more events on December 26
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2006
Former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford dies at age 93. Ford was the only unelected president in America’s history.
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2004
A tsunami caused by a 9.3-magnitude earthquake kills more than 230,000 along the rim of the Indian Ocean.
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2000
Samuel Sevian, chess prodigy; at age 12 became youngest-ever United States International Master.
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1999
Lothar, a violent, 36-hour windstorm begins; it kills 137 and causes $1.3 billion (US dollars) damage in Central Europe.
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1996
Workers in South Korea’s automotive and shipbuilding industries begin the largest labor strike in that country’s history, protesting a new law that made firing employees easier and would curtail the rights of labor groups to organize.
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JonBenet Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty queen, is found beaten and strangled to death in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado, one of the most high-profile crimes of the late 20th century in the US.
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1991
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union formally dissolves the Soviet Union.
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1982
Time magazine chooses a personal computer as it “Man of the Year,” the first non-human ever to receive the honor.
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1979
The Soviet Union flies 5,000 troops to intervene in the Afghanistan conflict.
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1966
Dr. Maulana Karenga celebrates the first Kwanza, a seven-day African-American celebration of family and heritage.
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1962
Eight East Berliners escape to West Berlin, crashing through gates in an armor-plated bus.
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1953
The United States announces the withdrawal of two divisions from Korea.
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1947
USMC General James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps (2006-10); commanded 1st Marine Expeditionary Force during the Second Gulf War.
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1945
John Walsh, TV personality, victims rights advocate; created of America’s Most Wanted TV series after the murder of his son Adam in 1981.
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The United States, Soviet Union and Great Britain, end a 10-day meeting, seeking an atomic rule by the UN Council.
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1944
Advancing Soviet troops complete their encirclement of Budapest in Hungary.
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1943
The German battleship Scharnhorst is sunk by British ships in an Arctic fight.
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1942
Dan Massey, social activist, author; co-founder and CEO of VenusPlusX.
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1941
General Douglas MacArthur declares Manila an open city in the face of the onrushing Japanese Army.
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1939
Phil Spector, record producer; creator of the “Wall of Sound” production method; convicted in 2009 of murdering actress Lana Clarkson, he was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison.
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1932
Over 70,000 people are killed in a massive earthquake in China.
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1927
Alan King, comedian, actor, producer, author (How to Pick Up Girls, Night and the CIty).
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1925
Six U.S. destroyers are ordered from Manila to China to protect interests in the civil war that is being waged there.
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1924
Frank Broyles, college football player and coach; member of College Football Hall of Fame.
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1921
Steve Allen, radio and TV personality, actor, musician, comedian, writer; hosted The Steve Allen Show and I’ve Got a Secret; won a Grammy for his jazz composition “The Gravy Waltz” (1963).
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1917
As a wartime measure, President Woodrow Wilson places railroads under government control, with Secretary of War William McAdoo as director general.
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1914
Richard Widmark, actor (Kiss of Death); member of Western Performers Hall of Fame.
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1907
Albert Gore Sr., US Senator from Tennessee who was instrumental in sponsoring and pushing through legislation that created America’s Interstate Highway System.
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1905
William Loeb III, publisher of the Manchester Union Leader (later The New Hampshire Union Leader), one of the best-known small town newspapers in the US.
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1894
Jean Toomer, poet and novelist who figured prominently in the Harlem Renaissance (Cane).
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1893
Mao Tse-tung, founding father of the People’s Republic of China.
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1891
Henry Miller, American writer.
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1866
Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, head of the Department of the Platte, receives word of the Fetterman Fight in Powder River County in the Dakota territory.
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1862
38 Santee Sioux are hanged in Mankato, Minnesota for their part in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. Little Crow has fled the state.
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1806
Napoleon’s army is checked by the Russians at the Battle of Pultusk.
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1792
Charles Babbage, English mathematician who perfected the calculating machine.
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1786
Daniel Shay leads a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt.
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1776
After crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey, George Washington leads an attack on Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, and takes 900 men prisoner.
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1716
Thomas Gray, English poet.