SHANGRALA'S
CHRISTMAS
DAY
EVENTS!
Christmas is traditionally viewed as a time for family gatherings, gift giving
and church services, but the holiday has also coincided with some of history's
most crucial events. The 'most wonderful time of the year' has been interrupted
by legendary battles, coronations of kings, scientific breakthroughs, and it
even helped inspire one of the most famous wartime truces on record.
Historical Events On Christmas Day. Enjoy! :)
On Christmas Day 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne 'emperor of the Romans'
during a ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica. This controversial coronation restored
the Western Roman Empire in name and established Charlemagne as the divinely
appointed leader of most of Europe. More importantly, it placed him on equal
footing with the Byzantine Empress Irene, who ruled over the Eastern Empire in
Constantinople. Charlemagne would serve as emperor for 13 years, and his legal
and educational reforms sparked a cultural revival and unified much of Europe
for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire.
The 1066 holiday season played host to an event that permanently changed
the course of European history. On Christmas Day, William, Duke of Normandy,
better known as William the Conqueror, was crowned king of England at
Westminster Abbey in London. This coronation came in the wake of William's
legendary invasion of the British Isles, which had ended in October 1066
with a victory over King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings.
On Christmas Day of 1492, off the coast of Hispaniola, Christopher Columbus' ship
the Santa Maria ran aground and was used as target practice in order to impress
the native peoples before sinking into the ocean. At the time, Columbus thought he
had reached India, but had actually reached an entire new continent.
On Christmas Day, 1758, Edmund Halley's prediction of the return of the
comet know known as Halley's Comet was confirmed. He calculated that an
object which was observed every 75-76 years was in fact the same object
in an orbit around the sun. He predicted its return in 1758 and was proved
right on Christmas Day!
On Christmas Day, 1776, George Washington led the now famous crossing of the
Delaware River, surprising the Hessian mercenaries and achieving victory at
the Battle Of Trenton. After a defeat in New York and retreat through New
Jersey into Pennsylvania, this proved a pivotal victory for the Revolutionary
Army's lowering morale, inspiring a new round of rebels to enlist in the
Continental Army.
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On December 24, 1814, while many in the western world celebrated Christmas Eve,
the United States and Great Britain sat down to sign a famous peace agreement
ending the War of 1812. Negotiations had begun in Ghent, Belgium, earlier that
August; the same month that British forces burned the White House and the U.S.
Capitol in Washington. After more than four months of debate, the American and
British delegations agreed to a settlement that essentially ended the war as
a draw. All conquered territories were relinquished, and captured soldiers and
vessels were returned to their respective nations.
The United States Civil War was one of the bloodiest conflicts the nation had
ever seen, with casualties grossing the counts of both World Wars combined. On
Christmas Day in 1868, President Andrew Johnson pardoned all peoples who
participated in the military campaign of the Confederacy to those who swore
an oath of allegiance to the United States; thus, adding a major step towards
healing the broken nation.
Around and on Christmas Day in 1914, an unofficial truce and ceasefire was
participated in by many companies and sectors along the Western Front of
World War I. Soldiers even went so far as to enter No-Man's Land and hold
joint funerals, fraternize, and sing Christmas carols together. During one
of the darkest and most violent periods of human history, men came together
and in peace and harmony, rather than hostility and bloodshed.
On Christmas Day, 1926, Emperor Hirohito was crowned the 124th Emperor of Japan.
His rule would see the rise of General Tojo, would was de-facto ruler in Imperial
Japan during the Second World War. His rule lasted until his death in 1989, when
his son inherited the Imperial Throne.
On Christmas Day, 1941, Japan announced the surrender of the British and Canadian
garrison protecting the port of Hong Kong. This was just another defeat in the
early days of the war when the Axis Powers seemed completely unstoppable and
utterly invincible.
As part of 1968's Apollo 8 mission, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and
William Anders spent the night before Christmas orbiting the moon. The operation
was originally planned to test out the lunar module - later used in the Apollo 11
moon landing - in Earth's orbit. But when work on the module fell behind schedule,
NASA ambitiously changed the mission plan to a lunar voyage. Apollo 8 went on to
result in a series of breakthroughs for manned space flight; The three astronauts
became the first men to leave Earth's gravitational pull, the first to orbit the
moon, the first to view all of Earth from space and the first to see the dark side
of the moon.
Apollo 8 is perhaps best remembered today for the broadcast the three astronauts
made when they entered the moon's orbit on Christmas Eve. As viewers were shown
pictures of the moon and Earth from lunar orbit, Borman, Lovell and Anders read
the opening lines of the book of Genesis from the Bible. The broadcast, which
ended with the famous line 'Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you
on the good Earth', became one of the most watched television events in history.
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Share And Bless Your Friends! :)
SEE ALSO: Christmas Monsters!
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might make you SMILE! Join In The Free FUN!! ... :)
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If you are looking for more, here are some good places to start:
Christ's Bell!-
Bailey's Jesus!-
Amazing Grace!-
Sweet Humanity!-
The Blue Ribbon!-
Thank You Lord!-
Come Adore Him!-
No Words Needed!-
Disney Christmas!-
Who Is This Jesus?-
Jesus Laughing Art!-
Christmas With Pets!-
The Christmas Story!-
A Country Christmas!-
Maxine On Christmas!-
Puppy Days Of Christmas!-
Random Acts Of Kindness!-
Christmas Around The World!-
Where's The Line To See Jesus?-
Shangrala's Full Christmas Index!-
Winter Wonderland And Life Lessons!-
A-Z Animated Images!-
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