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Explore 26 December

Explore 26 December: a great earthquake sends a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, Russian officers rise against the tsar, the Scharnhorst is sunk off North Cape and a football star is elected president of Liberia. Meet Charles Babbage, Mao Zedong and José Ramos-Horta, born on this date.

This day through time →10 verified events across 4 eras

⌛10Full
Timeline ◈4Historic
Moments ♙7Born
Today ✦5Lives
Remembered ◉1Firsts &
Discoveries ☆2Sporting
Moments ♫1Culture
Stories ☉1Observances
The tsunami memorial at Phuket airport, Thailand.
The tsunami memorial at Phuket airport, Thailand.
Image creditAndy Mitchell from Glasgow, UK · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
2004

The Indian Ocean tsunami

At 7.59 in the morning of 26 December 2004 an earthquake of magnitude 9.1 struck under the sea off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, one of the largest ever recorded. It lifted the sea floor and sent tsunami waves racing across the Indian Ocean, up to 30 metres high on the coast of Aceh.

The waves reached Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Maldives and as far as East Africa. About 228,000 people died or were never found, more than in any tsunami on record. The disaster led to a warning system for the Indian Ocean, set up with UNESCO’s help in the years that followed.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information: the 26 December 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami ↗
Karl Kolman's watercolour of the rising in Senate Square, St Petersburg, 1830s.
Karl Kolman’s watercolour of the rising in Senate Square, St Petersburg, 1830s.
Image creditKarl Kollmann · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1825

The Decembrists rise in St Petersburg

On 26 December 1825 (14 December in the Russian calendar of the day), officers who wanted a constitution and an end to serfdom led about 3,000 soldiers into Senate Square in St Petersburg and refused to swear loyalty to the new tsar, Nicholas I. Their plan went wrong from the start: the leader chosen to take charge never arrived.

After hours of stand-off in the cold, Nicholas ordered his artillery to fire and the rebels broke. Five leaders were hanged and more than a hundred sent to Siberia. The Decembrists became heroes to later generations of Russian reformers and revolutionaries.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Presidential Library (Russia): the Decembrist revolt ↗
Survivors of the Scharnhorst under guard on the deck of HMS Duke of York at Scapa Flow after the battle.
Survivors of the Scharnhorst under guard on the deck of HMS Duke of York at Scapa Flow after the battle.
Image creditRoyal Navy official photographer · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1943

The Scharnhorst is sunk off North Cape

On Christmas Day 1943 the German battleship Scharnhorst left her base in northern Norway to attack two Arctic convoys carrying supplies to the Soviet Union. British cruisers, including HMS Belfast, found her on 26 December and drove her off, while the battleship Duke of York raced to cut off her escape.

In the Arctic darkness the Duke of York’s guns and destroyers’ torpedoes crippled the German ship, and she sank at about 7.45 in the evening. Of her crew of nearly 2,000, only 36 were rescued.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Imperial War Museums: HMS Belfast and the Battle of North Cape ↗
George Weah, President of Liberia, at the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, 2022.
George Weah, President of Liberia, at the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, 2022.
Image creditUnited States Department of State Africa U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit: Photos and Videos · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
2017

A football star wins Liberia’s presidency

George Weah, who grew up in a Monrovia slum and became the only African footballer to win FIFA’s World Player of the Year award, won Liberia’s presidential run-off on 26 December 2017, comfortably beating Vice-President Joseph Boakai.

The United Nations called the election free and fair. When he took over from Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in January 2018, it was the first peaceful handover between elected presidents that Liberia had seen in decades.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: United Nations: Secretary-General’s statement on Liberia, 29 December 2017 ↗
♙
PEOPLE

Born Today

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Image creditUnknown authorUnknown author · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1194

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

King of Sicily and emperor, famed for his learning, his book on falconry and his clashes with the popes.

Charles Babbage
Image creditUnknown authorUnknown author · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1791

Charles Babbage

English mathematician who designed the Difference and Analytical Engines, forerunners of the computer.

Henry Miller
Image creditUnknown · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1891

Henry Miller

American writer whose Tropic of Cancer was banned in the United States for almost thirty years.

Mao Zedong
Image creditChen Zhengqing (1917–1966) · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1893

Mao Zedong

Chinese communist leader who founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and ruled it until his death.

José Ramos-Horta
Image credittimor-leste.gov.tl · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1949

José Ramos-Horta

East Timorese independence campaigner who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize and later became president.

Lars Ulrich
Image credit4TheWynne · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1963

Lars Ulrich

Danish drummer who co-founded the heavy metal band Metallica.

Marcelo Ríos
Image creditKloze333 · CC BY 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1975

Marcelo Ríos

Chilean tennis player, the first from Latin America to be ranked world number one in men’s singles.

◉
IDEAS THAT CHANGED THINGS

Firsts, Science & Discoveries

Pierre and Marie Curie in the Paris laboratory where radium was discovered, a photograph published by Marie Curie in 1923.
Pierre and Marie Curie in the Paris laboratory where radium was discovered, a photograph published by Marie Curie in 1923.
Image creditMarie Curie, Henri Manuel (1874-1947) · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1898

The Curies announce radium

On 26 December 1898 a paper by Pierre Curie, Marie Curie and their colleague Gustave Bémont was presented to the French Academy of Sciences. It announced a second new radioactive element, found in the uranium ore pitchblende, which behaved chemically much like barium. They called it radium.

It was their second discovery of the year, after polonium in July. Marie Curie spent the next four years refining tonnes of ore to isolate a tenth of a gram of radium, and in 1903 she and Pierre shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Henri Becquerel.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: NobelPrize.org: Marie and Pierre Curie and the discovery of polonium and radium ↗
☆
SPORTING HISTORY

Sporting Moments

Tommy Burns (left) and Jack Johnson (right) during their title fight in Sydney, 26 December 1908.
Tommy Burns (left) and Jack Johnson (right) during their title fight in Sydney, 26 December 1908.
Image creditUnknown authorUnknown author · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1908

Jack Johnson becomes heavyweight champion

At an open-air stadium at Rushcutters Bay in Sydney on Boxing Day 1908, the American Jack Johnson beat the Canadian champion Tommy Burns, who had long avoided him. Police stopped the fight in the 14th round.

Johnson became the first Black heavyweight champion of the world. His victory, and his refusal to behave as white America expected, provoked a search for a ‘great white hope’ to beat him, and he held the title until 1915.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture: Jack Johnson, a heavyweight boxer that defied America ↗
The main stand at Sandygate, Hallam FC's ground in Sheffield.
The main stand at Sandygate, Hallam FC’s ground in Sheffield.
Image creditNeil Theasby · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
1860

Sheffield and Hallam play the first club derby

On Boxing Day 1860, in the snow at Hallam’s cricket ground on Sandygate Road, Sheffield Football Club took on Hallam Football Club. It was the first match between two clubs played under the Sheffield Rules, one of the earliest codes of football.

Sheffield won, though accounts differ over the score. The two clubs, the oldest in the world, still meet in what is known as the Rules Derby, and Hallam still play at Sandygate.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: National Football Museum: Twelve Games of Christmas, the Rules Derby ↗
♫
MUSIC • FILM • BOOKS • CULTURE

Culture Stories

The title page of the first printed edition of King Lear, 1608, which records the performance at Whitehall on St Stephen's night.
The title page of the first printed edition of King Lear, 1608, which records the performance at Whitehall on St Stephen’s night.
Image creditNathaniel Butter · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1606

King Lear is played before King James

On St Stephen’s night, 26 December 1606, Shakespeare’s company, the King’s Men, performed King Lear before James I at the palace of Whitehall. It is the earliest performance of the play on record.

We know of it because the first printed edition of 1608 says so on its title page. The story of an old king who divides his kingdom between his daughters had a pointed ring at the court of a king who was trying to unite England and Scotland.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Folger Shakespeare Library, Shakespeare Documented: King Lear, first edition ↗
✦
LIVES REMEMBERED

Remembered Today

Babur
Image creditc.1650 · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1530

Babur

Central Asian prince who founded the Mughal Empire in India after his victory at Panipat in 1526.

Gerald Ford
Image creditDavid Hume Kennerly · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 2006

Gerald Ford

US president from 1974 to 1977, the only one never elected as president or vice-president.

Desmond Tutu
Image creditBenny Gool · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 2021

Desmond Tutu

South African archbishop and campaigner against apartheid, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1984.

☉
AROUND THE WORLD

Observances & Anniversaries

A kinara with its red, black and green candles.
A kinara with its red, black and green candles.
Image creditrashida s. mar b. from Baltimore, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
Annual

Kwanzaa begins

Kwanzaa, a week-long celebration of African American heritage and culture created by Maulana Karenga in 1966, runs from 26 December to 1 January. Each day is given to one of seven principles, among them unity, self-determination and creativity, and a candle is lit on the kinara.

Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture: Kwanzaa ↗
HISTORY & TIMELINE

Finished the highlights?

Follow 26 December chronologically, from the Middle Ages to the modern day, with 10 verified events and the sources behind them.

This day through time →
Sources & further reading