TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Friday, Dec. 25,

the 359th day of 2015. There are six days left in the year. This is Christmas Day.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On Dec. 25,1818,“Silent Night (Stille Nacht)” was publicly performed for the first time during the Christmas Midnight Mass at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

ON THIS DATE

In 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned king of England.

In 1776, Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey.

In 1915, the Irving Berlin musical revue“Stop! Look! Listen!” (featuring the song “I Love a Piano”) opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 105 performances.

In 1926, Hirohito became emperor o fJapan, succeeding his father, Emperor Yoshihito.

In 1931, New York’s Metropolitan Opera broadcast an entire live opera over radio for the first time: “Hansel and Gretel ”by Engelbert Humperdinck.

In1940, the Rodgers & Hart musical “Pal Joey” opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 374 performances.

In 1961, Pope John XXIII formally announced the upcoming convocation of the Second Vatican Council, which opened in Oct. 1962.

In 1973,“The Sting,” starring Paul Newmanand Robert Redford as a pair of 1930s grifters, was released by Universal Pictures.

In 1989, ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu (chow-SHES’koo) and his wife, Elena, were executed following a popular uprising. Former baseball manager Billy Martin, 61, died in a traffic accident near Binghamton, New York.

In 1990, the World Wide Web was born in Geneva, Switzerland, as computer scientists Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau (KAH’yoh) created theworld’s first hyperlinked web page.

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 1995, singer Dean Martin died at his Beverly Hills home at age 78.

One year ago: The black comedy “The Interview” opened in 331 locations in the U.S., culminating in the truly unprecedented move by a major studio to release a film in theaters and on digital platforms simultaneously.

TODAY’S THOUGHT

“One of the most glorious messes in theworld is the mess created in the living roomon Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.” — Andy Rooney, CBS News commentator (19192011).