{"id":8290,"date":"2021-12-25T07:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-25T06:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=195807"},"modified":"2021-12-25T07:21:11","modified_gmt":"2021-12-25T06:21:11","slug":"25-december-on-this-day-in-history","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/25-december-on-this-day-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"25 December: On this day in history"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Dominic Sandbrook\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 25 December 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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25 December 274: Rome\u2019s emperor honours the sun god with a gigantic temple<\/h3>\n

Aurelian marks the winter solstice by cementing his allegiance to the cult of Sol Invictus<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In late December 274, the Roman emperor Aurelian was at the height of his power. After decades of instability, the former general had imposed order on the fractious empire, defeated a series of barbarian incursions and reintegrated the breakaway empire of Palmyra. But Aurelian knew that he was merely the instrument of Sol Invictus, \u2018the unconquered Sun\u2019, a god long associated with the Aurelius clan.<\/p>\n

The cult of the sun god had become increasingly popular in the third century AD, competing with other fashionable faiths such as Mithraism and Christianity. According to legend, the emperor\u2019s mother had been a priestess of the sun god in her home town, in present-day Serbia. And Aurelian was keen to elevate his favoured deity to the very first rank, announcing that priests of Sol Invictus would belong to a new College of Pontiffs, reserved for only the most prestigious gods.<\/p>\n

Above all, Aurelian hammered home the new importance of the sun god with a gigantic Temple of the Sun in Rome itself. And the date chosen for the dedication could hardly have been more significant: 25 December, the winter solstice under the Julian calendar.<\/p>\n

Though the cult of Sol Invictus, like the temple dedicated in 274, has long since vanished, its legacy could still be with us today. For centuries, some scholars have argued that Christmas is effectively an appropriation of Sol Invictus\u2019s big day. Or was it the other way round? Had Aurelian stolen the idea of a religious festival on the winter solstice from the early Christians? Alas, we may never know.<\/p>\n

25 December 820: \u00a0A Byzantine leader is butchered<\/h3>\n

Assassins knife Leo V to death during morning prayers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was dawn on 25 December 820 when the Byzantine emperor Leo V made his way into the imperial palace church for morning prayers. An experienced former general who had ruled in Constantinople for the last seven years, Leo prided himself on his singing voice, and at the first hymn\u2019s refrain \u2013 \u201cThey poured contempt on the yearning of the king of all kings\u201d \u2013 he raised his voice with gusto.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Leo did not realise that this was the signal for a group of plotters, allied with his imprisoned rival Michael the Armorian, to make their move. Drawing their knives, the conspirators rushed towards the emperor \u2013 but in the gloom, and confused by the worshippers\u2019 heavy cloaks and felt hats, they had mistaken their man, and they fell upon one of Leo\u2019s officials instead.<\/p>\n

Realising what was going on, Emperor Leo seized a large golden cross to defend himself, and battle was joined in earnest. \u201cHe was able to resist for some time by parrying the sword-thrusts with the divine cross,\u201d wrote the historian John Skylitzes, \u201cbut then he was set upon from all sides, like a wild beast. He was already beginning to flag from his wounds when, at the end, he saw a gigantic person about to deal him a blow.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that, Leo began to mutter a prayer, but the blow fell anyway, severing his arm and smashing the cross in two. Then, wrote Skylitzes, \u201csomeone also cut off his head, which was already damaged by wounds and hanging down\u201d. And that was that.<\/p>\n

25 December 1066: The Conqueror is crowned<\/h3>\n

William of Normandy\u2019s Westminster Abbey coronation goes up in smoke \u2013 in more ways than one<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On the morning of Christmas Day 1066, William of Normandy<\/a> rode through the streets of Westminster towards his coronation. His destination was the magnificent new abbey begun by his distant cousin, Edward the Confessor<\/a>. It was just over two months since the battle of Hastings<\/a>. Across the country, resistance still smouldered and security around the abbey was tight.<\/p>\n

William\u2019s coronation had been planned as the ultimate propaganda coup. In a supremely symbolic moment, the invader was crowned king by Ealdred, Archbishop of York, previously one of the chief supporters of Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king. Before lowering the crown onto William\u2019s head, Ealdred asked the crowd \u2013 in English \u2013 if they wanted him as their king. And as had no doubt been arranged, up went the loud cheers of acclamation.<\/p>\n

But then came disaster. In a telling sign of the anxiety of the day, William\u2019s Norman troops misunderstood the cries of the English crowd. According to the chronicler Orderic Vitalis, \u201cthe armed guard outside, hearing the tumult of the joyful crowd in the church and the harsh accents of a foreign tongue, imagined that some treachery was afoot, and rashly set fire to some of the buildings\u201d.<\/p>\n

The fire spread, the crowd panicked, and, Vitalis wrote, \u201cthrongs of men and women of every rank and condition rushed out of the church in frantic haste. Only the bishops and a few clergy and monks remained, terrified, in the sanctuary, and with difficulty completed the consecration of the king who was trembling from head to foot.\u201d<\/p>\n

For William it was the worst possible start; for his new subjects, meanwhile, it was a sign of things to come. The English, recorded Vitalis, \u201cnever again trusted the Normans who seemed to have betrayed them, but nursed their anger and bided their time to take revenge\u201d. | Read more about the\u00a0brutal story of the Harrying of the North<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Julian Humphrys rounds up smaller anniversaries<\/h4>\n

25 December 800<\/h6>\n

Charlemagne<\/a>, the son of Frankish king Pepin the Short, was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III in St Peter\u2019s Basilica, Rome.<\/p>\n

25 December 1642\u00a0<\/h6>\n

English physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher and theologian Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. His father, a prosperous farmer who was also called Isaac, had died three months earlier.<\/p>\n

25 December 1648<\/h6>\n

King Charles I<\/a> spends his last Christmas as a prisoner in Windsor Castle having been brought there from Hurst Castle two days earlier.<\/p>\n

25 December 1759<\/h6>\n

Birth at East Ruston in Norfolk of English classical scholar Richard Porson. In 1792 he was appointed regius professor of Greek at Trinity College, Cambridge after losing his fellowship following his refusal to be ordained. He was the discoverer of Porson\u2019s Law, which changed existing ideas on Greek meter and the typeface \u2018Porson\u2019 is based on his handwriting. Porson, who was known for his prodigious powers of memory and could faultlessly recite lengthy passages of Greek, died in 1808 and is buried in the chapel at Trinity.<\/p>\n

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25 December 1223: The Christmas nativity is born<\/h3>\n

St Francis of Assisi recreates the birth of Christ, in Italy<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today the town of Greccio, in the Apennines in central Italy, is a sleepy sort of place. But at Christmas 1223, it welcomed one of the best-known men in the medieval world: Francis of Assisi, Catholic friar and founder of the Franciscan order. And it was Francis who decided that Greccio should put on the world\u2019s first nativity scene<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then in his early forties, Francis was keen to remind the people of Greccio that there was more to Christmas than fancy food and fine gifts. Then, as now, people often lamented that the true meaning of the festival had been lost. So, determined to \u201ccommemorate the nativity of the Infant Jesus with great devotion [and] all possible solemnity\u201d, and adamant that there must be no hint of \u201clightness or novelty\u201d, Francis asked Pope Honorius III for permission to put on a little show for the people of Greccio.<\/p>\n

Francis had been to the Holy Land a few years earlier, and may well have been inspired by the sites associated with the Gospels. According to St Bonaventure, he \u201cprepared a manger, and brought hay, and an ox and an ass to the place appointed\u201d. Then, as midnight approached on Christmas Eve, \u201cthe brethren were summoned, the people ran together, the forest resounded with their voices, and that venerable night was made glorious by many and brilliant lights and sonorous psalms of praise\u201d.<\/p>\n

The nativity scene was a huge hit. One man, a former soldier who had become one of Francis\u2019s closest companions, even claimed to have seen a vision of \u201can Infant marvellously beautiful, sleeping in the manger\u201d. From then on, there was no looking back.<\/p>\n

25 December 1941: Hong Kong falls to the Japanese<\/h3>\n

A brutal occupation of the British colony begins<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For the people of Hong Kong, Christmas 1941 was one they would not easily forget. A few weeks earlier, Japanese troops had launched a massive offensive against the British colony. With no chance of reinforcements, Hong Kong seemed doomed, and within days the attackers had fought their way into the heart of Kowloon.<\/p>\n

As the British fell back, looting broke out across the colony. Father Thomas Ryan, a Jesuit priest, recalled that local gangs \u201cwent to shop after shop and house after house, breaking down the doors and going through every floor and every room swiftly and violently. The slightest resistance brought savage attacks that were often fatal. Earrings were torn away brutally; fingers were chopped off when rings did not slip off easily; and a blow with an iron bar was the most common reply to any attempt to bar an entrance\u2026 None will ever know how many people died during that terrible period.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more than two weeks, against all the odds, the colony held out. But by Christmas Eve, the Japanese army had slashed Hong Kong Island in two. That night, hundreds packed into the cathedral for midnight mass. As they left, exchanging half-hearted festive greetings, word spread that the colony\u2019s governor, Mark Aitchison Young, was preparing to surrender.<\/p>\n

When the worshippers woke on Christmas morning, it was to crashing and screaming, as crowds looted the houses of the rich colonial elites. At St Stephen\u2019s College, which was being used as a makeshift hospital, advancing Japanese troops killed and raped at least 100 patients and nurses. That afternoon, on the third floor of the Peninsula Hotel, Young formally surrendered. For the next three and a half years, the colony remained in Japanese hands.<\/p>\n

25 December 1950: The Stone of Scone is stolen by students<\/h3>\n

Scotland\u2019s hallowed relic is smuggled out of Westminster Abbey\u2026 but turns up in Arbroath nearly four months later<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the era of the Ealing comedies, the theft of the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey<\/a> seemed like something from a film script. Yet at its centre was one of Scotland\u2019s most hallowed nationalist relics \u2013 the ancient sandstone block on which its medieval monarchs had been crowned.<\/p>\n

The plan to steal the stone was the brainchild of a young man called Ian Hamilton, a Glasgow student who was keen to win publicity for Home Rule.<\/p>\n

A few days before Christmas, Hamilton and three friends drove south in a couple of Ford Anglias. On arrival in London they held a rendezvous in \u2013 of all places \u2013 a Lyons Corner House. That night, Hamilton made a first bid to steal the stone, hiding under a trolley in Westminster Abbey \u2013 only to be spotted by a night watchman.<\/p>\n

The following evening, they tried again. This time they broke into the\u00a0abbey overnight, climbing in through a building yard before making their way to King Edward\u2019s Chair, where the stone was kept. In good Ealing fashion, they contrived to drop the heavy stone while they were dragging it out, smashing it in two before lugging the pieces into their waiting car.<\/p>\n

At this point \u2013 it was 5am \u2013 the story took another bizarre twist. Before they could drive off, a passing policeman stopped for a chat and a cigarette. Only after he had gone did the robbers make their getaway \u2013 two of them heading for Kent with the larger bit of the stone, the other two bound for the Midlands.<\/p>\n

The loss of the stone sparked a political furore. But the following April, after months of speculation, the students left the stone \u2013 now mended \u2013 on the altar at Arbroath Abbey, in honour of the declaration of Scottish independence at Arbroath<\/a> in 1320.<\/p>\n

25 December 1989: Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu are shot<\/h3>\n

The Romanian people take swift revenge on the hated couple<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At lunchtime on Christmas Day 1989, an elderly couple were shown into a dilapidated lecture hall at the Targoviste army barracks, north of Bucharest. Only days earlier, they had been the most feared people in Romania. Now, with the country in revolt, they looked around in crumpled confusion. Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu \u2013 Romania\u2019s longstanding communist leader and his wife \u2013 had only hours to live.<\/p>\n

The lecture hall had become a makeshift courtroom, where the couple\u2019s military captors planned to hold them to account. But the trial was a charade. It lasted less than an hour and though a junior officer filmed the whole thing, the camera never showed anybody but the two defendants.<\/p>\n

Far from confronting his crimes, Ceausescu told the court: \u201cI do not recognise you. Everything you allege is a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a five-minute recess, the judges returned to announce their verdict. It was, of course, death. Elena Ceausescu wept; her husband, however, kept his cool. \u201cRomania will live and learn of your treachery,\u201d he told the judges. \u201cIt is better to fight with glory than to live as a slave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guards bound the couple\u2019s hands with rope and they were led into a courtyard. Then the paratroopers raised their rifles. When they had finished, other soldiers joined in, pouring bullets into the corpses. Later, the two bodies were buried under false names. | Read more about dictators\u2019 deaths<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

25 December 1991: The Soviet Union takes its dying breath<\/h3>\n

The red, white and blue of tsarist Russia replaces the red of the Soviet flag as Gorbachev exits stage right<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s 25 December 1991. In Moscow, where there are two weeks to go until the Orthodox Christmas, it ought to be just another day. But this is a date that will go down in history: the last day of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

Historians still argue about when the Soviet state began to fall apart. But the death-blow came in August 1991, when communist hardliners, alarmed at the pace of change, staged a coup. Although the coup failed, it ripped the heart out of the communist regime. At the beginning of December, leaders of the Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian republics met in a remote Belarusian hunting lodge and signed an accord to end the Soviet Union forever.<\/p>\n

For President Mikhail Gorbachev, the accord was a humiliation, destroying his hopes of remaining as leader of a reformed, decentralised Soviet empire. For the next two weeks he cut a distinctly miserable figure, holed up in the Kremlin, presiding over a country that was doomed.<\/p>\n

On 25 December, the end came. In a short address at 7pm, broadcast live on Soviet television, Gorbachev announced he was resigning his position. The presidential office, he said sadly, was now extinct. Tellingly, his speech was filmed by an American rather than Russian crew, while he signed his resignation letter with a Mont Blanc pen borrowed from the president of CNN. A few minutes later, Gorbachev handed over the famous briefcase with the Soviet Union\u2019s nuclear codes to an officer representing Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who had declined to turn up in person.<\/p>\n

At 7.32pm came the most symbolic moment of all. Above the Kremlin, the red Soviet flag was lowered for the last time. In its place, Yeltsin\u2019s men raised the red, white and blue tricolour of tsarist Russia.<\/p>\n

Browse more On this day in history<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n