On This Day

What Happened on December 25 in History

8 events that happened on December 25, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.

Colonial America and the Revolution

1776
George Washington leads the Continental Army across the icy Delaware River on Christmas night.
With the American cause near collapse after months of defeats, Washington ferried his troops across the river from Pennsylvania in freezing weather. The crossing set up a surprise attack on the Hessian garrison at Trenton, New Jersey, the next morning.
Source: history.com; battlefields.org

1837
Colonel Zachary Taylor's troops fight the Seminoles at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee.
During the Second Seminole War, U.S. soldiers and Missouri volunteers attacked Seminole and Miccosukee warriors on the north shore of Lake Okeechobee in Florida. Taylor claimed victory and was promoted, but the warriors escaped and the war went on for years.
Source: vlp.cah.ucf.edu; vlp.cah.ucf.edu
1868
President Andrew Johnson grants a full, unconditional pardon to former Confederates.
Johnson's Christmas Day proclamation, the last of his amnesty orders, covered everyone who had taken part in the rebellion and pardoned them for treason. It effectively ended the treason case against Jefferson Davis, though it did not restore the right to hold office.
Source: presidency.ucsb.edu; history.com

1914
Soldiers on parts of the Western Front lay down their arms for an unofficial Christmas truce.
In the first winter of World War I, British and German troops in some sectors stopped fighting, met in no man's land and swapped greetings and small gifts. Commanders on both sides disapproved, and nothing like it happened again on the same scale.
Source: history.com
1941
British Hong Kong surrenders to Japan after more than two weeks of fighting.
Japanese forces attacked the colony hours after Pearl Harbor, and its British, Canadian and Indian defenders were steadily pushed back. Governor Sir Mark Young surrendered on Christmas Day, beginning an occupation that lasted until 1945.
Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk

1962
The film version of To Kill a Mockingbird premieres in Los Angeles.
Based on Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the movie starred Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, a lawyer defending a Black man falsely accused of rape in Depression-era Alabama. It earned eight Academy Award nominations and won three, including Best Actor for Peck.
Source: history.com
1991
Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union in a televised address.
With the Soviet republics already breaking away to form a new commonwealth, Gorbachev stepped down as the country's last leader. The Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin that evening, and control of the nuclear arsenal passed to Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Source: history.com; presidency.ucsb.edu

2021
The James Webb Space Telescope lifts off on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana.
NASA's largest and most powerful space telescope, built with the European and Canadian space agencies, launched from Europe's Spaceport near Kourou. It was designed to study the earliest galaxies and the atmospheres of distant worlds in infrared light.
Source: science.nasa.gov; science.nasa.gov