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1481 - Battle of Westbroek - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht.

1620 - Elizabeth Báthory's crimes are uncovered.

1620 - Pilgrim Fathers land at what becomes New Plymouth in Massachusetts.

1776 - American Revolutionary War: The British are defeated in the Battle of Trenton.

1790 - Louis XVI of France gives his public assent to Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution.

1792 - The final trial of Louis XVI of France begins in Paris.

1793 - Battle of Geisberg: French defeat Austrians.

1793 - The wedding of Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia and Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz takes place.

1825 - Several Imperial Russia army officers lead circa 3000 soldiers on the Senate Square in the failed Decembrist uprising.

1825 - The Erie Canal opens.

1848 - The Phi Delta Theta fraternity is founded.

1860 - The first ever inter-club football match takes place between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at Sandygate in Sheffield, England.

1861 - American Civil War: Confederate diplomatic envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and Britain.

1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou begins.

1862 - The largest mass-hanging in US history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, killing 39.

1870 - The 12.8-km long Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps is completed.

1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.

1908 - Jack Johnson becomes the first African American heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.

1916 - Joseph Joffre is made Marshal of France.

1925 - The Communist Party of India is founded.

1925 - Turkey adopts the Gregorian Calendar.

1931 - Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest existing Latino fraternity is founded.

1933 - The Nissan Motor Company is organized in Tokyo, Japan.

1933 - FM radio is patented.

1943 - World War II: The German warship Scharnhorst sinks off the coast of North Cape in Norway after being attacked by the British Royal Navy late the previous evening.

1944 - The play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is first publicly performed.

1944 - World War II: U.S. troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.

1945 - CFP franc and CFA franc are created.

1946 - The Flamingo Hotel opens in Las Vegas.

1947 - Twenty-six inches of snow falls in 16 hours in New York City.

1948 - Cardinal Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy.

1966 - The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

1973 - Comet Kohoutek reaches perihelion but is not such a display as expected.

1973 - Soyuz 13 lands on earth after a week in orbit.

1974 - Salyut 4 is launched.

1975 - The Tupolev Tu-144 goes into service in Soviet Union.

1976 - The Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) is founded.

1979 - Soviet Special forces troops take over presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.

1979 - Opening night of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea at the Hammersmith Odeon; a benefit concert for the citizens of Cambodia who were victims of dictator Pol Pot

1980 - Aeroflot puts the Ilyushin Il-86 into service.

1982 - TIME magazine's Man of the Year was for the first time given to a non-human, the personal computer.

1986 - The first long-running American television soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, airs its final episode after thirty-five years on the air.

1988 - The Nanjing Anti-African protests in Nanjing, the People's Republic of China begin.

1991 - Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR.

1991 - Mount Pinatubo erupts.

1996 - The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification goes into force.

1998 - Iraq announced its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones.

1998 - Severe gales over Ireland, northern England, and southern Scotland cause widespread disruption and widespread power outages in Northern Ireland and southern Scotland.

1999 - Severe weather in France kills over 100 people and causes extensive damage to property and trees and the French national power grid (see Lothar).

2002 - French Raelian scientist Brigitte Boisselier says Clonaid has delivered the first of a supposed five clone babies through cesarean section.

2003 - A major earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam.

2004 - An earthquake measuring 9.3 on the Richter magnitude scale creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing more than 300,000.

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1194 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1250)

1532 - Guilielmus Xylander, German classical scholar (d. 1576)

1536 - Yi I, Korean Confucian scholar (d. 1584)

1646 - Robert Bolling, English settler in Virginia (d. 1709)

1687 - Johann Georg Pisendel, German musician (d. 1755)

1716 - Thomas Gray, English writer (d. 1771)

1716 - Jean François de Saint-Lambert, French poet (d. 1803)

1723 - Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm, German writer (d. 1807)

1736 - Antonio Caldara, Italian composer (b. 1670)

1737 - Prince Josias of Coburg, Austrian general (d. 1815)

1751 - Clement Hofbauer, Austrian missionary and saint (d. 1820)

1780 - Mary Fairfax Somerville, British mathematician (d. 1872)

1782 - Filaret Drozdov, Metropolitan of Moscow (d. 1867)

1791 - Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor (d. 1871)

1819 - E. D. E. N. Southworth, American novelist (d. 1899)

1822 - Dion Boucicault, Irish actor and playwright (d. 1890)

1837 - George Dewey, U. S. admiral (d. 1917)

1853 - René Bazin, French novelist (d. 1932)

1859 - William Stephens, U.S. political figure (d. 1944)

1872 - Norman Angell, British politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1967)

1873 - Thomas Wass, English cricketer (d. 1953)

1887 - Arthur Ernest Percival, British Army officer (d. 1966)

1890 - Uncle Charlie Osborne, American fiddler (d. 1992)

1891 - Henry Miller, American writer (d. 1980)

1893 - Mao Zedong, Chinese military leader and politician (d. 1976)

1902 - Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan, Russian painter (d. 1980)

1903 - Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (d. 1995)

1904 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (d. 1980)

1906 - Imperio Argentina, Argentine actress and singer (d. 2003)

1914 - Richard Widmark, American actor

1914 - Annemarie Wendl, German actress (d. 2006)

1921 - Steve Allen, American actor, comedian, composer, and author (d. 2000)

1927 - Alan King, American comedian and actor (d. 2004)

1927 - Denis Quilley, British actor (d. 2003)

1927 - Stu Miller, baseball player

1930 - Donald Moffat, English-born actor

1933 - Ugly Dave Gray, Australian television personality

1933- Caroll Spinney, American puppeteer

1935 - Abdul "Duke" Fakir, American singer (The Four Tops)

1935 - Norm Ullman, Canadian hockey player

1937 - John Horton Conway, British mathematician

1937 - Jay Heimowitz, American poker player

1938 - Bahram Beizai, Iranian playwright and film director

1940 - Edward C. Prescott, American economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner

1940 - Phil Spector, American music producer

1942 - Gray Davis, Governor of California

1944 - Jane Lapotaire, British actress

1945 - John Walsh, American talk show host

1947 - Carlton Fisk, baseball player

1949 - José Ramos Horta, Foreign Minister of East Timor, Nobel laureate

1954 - Ozzie Smith, baseball player

1954 - Steve Steen, English actor

1955 - Evan Bayh, American politician

1956 - David Sedaris, American essayist

1959 - Koji Morimoto, Japanese animated film director

1960 - Temuera Morrison, New Zealand actor

1961 - John Lynch, Irish actor

1963 - Lars Ulrich, Danish-born drummer (Metallica)

1966 - Sandra Taylor, American model and actress

1968 - Dennis Knight, American professional wrestler

1970 - James Mercer (musician), guitarist and vocalist (The Shins)

1971 - Jared Leto, American actor

1971 - Jonathan M. Parisen, American film director

1975 - Marcelo Ríos, Chilean tennis player

1976 - Lea De Mae, Czech actress (d. 2004)

1978 - Kaoru Sugayama, Japanese volleyball player

1979 - Chris Daughtry, American singer

1987 - Adam Walker, British flutist

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268 - Pope Dionysius

418 - Pope Zosimus

1350 - Jean de Marigny, French bishop

1458 - Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (b. 1393)

1476 - Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1444)

1530 - Babur, Emperor of the Mogul empire (b. 1483)

1574 - Charles of Guise, French cardinal (b. 1524)

1624 - Simon Marius, German astronomer (b. 1573)

1731 - Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French writer (b. 1672)

1771 - Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher (b. 1715)

1780 - John Fothergill, English physician (b. 1712)

1784 - Seth Warner, American revolutionary leader (b. 1743)

1786 - Gasparo Gozzi, Italian critic and dramatist (b. 1713)

1869 - Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille, French physiologist (b. 1797)

1890 - Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist (b. 1822)

1909 - Frederic Remington, American artist (b. 1861)

1933 - Anatoly Lunacharsky, Russian literary critic and politician (b. 1875)

1960 - Watsuji Tetsuro, Japanese philosopher (b. 1889)

1963 - George Wagner, American professional wrestler and television personality (b. 1915)

1970 - Lillian Board, British athlete (b. 1948)

1972 - Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (b. 1884)

1973 - Harold B. Lee, 11th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1899)

1974 - Jack Benny, American comedian (b. 1894)

1977 - Howard Hawks, American film director and writer (b. 1896)

1981 - Savithri, Indian actress

1983 - Violet Carson, British actress

1985 - Dian Fossey, American gorilla specialist (b. 1932)

1986 - Elsa Lanchester, British-born actress (b. 1902)

1996 - JonBenét Ramsey, American child beauty queen (b. 1990)

1997 - Cornelius Castoriadis, philosopher (b. 1922)

1999 - Curtis Mayfield, American musician (b. 1942)

1999 - Shankar Dayal Sharma, President of India (b. 1918)

2000 - Jason Robards, American actor (b. 1922)

2001 - Nigel Hawthorne, English actor (b. 1929)

2002 - Herb Ritts, American photographer (b. 1952)

2002 - Armand Zildjian, American cymbal manufacturer (b. 1921)

2003 - Alan Bates, British actor (b. 1934)

2004 - Marianne Heiberg, Norwegian mediator (b. 1945)

2004 - Troy Broadbridge, Australian football player (b. 1980)

2004 - Aki Sirkesalo, Finnish musician (b. 1962)

2004 - Reggie White, American football player (b. 1961)

2005 - Kerry Packer, Australian businessman (b. 1937)

2005 - Vincent Schiavelli, American actor (b. 1948)

2005 - Erich Topp, German submarine commander (b. 1914)

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R.C. Saints - Saint Stephen

St. Stephen's Day, a public holiday in Catalonia, Croatia, Czech Republic, and the Republic of Ireland.

The first day of Christmas in Western Christianity.

Boxing Day in the Commonwealth of Nations.

Wren day in Ireland and the Isle of Man.

Australia - Proclamation Day (South Australian public holiday), for the foundation of the Australian state of South Australia on December 28 1836 but commemorated on this day.

Slovenia - Independence and Unity Day (1990)

South Africa - Day of Goodwill, a public holiday

First day of Kwanzaa

Mandala Pooja at Sabarimala in Kerala, India

Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia - Tsunami Awareness Day/Tsunami Memorial (or Remembrance) Day

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Period of Ursids meteor shower ends about this day

Wrenboys celebrate Wren in Ireland

First day of Junkanoo street parade in the Bahamas (the second day is on the New Year's Day)