Also on this date
In A.D. 336,
the first known commemoration of Christmas on Dec. 25 took place in Rome.
In 1776,
Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey, during the American Revolutionary War.
In 1926,
Hirohito became emperor of Japan, succeeding his father, Emperor Yoshihito.
In 1946,
comedian and actor W.C. Fields died in Pasadena, California, at age 66.
In 1977,
comedian-actor-director Charles Chaplin died in Switzerland at age 88.
In 1989,
ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed following a popular uprising.
In 1990,
the World Wide Web, the system providing quick access to websites over the internet, was born in Geneva, Switzerland, as computer scientists Tim BernersLee and Robert Cailliau created the world’s first hyperlinked webpage.
In 1991,
Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on television to announce his resignation as the eighth and final leader of a communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.
In 2009,
passengers aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 foiled an attempt to blow up the plane as it was landing in Detroit by seizing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to set off explosives in his underwear. (Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.)
Ten years ago:
The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, crisscrossed the country, making a Christmas visit to coalition troops at some of the main battle fronts in a show of appreciation and support in the tenth year of the war against the Taliban.
President Barack Obama paid tribute to six U.S. service members killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan on Dec. 21 as he delivered a Christmas Day gesture of gratitude to U.S. troops at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay.
The annual reenactment of George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River in 1776 was completed for the first time in three years, after being scrapped twice in a row because of bad weather.
Associated Press