The 12 Days of Christmas: 12 Christmas Day Events That Shaped History
There’s no better time than the Holidays. It’s a time when we come together as family, and friends. We relish each others company, and celebrate yet another year of life before making a toast to the future. Gifts and cheers are all around, an abundance of pure joy.
But not every Christmas is a joyous one.
Sometimes, life is hard. Sometimes, life is bleak. And all of that weight on a person can make them weak.
Yet the Spirit of Christmas lives on, despite whatever obstacles we may have to overcome.
While Christmas Day is still a couple weeks away, it’s never too early to get into that cheerful Christmas mood. With that said, we now take a look at 12 Christmas Day events that shaped history as we know it.
1.) Christmas Day, 800 AD — Charlemagne is crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III
Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, is arguably the most influential figure from the Middle Ages. Called the “Father of Europe”, Charlemagne united much of Europe for the first time since the fall of the Western Roman Empire 300 years prior to his reign.
While most people have heard the “if you’re European you’re a descendant of Charlemagne” fun fact, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who knows anything else about him. Charlemagne was not just notorious in the Royal Chambers; he was also an incredibly accomplished person. The art of conquering was his expertise, as he forged his empire through various military campaigns against the Avars, the Lombards, and the Saxons. He was also a devout Catholic, who aggressively converted anyone living under his rule and implemented strict religious reforms. Some historians even say Charlemagne ended the Dark Ages with his efforts to restore intellectualism, and learning. Basically, Charlemagne was THE MAN.
Pope Leo III knew this about Charlemagne, and crowned him Emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day, 800 AD. It was quite the move by the Pope. A sly move. A Game of Thrones move. You see, he didn’t just give Charlemagne the crown for being THE MAN. There were other forces at work. Not only did the coronation restore the Western Roman Empire in name, it also put Charlemagne on equal footing with the Byzantine Empress Irene, the ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople.
2.) Christmas Day, 1223 AD — St. Francis of Assisi assembles the first nativity scene
St. Francis of Assisi was born in the 12th century to a successful silk merchant. St. Francis lived a life of luxury, and comfort for some years before abandoning this life after claiming to have heard “the voice of God.” Although he only lived to be 44, very short lived by our modern standards, St. Francis was able to accomplish a lot with his limited time on Earth.
He is the founder of the Custody of the Holy Land, the men’s Order of Friars, the Third Order of Saint Francis, and the women’s Order of Saint Clare. These organizations are still around and functioning to this day. St. Francis was also well renowned for his treatment of animals, leading to him being remembered today as the patron saint of animals. While there are numerous remnants of St. Francis’ work still around today, they are not all that he left us with.
According to the biography of St. Francis, The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi by St. Bonaventure, he is actually the creator of one of the most iconic Christmas traditions: the nativity scene. In the biography, St. Bonaventure tells us that St. Francis received permission from Pope Honorius III to set up a manger with hay, and two live animals in a cave located in the Italian village of Grecio. St. Francis did just that, inviting all of the town’s villagers to come gaze upon the scene he created, and preached the “babe of Bethlehem” while they were there.
The nativity scene is quite the production these days, performed every year across America in grade schools, and churches. No longer is it a simple manger, with hay and a few animals. Now the animals have welcomed a slew of characters to the cast, enough to give every child in the classroom a part. That’s right Tree #2, your time to shine is here!
3.) Christmas Day, 1492 AD — Christopher Columbus’ ship Santa Maria sinks off north coast of Haiti
Santa Maria was doomed from the beginning. The flagship on Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the New World, Santa Maria led the way across the Atlantic. Except, only figuratively. She was the slowest of the three ships, and all three were not built for exploration.
Despite their handicaps, the three ships La Nina, La Pinta, and Santa Maria all made it safely across the Atlantic. However, only two of them would return.
On Christmas Eve along the coast of Haiti, Christopher Columbus decided to take a nap. It was a calm night, the perfect kind of night to catch some sleep after an exhausting journey. Unfortunately for the Santa Maria and her crew, the steersman got the same idea as Columbus. Before slinking off to bed, he gave his duties to a cabin boy who was woefully unequipped for the job. As expected, the cabin boy couldn’t manage, and let the currents sweep the ship into a coral reef.
Luckily enough, the crew was able to salvage most of their supplies, and strip the Santa Maria of her wood. Columbus then ordered his crew to use that wood to build a fort along the coast called La Navidad, or “Christmas”.
4.) Christmas Day, 1742 AD — Anders Celsius introduces Centigrade temperature scale
Anders Celsius was a Swedish astronomer, and mathematician during the 18th century. He came from a family of scientists, so naturally he gravitated towards the field. Besides introducing the Centigrade temperature scale to the world, Anders Celsius was also a professor at the University of Uppsala and founded the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory.
When he set out creating the Centigrade scale, Anders wanted to make an international temperature scale. He ran his experiments, and worked at this for some time before finally introducing his new scale on Christmas Day in 1742. Originally, the scale had 0 degrees representing the boiling point of water, and 100 degrees as the freezing point. The scale was eventually inverted after his death, and had its name changed from Centigrade to Celsius in 1948.
Unfortunately, Anders did not live to see the day his international temperature scale became the standard across the world. Today the Celsius temperature scale is the most widely used temperature scale across the world, except for in the United States. (Of course…)
5.) Christmas Day, 1758 AD — Return of Halley’s comet first sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch
The iconic Halley’s Comet has made people gaze up at the stars in awe for ages. There are records from ancient Babylonian, Chinese, and Greek astronomers with descriptions of celestial phenomena that sound quite similar to the passage of Halley’s Comet. While humans have been observing Halley’s Comet for some time now, it wasn’t until the 18th century we figured out it was the same comet passing us by.
The orbit of the comet was first calculated by Edmund Halley while working at the University of Oxford. In his work Synopsis Astronomia Cometicae, Halley stated his belief that certain comet sightings throughout the ages were not different comets, but the same one returning as it traveled along its orbit. Based on this thought, Halley predicted the comet would return again in 1758.
Although Halley passed away in 1742, and did not live to see his prediction come true, he was totally right. On Christmas Day, 1758 a German astronomer named Johann Georg Palitzsch witnessed the return of Halley’s Comet.
Ever since then the return of Halley’s comet has become something people look forward too. A truly once in a lifetime experience (twice if you timed your birth correctly!), the return of Halley’s Comet is a spectacle everyone should try to catch. Tough luck for us millennials though; the last passage was in 1986, and it won’t be returning until 2061.
6.) Christmas Day, 1776 AD — George Washington crosses the Delaware River
On Christmas Day, 1776 General George Washington made the daring decision to cross the Delaware River in the middle of the night, and changed the flow of time forever.
After a slew of defeats, which included the loss of New York City, the Revolution was looking bleak. Something drastic had to be done, or the war surely would be lost. So in the middle of the night, Washington gathered his troops, and crossed the half frozen Delaware River in hopes of catching the Hessian forces on the other side off guard.
His plan worked out spectacularly, as the Hessian forces were unprepared for such an attack, and Washington was able to quickly capture a significant amount of enemy soldiers while suffering almost no losses. However, only a small portion of Washington’s soldiers were able to make the crossing, and his army had to retreat back across the river almost as quickly as they came.
While the victory was not significant for any strategic reasons, it did boost support for the Revolution. Before this victory, many believed the Revolution was doomed and the Colonies had no shot at beating the British. Washington’s bold move proved that it could be done, and the rest they say, is history.
7.) Christmas Day, 1868 AD — Andrew Johnson pardons all persons involved in the Civil War
At the end of the Civil War, there was a lot of work to be done. The South was in disrepair, and the viciousness of the war had left the country divided. In an attempt to begin closing the gap, President Johnson granted amnesty to anyone involved with the Confederacy on Christmas Day, 1868
Originally, President Lincoln issued an amnesty proclamation in 1863 offering to pardon anyone who would take an oath to support the Constitution and the Union. This original proclamation excluded six groups of people, with a seventh group added the following year. When Johnson took over after Lincoln’s assassination, he issued his own amnesty proclamation which included Lincoln’s original seven groups and added seven more. He had intended this to be an opportunity for those who didn’t take advantage of Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation, but the increased number of groups meant more people had to file for a special pardon from the president. It wasn’t long before Johnson’s desk became a mountain of requests.
Johnson knew that being unable to receive amnesty made it difficult for anyone to conduct business, thus slowing the process of Reconstruction in the South. In an attempt to combat this problem, and chip away at the mountain of requests on his desk, Johnson reduced the number of excluded groups to three on September 7th, 1867. He took this one step further on July 4th, 1868 by granting amnesty to all those involved with the Confederacy except anyone currently on trial.
Johnson finally granted amnesty “unconditionally and without reservation” to anyone associated with the Confederacy on Christmas Day of 1868, uniting all citizens of the United States once again.
8.) Christmas Day, 1914 AD — “The Christmas Truce”
With the Great War ravaging the world at the beginning of the 20th century, Pope Benedict XV proposed a temporary truce between the warring nations in order to celebrate Christmas. While the nations officially refused to do such a thing, the soldiers doing the actual fighting thought it was a great idea.
On Christmas Day, 1914 soldiers across Europe emerged from their trenches, and put down their guns to celebrate together. They exchanged gifts such as cigarettes, sang carols, and some reports even say games of football were played. In the last example of chivalry in warfare, these soldiers were able to capture the spirit of Christmas amidst chaos and despair.
9.) Christmas Day, 1926 AD — Hirohito becomes Emperor of Japan
On Christmas Day, 1926 Hirohito became the 124th Emperor of Japan, and held that title until his death. While Hirohito says he was a powerless figurehead during World War 2, many scholars question this, and suspect he played a more active role then he lets on.
When Hirohito first assumed the throne, Japan was on the rise as a nation, and also had a strong pro-democracy movement. However, Japan would soon swing the other way, beginning with the militarization of the country before finally joining the Axis Powers. After the war was finally over, Hirohito was not prosecuted for war crimes like most top government officials.
In the years following the war, Hirohito became a symbol of Japan’s recovery; and under his leadership, Japan was able to become the world’s second largest economy by the end of his reign.
10.) Christmas Day, 1968 — Apollo 8 orbits the moon
Originally planned for sometime in 1969, the Apollo 8 mission was fast tracked for a December 1968 launch. What was supposed to be a test in Medium Earth Orbit became an ambitious attempt to orbit the Moon.
Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968 and took three days to reach the Moon. Once they arrived the crew composed of Frank Borman II, James Lovell Jr., and William Anders became the first men to ever see the whole Earth. They were also the first to leave the Earth’s orbit entirely, and orbit another celestial body.
While orbiting the Moon, the crew also became TV sensations. On Christmas Eve, on a special broadcast, the crew read from the book of Genesis. The broadcast was watched by so many, they soon became the most watched TV program ever. Upon their return to Earth, the men were honored as Time magazines “Men of the Year” for the year 1968.
11.) Christmas Day, 1990 — Tim Berners-Lee uses the World Wide Web for the first time
Back in the late 80’s, Tim Berners-Lee was working for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) as a consultant. Originally, Berners-Lee only wanted to create an open computer network for CERN to use as a way of keeping track of their research. Little did he know, his idea would grow into the most powerful resource in the world: the World Wide Web
The WWW was not immediately successful. After Berners-Lee first hatched his idea, it took him almost two years to finally get it working. On Christmas Day, 1990 Berners-Lee made the first successful connection between a Web browser and the Internet. Even then, the WWW struggled to catch on. Truly ahead of the times, Berners-Lee spent years spreading his idea.
Today it is nearly impossible to imagine a world without the World Wide Web. It has totally ingrained itself in our society, and we would not be able to function properly without it. Communications would take forever, access to information would be extremely limited, you couldn’t read this story on Medium.
So thanks, Tim Berners-Lee and everyone else at CERN who helped him out. You changed the world.
12.) Christmas Day, 1991 AD — Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the USSR
On Christmas Day, 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR. However, it was not much of a resignation, as there wasn’t really a USSR to resign from. Prior to his resignation, 11 former Soviet republics banded together to form the Commonwealth of Independent States(CIS), ending the USSR for good.
Gorbachev said the formation of CIS was his main motivation for resigning as President. While he was proud during the speech, and said he had no regrets, the reality of it was the USSR had been in disarray for sometime. The economy was unstable, and there was even an attempt at a coup during Gorbachev’s presidency. Not anything you’d write home about.
The speech must’ve been music to many ears, as the USA’s longtime Cold War opponent was no more.
