25th December

[chenrezig]

440 Church leaders agreed to fix the date of the birth of Christ. Previously some people had celebrated it in May, others in January.

1066 William the Conqueror, the first Norman King of England, was crowned at Westminster Abbey. To press his claim to the English crown, William had invaded England in October 1066, leading his army to victory over the English forces of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings.

1176 The first Eisteddfod (Festival of the Arts) took place at Cardigan Castle.

1643 Christmas Island (a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean) was discovered and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Company.

1652 The Puritan government ordered all Churches to remain closed on Christmas Day.

1800 The first Christmas tree in Britain was erected at Queen’s Lodge, Windsor by the German-born Queen Charlotte, wife of George III. She brought the idea over from Germany where the first reports of Christmas trees go back to 1521.

1864 The traditional swim in the ice-cold Serpentine in London’s Hyde Park was initiated.

1865 Evangeline Booth, the 4th General of The Salvation Army was born, in South Hackney, London, She was the seventh of eight children born to William Booth and Catherine Mumford, who had earlier in the year founded The Christian Mission, which became the Salvation Army in 1878.

1866 The US yacht Henrietta sailed into Cowes harbour on the Isle of Wight, and thus became the winner of the first Transatlantic Yacht Race.

1914 The Christmas truce between British and German troops continued. At 2 a.m. a German band went along the trenches playing Home Sweet Home and God Save the King.

1932 King George V made the first Royal Christmas broadcast to the Empire. Queen Elizabeth II made her first Christmas broadcast in 1952, and her first television Christmas message was broadcast in 1957.

1950 The Stone of Scone, the Scottish coronation stone which had been in Westminster Abbey for 650 years was stolen by Scottish nationalists. The Stone, weighing 458lb (208kg) was said to have been taken from Scotland by Edward I.

1977 Charlie Chaplin, the English born comic genius of silent films, died, aged 88.

2003 Scientists failed to make contact with the British built Mars probe Beagle 2, which should have landed on the Red Planet 'on this day'. Beagle 2 was named after HMS Beagle, which twice carried Charles Darwin during expeditions which would later lead to the theory of natural selection. Beagle 2 was officially declared lost on 6th February 2004. As of 2010 only 19 of 38 launch attempts to reach Mars have succeeded.

2010 The body of landscape architect Joanna Yeates was found, covered with leaves in Failand, North Somerset. A post-mortem examination determined that she had been strangled. The police initially suspected and arrested Christopher Jefferies, Yeates' landlord, who lived in a flat in the same building. The nature of press reporting on aspects of the case led to 'substantial, undisclosed libel damages' from eight newspapers being awarded to Mr. Jefferies. ITV commissioned a drama about Jefferies' arrest entitled 'The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies' which was aired on 10th and 11th December 2014.

2013 Earlier storms across southern England, stretching through Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey and Kent, led to extensive power cuts, with around 50,000 homes remaining without power through the Christmas period. Southern Electric said that it would guarantee a £75 payment for any customer who was without electricity for any time on Christmas Day.

2014 The parcel delivery company City Link, which employed 2,727 people, went into administration.

[Rosalind]

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[wendy]

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