December 26

Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. 

– Proverbs 8:34

December is:

Church Library Month

Born on this Day

• 1194: Frederick II, German Emperor
  

• 1476: Duchess Anne of Brittany
  

• 1716: English poet Thomas Gray (Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard)
  

• 1778: Artist Juan Lovera ('artist of independence’: originator of Venezuelan historical paintings)
  

• 1785: Teacher Laurent Clerc (1st deaf teacher in U.S., He helped establish American School for the Deaf in Connecticut)
  

• 1792: English inventor Charles Babbage, who developed the first speedometer and adding machine
  

• 1837: Adm. George Dewey, the American naval hero of Manila
  

• 1891: Novelist Henry Miller American writer remembered for Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.
  

• 1893: Mao Tse-tung, leader of the Chinese communist revolution
  

• 1914: Actor Richard Widmark (Judgment at Nuremberg, Murder on the Orient Express, The Halls of Montezuma, How the West was Won, The Alamo, Against All Odds, True Colors)
  

• 1921: Comedian, composer and author Steve Allen
  

• 1927: Comedian Alan (Irwin Kniberg) King
  

• 1930: Actor Donald Moffat (Trapped in Paradise, Clear and Present Danger, Tales of the City, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Bourne Identity, The Best of Times, The Right Stuff, The Long Days of Summer, Winter Kills, Mary White, Showdown, Rachel, Rachel)
  

• 1935: Rhythm-and-blues singer Abdul "Duke" Fakir (The Four Tops- songs:Baby I Need Your Loving, I Can’t Help Myself, Reach Out I’ll Be There, Standing in the Shadows of Love, Seven Rooms of Gloom, Bernadette, Keeper of the Castle, Ain’t No Woman like the One I’ve Got, When She Was My Girl, Don’t Walk Away)
  

• 1936: Baseball player Wayne Causey
  

• 1940: Baseball pitcher Ray Sadecki
  

• 1940: Record producer, singer and songwriter Phil Spector
  

• 1945: "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh
  

• 1946: Actress Joyce Jillson (Slumber Party ’57, Superchick)
  

• 1947: Retired baseball player, catcher Carlton Fisk
  

• 1948: Baseball coach Chris Chambliss
  

• 1954: Susan Butcher winner of Iditarod Trail race [1986,1987, 1988, 1990]
  

• 1954: Baseball's ‘The Wizard of Oz’ Ozzie Smith
  

• 1962: Country musician Brian Westrum (Sons of the Desert)
  

• 1963: Rock musician Lars Ulrich (Metallica
  

• 1967: Rock musician J (White Zombie)
  

• 1967: Country singer Audrey Wiggins
  

• 1969: Rock musician Peter Klett (Candlebox)
  

• 1970: Actor Jared Leto   

Events in History on this day
  

• 0268: Death of Pope Dionysuis
  

• 0795: Election of Leo III as Pope
  

• 1076: Coronation of Boleslav II as King of Poland
  

• 1492: 1st Spanish settlement in New World founded, by Columbus
  

• 1519: Tapestries, designed by Raphael, first hung in the Sistine Chapel
  

• 1530: Death of Babur the Mogul, of India
  

• 1559: Election of Pope Pius IV
  

• 1606: William Shakespeare's "King Lear" is performed at court
  

• 1672: The London Gazette published the earliest known notice for public subscription concerts. Tickets were a shilling apiece.
  

• 1693: Francois Couperin was appointed royal organist at Versailles; he was 25 years old.
  

• 1776: American forces under Gen. George Washington, having crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night, defeated Hessian mercenary troops fighting for the British at the Battle of Trenton.
  

• 1786: Daniel Shay leads a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt. 1799: The late George Washington was eulogized by Colonel Henry Lee as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
  

• 1831: Bellini's "Norma" premiered. "Norma," acclaimed to this day, flopped at its premiere.
  

• 1862: 38 Santee Sioux are hanged in Mankato, Minn for their part in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. Little Crow has fled the state.
  

• 1866: Native American’s hand the U.S. Army their worst defeat prior to Little Big Horn at the Fetterman Fight in Powder River County in the Dakota territory. The Fetterman Fight.
  

• 1865: James H. Nason of Franklin, Massachusetts, received a patent for a coffee percolator.
  

• 1908: Claude Debussy, having finished the rough draft, set to work finalizing details of "Iberia".
  

• 1917: The federal government took over operation of American railroads for the duration of World War I.
  

• 1931: George Gershwin’s musical, "Of Thee I Sing", opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York City. The show became the first American musical to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
  

• 1932: 70,000 are killed in a massive earthquake in China.
  

• 1939: W.C. Handy, of Memphis, Tennessee, recorded the classic "St. Louis Blues". W.C. and his band recorded in New York for Varsity Records.
  

• 1941: Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the US Congress.
  

• 1944: Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago.
  

• 1947: Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours; the severe weather was blamed for some 80 deaths.
  

• 1954: One of radio’s most popular programs, "The Shadow", hit the airwaves for the final time. Vigilante crime-fighter Lamont Cranston battled greed and corruption since 1930.
  

• 1962: Eight East Berliners escape to West Berlin, crashing through gates in an armor plated bus.
  

• 1963: Capitol Records rushed to release its first single by the Fab Four, otherwise known as The Beatles. "I Want to Hold Your Hand", backed with "I Saw Her Standing There." The record reached #1 on February 1, 1964.
  

• 1966: Dr. Maulana Karenga celebrates the first Kwanzza, a seven day African American celebration of family and heritage.
  

• 1972: The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, died in Kansas City, Missouri, at the age of 88.
  

• 1982: The Man of the Year in "TIME" magazine was a non-human for the first time. A computer received the honors as 1982’s "greatest influence for good or evil."
  

• 1984: House Speaker Tip O’Neill was selected to receive the J. Fred Muggs Award, given by "TV Guide" for TV goofs and blunders. The Speaker of the House earned the uncoveted prize when he ordered cameras from CSPAN to pan the almost empty House of Representatives while Republicans were making speeches.
  

• 1986: TV’s longest-running drama was seen for the last time as "Search for Tomorrow" ended a 35-year stay on television.
  

• 1987: A bomb exploded at a USO bar in Barcelona, Spain, killing one US sailor and injuring nine others; a little-known group called the Red Army of Catalonian Liberation claimed responsibility.
  

• 1988: Another body from the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 was found, bringing the confirmed death toll to 240.
  

• 1989: Romanian television broadcast videotape showing ousted President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, at their secret trial as well as footage of the former leader's body following his execution. That same day, a provisional government took control of Romania.
  

• 1990: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev nominated Gennady I. Yanayev to be the Soviet Union's first vice president (Yanayev helped lead an abortive coup against Gorbachev in August 1991). 
  

• 1990: Nancy Cruzan, the young woman in an irreversible vegetative state whose case led to a US Supreme Court decision on the right to die, died at a Missouri hospital. 
  

• 1990: The government reported that its 1990 US census had counted a total 249 million, 632,692 people.
  

• 1992: Milan Panic conceded defeat to Slobodan Milosevic almost a week after Yugoslavia's presidential election.
  

• 1992: "Time" magazine announced it had mistakenly chosen President-elect Bill Clinton its 1992 "Man of the Year."
  

• 1993: In Russia, a four-day kidnap drama ended as four masked kidnappers who had abducted eleven teen-agers landed their explosives-packed helicopter, freed their last hostages and fled with $10 million in ransom. (The four men were captured the next morning.)
  

• 1994: French commandos stormed a hijacked Air France jetliner on the ground in Marseille, killing four Algerian hijackers and freeing 170 hostages.
  

• 1995: Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority in a smooth transfer of power. 
  

• 1996: Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado. (To date, the slaying remains unsolved.)
  

• 1997: Badly battered South Korean financial markets surged after the International Monetary Fund and the Group of Seven countries agreed on $10 billion emergency loans to Seoul.
  

• 1998: President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, urged Congress to lower the blood-alcohol limit for drunken driving nationwide to .08 percent.
  

• 1999: The crew of space shuttle "Discovery" packed up its tools and prepared to return home after an eight-day mission of repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope that NASA declared a success. 
  
  

• 1999: Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, scored a resounding victory in Guatemala's first peacetime presidential elections in nearly 40 years. 
  
  

• 1999: Soul singer and songwriter Curtis Mayfield died in Roswell, Georgia, at age 57.
  
  

• 2000: A gunman wielding a semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun opened fire at an Internet firm in Wakefield, Mass., killing seven workers.
  
  

• 2000: Actor Jason Robards died in Bridgeport, Conn., at age 78.

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