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Washington crossed the Delaware on Dec 25. |
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Coronation of Charlemagne on Dec 25. |
The Ghost of Christmas Past informs Christmas present as we take a look back at Christmases that brought cheer and fear, transforming lives and defining generations. Though we each hold our own memories of Christmas, personal to us, the holiday season has produced memorable events instrumental to civilization as a whole, well worth unwrapping and revisiting.
1. The Birth of Christ – Though historians still argue over the exact date of Christ’s entrance into the world, no other figure has had a more profound effect on the history of humanity. Christmas as a holiday may be celebrated differently from culture to culture and household to household, but it would not exist without the birth of Jesus Christ. A divine moment of soul-filling spiritual significance for many, Christ’s birth is famously recounted in the opening chapters of the Gospel of Luke.
2. The Christmas Truce of 1914 – On December 24 and 25, 1914, British and German soldiers fighting each other in trenches along the European Western Front laid down their arms to celebrate Christmas. Peace and goodwill interrupted the violence of World War I for one extraordinary day, as enemies sang carols, shared food, exchanged gifts, buried fallen comrades, and played sports together. Remarkably, these ceasefires were unofficial and unplanned, serving as a Christmas miracle for disheartened soldiers.
3. Washington Crosses the Delaware– In an event memorialized by Emanuel Leutze’s iconic 1851 painting, George Washington led Continental Army troops across the Delaware River to attack an encampment of Hessians (German mercenaries hired by the British) on Christmas morning of 1776. His surprise assault, known as the Battle of Trenton, was a major victory for the revolutionary cause. The battle marked the beginning of a successful military campaign in New Jersey.
4. The Coronation of Charlemagne – During the year 800 A.D. Christmas Mass, Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III. A major Christian ruler and aggressive militarist, Charlemagne (or Charles the Great) reunited a crumbling Roman empire, inspired a cultural renaissance, and forever altered the political, religious, and economic structure of Europe.
5. Gorbachev Resigns – Providing a final end to the Cold War, Mikhail Gorbachev’s 1991 Christmas Day resignation as president of the Soviet Union led to the almost immediate collapse of the U.S.S.R.. A Christmas gift to our country, the Soviet Union’s dissolution was a relief after decades of potentially lethal tension between two competing superpowers.
6. The World Wide Web Works - Destined to reshape society and connect the globe, the very first web browser and editor performed the very first act of Internet communication on December 25, 1990. Designed by computer scientists Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the World Wide Web was initially conceived to make information sharing easier among co-workers.
7. Apollo 8 Orbits the Moon – While the first manned vessel to orbit the Moon made aeronautic history, they also made time to read from the Book of Genesis during a live 1968 Christmas Eve telecast. Rounding the Moon well into Christmas Day, the Apollo 8 crew members were the first people to launch from the Kennedy Space Center, witness the dark side of the Moon, and see Earth’s entirety from space.
8. William the Conqueror is Crowned King of England – The ruthless and ambitious Duke of Normandy became King of England as well on Christmas of 1066. Having slain the English King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, William went on to form a new royal lineage in Britain and order the construction of what would become the Tower of London.
9. Johnson Pardons the Confederacy – Offering a Christmas pardon to all former Confederate soldiers, President Andrew Johnson sought to patch up the nation and start anew following the carnage of the Civil War. His 1868 pardon was unconditional and all-encompassing.
10. The Battle of Hong Kong Ends – On Christmas Day in 1941, after weeks of combat, the British military surrendered the colony of Hong Kong to the Japanese. The Japanese soon implemented a vicious and violent governing administration in Hong Kong that terrorized locals until the colony was restored to British rule at the 1945 close of World War II.
11. The Discovery and Naming of Christmas Island – Sailing by a previously uncharted isle during the Christmas of 1643, the British East India Company’s Captain William Mynors noted and appropriately named the location he spied Christmas Island. Found in the Indian Ocean south of Indonesia, the phosphate-rich island is now a territory of Australia.
12. Jon Benét Ramsey’s Murder– A queen of child beauty pageants, six-year-old Jon Benét Ramsey was strangled to death in Boulder, Colorado on Christmas in 1996. Her unsolved murder inspired an incessant tabloid frenzy. The case remains open and is often returned to by media outlets.
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