Christmas is celebrated on this day in many Christian and Western countries.

Events

Up to 1900 
 333 - Roman Emperor Constantine I promotes his youngest son Constans to the rank of Caesar.
 336 - Ancient Rome holds its first documented Christmas celebration.
 496 - Clovis I, King of the Franks, is baptized into the Roman Catholic faith in Reims by Saint Remigius.
 597 - Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow labourers baptize over 10,000 Anglo-Saxons in Kent.
 800 – Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.
 1000 - Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
 1066 – Coronation of William the Conqueror as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
 1130 - Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first King of Sicily.
 1223 – Saint Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene.
 1495 - Spanish forces defeat the Guanches, the native people of the Canary Islands, in the Battle of La Victoria de Acentejo - Tenerife is the last island to be taken over by Spain.
 1553 - Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeat the Spanish conquistadors and execute Governor of Chile Pedro de Valdivia.
 1599 – The city of Natal, Brazil is founded.
 1643 - Christmas Island is found and named in the Indian Ocean near present-day Indonesia by Captain William Mynors.
 1758 – Halley's Comet passes by Earth, just as Edmond Halley had predicted.
 1776 – George Washington and his army cross the Delaware River to attack the monarchy's Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey.
 1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" (Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria).
 1837 – Battle of Okeechobee – United States forces defeat Seminole Native Americans.
 1868 – US President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War rebels.
 1868 – Ezo Republic founded in Hokkaido by Shogunate rebels.
 1896 - John Philip Sousa composes The Stars and Stripes Forever.

1901  2000 
 1914 – Just after midnight on Christmas morning, German troops on the Western Front cease firing their guns and artillery and start singing Christmas carols.  Crossing the No man's land, they trade gifts with the enemy forces that face them.  The Christmas truce lasts for several days, depending on the location.
 1917 – Why Marry?, first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre in New York City.
 1926 – Hirohito becomes Emperor of Japan, succeeding the Taisho Emperor (Yoshihito).
 1927 - The Vietnamese Nationalist Party is founded.
 1932 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills ~70,000 people
 1939 – Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was read on radio for the first time (CBS radio)
 1939 – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is introduced by Montgomery Ward stores
 1941 – Hong Kong surrenders to the Japanese.
 1946 - The first European artificial chain reaction is initiated by the Soviet nuclear reactor F-1.
 1947 – The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.
 1952 – Queen Elizabeth II broadcasts her first Christmas message.
 1953 – A fire broke out in Shek Kip Mei, Hong Kong.
 1968 - Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans-Earth injection maneuver, sending crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from lunar orbit.
 1968 - 42 Dalits are burned alive in Kilavenmani village in Tamil Nadu, India, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages from Dalit labourers. The Dalits are at the bottom of India's class system, which consists of castes.
 1973 – The ARPANET crashes when a programming bug causes all ARPANET traffic to be routed through the server at Harvard University, causing the server to freeze.
 1974 – Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Australia.
 1974 - Marshall Fields drives a vehicle through the gates of the White House, resulting in a four-hour stand-off.
 1977 – Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with President of Egypt Anwar Sadat
 1989 – Nicolae Ceausescu, former communist dictator of Romania, and his wife Elena were condemned to death and executed under a wide range of charges by a court perceived by many as illegitimate.
 1990 – First trial run of the World Wide Web
 1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day).

From 2001 
 2002 – New Delhi Metro was introduced.
 2003 – The space probe Beagle 2 goes missing on the planet Mars.
 2004 – Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which will land on Saturn's moon, Titan on January 14, 2005.
 2007 – A tiger escapes from San Francisco Zoo and attacks three people, killing one.
 2009 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempts a terrorist attack, while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
 2016 - A Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev-154 aircraft crashes into the Black Sea shortly after take-off from Sochi, killing all 92 people on board.

Births

Up to 1800 
4 BC – AD 1 – Jesus, Christian icon (The exact day and year are argued over.) (d. circa 33)
1250 - John IV Laskaris, Byzantine Emperor (d. 1305)
1424 – Margaret Stewart, Dauphine of France (d. 1445)
1461 - Christina of Saxony (d. 1521)
1505 - Christine of Saxony (d. 1549)
1583 – Orlando Gibbons, English composer (d. 1625)
1584 - Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain (d. 1611)
1601 - Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha (d. 1675)
1628 – Noël Coypel, French painter (d. 1707)
1642 – (OS) – Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician (d. 1727)
1652 – Archibald Pitcairne, Scottish physician (d. 1713)
1665 – Lady Grizel Baillie, Scottish songwriter (d. 1746)
1667 – Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal and Munster
1674 – Thomas Halyburton, Scottish theologian (d. 1712)
1700 – Leopold II of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian general (d. 1758)
1711 - Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, French violinist and composer (d. 1772)
1717 – Pope Pius VI, Roman Catholic pope during the French revolution. (d. 1799)
1720 – Anna Maria Mozart, mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d. 1778)
1728 - Johann Adam Hiller, German composer and conductor (d. 1804)
1742 – Charlotte von Stein, friend of Goethe (d. 1827)
1745 - Chevalier de Saint-George, French-Caribbean composer (d. 1799)
1757 – Benjamin Pierce, U.S. politician (d 1839)
1763 – Claude Chappe, French telecommunications pioneer (d. 1805)
1771 – Dorothy Wordsworth, English diarist and sister of William Wordsworth (d. 1855)
1799 - Manuel Bulnes, President of Chile (d. 1866)

1801  1900 
1810 - Francis de Laporte de Castelnau, French naturalist (d. 1880)
1811 - Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, German bishop and politician (d. 1877)
1812 - Francis de Laporte de Castelnau, French explorer (d. 1880)
1821 – Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross (d. 1912)
1825 - Stephen F. Chadwick, American lawyer and politician, 5th Governor of Oregon (d. 1895)
1833 - Princess Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d. 1916)
1856 – Hans von Bartels, German painter (d. 1913)
1861 – Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, founder of Banaras Hindu University (d. 1946)
1875 – Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, Archbishop of Vienna (d. 1955)
1876 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan (d. 1948)
1876 – Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
1878 – Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver and automotive pioneer (d. 1941)
1883 – Maurice Utrillo, French artist (d. 1955)
1884 – Evelyn Nesbit, actress (d. 1967)
1885 - Albert Betz, German physician (d. 1968)
1886 – Kid Ory, jazz musician (d. 1973)
1887 – Conrad Nicholson Hilton, American hotelier (d. 1979)
1890 – Noel Odell, British mountaineer (d. 1987)
1893 - Robert Ripley, American comic artist and world traveller (d. 1949)
1899 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (d. 1957)
1900 - Antoni Zygmund, Polish-American mathematician (d. 1992)

1901  1950 
1901 – Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (d. 2004)
1902 – Barton MacLane, American actor (d. 1969)
1904 – Gerhard Herzberg, German-Canadian physicist (d. 1999)
1906 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
1906 – Sir Lew Grade, movie producer (d. 1998)
1907 – Cab Calloway, American bandleader (d. 1994)
1908 – Quentin Crisp, British writer, activist for homosexuals (d. 1999)
1908 – Helen Twelvetrees, actress (d. 1958)
1911 - Louise Bourgeois, French-American sculptor (d. 2010)
1913 - Tony Martin, American actor and singer (d. 2012)
1913 – Henri Nannen, German journalist and publisher (d. 1966)
1918 – Ahmed Ben Bella, first President of Algeria (d. 2012)
1918 – Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (d. 1981)
1923 - René Girard, French-American historian, critic and philosopher (d. 2015) 
1924 – Moktar Ould Daddah, first President of Mauritania (d. 2003)
1924 – Rod Serling, American television scriptwriter (d. 1975)
1924 – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister of India
1925 – Carlos Castaneda, writer (d. 1998)
1927 – Nellie Fox, baseball player (d. 1975)
1927 – Ram Narayan, Indian musician
1927 - Alan King, American actor (d. 2004)
1928 – Dick Miller, actor
1929 - Stuart Hall, British television presenter and sexual abuser
1930 - Emmanuel Agassi, Iranian boxer
1933 - Joachim Meisner, German cardinal (d. 2017)
1935 - Sadiq al-Mahdi, Prime Minister of Sudan
1936 – Princess Alexandra of Kent, British royal
1936 – Ismail Merchant, British movie producer (d. 2005)
1939 - Akong Rinpoche, Tibetan spiritual leader (d. 2013)
1943 – Hanna Schygulla, German actress
1944 – Jairzinho, Brazilian footballer
1944 - Kenny Everett, British comedian and radio host (d. 1995)
1945 – Noel Redding, British bassist (d. 2003)
1945 - Ken Stabler, American football player (d. 2015)
1945 – Gary Sandy, actor
1945 - Eve Pollard, British journalist and author
1946 – Jimmy Buffett, singer, songwriter
1946 – Larry Csonka, American football player
1946 – Gene Lamont, American baseball player and manager
1948 - Manny Mori, former President of the Federated States of Micronesia
1948 – Barbara Mandrell, American singer and actress
1948 - Joel Santana, Brazilian footballer
1948 - Alia al-Hussein, Egyptian wife of King Hussein of Jordan (d. 1977)
1949 – Sissy Spacek, American actress
1949 – Joe Louis Walker, American blues musician
1949 – Nawaz Sharif, Pakistani politician, Prime Minister of Pakistan
1950 – Manny Trillo, baseball player
1950 – Karl Rove, political advisor to President George W. Bush

1951  1975 
1953 - Kaarlo Maaninka, Finnish runner
1954 – Robin Campbell, guitarist and singer (UB40)
1954 – Annie Lennox, Scottish singer (Eurythmics)
1957 – Shane MacGowan, Irish musician
1957 - Chris Kamara, English footballer and sportscaster
1958 - Alannah Myles, Canadian singer
1958 – Hanford Dixon, American football player
1958 – Rickey Henderson, American baseball player
1959 – Michael P. Anderson, American astronaut (d. 2003)
1961 – Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian senator
1961 - David Thompson, 6th Prime Minister of Barbados (d. 2010)
1962 – Dean Cameron, American actor
1962 - Darren Wharton, British musician
1964 - Gary McAllister, Scottish footballer
1965 - Ed Davey, English politician
1967 – Jason Thirsk, American bass player (Pennywise)
1967 - Yasmin Fahimi, German politician
1968 – Helena Christensen, Danish model
1970 - Emmanuel Amuneke, Nigerian footballer
1971 – Dido, English singer
1971 - Tatiana Sorokko, Russian-American model and fashion journalist
1971 – Noel Hogan, Irish guitarist and main co-songwriter of The Cranberries band
1971 - Justin Trudeau, Canadian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Canada
1973 - Alexandre Trudeau, Canadian journalist and director
1975 - Choi Sung-Yong, South Korean footballer
1975 – Marcus Trescothick, English cricketer

From 1976 
1976 – Tuomas Holopainen, Finnish keyboardist and composer (Nightwish)
1976 – Armin van Buuren, Dutch DJ
1977 - Jesper Mortensen, Danish musician (Junior Senior)
1977 - Priya Rai, Indian-American pornographic actress
1979 - Hyun Young-Min, South Korean footballer
1980 – Reika Hashimoto, Japanese actress and model
1984 – The Veronicas, Australian singers
1984 – Alistair Cook, English cricketer
1984 - Nadiya Hussain, English baker and author
1984 – Georgia Moffett, English actress
1985 - Leon Pisani, Welsh singer-songwriter
1986 - Alex Hepburn, English singer
1987 - Julian Lage, American guitarist and composer
1988 - Dele Adeleye, Nigerian footballer
1988 - Eric Gordon, American basketball player
1988 - Marco Mengoni, Italian singer
1990 - Ramona Bachmann, Swiss footballer
1992 - Ogenyi Onazi, Nigerian footballer
1993 - Emi Takei, Japanese actress, model and singer
1995 - Mimmi Sandén, Swedish singer

Deaths

Up to 1975 
 795 - Pope Adrian I
 820 – Leo V, Byzantine Emperor (b. 775)
 1553 - Pedro de Valdivia, Spanish conquistador and Governor of Chile (b. 1500)
 1635 – Samuel de Champlain, French explorer (b. 1567)
 1683 - Kara Mustafa Pasha, Ottoman general (b. 1634)
 1868 - Linus Yale, Jr., American engineer and inventor (b. 1821)
 1875 – Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1851)
 1880 - Fridolin Anderwert, Swiss politician (b. 1828)
 1893 - Benjamin T. Biggs, Governor of Delaware (b. 1824)
 1916 - Albert Chmielowski, Polish saint (b. 1845)
 1921 - Vladimir Korolenko, Russian journalist, author and academic (b. 1853)
 1925 - Karl Abraham, German psychologist (b. 1877)
 1926 – Yoshihito, Emperor of Japan (b. 1879)
 1933 - Francesc Maria i Llussa, Catalan politician (b. 1859)
 1940 - Agnes Ayres, American actress (b. 1898)
 1946 – WC Fields, American movie actor (b. 1880)
 1957 – Charles Pathé, French pioneer of movie and record industries (b. 1863)
 1961 – Otto Loewi, German doctor, won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)
 1961 - Owen Brewster, Governor of Maine (b. 1888)
 1973 – Ismet Inonu, Turkish politician (b. 1884)
 1973 - Gabriel Voisin, French engineer (b. 1880)

From 1976 
 1977 – Charlie Chaplin, English movie actor (b. 1889)
 1979 - Joan Blondell, American actress and singer (b. 1906)
 1983 – Joan Miró, Catalan artist (b. 1893)
 1989 – Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian dictator (executed) (b. 1918)
 1989 – Elena Ceausescu, First Lady of Romania (executed) (b. 1918)
 1994 – Zail Singh, President of India (b. 1916)
 1995 – Dean Martin, American singer (b. 1917)
 1997 - Anatoli Boukreev, Kazakhstani mountaineer and explorer (b. 1958)
 2000 – Willard Van Orman Quine, American philosopher (b. 1908)
 2005 – Birgit Nilsson, Swedish soprano (b. 1918)
 2006 – James Brown, American singer (b. 1933)
 2008 – Eartha Kitt, American singer (b. 1927)
 2009 – Vic Chesnutt, American musician (b. 1964)
 2009 – Knut Haugland, Norwegian explorer (b. 1917)
 2010 – Carlos Andrés Pérez, President of Venezuela (b. 1922)
 2012 - Frank Calabrese, Jr., American mobster (b. 1937)
 2012 - Othmar Schneider, Austrian skier (b. 1928)
 2014 - Alberta Adams, American blues singer (b. 1917)
 2014 - Gleb Yakunin, Russian Orthodox priest (b. 1934)
 2014 - N. L. Balakrishnan, Indian actor and photographer (b. 1942)
 2014 - David Ryall, English actor (b. 1935)
 2015 - Sadhana Shivdasani, Indian actress (b. 1941)
 2015 - Ali Eid, Lebanese politician (b. 1940)
 2015 - Robert Spitzer, American psychiatrist and educator (b. 1932)
 2016 - Deaths in the Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154
Elizaveta Glinka, Russian humanitarian worker (b. 1962)
Anton Gubankov, Russian scholar and journalist (b. 1965)
Valery Khalilov, Russian military band conductor (b. 1952)
 2016 - George Michael, English singer (b. 1963)
 2016 - Vera Rubin, American astronomer (b. 1928)
 2017 - Larry Libertore, American football player (b. 1939)
 2017 - Vladimir Shainsky, Russian composer (b. 1925)
 2017 - Willie Toweel, South African boxer (b. 1934)

Holidays 
 Christmas Day (Western Christianity), official holiday in many countries
 Public holiday in Pakistan, celebrating the birthday of Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Days of the year