Another Quiet Christmas?

Stephen Colegrave reveals how the festival of merriment, family arguments and full stomachs hasn't always been as restful as you might think...

Dec 25, 2023

For most of us, Christmas is a day off from the real world – a time for food and family, goodwill and calm. Having said that, Christmases past have played host to a surprising number of events, good and bad. But how many of them have you even heard of? To find out, let’s take a look back at some of the most famous – or infamous – events that have happened on Christmas Day.

The Largest Reunification – 36 AD

Even though he had no idea it was Christmas Day, Emperor Guangwudi succeeded in reuniting China on 25 December under his Eastern Hang Dynasty. If he had not managed to do this, China probably would not be the world’s most populous country today.

The Biggest Coronation – 800

Way before the European Union, Charlemagne had a vision of uniting Europe and, in 800, persuaded Pope Leo III to crown him Emperor of the Romans – or as we learned in history, The Holy Roman Emperor. It was a hard-won crown as he had to fight the Saxons, Lombards and Avars, but it was worth it because the Holy Roman Empire, although diminished, lasted more than a thousand years until 1806.

The First (Accidental) Spanish Settlement in the New World – 1492

Christopher Columbus may not have intended to create the first Spanish Settlement in the New World, but when he made the stupid mistake of handing over the helm of his biggest ship in his intrepid fleet to the least experienced member of his crew, he had to do some fast thinking. When the ship ran aground on the reefs of Haiti and was ruined, he used the timbers to build a fort which became the first Spanish settlement in the New World – also an early example of recycling.

The Creation Of The Most Despicable Organisation – 1865

The Klu Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee, by six ex-soldiers from the Confederate Army. At first, it was just one of many disaffected groups to come out of defeat in the American Civil War but, over time, it grew to millions of members in the 1920s. Within five years of its formation, the Klan was using murder and terrorism to pursue its hateful racial aims.

The Most Hyped Event – 1914

Every school kid knows about the Christmas Day truce during the First World War, when German and English soldiers came out of their trenches and played football together. It must be true because, in 2014, Sainsbury’s made a Christmas chocolate box about it, depicting it as a dramatic and heroic event, as lauded by the newspapers of the time.

Analysis of the primary source letters and testimony collected by the Imperial War Museum suggests there was only one instance of football on the whole of the Front and, elsewhere, meagre presents were exchanged. But, mostly, there was just a short reprieve in fighting so bodies could be buried as happened at other times of the year. Fighting continued in many places and soldiers on both sides were killed.

More concerning, senior officers and generals were determined to never let a ‘truce’ happen again because they saw it as a sign of weakness. All attempts to do this the following year were stamped out.

The Best Christmas Present – 1959

Richard Starkey – AKA Ringo Starr – received his first drum kit as a Christmas present. His parents hadn’t been able to afford to give him one when he was a child, but that didn’t stop him becoming a member of the most famous group in the world.

The Most Out-of-this World Journey – 1968

Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit. After circling the Moon 10 times on Christmas Eve, it left orbit and started its journey back to Earth. As this happened, the astronauts – Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders – made a Christmas broadcast back to Earth, attracting one of the highest TV audiences of the time. The spacecraft landed in the Pacific on 27 December, seven months before Apollo 11 would make the first Moon landing.

The Most Surreptitious Invasion – 1979

The USSR invaded Afghanistan over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, which meant that the diplomatic response from the West was delayed because of the holiday. However, by the time they woke up on 27 December, thousands of people had been killed and the Afghans were overwhelmed by the scale of the invasion.

It took 10 years for the Soviets to be driven out but, eventually, they were. As the Americans were to find out later on, Afghanistan was a tough country to invade and occupy.

The Most Deathly Consequence of the Fall of the Iron Curtain – 1989

Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian politician and dictator, was killed by firing squad on Christmas Day. On his way to the execution, he sang the communist anthem, The Internationale. His totalitarian rule had lowered living standards, forced urbanisation, banned birth control, filled up orphanages but finally came crashing down when he shot at demonstrators. Although the accusation of the genocide of 50,000 people at his trial lacked evidence, many were not disappointed to see him executed.

The Most Potent Invention – 1990

A little-known computer scientist at CERN, Tim Berners-Lee, sent the first hypertext communication on the World Wide Web on Christmas Day. He devised and implemented the first web browser and web server and spawned the internet that is so essential today. Sometimes he must wonder if he could put the genie back in the bottle now that he has seen the impact of disinformation and hate speech on our democracy, not to mention the antics of Elon Musk on Twitter…

The Biggest Resignation – 1991

At 7pm on Christmas Day, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as leader of the Soviet Union and, although he said in his speech that he was deeply against splitting it up, he consigned the USSR to history. Within half an hour, the red flag was lowered for the last time and replaced by the current white, red and blue Russian flag.

It was surprising that he had been able to cling on until Christmas Day as he had already lost most of his power to Boris Yeltsin, who had been elected President of Russia in June 1990. Yeltsin went on to groom a little-known politician, Vladimir Putin. But that’s a story for another day.

The Weirdest Lost Property – 2003

The Beagle 2 Space Probe was developed to land on Mars and look for signs of life on the planet. It was sent to Mars on a European Space Agency mission and was due to land on its surface on 25 December. But no communication was ever received that it landed – and life on Mars could breathe a sigh of relief. Several months later, it was declared missing.

In January 2015, the probe was located on the surface of Mars by NASA’s special Renaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera, which showed its solar panels were damaged, putting it out of action.

The Worst Christmas Disaster – 2004

Though much of the worst loss of life happened on Boxing Day in 2004, the huge earthquake that caused the Indian Ocean tsunami erupted just off the west coast of Sumatra on Christmas Day. Fourteen countries were hit by the tsunami, killing more than 230,000 people, making it one of the most devastating tsunamis in history.