Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 26
This is a list of selected December 26 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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William Shakespeare -
Pierre Curie
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Marie Curie -
Jack Johnson
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1606 – The first recorded performance of the play King Lear, a tragedy by William Shakespeare based on the legendary King Lear of Britain, was held. | {{unreferenced section}} |
| 1790 – French Revolution: Louis XVI of France gave his Royal Assent to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, subordinating the Roman Catholic Church in France to the French government. | {{more footnotes}} |
| 1898 – At the French Academy of Sciences, physicists Pierre and Marie Curie announced the discovery of a new element, naming it radium. | Pierre Curie needs more footnotes, radium needs more refs |
| 1991 – Fall of the Soviet Union: The Supreme Soviet officially dissolved itself. | Tagged with {{unreferenced section}} |
| 2004 – An undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia generated a series of devastating tsunamis that killed more than 225,000 people in eleven countries. | Tagged with {{refimprove}} |
Eligible
- 1806 – War of the Fourth Coalition: French troops under Napoleon engaged Russian forces in both the Battles of Pultusk and Golymin.
- 1846 – Trapped in the snow in the middle of the Sierra Nevada without any food left, members of the American pioneer group known as the Donner Party resorted to cannibalism.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate defenders were victorious in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou as the Union Army attempted to capture the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
- 1871 – Thespis, the first comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, made its debut at the Gaiety Theatre, London, UK.
- 1908 – Boxer Jack Johnson (pictured) became the first African American Heavyweight Champion of the World after defeating Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney.
- 1919 – American baseball player Babe Ruth was sold by the Boston Red Sox to their rivals, the New York Yankees, starting the 84-year-long Curse of the Bambino.
- 1946 – American gangster Bugsy Siegel opened the The Pink Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the oldest casino still in operation on the Las Vegas Strip.
- 1975 – The Tupolev Tu-144, the first commercial aircraft to surpass Mach 2, went into service.
- 1996 – Six-year-old American beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado, a murder that generated extensive coverage from the American media.
December 26: Boxing Day in Commonwealth countries; St. Stephen's Day (Western Christianity); Twelve Holy Days begin (Esoteric Christianity); Kwanzaa begins (United States)
- 1811 – A theater in Richmond, Virginia, US, was destroyed by fire in what was the worst urban disaster in American history at the time.
- 1825 – Imperial Russian Army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession.
- 1900 – A relief crew arrived at the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles of Scotland and discovered that the previous crew had disappeared without a trace.
- 2006 – The Hengchun earthquake struck off the southwest coast of Taiwan, on the anniversaries of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake that devastated the coastal communities across Southeast and South Asia (tsunami pictured), and of the 2003 Bam earthquake that destroyed areas of southeastern Iran.