) Wikipedia
• 1973 İsmet İnönü, Turkish general and politician, 2nd President of Turkey (born 1884) Wikipedia
• 1977 Charlie Chaplin, English actor and director (born 1889) Wikipedia
• 1983 Joan Miró, Spanish painter and sculptor (born 1893) Wikipedia
• 1989 Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romanian general and politician, 1st President of Romania (born 1918) Wikipedia
• 1995 Dean Martin, American singer and actor (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 1995 Vincent Patriarca, Italian-American aviator and mercenary (born 1914) Wikipedia
• 2006 James Brown, American singer-songwriter (born 1933) Wikipedia
• 2008 Eartha Kitt, American singer and actress (born 1927) Wikipedia
• 2016 George Michael, British singer and songwriter (born 1963) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christmas Day, Christian festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. (Internationally observed) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Anastasia of Sirmium (Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Stephen (Armenian Apostolic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Children's Day (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Republic of Congo) Wikipedia
• Tulsi Pujan Diwas (India) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Taiwan) Wikipedia
• Good Governance Day (India) Wikipedia
• Quaid-e-Azam's Day (Pakistan) Wikipedia
• Takanakuy (Chumbivilcas Province, Peru) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 25” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.