On This Day:
Thursday December 26, 2013 This is the 360th day of the year, with 5 days remaining in 2013. Fact of the Day: Boxing Day Boxing Day is celebrated the day after Christmas in England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and some other countries. No one knows the origin of Boxing Day, but one theory is that Christmas gift boxes were presented to servants on the day after Christmas because the servants were required to work on Christmas Day. The servants were allowed the following day for their own celebration of the holiday. Boxing Day gift-giving was later expanded to include tradespeople and people who provided services during the year. Another theory is that the boxes placed in churches where parishioners deposited coins for the poor were opened and the contents distributed on December 26, which is also the Feast of St. Stephen. Boxing Day originated in the Middle Ages in England.
Holidays Boxing Day in the UK and the Commonwealth.
Scotland: Handsel Day.
Feast day of St. Stephen, St. Dionysius, pope, St. Archelaus of Kashkar, St. Vicentia Lopez, St. Zosimus, pope, and St. Tathai or Athaeus.
Bahamas: Junkanoo.
Kwanzaa starts.
South Africa: Day of Goodwill.
Events 1492 - Christopher Columbus established the first Spanish settlement in the Americas on the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti.
1776 - The British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the Revolutionary War.
1865 - James H. Nason of Franklin, Massachusetts, received a patent for a coffee percolator.
1898 - Scientists Pierre Curie and Marie Curie announced their discovery of the radioactive element radium.
1917 - During World War I, the U.S. government took over operation of the nation's railroads.
1941 - Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, just three weeks after the U.S. entered World War II.
1966 - The first Kwanzaa celebration was organized in Los Angeles, California, by Dr. Maulana Karenga, chairman of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach. Kwanzaa is a non-religious African-American holiday that celebrates family, community, and culture for seven days.
1979 - The Soviet Union began a massive airlift of men into Kabul, Afghanistan, in an effort to reinstate Communist rule in the nation.
1995 - Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority in a smooth transfer of power.
2004 - A tsunami triggered by the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean, left more than 275,000 people dead or missing, while inundating coastal communities across South and Southeast Asia.
Births 1716 - Thomas Gray, English poet.
1792 - Charles Babbage, English mathematician.
1837 - Commodore George Dewey, American naval hero of the Spanish-American War.
1891 - Henry Miller, American novelist.
1893 - Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung (or Zedong or Zhedong).
1921 - Steve Allen, American comedian, author, musician, composer, TV host.
1940 - Phil Spector, American music producer.
Deaths 1972 - Harry S Truman, 33rd President of the United States.
1974 - Jack Benny (Benjamin Kubelsky), American comedian, vaudeville performer, and radio, television, and film actor.
1996 - Jon Benet Ramsey, Colorado child beauty contestant, murdered at age 6.
2000 - Jason Robards, American actor.
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