On This Day - What happened 26 December

Finally, the next week, Caracalla had his mother arrange a peace meeting with his brother in his mother's apartments, thus depriving Geta of his bodyguards, and then had him murdered in her arms by centurions.

Washington crossed the Delaware River at sunset on Christmas Day, December 25, 1776, and risked capture staking out the Jersey shoreline. His men followed across the ice-obstructed river in sleet and snow at McKonkey's Ferry, with 40 men per vessel. Wind churned up the waters, and they were pelted with hail, but by 3:00 a.m. they made it across with no losses.

The Allied disaster at Austerlitz significantly shook the faith of Emperor Francis in the British-led war effort. France and Austria agreed to an armistice immediately and the Treaty of Pressburg followed shortly after on 26 December.

Construction of the upper stage.

Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893, in Shaoshan village, Hunan Province, China.

On 26 December 1898, the Curies announced the existence of a second element, which they named "radium", from the Latin word for "ray". In the course of their research, they also coined the word "radioactivity".

In May the Germans defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula. The Battle of the Kerch Peninsula was a World War II battle between Erich von Manstein's German and Romanian 11th Army and the Soviet Crimean Front forces in the Kerch Peninsula. It began on 26 December 1941 with an amphibious landing operation by two Soviet armies intended to break the Siege of Sevastopol. From January through April, the Crimean Front launched repeated offensives against the 11th Army, all of which failed with heavy losses. Superior German artillery firepower was largely responsible for the Soviet debacle. On 8 May 1942, the Axis struck with great force in a major counteroffensive code-named Trappenjagd which concluded by around 19 May 1942 with the liquidation of the Soviet defending forces.

On December 26, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a joint resolution of Congress changing the national Thanksgiving Day to the fourth Thursday in November.

On 26 December, Churchill addressed a joint meeting of the US Congress but, that night, he suffered a mild heart attack which was diagnosed by his physician, Sir Charles Wilson (later Lord Moran), as a coronary deficiency needing several weeks' bed rest. Churchill insisted that he did not need bed rest and, two days later, journeyed on to Ottawa by train where he gave a speech to the Canadian Parliament that included the "some chicken, some neck" line in which he recalled French predictions in 1940 that "Britain alone would have her neck wrung like a chicken". He arrived home in mid-January, having flown from Bermuda to Plymouth in an American flying boat, to find that there was a crisis of confidence in both his coalition government and himself personally, and he decided to face a vote of confidence in the Commons, which he won easily.

In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte. The invasion lasted from 17 October to 26 December 1944.

Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway assuming the command of the US Eighth Army on 26 December.

Died at 7:50 a.m. on December 26, at the age of 88.

On December 26, the Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR adopted a law designating Christmas, Easter, and the Feast of the Holy Trinity official holidays.

Van Basten won his 2nd Ballon d'Or.

On December 26, the Council of the Republics, the upper chamber of the Union's Supreme Soviet, voted both itself and the Soviet Union out of existence.

On December 26, 1991, the Serb-dominated federal presidency announced plans for a smaller Yugoslavia that could include the territory captured from Croatia during the war.

O'Neal married Shaunie Nelson on December 26, 2002. The couple have four children: Shareef, Amirah, Shaqir, and Me'arah.

Argentinos Juniors named its stadium after Maradona on 26 December 2003.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami (also known as the Boxing Day Tsunami) occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on 26 December, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. It was an undersea megathrust earthquake that registered a magnitude of 9.1–9.3 Mw, reaching a Mercalli intensity up to IX in certain areas. Communities along the surrounding coasts of the Indian Ocean were seriously affected, and the tsunamis killed an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami (also known as the Boxing Day Tsunami) occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on 26 December, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. It was an undersea megathrust earthquake that registered a magnitude of 9.1–9.3 Mw, reaching a Mercalli intensity up to IX in certain areas. A series of large tsunami waves up to 30 metres (100 ft) high were created by the underwater seismic activity. Communities along the surrounding coasts of the Indian Ocean were seriously affected, and the tsunamis killed an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries.

The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith as Chris Gardner, Thandie Newton as Jackie Medina and Jaden Smith as Christopher Jarrett Medina Gardner, focused on Gardner's nearly one-year struggle with homelessness.

At the end of 2007, FARC agreed to release former senator Consuelo González, politician Clara Rojas and her son Emmanuel, born in captivity after a relationship with one of her captors. Operation Emmanuel was proposed and set up by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, with the permission of the Colombian government. The mission was approved on December 26. Although, on December 31, FARC claimed that the hostage release had been delayed because of Colombian military operations. On the same time, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe indicated that FARC had not freed the three hostages because Emmanuel may not be in their hands anymore. Two FARC gunmen were taken prisoner.

As of 26 December 2011, it was announced that Samsung had acquired the stake of Sony in S-LCD.

On 26 December 2011, the leading North Korean newspaper reported that Kim Jong-un had been acting as chairman of the Central Military Commission, and supreme leader of the country, following his father's demise.

After winning the first round of the 2017 election, Weah and Joseph Boakai of the Unity Party went into the second round of the election. In the second round, Weah was elected President of Liberia, winning a run-off against Vice President Joseph Boakai with more than 60% of the vote.

Russia became an independent nation after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991.