December 25

### 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.

### Up to 1800

- Year zero – Jesus (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 writer
- 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 writer
- 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

### 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, writer 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