The following events happened on Dec. 25 (information for this story was received from past newspapers, as well as several websites):
337 - Earliest possible date that Christmas was celebrated.
352 - First definite date Christmas was celebrated.
1066 - William the Conqueror is crowned king of England.
1223 - St Francis of Assisi assembles 1st Nativity scene (Greccio, Italy).
1492 - Columbus' ship Santa Maria docks at Dominican Republic.
1621 - Gov William Bradford of Plymouth forbids game playing on Christmas.
1741 - Astronomer Anders Celcius introduces Centigrade temperature scale.
1758 - Halley's comet first sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch during return.
1760 - Jupiter Hammon, NY slave, publishes poetry in "An Evening Throught."
1776 - Washington crosses Delaware, surprises and defeats 1,400 Hessians,
1818 - First known Christmas carol ("Silent Night, Holy Night") sung (Austria).
1818 - Handel's Messiah, has it United States premiere in Boston.
1821 - Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross, is born in New Oxford, Mass.
1831 - Louisiana and Arkansas are the first states to observe Christmas as holiday.
1843 - 1st theatre matinee (Olympic Theatre, NYC).
1848 - New Haven Railroad opens.
1862 - 40,000 watch Union army men play baseball at Hilton Head, S.C.
1868 - Despite bitter opposition, President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all persons involved in Southern rebellion (Civil War).
1888 - First indoor baseball game played at fairgrounds in Philadelphia.
1894 - First midwestern football team to play on west coast-- the University of Chicago defeats Stanford 24-4 at Palo Alto, Calif.
1896 - "Stars & Stripes Forever" is written by John Philip Sousa.
1914 - Legendary/unofficial "Christmas Truce" takes place (Brits & Germans).
1938 - George Cukor announces Vivien Leigh will play Scarlett O'Hara.
1939 - Montgomery Ward introduces Rudolph, the ninth reindeer.
1941 - On a radio show, Bing Crosby introduces Irving Berlin's song, "White Christmas."
1950 - Cleveland Browns beat LA Rams 30-28 in NFL championship game.
1950 - Dick Tracy marries Tess Truehart.
1950 - Coronation Stone, taken from Scone in Scotland by Edward I in 1296, stolen from Westminster Abbey and smuggled back to Scotland.
1958 - Alan Freed's Christmas Rock & Roll Spectacular opens.
1962 - Movie "To Kill A Mockingbird" debuted and starred Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.
1963 - Walt Disney's "The Sword in the Stone" is released.
1964 - "Goldfinger" premieres in the United States.
1968 - Frank Borman's Christmas reading while orbiting the moon.
1983 - First live telecast of Christmas Parade.
1984 - NBA's Bernard King scores 60 points.
1990 - "Godfather III" premieres.
1990 - The first successful trial run of the system which would become the World Wide Web.
1991 - Gorbachev resigns as president of the USSR.
1996 - Young JonBenet Ramsey is murdered.
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