On this day: December 26

Events on December 26

• 795 Election of Pope Leo III. Wikipedia
• 1606 The first known performance of King Lear, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare and based on the legend of Leir of Britain, took place before King James I. Wikipedia
• 1709 The opera Agrippina, described as George Frideric Handel's first masterpiece, premiered in Venice. Wikipedia
• 1723 Johann Sebastian Bach directed the premiere of Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, his first Christmas cantata composed in Leipzig. Wikipedia
• 1776 American Revolutionary War: George Washington led a Continental Army column across the Delaware River to launch a surprise attack against Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton. Wikipedia
• 1800 Philip Gidley King, Governor of New South Wales, ordered the formation of the Governor's Body Guard of Light Horse, described as the first full-time military unit raised in Australia. Wikipedia
• 1805 Austria and France sign the Treaty of Pressburg. Wikipedia
• 1811 Seventy-two people died when a theater in Richmond, Virginia, was destroyed by fire, becoming the worst urban disaster in American history at the time. Wikipedia
• 1825 Imperial Russian Army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Konstantin removed himself from the line of succession. Wikipedia
• 1862 American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou began with Confederate defenders engaging Union forces who were attempting to capture the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Wikipedia
• 1871 Thespis, the first comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, premiered at the Gaiety Theatre in London. Wikipedia
• 1898 At the French Academy of Sciences, physicists Pierre and Marie Curie announced the discovery of a new element, naming it radium. Wikipedia
• 1919 American baseball player Babe Ruth was sold by the Boston Red Sox to their rivals, the New York Yankees, beginning the 84-year-long "Curse of the Bambino". Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: In the Battle of Cape Gloucester, American and Australian forces bombarded Japanese positions on New Britain in the Territory of New Guinea while U.S. Marines invaded from two sides of the island. Wikipedia
• 1943 Second World War: The German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk at the Battle of the North Cape during an attempt to attack Arctic convoys. Wikipedia
• 1946 American gangster Bugsy Siegel opened The Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, the oldest casino still in operation on the Las Vegas Strip. Wikipedia
• 1963 The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level. Wikipedia
• 1975 Tu-144, the world's first commercial supersonic aircraft, surpassing Mach 2, goes into service. Wikipedia
• 1978 The inaugural Paris-Dakar Rally begins. Wikipedia
• 1991 The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War. Wikipedia
• 1996 Six-year-old American beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado. Wikipedia
• 1996 The Federation of Korean Trade Unions called on its 1.2 million members to refuse to work, beginning the largest organized strike in South Korean history. Wikipedia
• 2004 A major earthquake and tsunami devastated communities around the Indian Ocean, killing an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries. Wikipedia
• 2006 Two earthquakes off the southwest coast of Taiwan damaged submarine communications cables, disrupting Internet services in Asia and affecting financial transactions. Wikipedia
• 2015 A violent tornado moves through several suburbs of Dallas, Texas, killing ten and injuring almost 500 others. It was the deadliest tornado to ever hit Texas during the month of December. Wikipedia
• 2025 Israel recognises Somaliland as an independent state, becoming the first country to do so. Wikipedia

Born on December 26

• 1194 Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1250) Wikipedia
• 1716 Thomas Gray, English poet and scholar (died 1771) Wikipedia
• 1780 Mary Somerville, Scottish mathematician, astronomer, and author (died 1872) Wikipedia
• 1791 Charles Babbage, English mathematician and engineer, invented the Difference engine (died 1871) Wikipedia
• 1803 Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, Estonian physician and author (died 1882) Wikipedia
• 1864 Yun Chi-ho, Korean activist and politician (died 1945) Wikipedia
• 1872 Norman Angell, English journalist, academic, and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1967) Wikipedia
• 1891 Henry Miller, American author and painter (died 1980) Wikipedia
• 1893 Mao Zedong, Chinese politician, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (died 1976) Wikipedia
• 1904 Alejo Carpentier, Swiss-Cuban musicologist and author (died 1980) Wikipedia
• 1939 Phil Spector, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1940 Edward C. Prescott, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1949 José Ramos-Horta, East Timorese lawyer and politician, 2nd President of East Timor, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1953 Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Swedish-Estonian journalist and politician, 4th President of Estonia Wikipedia
• 1953 Henning Schmitz, German drummer Wikipedia
• 1963 Lars Ulrich, Danish-American drummer, songwriter, and producer Wikipedia
• 1971 Jared Leto, American actor and musician Wikipedia
• 1986 Hugo Lloris, French footballer Wikipedia
• 1986 Kit Harington, English actor Wikipedia
• 1989 Yohan Blake, Jamaican sprinter Wikipedia
• 1990 Aaron Ramsey, Welsh footballer Wikipedia
• 1990 Denis Cheryshev, Russian footballer Wikipedia

Died on December 26

• 268 Dionysius, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 418 Zosimus, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 1530 Babur, Mughal emperor (born 1483) Wikipedia
• 1771 Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher and activist (born 1715) Wikipedia
• 1890 Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist, businessman and author (born 1822) Wikipedia
• 1933 Anatoly Lunacharsky, Russian journalist and politician (born 1875) Wikipedia
• 1972 Harry S. Truman, American colonel and politician, 33rd President of the United States (born 1884) Wikipedia
• 1999 Shankar Dayal Sharma, Indian academic and politician, 9th President of India (born 1918) Wikipedia
• 2000 Jason Robards, American actor (born 1922) Wikipedia
• 2006 Gerald Ford, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 38th President of the United States (born 1913) Wikipedia
• 2021 Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican bishop, theologian and anti-apartheid and human rights activist (born 1931) Wikipedia
• 2021 Edward O. Wilson, American biologist (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2021 Karolos Papoulias, Greek politician, President of Greece from 2005 to 2015 (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2024 Manmohan Singh, Indian economist and politician, 13th Prime Minister of India (born 1932) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Boxing Day, except when December 26 is a Sunday. If it is a Sunday, Boxing Day is transferred to December 27 by Royal Proclamation. (Commonwealth of Nations), and its related observances: Day of Good Will (South Africa and Namibia) Wikipedia
• Boxing Day, except when December 26 is a Sunday. If it is a Sunday, Boxing Day is transferred to December 27 by Royal Proclamation. (Commonwealth of Nations), and its related observances: Family Day (Vanuatu) Wikipedia
• Boxing Day, except when December 26 is a Sunday. If it is a Sunday, Boxing Day is transferred to December 27 by Royal Proclamation. (Commonwealth of Nations), and its related observances: Thanksgiving (Solomon Islands) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Abadiu of Antinoe (Coptic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Dionysius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: James the Just (Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Saint Stephen (Western Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Synaxis of the Theotokos (Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Vicenta María López i Vicuña Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Independence and Unity Day (Slovenia) Wikipedia
• Mauro Hamza Day (Houston, Texas) Wikipedia
• Mummer's Day (Padstow, Cornwall) Wikipedia
• Saint Stephen's Day (public holiday in Alsace, Austria, Catalonia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland), and its related observances: Father's Day (Bulgaria) Wikipedia
• The first day of Kwanzaa, celebrated until January 1 (United States) Wikipedia
• The first day of Junkanoo street parade, the second day is on the New Year's Day (The Bahamas) Wikipedia
• The second day of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Western Christianity) Second day of Christmas (Public holiday in the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia) Wikipedia
• Wren Day (Ireland and the Isle of Man) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “December 26” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/December 26” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 26” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for December 26 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. The 2004 entry comes first in the one-line summary: a short list, checked by hand, names the event a date is best known for where the order above would put a lesser one first. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.