TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS SATURDAY, DEC. 26, the 360th day of 2015. There are five days left in the year. The seven-day African-American holiday Kwanzaa begins today. This is Boxing Day.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1799, former President George Washington was eulogized by Col. Henry Lee as “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

In 1865, James H. Nason of Franklin, Mass., received a patent for “an improved coffee percolator.”

In 1908, Jack Johnson became the first AfricanAmerican boxer to win the world heavyweight championship as he defeated Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.

In 1944, during the World War II Battle of the Bulge, the embattled U.S. 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne, Belgium, was relieved by units of the 4th Armored Division.

In 1972, the 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, died in Kansas City, Mo., at age 88.

In 1975, the Soviet Union inaugurated the world’s first supersonic transport service with a flight of its Tupolev-144 airliner from Moscow to Alma-Ata.

In 1980, Iranian television footage broadcast in the United States showed a dozen of the American hostages sending messages to their

families.

In 2004, more than 230,000 people, mostly in southern Asia, were killed by a 100-foot tsunami triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean.

In 2006, former President Gerald R. Ford died in Rancho Mirage, California, at age 93.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Caroll Spinney (Big Bird on TV’s “Sesame Street”) is 82. Rhythm-and-blues singer Abdul “Duke” Fakir (The Four Tops) is 80. “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh is 70. Country musician Bob Carpenter (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 69. Humorist David Sedaris is 59. Rock musician James Kottak (The Scorpions) is 53. Rock musician Lars Ulrich (Metallica) is 52. Actorsinger Jared Leto is 44. Rock singer Chris Daughtry is 36. Actress Beth Behrs is 30. Actor Kit Harington (TV: “Game of Thrones”) is 29. Actor Zach Mills is 20.