Today in History - December 26
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Boxing Day Only recently an official holiday, Boxing Day is celebrated in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, as well as other countries in the British Commonwealth. Although the tradition does appear to have arisen in Britain, falls on the Feast Day of St. Stephen and involves gift-giving to the less fortunate, its exact origins are the subject of debate among historians and folklorists. One explanation: December 26 was the traditional day to open alms boxes-placed in churches during the holidays-and distribute the contributions to the poor. Another origin may be when lords and ladies distributing Christmas gifts in boxes to servants on their estate, a custom which continued to include gift-giving to postal carriers and other service employees. It has often been a day of outdoor sports such as horse racing and hunting and also a time for family gatherings.
(HNQ, 12/26/00)
For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
268 Dec 26, Dionysius, bishop of Rome and saint, died. He served as Pope from 259 until his death.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Dionysius)
1194 Dec 26, Frederick II, German Emperor (1212-1250) and King of Sicily, was born in Lesi, Italy.
(HN, 12/26/98)(MC, 12/26/01)
1476 Dec 26, Galeazzo Maria Sforza (Il Sforza del Destino), duke of Milan, was murdered.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1530 Dec 26, (OS) Zahir al-Din Mohammed Babur Shah (47), founder Moguls dynasty (India), died. Babur left power to his son Humayun, who built a royal city called Purana Qila that is part of Delhi today. His memoirs, known as the Baburnama, are considered the first true autobiography in Islamic literature. The first English translation was made in 1922 by Annette Beveridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babur)(Econ, 12/18/10, p.80)
1716 Dec 26, Thomas Gray, poet, was born: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: “The paths of glory lead but to the grave."; also: “...where ignorance is bliss/’Tis folly to be wise."
(440.com)
1770 Dec 26, Pierre earl de Cambronne, French general (Waterloo, Elba), was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1771 Dec 26, Claude A. Helvétius (56), French encyclopedist (L'esprit), died.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1773 Dec 26, Expulsion of tea ships from Philadelphia.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1776 Dec 26, The British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the Revolutionary War. After crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey, George Washington led an attack on Hessian mercenaries and took 900 men prisoner. Two Americans froze to death on the march but none died in battle. There were 30 German casualties, 1,000 prisoners and 6 cannon captured. Four Americans were wounded in the overwhelming American victory, while 22 Hessians were killed and 78 wounded. The surprise attack caught most of the 1,200 Hessian soldiers at Trenton sleeping after a day of Christmas celebration. The Americans captured 918 Hessians, who were taken as prisoners to Philadelphia. The victory was a huge morale booster for the American army and the country. The victory at Trenton was a huge success and morale booster for the American army and people. However, the enlistments of more than 4,500 of Washington’s soldiers were set to end four days later and it was critical that the force remain intact. General George Washington offered a bounty of $10 to any of his soldiers who extended their enlistments six weeks beyond their December 31, 1776, expiration dates. The American Revolution Battle of Trenton saw the routing of 1,400 Hessian mercenaries, with 101 killed or wounded and about 900 taken prisoner, with no Americans killed in the combat. Four Americans were wounded and two had died of exhaustion en route to Trenton.
(AP, 12/26/97)(HN, 12/26/98)(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A3)(HNQ, 3/20/99)(HNQ, 4/11/99)(HNQ, 12/26/99)
1778 Dec 26, Juan Lovera, artist, was born: ‘artist of independence’: originator of Venezuelan historical painting: paintings commemorate Venezuela’s independence dates.
(440.com)
1785 Dec 26, Laurent Clerc, teacher, was born: 1st deaf teacher in U.S., helped establish American School for the Deaf in Connecticut.
(440.com)
1786 Dec 26, Daniel Shays led a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt. Shays was a Revolutionary War veteran who led a short-lived insurrection in western Massachusetts to protest a tax increase that had to be paid in cash, a hardship for veteran farmers who relied on barter and didn‘t own enough land to vote. The taxes were to pay off the debts from the Revolutionary War, and those who couldn‘t pay were evicted or sent to prison. [see Jan 25, 1787]
(HN, 12/26/98)(HNQ, 7/6/00)
1792 Dec 26, Charles Babbage (d.1871), English inventor of the calculating machine, was born.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1799 Dec 26, The late George Washington was eulogized by Col. Henry Lee as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
(AP, 12/26/97)
1806 Dec 26, Napoleon’s army was checked by the Russians at the Battle of Pultusk.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1822 Dec 26, Dion Boucicault, Irish-US actor and playwright (Rip van Winkle), was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1826 Dec 26, Franz Coenen, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1830 Dec 26, Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Anna Bolena," premiered in Milan.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1831 Dec 26, Vincenzo Bellini's opera "Norma," premiered at La Scala in Milan.
(www.musicabona.com/bellini_vincenzo/13853/cd/index.html.en)
1837 Dec 26, George Dewey, Admiral of the Navy, was born: Spanish-American War: hero of Manila: “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley."
(440.com)
1848 Dec 26, The 1st California-bound gold seekers arrived in Panama enroute to SF.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1854 Dec 26, Wood pulp paper was 1st exhibited in Buffalo.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1860 Dec 26, Major Robert Anderson, under cover of darkness, concentrated his small federal force at Ft. Sumter, SC.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1861 Dec 26, Friedrich Engel, German mathematician (group theory), was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1862 Dec 26, In Minnesota 38 Santee Sioux were hanged in Mankato for their part in the Sioux Uprising. This marked the end of the US-Dakota War. In 2012 a memorial was unveiled for the 38 hanged men, the largest mass execution in US history.
(HN, 12/26/98)(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A8)
1862 Dec 26-28, Battle of Dumfries, Va.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1865 Dec 26, James H. Nason (Mason) of Franklin, Mass., received a patent for a coffee percolator.
(AP, 12/26/97)(MC, 12/26/01)
1866 Dec 26, In San Francisco Lazarus Moses was fined $300 for selling goods stolen by the Hoodlum gang.
(http://www.frederickbee.com/faginfine.pdf)
1866 Dec 26, Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, head of the Department of the Platte received word of the Dec 21 Fetterman Fight in Powder River County in the Dakota territory.
(HN, 12/26/99)
1872 Dec 26, The 4th largest snowfall in NYC history reached 18 inches.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1878 Dec 26, The 1st US store to install electric lights was in Philadelphia.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1879 Dec 26, The "Tragic Overture" by Johannes Brahms premiered.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1890 Dec 26, Heinrich Schliemann (86), German businessman and archaeologist, died. He excavated the site of ancient Troy in 1870-1871.
(NH, 4/96, p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Schliemann)
1891 Dec 26, Henry Miller (d.1980), American writer, was born. His work included "Tropic of Cancer" and "Tropic of Capricorn". “Until we lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves." “Like ships, men founder time and again."
(AP, 3/16/97)(AP, 5/2/98)(HN, 12/26/98)
1893 Dec 26, Mao Tse-tung, founding father of the People’s Republic of China (PM 1949-76), was born in Shaoshan.
(HFA, ‘96, p.44)(HN, 12/26/98)(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A12)
1894 Dec 26, Antonio Molina, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1908 Dec 26, Jack Johnson (1878-1946) of Texas knocked out Tommy Burns in Australia to become the 1st black world heavyweight boxing champion. He was not officially given the title until 1910 when he beat Jim Jeffries in Las Vegas. In 1913 Johnson fled the US because of trumped up charges of violating the Mann Act's stipulations against transporting white women across state lines for prostitution. Johnson held the title until 1915. In 1920 he returned to the US, was arrested and served a one year sentence in Leavenworth in Kansas, where he was appointed athletic director of the prison.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_(boxer))(ON, 4/09, p.7)
1914 Dec 26, Richard Widmark, actor, was born: Judgment at Nuremberg, Murder on the Orient Express, The Halls of Montezuma, How the West was Won, The Alamo, Against All Odds, True Colors.
(440.com)
1917 Dec 26, Rosemary Woods, Pres. Nixon's secretary, was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1917 Dec 26, As a wartime measure, President Wilson placed railroads under government control, with Secretary of War William McAdoo as director general.
(AP, 12/26/97)(HN, 12/26/98)
1921 Dec 26, Steve Allen comedian, author, musician, composer, TV host, was born: The Tonight Show, The Steve Allen Show; films: The Benny Goodman Story, cameo with wife Jayne Meadows: Casino.
(440.com)
1925 Dec 26, Six U.S. destroyers were ordered from Manila to China to protect interests in the civil war that was being waged there.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1931 Dec 26, The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical play “Of Thee I Sing" opened on Broadway.
(AP, 12/26/01)
1932 Dec 26, Some 70,000 were killed in a massive earthquake in Kansu, China.
(HN, 12/26/98)(www.disaster-management.net/earthqu1.htm)
1936 Dec 26, The Palestine Orchestra was formed. It grew to become the Israeli Philharmonic.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.E1)(MC, 12/26/01)
1939 Dec 26-27, In Turkey a series of vicious earthquakes in Erzincan province, magnitude 7.9, took some 33,000 lives in Turkey.
(HN, 12/27/98)(MC, 12/27/01)(SFEC, 8/22/99, p.A17)(AP, 6/22/02)
1940 Dec 26, J.A. Fields' and J. Chodorov's "My Sister Eileen," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1941 Dec 26, Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.
(AP, 12/26/97)
1941 Dec 26, General Douglas MacArthur declared Manila an open city in the face of the onrushing Japanese Army.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1943 Dec 26, Count Claus von Stauffenberg tried in vain to plant a bomb in Hitler’s headquarters.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1943 Dec 26, The 32,000-ton German battleship Scharnhorst sank off Norway following an Allied attack led by the British battleship Duke of York. Only 36 of the 1,900 crew survived. Researchers found the wreck in 2000.
(CMW, 1968, p.589)(HN, 12/26/98)(SFC, 10/4/00, p.A12)
1944 Dec 26, Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago.
(AP, 12/26/97)
1944 Dec 26, In the World War II Battle of the Bulge, the embattled U.S. 101st Airborne Division was relieved by units of the 4th Armored Division. The Battle of the Bulge was the final major German counter-offensive of the war and thrust deep into allied territory in N & E Belgium and Luxembourg. US Gen Patton's tanks repulsed the Germans. Jimmy Hendrix (19) captured 13 Germans in two 88-mm gun batteries and rescued 3 Americans under enemy fire. Hendrix (d.2002 later awarded the Medal of Honor.
(WUD, 1994, p.195)(SFC, 9/1/96, T3)(AP, 12/26/97)(MC, 12/26/01)(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A25)
1944 Dec 26, In Italy two platoons of the segregated 92nd Infantry Division fought the German 14th Army at Sommocolonia. Of 70 “Buffalo Soldiers" and 25 Italian Partisans only 18 survived. In 1977 Lt. John Fox and 6 other black Americans were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. By the end of the war 2,916 Buffalo soldiers fell breaking the Gothic Line.
(SFC, 7/13/00, p.A15)(Ind, 1/11/03, 5A)
1944 Dec 26, In Slovakia American OSS personnel were captured in a surprise raid by a German intelligence unit. Slovak agent Maria Gulovich (1921-2009) helped 2 American and 2 British agents escape. In 2002 Jim Downs authored “World War II: OSS Tragedy in Slovakia."
(SFC, 10/2/09, p.E5)
1945 Dec 26, The Big Three, the US, Soviet Union and Great Britain, ended a 10-day meeting, seeking an atomic rule by the UN Council.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1945 Dec 26, The CFA franc was created along with the CFP franc, the currency used in the French overseas collectivities. The reason for their creation was the weakness of the French franc immediately after World War II. When France ratified the Bretton Woods Agreement in December 1945, the French franc was devalued in order to set a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. New currencies were created in the French colonies to spare them the strong devaluation, thereby facilitating exports to France.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFA_franc)
1946 Dec 26, The Las Vegas Flamingo Casino opened. Billy Wilkerson designed the Flamingo and sold a controlling interest to Bugsy Siegel when his money ran out. It was the 3rd hotel casino built on the Las Vegas strip.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.T8)
1947 Dec 26, Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours. A record 26.4 inches fell and led to 77 deaths.
(AP, 12/26/97)(Econ, 2/18/06, p.28)
1948 Dec 26, Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty was arrested.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1950 Dec 26, Emile Enthoven (47), composer, died.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1953 Dec 26, The U.S. announced the withdrawal of two divisions from Korea.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1954 Dec 26, "The Shadow," aired for last time on radio.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1957 Dec 26, The Ingmar Bergman film "Wild Strawberries," starring Victor Sjostrom, opened in Sweden.
(AP, 12/26/07)
1960 Dec 26, Musical "Do Re Mi" with Phil Silvers premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1962 Dec 26, Eight East Berliners escaped to West Berlin, crashing through gates in an armor plated bus.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1963 Dec 26, Beatles released "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There."
(MC, 12/26/01)
1963 Dec 26, "Gorgeous George" Wagner, perfumed and pampered wrestler, died.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1965 Dec 26, "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand closed on Broadway.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1966 Dec 26, Dr. Maulana “Ron" Karenga celebrated the first Kwanzaa, a seven day African American celebration of family and heritage. Dr. Karenga established Kwanzaa (“first fruits of the season" in Swahili), the African American celebration of unity and community values over the Christmas to New Year season. The 7 principles of Kwanzaa include: Umoja - Unity; Kujichagulia - Self-determination; Ujima - Collective work and responsibility; Ujamaa - Cooperative economics; Nia - Purpose; Kuumba - Creativity; and Imani - Faith. The holiday runs for 7 days from Dec 26 to Jan 1.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.C17)(SFC, 12/26/97, p.A30) (HN, 12/26/98)
1967 Dec 26, BBC-1 television aired "Magical Mystery Tour," the Beatles' critically drubbed one-hour special.
(AP, 12/26/07)
1967 Dec 26, Atlantic Richfield oil workers struck oil on Alaska’s North Slope at Prudhoe Bay.
(AH, 10/04, p.42)
1968 Dec 26, Jay Allen's "Forty Carats," premiered in NYC. It was adapted from the French original by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy. The 1973 film adaptation starred Liv Ullman.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Carats)
1968 Dec 26, Usher Fellig (Weegee), Ukraine-born (1899) American photographer, died. He worked in the Lower East Side of New York City as a press photographer during the 1930s and '40s, and developed his signature style by following the city's emergency services and documenting their activity.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weegee)
1968 Dec 26, A Palestinian terrorist attack in Athens on an Israeli civilian airliner killed one person. Mahmoud Mohammad (25) and Maher Suleiman (19) were later captured by Greek officials, In 1970, a Greek court convicted Mahmoud Mohammad for his role in the attack. In 1987 Mahmoud Mohammed Issa Mohammed entered Canada, where he was ordered to be deported in 1988. In 2007 he was still in Canada after some 30 appeals and reviews.
(http://tinyurl.com/35olct)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.48)(www.skyjack.co.il/chronology.htm)
1968 Dec 26, Jose Maria Sison founded the underground Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The armed wing of the Maoist group, the New People’s Army (NPA), began waging guerrilla warfare in 1969.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A6)(AP, 12/26/10)(Econ, 8/27/16, p.26)
1972 Dec 26, The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, died in Kansas City, Mo. In 1995 Robert H. Ferrell published the biography "Harry S. Truman: A Life." In 1999 Ferrell published "Truman and Pendergrast."
(AP, 12/26/97)(WSJ, 7/19/99, p.A13)
1972 Dec 26, In Vietnam the bombing over Hanoi resumed after one day of respite and bombs hit a residential street killing 283 civilians. North Vietnam agreed to resume peace negotiations within five days of the end of bombing.
(SFC, 12/16/97, p.B1)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1973 Dec 26, "The Exorcist," starring Linda Blair, premiered with an X rating.
(http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800062915/info)
1974 Dec 26, Comedian Jack Benny (b.1894) died in Los Angeles at age 80.
(AP, 12/26/98)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0000912/)
1975 Dec 26, The Soviet Union inaugurated the world's first supersonic transport service with a flight of its Tupolev-144 airliner from Moscow to Alma-Ata.
(AP, 12/26/99)
1978 Dec 26, In San Jose, Ca., Nolan K. Bushnell, inventor of the Pong video game, opened the 20,000-sq.-foot Pizza Time Theater, the world's largest pizza parlor.
(SFC, 12/26/03, p.E2)
1979 Dec 26, Robert Ben Madison (14) founded the virtual Kingdom of Talossa in his Milwaukee, Wisc., bedroom and migrated it to the Internet in 1996.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.85)(www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.03/kingdoms_pr.html)
1980 Dec 26, Iranian television footage was broadcast in the United States, showing a dozen of the American hostages sending messages to their families.
(AP, 12/26/05)
1980 Dec 26, Tony Smith (b.1912), sculptor, died. His work, "Ten Elements," is in the courtyard of the San Francisco Legion Of Honor Museum. He began his career as an architect and ended up as a founding figure of minimalism. His 3 daughters included artist Kiki Smith.
{Artist, USA}
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.B1)(SFC, 11/19/05, p.E10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_26)
1982 Dec 26, TIME magazine’s Man of the Year, in the issue dated January 4, 1983, was a computer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982)
1985 Dec 26, Dian Fossey (53), American zoologist who had studied gorillas in the wild (Gorillas in the Mist), was murdered in Rwanda. Her body was found the next day. Wayne Richard McGuire, a doctoral candidate working with Fossey, was later found guilty in absentia in Rwanda. A native tracker was also charged and died in jail. McGuire claimed total innocence.
(AP, 12/27/01)(SFC, 3/15/05, p.A7)
1987 Dec 26, A bomb exploded at a USO bar in Barcelona, Spain, killing one U.S. sailor and injuring nine others; a little-known group called the Red Army of Catalonian Liberation claimed responsibility.
(AP, 12/26/97)
1988 Dec 26, Another body from the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 was found, bringing the confirmed death toll to 240.
(AP, 12/26/98)
1988 Dec 26, An anti African student rebellion took place in China.
(http://tinyurl.com/z2b7t)
1989 Dec 26, Romanian television broadcast videotape of ousted President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, at their secret trial and footage of Ceausescu's body after his execution. That same day, a provisional government took control of Romania.
(AP, 12/26/99)
1990 Dec 26, The US government reported that its 1990 census had counted a total 249 million, 632,692 people. The US census for this year categorized the population as "White, Negro or Black, American Indian (tribe can be listed), Eskimo, Aleut, Asian or Pacific Islander, and other. Specific Asian nationalities could be checked off." The census counted over 1.6 million Chinese Americans with 40% of them in California.
(SFC, 12/26/97, p.A21)(SFEC, 2/6/00, Rp.10)(AP, 12/26/00)
1990 Dec 26, Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov to retain chess championship.
(http://tinyurl.com/hmp9d)
1990 Dec 26, Nancy Cruzan, the young woman in an irreversible vegetative state whose case led to a US Supreme Court decision on the right to die, died at a Missouri hospital.
(AP, 12/26/00)
1990 Dec 26, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev nominated Gennady I. Yanayev to be the Soviet Union’s first vice president. Yanayev helped lead an abortive coup against Gorbachev in August 1991.
(AP, 12/26/00)
1991 Dec 26, President Bush nominated businesswoman Barbara Franklin to be commerce secretary.
(AP, 12/26/01)
1991 Dec 26, On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average rose to a then-record high of 3082.96.
(AP, 12/26/01)
1991 Dec 26, Jack Ruby's gun sold for $220,000 in auction.
(http://tinyurl.com/s3gun)
1991 Dec 26, Sikh separatists killed about 50 train passengers in Punjab, most of them Hindus.
(AP, 12/26/01)
1992 Dec 26, Time magazine announced it had chosen President-elect Bill Clinton its 1992 "Man of the Year."
(AP, 12/26/97)
1992 Dec 26, Milan Panic conceded defeat to Slobodan Milosevic almost a week after Yugoslavia's presidential election.
(AP, 12/26/97)
1993 Dec 26, In Russia a 4-day drama ended as four masked kidnappers, who had abducted 11 teen-agers, landed their explosives-packed helicopter, freed their last hostages and fled with $10 million in ransom. The four men were captured the next morning.
(AP, 12/26/98)
1994 Dec 26, French commandos stormed a hijacked Air France jetliner on the ground in Marseilles, killing four Algerian hijackers and freeing 170 hostages. The Air France plane was hijacked by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria Dec 24.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A10)(AP, 12/26/99)
1995 Dec 26, Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority in a smooth transfer of power.
(AP, 12/26/00)
1995 Dec 26, Floods in eastern South Africa killed at least 130.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-1)
1995 Dec 26, Heavy snow covered much of Northern Europe and Japan.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-1)
1996 Dec 26, In Boulder, Colorado, 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family home 8 hours after the mother discovered a ransom note demanding $118,000. To date, the slaying remains unsolved.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A3)(AP, 12/26/97)
1996 Dec 26, In Algiers a car bomb exploded in a crowded suburb. At least 10 were killed and 86 injured.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.B3)
1996 Dec 26, In Belarus a $3.5-4 billion nuclear power plant was planned to be built over the next 3 years.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A4)
1996 Dec 26, In Burma two bombs exploded in Rangoon during an exhibit of a tooth believed to have belonged to Buddha. The military regime blamed student and ethnic Karen insurgents based in eastern Burma. Five people were killed.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 26, In Indonesia Muslims rioted in Tasikmalaya in western Java after police tortured 3 Muslim teachers accused of assaulting a policeman’s son.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 26, In Israel a top army official said that the focus of military training in 1997 will be to prepare for a possible war with Syria.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 26, In Japan former Prime Minister Tsutoma Hata took 12 members of the opposition party Shinshinto (New Frontier Party) with him to form the new Sun Party.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.B3)
1996 Dec 26, Honda Motor Co. announced the first human-shaped robot that can move independently and do basic tasks. It stood 6 feet and weighed 462 lbs. and took 10 years of engineering.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B10)
1996 Dec 26, In Mexico the Dept. of Commerce announced a 15% price hike in the cost of tortillas and pasteurized milk.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.B3)
1996 Dec 26, In Serbia riot police cleared tens of thousands off the streets of central Belgrade but allowed a smaller protest of 15,000 at the pedestrian Square of the Republic. Patriarch Pavle, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, said the street violence of the previous day was caused by the authorities. Montenegro threatened to print its own money to counter the inflated dinars of the Milosevic regime.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 26, In South Korea tens of thousands of workers went on strike to protest a new labor bill that gave employers the right to lay off workers and allowed flexible working hours. A spy bill also passed to crack down on dissent.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B9)
1997 Dec 26, It was reported that the US Centers for Disease Control had begun work on a “Bird Flu" vaccine in response to the 9 confirmed cases and 4 deaths in Hong Kong.
(SFC, 12/26/97, p.D1)
1997 Dec 26, From Texas it was reported that the Emu market had collapsed and that the 100-pound birds were roaming the countryside and being slaughtered by frustrated owners.
(SFC, 12/26/97, p.A4)
1997 Dec 26, In Japan Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the opposition Shinshinto, New Freedom Party, announced that the party would be disbanded.
(SFC, 12/27/97, p.A12)
1997 Dec 26, In Mexico sixteen Maya Indians were charged with first-degree murder in the Dec 22 massacre in Acteal.
(SFC, 12/27/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 26, In Peru police reported that a Peruvian family hacked 2 Japanese students to death. The students had rowed on the Amazon for hundreds of miles with plans to reach Manaus.
(SFC, 12/27/97, p.A13)
1997 Dec 26, Badly battered South Korean financial markets surged after the International Monetary Fund and the Group of Seven countries agreed on $10 billion emergency loans to Seoul. The South Korean won closed up at 1,498 to the US dollar compared with 1,836 on Wednesday.
(SFC, 12/27/97, p.D1)(AP, 12/26/98)
1998 Dec 26, President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, urged Congress to lower the blood-alcohol limit for drunken driving nationwide to 0.08 percent to conform with 17 states and the District of Columbia. The other 33 states have 0.10.
(AP, 12/26/99)
1998 Dec 26, In Angola a transport plane with 14 people aboard crashed near Vila Nova, an area of continued fighting. 8 of the passengers were members of a UN Observer Mission. UNITA rebels reportedly held some of the survivors. A rescue team reached the site Jan 8 and there were no survivors.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A22)(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A8)(SFC, 1/2/99, p.A9)(SFC, 1/9/99, p.A10)
1998 Dec 26, In Cambodia 2 aides of the late Pol Pot, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, emerged from the jungle and expressed in writing their desire to become ordinary citizens and allegiance to the government. Prime Minister Hun Sen welcomed them and spoke against a trial and reopening old wounds.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A22)(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A8)
1998 Dec 26, Iraq fired on Western aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone and said it would shoot at all military aircraft patrolling no-fly zones.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 26, In Sierra Leone residents in Freetown burned alive 2 suspected rebel spies. The rebel United Front reported that it had killed 60 Nigerian soldiers of ECOMOG. Defenses in Freetown were bolstered by Kamajor militia.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A23)
1999 Dec 26, The crew of space shuttle “Discovery" packed up its tools and prepared to return home after an eight-day mission of repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope that NASA declared a success.
(AP, 12/26/00)
1999 Dec 26, Time Magazine named Albert Einstein (d.1955) as the Person of the Century.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.C2)
1999 Dec 26, Curtis Mayfield, soul singer and songwriter, died at age 57 in Roswell, Georgia. His songs included "People Get Ready," "Superfly" (1972), Gypsy Woman," and "It's All Right."
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.C4)
1999 Dec 26, In Angola government forces with help from Namibian troops captured Jamba and took control of the southern border with Namibia.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A13)
1999 Dec 26, In China 4 alleged ringleaders of the Falun Gong were convicted and sentenced for 7-18 years for stealing "state secrets," organizing a cult to disrupt law and order, and causing deaths.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 26, In Europe heavy winds and rain killed 88 people in France, 17 dead in Germany and 13 dead in Switzerland. A 2nd storm hit a day later. Damages from the storms were later estimated to be at least $4 billion. The storms destroyed an estimated 400 million trees across France.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 12/27/99, p.A1)(SFC, 12/28/99, p.A8)(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A11)(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A1)(AP, 1/25/09)
1999 Dec 26, Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, scored a resounding victory in Guatemala’s first peacetime presidential elections in nearly 40 years.
(AP, 12/26/00)
1999 Dec 26, In Indonesia Frenchman Michael Blanc was arrested with 3.8 kg (8.4 pounds) of hash hidden in diving canisters. Blanc maintained his innocence, insisting that he was given the diving canisters to transport by a friend. In 2000 he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. On Jan 20, 2014 he was freed on parole.
(AP, 1/20/14)
1999 Dec 26, In Iran members of the opposition Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) crossed from Iraq and attacked Republican Guard barracks in Khuzestan.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A13)
1999 Dec 26, In the Ivory Coast Pres. Henri Konan Bedie fled with his family to Lome, Togo, following the military coup.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A13)
2000 Dec 26, Pres. Clinton signed a ban on cutting shark fins and discarding the fish back to the sea.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A6)
2000 Dec 26, Donna Shalala, US Sec. of Health and Human Services, blocked a GOP sponsored drug reimportation plan intended to reduce drug prices.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A3)
2000 Dec 26, Michael McDermott, a software tester at Edgewater Tech. In Wakefield, Mass., shot and killed 7 co-workers. He wielded a semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun. He was beset by both financial and personal problems. McDermott, convicted in 2002, was sent to prison for life.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/26/01)(SFC, 4/25/02, p.A7)
2000 Dec 26, Jason Robards (78), stage and film actor and winner of 2 Oscars and 1 Tony Award, died in Bridgeport, Conn.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/26/01)
2000 Dec 26, The Muslim holiday of Ramadan ended.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 26, In Montenegro 3 military commanders were dismissed by the Yugoslav top defense body as a concession to Pres. Djukanovic.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 26, In Nepal rioting began and 4 people were killed following a rumor that Hrithnik Roshan, an Indian film star, allegedly spoke of his hate for Nepal and its people. Roshan denied making such comments.
(SFC, 12/28/00, p.C2)
2000 Dec 26, In Serbia power shortages due to the summer drought caused cuts across the country.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 26, In Thailand an anti-corruption body ruled that Thaksin Shinawatra, the leading candidate for prime minister, engaged in financial wrongdoings that disqualified him from holding office.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A15)
2001 Dec 26, The Al Jazeera Arab network broadcast a new video-taped statement from Osama bin Laden that appeared to have been made in late Nov or early Dec. “Our terrorism is benign." The al-Qaida leader condemned the United States as a nation that committed crimes against millions of Afghans.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/25/02)
2001 Dec 26, Argentina planned a new currency, the argentino, to circulate along with the peso and dollar.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 26, In Brazil rescue workers searched for victims of earth slides and flooding that killed at least 49 people in Rio de Janeiro state.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A5)
2001 Dec 26, Actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne (72) died in Hertfordshire, England.
(AP, 12/25/02)
2001 Dec 26, In France some 550 Iraqi Kurds, Afghans, Iranians and other refugees from the Sangatte Red Cross center near the 33-mile Channel Tunnel attempted to reach asylum in Britain. All were captured by French police.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A4)(AP, 12/25/02)
2001 Dec 26, India deployed missile batteries and increased jet fighter patrols along its border with Pakistan.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 26, Israeli troops shot dead 1 Palestinian, Walid Saadi (50), in Jenin while in pursuit of gunmen. Some border restrictions were eased.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A4)
2002 Dec 26, Brigitte Boisselier, a chemist and head of Clonaid, said the world's first human clone, a 7-pound baby girl, was born by Caesarean section. She was associated with the Raelian religion, founded by Claude Vorilhon in 1973. The claim was subsequently dismissed by scientists for lack of proof.
(AP, 12/27/02)(Reuters, 12/27/02)(SFC, 12/28/02, p.A5)
2002 Dec 26, The Int'l. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said North Korea had moved 1,000 fresh fuel rods to a nuclear reactor that produces plutonium used in nuclear warheads.
(AP, 12/26/02)
2002 Dec 26, In Curtiba, Brazil, a C-95 Bandeirante air force plane crashed during an emergency landing, killing two people and injuring the other 14 people aboard.
(AP, 12/26/02)
2002 Dec 26, Israeli soldiers hunting militiamen in the West Bank killed 9 Palestinians in separate clashes across the West Bank and Gaza.
(AP, 12/26/02)(SFC, 12/27/02, p.A12)
2002 Dec 26, In the southern Philippines suspected Muslim rebels killed 12 workers as they rode in a truck to a Canadian-owned mine. Extortion was suspected.
(WSJ, 12/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 26, In Trinidad police reported that 4 people were slain over the Christmas holidays, bringing the number of killings to a record 164 this year.
(AP, 12/26/02)
2003 Dec 26, An avalanche in Provo Canyon, Utah, left 3 snowboarders dead.
(SFC, 12/27/03, p.A5)
2003 Dec 26, In northern China a fire raced through coal mine in Wu'an, a city in Hebei province, killing 26 miners.
(AP, 12/27/03)
2003 Dec 26, A 6.6 earthquake devastated the southeastern Iranian city of Bam, 630 miles southeast of the capital Tehran. It leveled more than half the city's houses and its historic mud-brick fortress. Some 31,000 people were killed and over 10,000 injured. Iran appealed for international help and promised to waive visas for foreign relief workers.
(AP, 12/27/03)(SFC, 12/30/03, p.A3)(AP, 1/2/04)(AP, 12/26/04)(AFP, 8/12/12)
2003 Dec 26, In Iraq an American soldier died in a rebel ambush and two others were killed in bomb explosions.
(AP, 12/26/03)
2003 Dec 26, Hamas, the Islamic group responsible for most suicide bombings in three years of violence, called off attacks inside Israel. In response, Israel will hold off targeting Hamas leaders but will still go after other Palestinian militants.
(AP, 12/27/03)
2003 Dec 26, Kelvin Stark, a new Zealand pilot, was killed while flying a new PAC 750XL airplane to California. The 17-passenger plane was billed as the 1st passenger aircraft built in New Zealand and was specially designed for skydiving.
(SFC, 12/27/03, p.A15)
2004 Dec 26, The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and southeast Asia. The initial estimated death toll of 9,000 soon rose to some 230,000 people in 14 countries. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964. The epicenter was located 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on Sumatra, and six miles under the seabed of the Indian Ocean. In Indonesia at least 166,320 people were killed.
Bangladesh reported 2 killed; India: at least 9,691 deaths: thousands were missing and possibly dead in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia: At least 101,318 people were killed on Sumatra island and small islands off its coast. Kenya reported 1 killed. Malaysia: At least 68 people, including an unknown number of foreign tourists, were dead. Myanmar: At least 90 people were killed. Sri Lanka: At least 30,680 were killed in government and rebel controlled areas. The Maldives, an archipelago of 1,190 low-lying coral islands and a tiny population of 280,000, at least 82 people were killed and missing. At least 42 islands were flattened in the low-lying atoll nation. Somalia: At least 298 were killed. Tanzania: At least 10 killed. Thailand: The confirmed death toll for Thailand reached 5,322, but many suspected Myanmar migrants were not counted. Some 230,000 people were killed in a dozen countries.
(SFC, 12/28/04, p.A1)(AP, 12/30/04)(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A12)(AP, 1/7/05)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.41)(AP, 12/25/09)(AP, 11/12/13)
2004 Dec 26, Thousands of Europeans died in the Asian tsunami disaster. The dead included 543 from Sweden.
(AP, 12/31/04)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.27)
2004 Dec 26, An unmanned cargo ship docked at the international space station, ending a shortage that forced astronauts to ration supplies.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2004 Dec 26, Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts broke Dan Marino's single-season touchdown pass record when he threw his 48th and 49th of the season against San Diego. The Colts defeated San Diego in overtime, 34-31.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2004 Dec 26, Reggie White (43), NFL defensive star, died in Huntersville, NC. White played 15 seasons with Philadelphia, Green Bay and Carolina. He retired after the 2000 season as the NFL's career sacks leader with 198. The mark has since been passed by Bruce Smith.
(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 Dec 26, In eastern Algeria a gas explosion killed 17 people and injured at least 40 others when a residential block collapsed.
(Reuters, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, In Brazil an angry mob destroyed police stations and a courthouse in two Amazon towns while trying to lynch murder suspects. One man was killed during the rioting and 44 people were arrested.
(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 Dec 26, In eastern France a gas explosion tore through a five-storey apartment building in Mulhouse, killing 15 people and injuring another 14.
(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 Dec 26, India issued a presidential decree to bring its patent laws into compliance with commitments under the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, Masked gunmen assassinated a high-ranking Iraqi police officer in southwestern Baghdad and wounded his bodyguards.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, The Independent reported that British PM Tony Blair has ordered the military to prepare to deploy up to 3,000 soldiers to the conflict-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, The Russian unmanned cargo ship, Progress M-51, docked at the int’l. space station with fresh supplies.
(SFC, 12/25/04, p.A5)
2004 Dec 26, A woman doused her body with gasoline and set herself ablaze in a busy Istanbul square to protest Turkey's maximum security prison system.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, Ukraine re-ran its presidential election.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, Uzbekistan held elections and all opposition groups were barred from running for office. Europe's top election watchdog criticized the parliamentary vote.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2005 Dec 26, "Monday Night Football" ended an unprecedented 36-year run on ABC TV with a lackluster game, a 31-to-21 New England Patriots victory over the New York Jets. The series switched to ESPN the following season.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2005 Dec 26, New Orleans Police officers shot and killed a man brandishing a knife in a confrontation that was partially videotaped by a bystander, setting off another internal investigation of the embattled department.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 26, John Diebold (70), a US consultant who preached computers to businesses, died.
(WSJ, 12/28/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 26, The US military gave details of its planned troop reduction in Afghanistan, saying the total number would shrink by some 2,500 from the current 19,000 under a routine troop rotation due very soon.
(AFP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Kerry Packer (68), Australian media mogul, died in his Sydney home. He built his empire on the Nine Network television station and the Australian Consolidated Press magazine publishing business but in recent years had concentrated his efforts more in the gaming industry.
(SFC, 12/27/05, p.B4)(Econ, 1/7/06, p.77)
2005 Dec 26, In Canada gunfire erupted on a busy Toronto street filled with holiday shoppers, killing a young woman (15) and wounding six other people. There have been 78 murders in Toronto this year, including a record 52 by gunfire, twice as many as last year. On June 13, 2006, 8 people were arrested in connection with the shootings.
(AP, 12/27/05)(Reuters, 6/13/06)
2005 Dec 26, News reports said China has closed 2,411 coal mines for safety violations, and will start requiring mines to post safety bonds. 12,990 mines were ordered to suspend operations for safety inspections.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Maxima Perez (33), a woman in the Dominican Republic, gave birth to the first sextuplets ever recorded in this Caribbean country.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 26, The EU announced a 166 million euros ($196.9 million) aid package for 10 African countries. The aid will go to Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Chad, Tanzania, Uganda, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Comoros.
(Reuters, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, India freed eight Pakistani prisoners as part of peace efforts between the South Asia rivals, while the two governments scheduled new talks to resolve their long-standing dispute over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Gunmen shot and killed 5 police officers at a checkpoint north of Baghdad. 6 vehicle bombs exploded in Baghdad, leaving another 5 people dead and over 40 wounded. At least two dozen people including a US soldier were killed in shootings and bombings mostly targeting the Shiite-dominated security services.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Two US pilots were killed after their Apache collided in mid-air with another helicopter just west of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 Dec 26, Israel said it will build more than 200 new homes in Jewish West Bank settlements, a blow to peace efforts despite word that Ariel Sharon's new party plans a major push for Palestinian statehood if it wins upcoming elections.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Japan's benchmark stock index topped 16,000 points, reaching its highest level since October 2000. The dollar rose slightly against the yen and euro.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Character actor Vincent Schiavelli (57), who appeared in scores of movies, including "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Ghost," died at his home in Sicily.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, In southeastern Venezuela an accidental fireworks explosion touched off a blaze that raced through a busy strip mall, killing at least 12 people and injuring five others.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2006 Dec 26, Gerald R. Ford (b.1913), former Michigan Congressman and US President (1973-1976), died. He had declared "Our long national nightmare is over" as he replaced Richard Nixon, but may have doomed his own chances of election by pardoning his disgraced predecessor.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 26, A 21,000 gallon oil spill off the Texas coast resulted when a ship anchor hit an oil line.
(WSJ, 12/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 26, It was reported that a large study in Britain had found that taking such popular heartburn drugs as Nexium, Prevacid or Prilosec for a year or more can raise the risk of a broken hip markedly in people over 50.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, Talks between Belarus and the Russian state gas monopoly on Russia's demand for a price increase brought no resolution and a top company official said Belarus could face a New Year's gas cutoff. Gazprom said it failed to gain assent to double gas prices, but added that any cutoff would no affect EU nations.
(AP, 12/26/06)(WSJ, 12/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 26, Countryside campaigners said more than 300,000 people took part in traditional Boxing Day (December 26) fox hunts across Britain, claiming it proved a ban on hunting with dogs was not working.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, Canada deported a man who posed as a Canadian for years, describing him as a Russian spy who used a fake birth certificate to create a false identity and accumulate three Canadian passports. The man, who acquired passports in the name of Paul William Hampel, left Canada for Russia.
(Reuters, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, Chinese and Japanese history scholars met for the first in a series of government-mandated study groups aimed at smoothing over differences between the Asian powers on historical issues.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, An Iraqi appeals court has upheld the death sentence imposed on Saddam Hussein at his first trial, and a tribunal official said the verdict will be carried out within 30 days even if the presidency doesn't ratify it. Over 100 Iraqis died in attacks and bombings, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad. 3 US service members were killed in roadside bombings northwest of Baghdad. Another US soldier was killed south of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/27/06)(SFC, 12/27/06, p.A3)(WSJ, 12/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 26, Ayham al-Samaraie, a former minister of electricity with dual US and Iraqi citizenship, arrived in Jordan on a US plane. Al-Samaraie, who escaped from a Baghdad prison this month, was serving time for corruption when he escaped mid-December.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, In Nigeria a ruptured gasoline pipeline burst into flames as scavengers collected the fuel in Lagos, killing 269 people. Witnesses said thieves had broken into the pipeline after midnight and hundreds of men, women and children had been collecting leaking fuel in plastic buckets, cans and bags for hours before the explosion. 2 different armed groups lifted sieges of two oilfield stations, releasing more than 20 local workers. Shell resumed production at its Nun River facility. 4 oil workers were still being held hostage by a different armed group after an attack on Agip's Brass River export terminal on Dec 7.
(AP, 12/26/06)(AP, 12/27/06)(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Dec 26, Pakistan said it will plant land mines and build a fence on parts of its long, rugged frontier with Afghanistan to meet criticism it does too little to stop Taliban and al-Qaida guerrillas from crossing the border.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 26, Islamic fighters retreated as Somali government and Ethiopian troops advanced on three fronts in a decisive turn in the battle for control of this Horn of Africa nation. Ethiopia’s PM Meles Zenawi said up to 1,000 of the religious movement's fighters had been killed.
(AP, 12/26/06)(WSJ, 12/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 26, The Saudi government said it had released 18 men who were detained after returning to their homeland from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, President Omar al-Bashir said in the letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Sudan is ready to immediately implement two recent agreements endorsing a three-step UN plan to strengthen the beleaguered 7,000-strong African Union force in Darfur.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 26, Turkmenistan's top legislative body rewrote the country's constitution to allow the country's acting president, in power for less than a week, to succeed its late leader.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, The Vatican called on retired Bishop Fernando Lugo to give up his plans to run for Paraguay's presidency or face canonical sanctions. Lugo said he had already resigned from the priesthood to lead a planned opposition alliance and challenge conservative President Nicanor Duarte of the Colorado Party in elections scheduled for May 2008.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2007 Dec 26, Pres. Bush signed a $555 billion domestic spending bill and took a swipe at Congress for including pet projects totaling nearly $10 billion.
(SFC, 12/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Dec 26, The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that employers could reduce of eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.
(SFC, 12/27/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 26, It was reported that Warren Buffet had agreed to pay $4.5 billion to buy a majority of Marmon Holdings, an industrial conglomerate, from the Chicago’s Pritzker family. Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway planned to buy the rest of the company by 2014.
(WSJ, 12/26/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 26, Online auction giant eBay said it has launched a microlending website, www.microplace.com, that lets people invest in entrepreneurs in poor communities around the world and get a return on their money.
(AFP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol exploded east of Algeria's capital, killing two officers and injuring two others. The attack came as authorities rounded up 11 suspected members of two suspected support networks for armed Islamic militant groups in recent days.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that British intelligence agents held secret talks with Taliban leaders on several occasions this year. Earlier this month, British PM Gordon Brown ruled out direct talks with Taliban insurgents, telling the House of Commons: "I make it clear that we will not enter into any negotiations with these people."
(AFP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, A Chadian court convicted six French aid workers of trying to kidnap 103 African children and sentenced them to eight years of forced labor. The French Foreign Ministry in Paris said it would ask Chadian authorities to transfer the six convicted to France. The countries have a bilateral judicial agreement that could allow for such a transfer.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Georgia's top television station suspended its broadcasts, saying it was protesting the pressure authorities have exerted because of the station's links to a billionaire presidential contender challenging the government.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In western Indonesia rescuers dug for survivors after landslides and floods triggered by days of torrential rain killed over 87 people.
(AP, 12/26/07)(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Iran's defense minister said that Iran had agreed to buy an S-300 surface-to-air missile system from Russia.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Iran and Malaysia signed a $16 billion agreement to develop two Iranian gas fields, in a deal described as the largest energy contract in Iran.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In Iraq a bomb explosion in the northern province of Ninevah killed three children and wounded another two. An Iraqi soldier allegedly shot dead two American troops while they were patrolling together north of the capital. Three other US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were wounded in the attack. An initial investigation indicated that the Iraqi soldier was linked to local militant groups.
(AP, 12/26/07)(AP, 1/5/08)
2007 Dec 26, Joe Dolan (68), one of Ireland's first pop music stars, died from a brain hemorrhage. He had entertained audiences for decades with Vegas-style showmanship. His last Irish No. 1 came in 1997, when he re-recorded "Good-Looking Woman" with a popular fictional TV comedian, a puppet named Dustin the Turkey.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited Egypt to discuss Israeli allegations that Egypt was doing too little to prevent arms smuggling to the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Egypt rejected Israeli complaints about weapons smuggling into Gaza.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, A ruptured gasoline pipeline exploded in flames, killing at least 34 people near Nigeria's main city of Lagos as they tried to scoop fuel from the gushing leak.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Pakistan's Pres. Pervez Musharraf and Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai vowed to boost intelligence cooperation to meet the menace of terrorism that was destroying both countries.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying 2 tons of supplies including holiday gifts, docked at the international space station.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Serbia's parliament overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that threatens to halt the country's integration into the European Union and cut off diplomatic ties with Western countries if they recognize Kosovo's independence.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, South Korea's cabinet approved a bill setting up a fraud inquiry into president-elect Lee Myung-Bak, one week after the conservative opposition candidate won a landslide election victory.
(AFP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In northern Sri Lanka a wave of infantry attacks killed at least 66 rebels and 14 government troops.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Turkish warplanes hit eight suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq, the third cross-border air assault in 10 days.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2008 Dec 26, In Hawaii a power failure during a thunderstorm blacked out Oahu’s population of about 900,000 people and thousands of tourists including vacationing President-elect Barack Obama.
(AP, 12/27/08)
2008 Dec 26, In Philadelphia a duplex fire apparently caused by fuel spilling from an overfilled kerosene heater killed seven people, including 3 kids, in a basement that had only one exit.
(AP, 12/27/08)
2008 Dec 26, In southern Afghanistan a Canadian soldier was killed and three others wounded in a bomb blast. 2 suicide car bombs took place in western Afghanistan, but only the attackers were killed in the blasts. 3 foreigners were wounded in an attack in Herat.
(AP, 12/27/08)
2008 Dec 26, Azerbaijan's parliament voted to hold a referendum next year on constitutional changes that could allow incumbent President Ilham Aliyev to stay in power when his current mandate runs out.
(AFP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, Brazilian police detained Regivaldo Galvao, a rancher suspected in the 2005 slaying of rain forest activist Dorothy Stang (73), for allegedly illegally acquiring titles to land the US nun died trying to defend.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, Chinese warships, armed with special forces, guided missiles and helicopters, set sail for anti-piracy duty off Somalia, the first time the communist nation has sent ships on a mission that could involve fighting so far beyond its territorial waters.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, China’s state media reported that nearly 5,000 higher-level Chinese government officials were punished for corruption over the past year.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, China National Offshore Oil Corp., the country's largest offshore oil and gas producer, signed four oil cooperation agreements with Taiwan's CPC Corp.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, A Chinese man and two Lebanese nationals were shot dead in a crime wave in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo that also left 10 Congolese dead this week. The mayor of Lubumbashi, Marie-Gregoire Tambila, said that 11 people had been killed in the last four days in her city, including a Lebanese national who was killed on Christmas day. In eastern Congo attackers, identified as members of the Lord’s Resistance Army, killed some 100 people at a church in Doruma. The UN said rebels had killed 189 people over 2 days.
(AFP, 12/26/08)(SFC, 12/30/08, p.A10)
2008 Dec 26, Three suspected al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents broke out of jail during a riot that killed six police officers and seven prisoners in the western city of Ramadi.
(AP, 12/26/08)(SFC, 12/27/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 26, Israel reopened its border with Gaza to allow deliveries of humanitarian aid, despite continued rocket and mortar fire from the coastal strip and growing expectations of a large-scale Israeli military campaign against Palestinian militants. A rocket fired by Palestinian militants fell short and killed 2 schoolgirls in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/26/08)(SFC, 12/27/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 26, In Mexico a gang of about 20 men armed with assault rifles robbed a train in the western state of Michoacan and carted off some of its freight. Dr. Laura Avila. Avila was found dead in the rural health clinic she was staffing in Jalisco state. Police soon arrested Ricardo Garcia Barajas (25), a farm worker, who allegedly hacked the doctor to death with a machete for refusing to treat his son.
(AP, 12/27/08)(AP, 1/2/09)
2008 Dec 26, Pakistan began moving thousands of troops to the Indian border, sharply raising tensions triggered by the Mumbai terror attacks.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, Russia's ruble fell to a three-year low against the dollar after the Central Bank allowed a third sharp drop in the currency in five days as the government continues to feel the heat of the global meltdown.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, Serbia arrested 10 former Kosovo Albanian guerrilla fighters suspected of involvement in killings and abductions in the former Serbian province of Kosovo in 1999.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, Spain approved a new provision that also allows anyone whose parents or grandparents were born in Spain but went overseas because of their political beliefs or economic hardship to become Spaniards.
(AP, 12/29/08)
2009 Dec 26, In eastern Afghanistan a heavily armed Taliban commander was killed during a pre-dawn shootout at a mosque in Wardak province. An ISAF service member from the United States died following an IED strike in southern Afghanistan. Two members of the Afghan National Police were killed when militants attacked a checkpoint in western Afghanistan. 3 other policemen were missing following the attack in the Qadis district of Badghis province.
(AP, 12/26/09)(AFP, 12/27/09)(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Dec 26, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales said that he plans to make it legal for Bolivia's farmers to grow small parcels of coca plants.
(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 26, China unveiled what it billed as the fastest rail link in the world, a train connecting the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan at an average speed of 350 km (217 miles) an hour.
(AFP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 25, A Greek-owned cargo ship, the Aegean Wind, caught fire off the coast of Venezuela. 9 crew members were killed and 5 injured. The ship was carrying iron ore from Brazil to Houston when the fire broke out.
(SFC, 12/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 26, In India Andhra Pradesh Gov. Narain Dutt Tiwari (86) resigned, a day after a television news channel broadcast a tape allegedly showing him in bed with three women.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, Iranian security forces beat protesters in central Tehran, a sign of mounting tensions ahead of planned opposition rallies to mark a religious festival and the death of a dissident cleric a week ago.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, In Iraq a roadside bomb killed three Shiite pilgrims in eastern Baghdad, the latest round of violence to strike worshippers during a revered mourning observance. Another pilgrim was killed in southern Baghdad late in the day when a bomb struck a procession.
(AP, 12/26/09)(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 26, Israeli soldiers stormed homes in the West Bank, killing three Palestinians suspected in the fatal shooting of an Israeli and testing an uneasy security arrangement with Palestinian authorities.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, In Indian Kashmir some 40 people were injured when police fired teargas and used batons to break up banned religious processions by Shiite Muslims.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, In Lebanon 2 members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas were killed in an explosion in a Beirut suburb that one report described as a bombing. The attack was said to have involved three bombs tied to each other.
(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 26, In New Zealand some 20 pilot whales died on Colville Beach after stranding but holiday-makers and conservation workers managed to coax 43 others back out to sea. Some 105 long-finned pilot whales, stranded on South Island, died.
(AP, 12/27/09)(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Dec 26, In Pakistan a blast in Karachi destroyed a car and injured 19 people near a procession of minority Shiite Muslims for the Islamic holy month of Muharram. Investigators were checking if a gas cylinder accidentally detonated or if a bomb went off. A suspected US missile strike killed three people in North Waziristan. A local government official said the Taliban had beheaded a tribal elder who fought against them in the Bajur tribal region. The remains of Gul Mohammad (45) was found in Mamund town near a road.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, In the Philippines a roll-on, roll-off ferry, carrying at least 88 people and nine cargo trucks, sank in the late evening off Verde Island. 6 people were confirmed dead and at least 22 were missing.
(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 26, Berlin-based Transparency International said nearly half a billion dollars in tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and over 600 million dollars has been spent on projects unrelated to the Dec 26, 2004, tsunami disaster.
(AFP, 12/26/09)
2010 Dec 26, Allstate Corp filed suit against Bank of America Corp, its Countrywide lending unit and 17 other defendants for allegedly misrepresenting the risks on more than $700 million of mortgage securities it bought from Countrywide.
(Reuters, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Arizona Gavin MacFarlane (28) opened fire inside a Phoenix strip club killing 2 people and wounding 2 others.
(SFC, 12/28/10, p.A6)
2010 Dec 26, In Massachusetts police officer John McGuire was shot dead while investigating a robbery in Woburn. Scott Hanwright (19) was charged for murder and Kevin Dingwell (51) was charged with being an accessory after the fact. A 3rd suspect, Dominic Cinelli (57) was fatally shot by responding officers.
(SFC, 12/28/10, p.A6)
2010 Dec 26, Geraldine Doyle (86), a Michigan factory worker used as the unwitting model for the wartime Rosie the Riveter poster, died. The term "Rosie the Riveter" stems from a 1942 song honoring the women who took over critical factory jobs when American men went off to war. The inspirational "We Can Do It!" poster was not widely seen until the 1980s when it was embraced by the feminist movement as a potent symbol of women's empowerment.
(AP, 12/31/10)
2010 Dec 26, Teena Marie (b.1956), Motown’s “Ivory Queen of soul" died. Her hits included “Lovergirl," and “Fire and Desire" with mentor Rick James.
(SFC, 12/27/10, p.C4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teena_Marie)
2010 Dec 26, The Afghanistan Defense Ministry said it will investigate missing US-donated medicines and pharmaceutical supplies meant for its army and police. "Numerous insurgents were killed" in two separate incidents in Helmand and Kandahar during a NATO operation targeting suspect vehicles. Several suspected insurgents were detained.
(AP, 12/26/10)(AP, 12/27/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Bolivia the government under Evo Morales announced an end to subsidies on many fuels. The measure involved a 73% increase in the price of petrol.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.36)
2010 Dec 26, London’s Underground drivers went on a 24-hour strike in a dispute over holiday pay. Members of the Aslef trade union voted to walk out after transport chiefs refused their demand for triple pay and a day off for working on December 26, the day after Christmas being a national holiday in Britain.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Dagestan eight men were killed in a shoot-out with police after they barricaded themselves in a house in the city of Makhachkala and refused to give up.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In the Dominican Rep. former President Salvador Jorge Blanco (84) died. He was convicted of corruption in 1991 under a political antagonist's administration but declared innocent in 2001 by an appeals court, died. Blanco was president from 1982-1986.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, Egypt said it has adopted a stimulus plan with the aim of injecting 10-20 billion pounds ($1.72-3.44 billion) into the economy in the 2011 calendar year. Gamal Mubarak, the son of Pres. Mubarak, said he will press ahead with bold new economic reforms that will be "more ambitious and more daring" than those that have come before, while still vowing to protect the nation's poor from any fallout.
(Reuters, 12/26/10)(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In southern Egypt a tour bus slammed into a truck, killing eight Americans and injuring 21 others in the latest fatal crash involving tourists.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Iran local media reported that a death sentence has been imposed on a man suspected of spying for Israel. A Tehran prosecutor confirmed that economist Fariborz Raisdana has been arrested for trying to subvert the recent subsidies plans in radio interviews.
(AP, 12/26/10)(SFC, 12/29/10, p.A3)
2010 Dec 26, Israel and Palestinian militants traded threats amid fresh skirmishes along the tense Gaza Strip border in which two Islamic Jihad fighters were killed. Nine French activists were arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at a major Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank.
(AFP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Ivory Coast allies of Alassane Ouattara called for a general strike to last until incumbent Pres. Laurent Gbagbo concedes defeat.
(SFC, 12/27/10, p.A4)
2010 Dec 26, In Malaysia 3 Singaporean tourists drowned and two others were missing after an overloaded passenger boat capsized near Sibu island.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Nigeria clashes left at least one person dead and a number of houses burned in the city of Jos amid tensions following a series of Christmas Eve bomb attacks.
(AFP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In the Philippines Communist rebels threatened more attacks despite looming peace talks with the government, as they marked the insurgency's 42nd anniversary by defiantly marching with their weapons in public view.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Russia several thousand people rallied in Moscow to protest the ethnic clashes that have rocked Russia, holding posters reading "Fascists disgrace Russia" and chanting "No to Fascism!"
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Russia icy rain shut down Moscow's largest airport for nearly 15 hours, coated roads with ice and left more than 300,000 people and 14 hospitals without electricity.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, Ukraine's security service detained former interior minister Yuri Lutsenko, the latest move in a crackdown on the previous government since Pres. Yanukovich took power. The state prosecutor's office this month charged Lutsenko with abuse of office, saying he had embezzled state funds. He denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
(Reuters, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made his first use of new decree powers to create a $2.3 billion fund for reconstruction after widespread flooding that left more than 130,000 people homeless.
(Reuters, 12/26/10)
2011 Dec 26, In London thousands of shoppers seeking post-Christmas bargains were delayed, but not deterred, by a subway strike that shut down parts of the network. Seydou Diarrassouba (18), was stabbed to death in front of horrified shoppers during a fight between two groups of youths on London's Oxford Street. 11 people were arrested the next day in relation to the fatal stabbing. 3 more people were arrested on Dec 31.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AFP, 12/28/11)(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 26, Anuj Bidve (23), an Indian student, was gunned down at point blank range as he walked with friends near their hotel in Salford, England. A boy (17) was soon arrested on suspicion of murder after a warrant was executed in the Salford area. 4 more people, including 2 teens, were soon arrested in relation to the murder. On Dec 2 Kiaran Stapleton (20), accused of the shooting, identified himself in court as “Psycho Stapleton." On July 26, 2012, Stapleton was convicted of murder. The next day he was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 12/27/11)(Reuters, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/28/11)(AFP, 12/29/11)(AFP, 1/2/12)(AFP, 7/27/12)
2011 Dec 26, A British-registered ship, the M/S Thor Liberty, held in a Finnish port after authorities discovered 69 surface-to-air missiles and 160 tons of explosives onboard, received permission to travel again, but without those materials or its captain. The Patriot missiles were an official shipment from Germany to South Korea. Finnish authorities said the explosives were a legitimate shipment for China, but the missiles lacked proper transit documents, and the explosives weren't safely stored. On Jan 4 the Finnish government authorized the transport.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 1/4/12)
2011 Dec 26, China's biggest milk producer, Mengniu Dairy Group, said it has destroyed a batch found to have excessive levels of a cancer-causing toxin, in another safety scare for the country's dairy industry. The problem was reportedly discovered before the milk containing high levels of aflatoxin was sold to the public. An expert review identified the mildewed feed as the cause of the excessive levels of aflatoxin in milk.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Colombia officials in Medellin inaugurated a giant, $6.7 million outdoor escalator for residents of one of its poorest neighborhoods. It provided the 12,000 residents of Comuna 13 a free ride up and down their steep hillside.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Grenada Oscar Bartholomew (39) of Toronto, was beaten into a coma after he mistook a plainclothes female police officer for a friend and lifted her for a hug in front of a police station. Bartholomew was visiting family on the island and died the next day. Officers Kenton Hazzard and Wendell Sylvester were detained on Dec 29. On Jan 1, 2012, police officers Edward Gibson, Shaun Ganness and Ruddy Felix were also arrested and charged in the beating death.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 26, In Guinea-Bissau soldiers demanding better pay attacked the headquarters of the armed forces and fanned out across the streets of the small west African state's capital as the country's president was undergoing treatment in France.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, India's Tata Motors offered to replace the starter motor on all old Nano models, but said the move was not related to safety concerns surrounding the world's cheapest car.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, An Iraqi Shiite militia group said it would join the political process. The Asaib Ahel al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, was behind the kidnap of a British consultant and his four bodyguards, and has been blamed for the killing of US troops. A suicide bomber set off a car bomb at a checkpoint leading to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, killing seven people and injuring 32 others. A roadside bomb hit a passing army patrol in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and injuring two others.
(AFP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, Extra Israeli police patrolled the streets of a small town near Jerusalem after a campaign by ultra-Orthodox Jews to segregate men and women erupted into violence.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Ivory Coast 4 people were killed and 15 were injured in inter-ethnic clashes near the economic capital Abidjan. The violence erupted when an Abidji youth clashed with a soldier of the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast (FRCI) and was killed in Sikensi.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked his billionaire son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, from his post as head of the sovereign wealth fund.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.26)
2011 Dec 26, Mexican medical officials said five recovering drug addicts died and dozens of others were sickened by soy sausage served for Christmas dinner at a rehabilitation center in Guadalajara. 37 people remained hospitalized.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, In South Africa 19 people were killed when an overtaking car smashed head-on into a minibus taxi in central Free State.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Syria intense shelling by government forces was reported in the center of the country, just hours before the Arab League monitoring teams were to arrive. Security forces killed at least 42 people, most of them in Homs.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, Yemen's military agreed to replace Maj. Gen. Ali al-Shater, a commander accused of corruption, apparently settling a brief strike by 1,000 soldiers. Yemeni soldiers battled al-Qaida-linked militants outside the southern city of Zinjibar, which remains partly under the control of the Islamists. Five soldiers and four fighters were killed.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2012 Dec 26, Los Angeles police traded gift cards for guns in a buyback program Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced as a crime-fighting response to the deadly shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut.
(Reuters, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, The Chicago Teachers Union sued the nation's third largest school district, saying Mayor Rahm Emanuel's campaign to reform or close underperforming public schools discriminates against African-American teachers and staff.
(Reuters, 12/27/12)
2012 Dec 26, A winter storm hit the northeastern US and led to at least 16 deaths.
(SFC, 12/28/12, p.A5)
2012 Dec 26, In eastern Afghanistan a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber exploded at the gate of Camp Chapman, a major US military base, killing the attacker and three Afghans. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Khost province.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Angry Central African Republic protesters carrying clubs threw rocks at the French Embassy, criticizing the former colonial power for failing to do more to stem a rapid rebel advance as fears grew that the insurgents aim to seize the capital.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, China opened the world's longest high-speed rail line, which runs 2,298 km (1,428 miles) from the country's capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in the Pearl River delta in southern China.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Egypt's Islamist Pres. Morsi proclaimed the country's newly adopted constitution as the dawning of a "new republic" in a television address, calling on the opposition to join a dialogue with him after a month of violent turmoil and focus on repairing a damaged economy.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Thousands of Iraqi demonstrators massed in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, determined to keep up the pressure on a Shiite-led government that many accuse of trying to marginalize them.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Shinzo Abe, head of the pro-business Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), took office as Japan's 7th prime minister in six years and vowed to overcome the deep-rooted economic and diplomatic crises facing his country. Abe unveiled a 19-member cabinet of radical nationalists.
(AP, 12/26/12)(Econ, 1/5/12, p.29)
2012 Dec 26, Myanmar Pres. Thein Sein publicly criticized his government for rampant corruption, bribery and inefficiency.
(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 26, In Nigeria a massive explosion ripped through a warehouse full of fireworks in Lagos, sparking a fire that threatened surrounding city blocks and sending a plume of thick smoke high into the sky. At least one person died and 15 others were wounded.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Angry Philippine residents beat a man to death and threw rocks at firefighters after a Christmas day shantytown fire in suburban San Juan city left thousands of people homeless. The man was reportedly drunk and was not responsible for the fire. The fire was reportedly started in a house where children were playing with lighted candles.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Russia’s upper chamber of parliament unanimously voted in favor of a measure banning Americans from adopting Russian children. It now goes to President Vladimir Putin to sign or turn down.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said shelling in an agricultural area of Raqqa province near the village of Qahtaniyeh killed 20, including eight children. It said at least five rebels were killed in the fighting that started after midnight and added that Syrian army warplanes attacked rebel positions in the areas.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, In Tunisia journalist Olfa Riahi posted receipts alleging that Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalam spent six nights at public expense, including one accompanied by an unidentified woman, raising suspicions of adultery. The minister has denied any wrongdoing and described the woman as his cousin. Riahi followed up these allegations on Dec. 29 with documents showing that the Chinese government transferred a million dollars directly into a Foreign Ministry account rather than going via the Finance Ministry or public treasury as is the custom.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Louisiana Ben Freeman (38), a nurse embroiled in a custody fight, attacked his former in-laws, his onetime boss and his current wife leaving 3 dead before killing himself.
(SFC, 12/28/13, p.A12)
2013 Dec 26, Bangladesh's opposition accused authorities of placing their leader under virtual house arrest, as tens of thousands of troops were deployed across the country ahead of general elections next month.
(AFP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, Brazilian officials said at least 44 people have died and more than 60,000 have been left homeless following torrential rain in the southeast over the past few weeks.
(AFP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Central African Republic Red Cross workers said they have recovered 44 bodies from the streets of Bangui after inter-religious fighting in the last two days. 2 African Union peacekeepers were shot dead in night time fighting. Assailants also attempted to attack the presidential palace, but were pushed back.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 26, Egypt escalated its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, detaining at least 38 of the group's supporters on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization the day after it was declared one by the government. A bomb exploded in a busy intersection near schools in Cairo, hitting a bus and wounding five people.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In France a surprise strike by Lufthansa workers at the main Paris airport prompted flight cancellations and brought a new headache to holiday travel. Lufthansa said in statement that only two flights were officially canceled, and that travel was resuming in the afternoon.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Guinea a 2-year-old boy in the remote village of Meliandou fell ill with a mysterious illness characterized by fever, black stools, and vomiting. He died 2 days later. He was later identified as patient zero in the current outbreak of Ebola, which was not recognized until March.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meliandou)(Econ, 12/13/14, p.49)
2013 Dec 26, In Iraq a barrage of rockets were fired on Camp Liberty, home to members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, the militant wing of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a Paris-based group opposed to Iran's cleric-led government. 3 residents were killed and over 50 wounded.
(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 26, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe paid his respects at the Yasukuni shrine honoring Japan's war dead in an unexpected visit that drew sharp rebukes from China and South Korea.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, Dozens of Libyan militiamen briefly blocked the entrance to the central bank, demanding the resignation of PM Ali Zeidan.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, A Russian probe into the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said it has found no trace of radioactive poisoning.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, Russian authorities issued visas to seven of 30 members of a Greenpeace ship crew that allow them to leave the country after dropping criminal charges against them over a protest outside an Arctic oil rig.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, A Russian plane crashed in Siberia, killing nine people. The Soviet-built Antonov An-12 plane belonging to an aircraft factory in Novosibirsk was carrying six crew and three others on a flight to another factory in Irkutsk.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Saudi Arabia a 73-year-old man died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 57 the number of deaths in the kingdom at the center of the outbreak.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In South Sudan heavy fighting raged in the key oil-producing north. Neighbors Kenya and Ethiopia said they had made "good progress" in efforts to broker an end to the civil war.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, Thailand's government rejected a call from the Election Commission (EC) to postpone a February vote. Violence erupted when protesters tried to storm a venue where a draw for election ballot numbers was being held and police fired teargas and rubber bullets to keep the rock-throwing crowd back. A policeman was killed and three were wounded by gunshots from an unknown attacker.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Thailand a bus carrying New Year travelers plunged off one of the country’s highest bridges around midnight in the kingdom's northeast, leaving at least 29 people dead.
(AFP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 26, A Turkish prosecutor said he had been prevented from expanding a corruption investigation that has touched the heart of the government, alleging pressure on the judiciary.
(AFP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In eastern Yemen tribesmen seized an oil ministry building in Hadramout province and exchanged gunfire with a pro-government tribe seeking to regain control of the premises.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)
2014 Dec 26, Data from Google's Transparency Report showed online traffic from China to Gmail fell precipitously and dropped to nearly zero on Dec 27. There was a tiny pickup on Dec 29. Tests later showed that China's government had blocked Google IP addresses in Hong Kong used by people on the mainland to access Gmail services.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec 26, Sony's PlayStation network remained offline on the second day of an outage that began roiling the online world just as eager video game players were unwrapping new consoles on Christmas morning.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, International credit and debit card company Visa Inc said it could no longer support bank cards being used in Crimea, following US sanctions imposed earlier this month.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Merla Zellerbach (b.1930), San Francisco philanthropist, author and former journalist, died of pancreatic cancer. Her last days were spent dosed with pain medication.
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A1)
2014 Dec 26, Former Harvard lecturer Stanislaw Baranczak (68), Poland's outstanding poet, translator and dissident, died at his home near Boston, Mass.
(AP, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Ohio a house fire killed a woman and 3 visiting grandsons in Fayette County.
(SFC, 12/27/14, p.A5)
2014 Dec 26, In Afghanistan an airstrike by US-led coalition forces killed 3 Afghan villagers who were "heavily armed" but not part of the Taliban insurgency. Villagers in the remote Ab Josh area of Logar province said the dead were civilians who were protecting their land from nomads. A woman and two men, members of the same family, were killed in southern Helmand province when the motorcycle they were sharing hit a roadside bomb. In Kandahar province 4 members of the intelligence service and a civilian were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Former Belgian PM Leo Tindemans (92), died. His support in European elections earned him the nickname "Mr. Europe."
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted the director of its Azerbaijani service saying that the office has been locked down since early today by prosecutors and armed police.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In China a monk was shot in the arm after police used teargas and opened fire during a clash with Tibetans outside a police station in the western province of Sichuan.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, China said it will increase official aid to Nepal by more than five times from fiscal 2015-16, to develop infrastructure in the landlocked nation.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In India a Japanese research scholar (22) escaped after being held hostage and raped for nearly three weeks near a Buddhist pilgrimage center in Bodh Gaya, Bihar state. By Jan 4 five men were arrested.
(AP, 1/3/15)(AFP, 1/4/15)
2014 Dec 26, Iran said it is to expand what it calls "smart filtering" of the Internet, a policy of censoring undesirable content on websites without banning them completely, as it used to.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, The US-led coalition pounded the Islamic State jihadist group with 31 air strikes, including 16 in Syria with 13 in the flashpoint Syrian town of Kobane and 15 in Iraq.
(AFP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Ireland's second-highest court ruled that life support should be removed from a brain-dead pregnant woman because her living 18-week-old fetus can't survive to birth.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Ivory Coast's former first lady Simone Gbagbo went on trial for "attempting to undermine the security of the state" in events leading to a bloody 2010-2011 crisis that left thousands dead.
(AFP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Mexico City some three thousand people, led by parents and other relatives and friends of missing students, took to the streets three months after the disappearance and likely massacre of 43 students.
(AFP, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Pakistan US drone strikes on two Taliban compound in North Waziristan killed at least 7 militants. Pakistani airstrikes killed 39 militants, including two rebel commanders, in the northwest late today and an ammunition depot was also destroyed. Troops raided a militant hideout in an area adjoining Orakzai and Khyber tribal districts. 16 terrorists were killed and 20 injured. Police said they arrested an important Taliban commander who was wanted for attacks on police and was also involved in killing a local journalist in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AFP, 12/26/14)(AP, 12/26/14)(AFP, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 26, A Palestinian man stabbed and lightly wounded two Israeli paramilitary border policemen at the entrance to Jerusalem's Old City. On Nov 11, 2015, Mussa Ajlouni (20) was jailed for 16 years after pleading guilty in a plea bargain to two counts of attempted murder.
(AP, 12/26/14)(AFP, 11/11/15)
2014 Dec 26, Philippine communist rebels freed two soldiers after four months of captivity as a goodwill gesture prior to a possible resumption of peace talks with the government.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin has signed a new military doctrine, naming NATO expansion among key external risks.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In South Korea 3 workers died after apparently inhaling toxic gas at a construction site for a nuclear plant being built by South Korea's monopoly nuclear power company.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Spain's PM Mariano Rajoy announced minimal increases to the minimum wage and for government-funded pensions and predicted the nation's economy will "take off" in 2015.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In central Sri Lanka at least 9 people were killed and 10 others were missing in mudslides triggered by heavy rains.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Syrian forces killed Mohammed al-Ghazzawi, a former Sidney resident and the latest Australian jihadist to be killed fighting for the Islamic State.
(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.A4)
2014 Dec 26, Ukraine suspended train and bus services to the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula, citing security concerns. A day later an official said the suspension would be temporary. The government and pro-Russian separatists also swapped 145 Ukrainian servicemen for 222 rebel prisoners of war.
(AP, 12/26/14)(Reuters, 12/27/14)(AFP, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Ukraine rebels slightly stepped up their attacks on Ukrainian positions in the east of the country and one Ukrainian servicemen was reported killed in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Vietnam senior Chinese and Vietnamese officials agreed to settle their maritime disputes without resorting to “megaphone diplomacy," during a meeting in Hanoi.
(Reuters, 12/27/14)
2015 Dec 26, The United States and its allies conducted 28 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and five in Syria. Abdul Qader Hakim, who facilitated the militants' external operations and had links to the Nov 13 Paris attack network, was killed in Mosul by a US-led coalition air strike.
(Reuters, 12/27/15)(Reuters, 12/29/15)
2015 Dec 26, Chicago police shot and killed 3 people, including a mother of five who they said was shot "accidentally" when officers responded to a domestic disturbance.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 26, In Texas at least 11 people were killed in the Dallas area from a storm system packing torrential rains and unleashing a string of tornadoes that toppled homes, cut power lines and snarled transport for people returning from the Christmas holidays.
(Reuters, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 26, Britain's Meteorological Office issued two of its most severe weather warnings after days of torrential rain in northern England caused rivers to burst their banks and flood several villages.
(Reuters, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, In Burundi thousands of supporters of the president protested against the African Union's plan to deploy 5,000 peacekeepers to quell the country's escalating unrest.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, Guinea's President Alpha Conde appointed mining executive Mamady Youla as the West African country's new prime minister.
(AP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 26, Israeli policemen shot and killed a Palestinian as he tried to stab them in Jerusalem. A Palestinian motorist rammed his car into a checkpoint and lightly wounded a soldier stationed there. Troops on the scene opened fire at the attacker and seriously wounded him.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, Japanese authorities said that for the first time, an armed Chinese coast guard vessel entered its territorial waters off islands claimed by both countries.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, A Kenyan police official said an Islamic extremist died in the north when a roadside bomb he was planting exploded in Mandera.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, Serbian police arrested 80 people including a former minister on graft charges, stepping up an anti-corruption drive days after opening talks on joining the European Union.
(Reuters, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, Syrian government forces booby trapped a cluster of farm buildings in the southern Daraa province and detonated the explosives as several Islamic rebel factions gathered at the venue, killing 17 militants.
(AP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 26, A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab rebel groups, backed by US coalition planes, captured Tishreen Dam from Islamic State.
(Reuters, 12/26/15)(AFP, 1/2/16)
2015 Dec 26, Yemeni officials said overnight fighting between Shiite rebels and pro-government in southwestern Taiz province has killed 31 people, including 8 civilians. Yemeni loyalists killed at least 20 Iran-backed rebels in a pushback against insurgents seeking to retake positions to the northeast of the capital they control.
(AP, 12/26/15)(AFP, 12/26/15)
2016 Dec 26, In Rhode Island the occupation of a tribal government building by a faction of the Narragansett tribe entered its seventh day. Occupiers included council members who impeached Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and want him to step down.
(SFC, 12/27/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 26, In Afghanistan at least one police officer was killed after a car bomb exploded near the convoy of the deputy provincial police chief of southern Helmand province.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Argentine President Mauricio Macri sacked his finance minister Alfonso Prat-Gay, shaking up his economic team amid a stubborn recession that has made his center-right reforms deeply unpopular.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Bosnia a ban went into effect in Sarajevo on half of the city's cars from driving on city streets in an attempt to ease air pollution.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Brazil Kyriakos Amoiridis (59), the Greek ambassador to Brazil, was last seen. His wife Francoise reported him missing on Dec 28. On Dec 29 his burned-out rental car was found with a body inside. On Dec 30 police said Françoise and police officer Sergio Moreira had arranged and possibly carried out the killing of Amiridis in a home where the diplomat and his wife were staying in a poor section in the northern suburb of Rio as Officer Sergio Moreira (29) confessed that he killed the ambassador.
(AFP, 12/30/16)(Reuters, 12/30/16)(Reuters, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 26, A court in central China jailed Xiao Tian, a former deputy sports minister who once sat on China's Olympics committee for 10 and a half years, after finding him guilty of bribery.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Chinese authorities handed down prison sentences to nine protesters in Wukan, a fishing village that's received international attention for its demonstrations against land seizures.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, China and Sao Tome and Principe officially resumed diplomatic relations in a triumph for Beijing over rival Taiwan after the African island nation abruptly broke away from the self-ruled island last week.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Frenchman Thomas Coville sailed into the Brittany port of Brest completing his sail around the world alone, to set a new world record: 49 days, 3 hours, 7 minutes and 38 seconds.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Germany several hundred peace activists started what they say will be a months-long protest march from Berlin to war-ravaged Syria to urge an end to the fighting there.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Iranian officials said hundreds of thousands of birds have been killed in recent weeks as avian flu spread across seven provinces of the country. State news said 63,000 chickens, along with 800,000 fertilized eggs and day-old chicks, were culled at a farm in Qazvin province in recent days after an outbreak of the deadly H1N8 and H1N5 strains of the disease.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Officials said Japan and the US have agreed in principle on guidelines for limiting immunity from Japanese prosecution for civilian workers at American military bases, following a murder case this year on a southern Japanese island involving a Marine-turned-contractor.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe stopped at several memorials in Hawaii, one day before he visits the site of the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor during a trip intended to show a strong alliance between his country and the United States.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, A Kuwaiti criminal court sentenced a Filipina to 10 years in prison for pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, Forces loyal to Libya's eastern government carried out an air strike against opponents in the central Jufra region.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Hundreds of Mongolians braved frigid weather to stage a protest in the country's capital demanding that the government do more to address worsening air pollution that they fear is sickening their children and shortening their lives.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Nigerian troops foiled an attempt by two female suicide bombers to attack a cattle market in the restive city of Maiduguri. One of the bombers was killed, while the other was arrested.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Oman an appeals court lifted a ban on the Azamn (al-Zaman) newspaper which was forced to close in August after it published an article alleging government corruption. The court also decided to acquit journalist Zaher al-Abri and reduced prison sentences handed down by a lower court to editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Maamari and his deputy Yousef al-Haj.
(AFP, 12/26/16)(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Typhoon Nock-ten blew out of the northern Philippines after killing at least six people and spoiling Christmas in several provinces, where more than 380,000 people abandoned celebrations at home to reach emergency shelters and other safer grounds.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In the Philippines 18 crewmen were missing from the cargo ship M/V Starlite Atlantic after it sank at the height of Typhoon Nock-Ten. 14 other crewmen were rescued and one died after the ship sank off Mabini town in Batangas province.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops have found mass graves in Syria’s Aleppo with bodies showing signs of torture and mutilation.
(SFC, 12/27/16, p.A3)
2016 Dec 26, Saudi Arabia’s interior minister said more than 2,000 Saudis are fighting abroad with jihadist groups, with over 70 percent of them in Syria.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Serbian authorities arrested three men on suspicion of people trafficking after 77 migrants were found hidden in cargo vehicles.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Syria a US coalition airstrike killed Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti, a member of Islamic State's war committee, by the Tabqa Dam, a strategic objective in Raqqa city.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 26, Thailand said police have detained nine people suspected of hacking government websites to protest against amendments to a cyber security law that critics say strengthens the authorities' oversight of the internet.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2017 Dec 26, A suspected US drone attack along the Pakistani-Afghan border killed an Islamist militant commander from the Taliban-allied Haqqani Network.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, The US Treasury Department issued sanctions against two officials it describes as "key leaders of North Korea's unlawful weapons programs." The sanctions against Kim Jong Sik and Ri Pyong Chol block them from any property or interests in property within US jurisdiction, and prohibit them from transactions with American citizens.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Police in New York arrested a father (55) and his two sons (22 and 18) who had $25 million worth of counterfeit designer accessories in their possession. The knockoff Chinese merchandise was shipped to Kennedy Airport before being distributed to street vendors.
(AP, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 26, In upstate New York two women and two children were found dead in their apartment in Troy. Two men from Schenectady were soon arrested.
(SSFC, 12/31/17, p.A7)
2017 Dec 26, Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen (43), imprisoned for making a short documentary about Tibetan opposition to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, managed to flee China and arrived in San Francisco.
(SFC, 12/29/17, p.D1)
2017 Dec 26, In Afghanistan four border police officers were killed after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Faryab province. Five people were killed in Ghazni province.
(SFC, 12/27/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 26, In Afghanistan at least five coal miners were killed in a tunnel collapse in northern Samangan province. One miner remained missing.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Angola’s Russian-built AngoSat 1 satellite successfully entered orbit after launch from the Baikonur pad in Kazakhstan, but experts couldn't immediately establish contact. By Dec. 29 state-run Energia company engineers established communications with the craft and received data indicating that all its systems are operating properly.
(AP, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 26, China published its first "green development" index, listing regional governments which promote environmentally friendly development, with Beijing coming out top, though it came second-to-last in a survey of public satisfaction.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed that China did not export any gasoline, jet fuel, diesel or fuel oil to North Korea last month.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Prominent Chinese activist Wu Gan, who called himself the Ultra Vulgar Butcher as he mocked and pressured Chinese officials, was given an eight-year prison sentence for subversion.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, The state-run China Youth Daily reported that local officials in northern Shandong province have used fake data to help aluminum and steel producers avoid mandatory production curbs. The report cited a Ministry of Environmental Protection inspection team.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Dominican Republic authorities said at least a dozen people have died and 21 more hospitalized after drinking homemade liquor containing methanol.
(SFC, 12/27/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 26, Egypt hanged 15 men convicted of attacks that killed security forces in the Sinai Peninsula, in what appeared to be the largest number of executions on a single day since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office in 2014.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported the acquittal of Ismail Serrag el-Din, the founding director of the new Library of Alexandria, overturning a three-and-a-half year sentence on charges of squandering public funds.
(AP, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 26, An Egyptian court convicted a British woman Laura Plummer (33) of smuggling hundreds of powerful painkillers into the country, sentencing her to three years in prison. She has insisted the Tramadol tablets were for her Egyptian partner, who suffers chronic back pain.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, In Kosovo a non-governmental organization has hung hundreds of ties from the fence outside a government building to protest a pay raise for PM Ramush Haradinaj, who has said in TV interviews that he needs the money for new ties and shirts. Last week, Haradinaj's Cabinet decided to double his salary to 2,950 euros ($3,497) a month before taxes. The average salary in the country is 354 euros a month ($420).
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Kuwait’s interior ministry said five government employees have been arrested accused of posting a video on social media considered offensive to the Gulf state's crown prince.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Liberia held elections in a delayed run-off vote for the country's presidency. Former int’l footballer George Weah (51) and Vice-President Joseph Boakai joined voters in casting their ballots as they went head-to-head for the top office. George Weah easily beat Vice President Joseph Boakai gaining 61.5 percent of the ballot against 38.5 percent for his rival and winning in 14 of Liberia's 15 counties.
(AFP, 12/26/17)(AFP, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 26, Libyan oil firm Waha Oil stopped pumping crude to the Es Sider terminal after a feeder pipeline was blown up.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Mexico's central bank said it will bolster the peso amid concerns US tax changes could reduce investment flows to Mexico.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Myanmar police said they would drop pending charges against two journalists working for Turkey's state broadcaster, their interpreter and driver, who were jailed in November for violating an aircraft law by filming with a drone.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Russia’s defense minister said it has started establishing a permanent military presence at naval and air bases in Syria, as parliament ratified a deal with Damascus to cement Russian presence in the country.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Saudi Arabia hosted a world chess tournament for the first time, nearly two years after the country's top cleric issued a religious edict against playing the board game. Players from Israel and Qatar missed the tournament due to regional tensions.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Saudi Arabia’s Okaz newspaper reported that authorities have released 23 of the 200-or-so powerful individuals detained since November on corruption charges after they reached deals with the government.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Sudan's foreign minister said Turkey will rebuild the ruined Ottoman port city of Suakin on Sudan's Red Sea coast and construct a naval dock to maintain civilian and military vessels. The restoration was agreed during a visit to the ancient port by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Syria's government began to allow the evacuation of nearly 30 critically ill people from a besieged Damascus suburb, where hundreds requiring medical treatment have been prevented from reaching hospitals minutes away. At least five detainees were evacuated from eastern Ghouta late today.
(AP, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 26, It was reported that over the last year Venezuela's currency has weakened 97.5 per cent against the greenback, meaning $1,000 of local currency purchased then would be worth just $25 now.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, In Yemen air strikes hit a crowded market in Al Hayma sub-district of Attazziah in Taiz governorate, killing 54 and injuring 32.
(Reuters, 12/28/17)
2018 Dec 26, Pres. Donald Trump slipped into Iraq to greet US service members and show that his norm-busting presidency would hew at least to this tradition. He did not meet Iraqi officials while there but spoke on the phone with PM Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
(AP, 12/27/18)
2018 Dec 26, US Customs and Border Protection ordered medical checks on every child in its custody after Agustin Gomez (8) of Guatemala died a day earlier, marking the second death of an immigrant child in the agency's care this month.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, The Dow Jones industrial average jumped more than 1,000 points, its biggest point gain ever, as Wall Street had its best day in 10 years.
(SFC, 12/27/18, p.D1)
2018 Dec 26, In central California police Cpl. Ronil Singh (33) was shot and killed a few minutes after radioing in that he was pulling over a gray pickup truck that had no license plate in Newman. Gustavo Perez Arriaga was captured in Bakersfield on Dec. 28 after a manhunt following Singh's killing. Seven other people were soon arrested on suspicion of helping Perez Arriaga, including his girlfriend and two of his brothers. On Nov. 5, 2020, Paulo Virgen Mendoza, a Mexican immigrant in the country illegally, admitted to shooting Singh.
(AP, 12/27/18)(AP, 12/29/18)(AP, 11/5/20)
2018 Dec 26, Al Hinkle (b.1926), an original member of the Beat Generation, died in Los Gatos, Ca. He was a friend of Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassidy and accompanied them on their 1949 cross-country road trip that became the focus of Kerouac's "On the Road" (1957).
(SSFC, 12/30/18, DB p.50)
2018 Dec 26, Nancy Grace Roman (b.1925), NASA's first chief of astronomy, died in Germantown, Maryland. She took part in the development of the cosmic Background Explorer, launched in 1989, and oversaw the early development of the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Roman)(SFC, 1/2/19, p.C5)
2018 Dec 26, Colin O'Brady (33) of Portland, Oregon, completed a 932-mile trek across Antarctica to become the first prson to traverse the continent without any assistance.
(SFC, 12/28/18, p.A4)
2018 Dec 26, Albania's Defense Ministry said it has extended for a year its navy's participation in the search-and-rescue operations of the EU border control force Frontex.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Albania's government said it has fulfilled the demands of public university students, who boycotted classes for more than two weeks this month.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Argentine police said an Argentine woman kidnapped 32 years ago as a teenager has been found alive and well in Bolivia following a joint investigation between the two countries. Police liberated the woman (45) and her son.
(AFP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Sister Wendy Beckett (b.1930), a nun who became a BBC art critic star (1991-1996), died in East Harling, England. Her work included 15 books on art and religion and another ten of poetry and meditations.
(SFC, 12/27/18, p.C4)
2018 Dec 26, In Burkina Faso gunmen late today killed 10 gendarmes in Loroni village near the Malian border.
(Reuters, 12/28/18)
2018 Dec 26, Chinese police detained Qiu Zhanxuan, a well-known Marxist, at Peking University as he went to attend a memorial for the 125th anniversary of Mao Zedong's birthday that he organized.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, CongoDRC's national electoral commission (CENI) said an Ebola outbreak - the second-worst in history - was behind the postponement of voting until March in the eastern cities of Beni and Butembo and surrounding areas. It cited ethnic violence for the same delay in the western city of Yumbi.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Eritrea partially closed two border crossings with Ethiopia that opened this year after the former East African rivals made peace and restored relations. Only Ethiopians faced the restrictions.
(AP, 12/28/18)
2018 Dec 26, A legal source said French judges have dropped their long-running investigation into the deadly 1994 attack on former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, which sparked the country's genocide.
(AFP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Sea-Watch 3, a private rescue boat operated by a German humanitarian group, continued its appeal for a safe port. It has tweeted that 33 migrants were rescued from waters off Libya on Dec. 22.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Israel's army said it had located a fifth Hezbollah attack tunnel crossing into its territory from Lebanon and destroyed it with explosives.
(AFP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, It was reported that Israeli authorities have advanced plans for nearly 2,200 settlement homes in the occupied West Bank.
(AFP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, An Israeli official confirmed overnight attacks on several targets in Syria involved in Iranian arms transfers to the Hezbollah militant group.
(SFC, 12/27/18, p.A2)
2018 Dec 26, Japan announced that it is leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunts for the animals for the first time in 30 years, but said it would no longer go to the Antarctic for its much-criticized annual killings.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, In Nigeria militants attacked a military base late today in Baga, in eastern Borno state. 10 people were killed and clashes were continued as the militants tried to capture the town. The attacks in the Baga-Kawa area caused more than 6,357 people to flee east into Chad and some 20,000 others to flee to safety within Nigeria.
(Reuters, 12/28/18)(Reuters, 1/18/19)
2018 Dec 26, North and South Korea broke ground on an ambitious project to modernize North Korean railways and roads and connect them with the South, but without progress in nuclear negotiations, regular trains won't be crossing the border anytime soon.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Pakistani journalists, who have taken on military dictators and been beaten and jailed in the pursuit of a free press, said they now face a form of censorship that is more subtle but no less chilling, one spearheaded by the security services.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, It was reported that Qatar has airlifted 24 armored vehicles to Mali, in a move it said would help the countries of the African Sahel region combat terrorism.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, The Russian government approved a draft bill allowing the country to produce crops used in medicinal narcotics, saying this would reduce its dependence on foreign states that have imposed sanctions against it.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Russian blogger Alexander Valov, critical of the authorities in Sochi, was sentenced to six years in prison. He was charged earlier this year with extorting money from federal lawmaker Yuri Napso.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported that a Russian court has sentenced Igor Kiyashko, a Ukrainian lawyer, to eight years in a maximum security prison for espionage and trying to illegally obtain and export military goods.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, A magnitude 4.8 earthquake triggered by Mount Etna's eruption jolted eastern Sicily before dawn, injuring at least 10 people.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, In northern Syria torrential rains washed away hundreds of tents in camps sheltering displaced Syrians as residents pleaded for help.
(AFP, 12/28/18)
2018 Dec 26, Tunisian authorities said 18 people have been arrested during protests that erupted after the death of a journalist who set himself on fire to protest economic problems in the North African nation.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced an end to the 30-day martial law imposed after Russia seized Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2019 Dec 26, Broadway composer Jerry Herman (b.1931) died in Miami. His shows included "Milk and Honey" (1961), "Hello Dolly" (1964), "Mame" (1966) and "la Cage aux Folles" (1983).
(SSFC, 12/29/19, p.B3)
2019 Dec 26, In Hawaii a tour helicopter with seven people aboard disappeared. A search was underway in weather conditions described as challenging. The Eurocopter AS350 helicopter had taken off from the town of Lihue for a tour of Kauai's Na Pali Coast. The remains of six of the people on board were found the next day.
(AP, 12/27/19)(AP, 12/28/19)
2019 Dec 26, Ohio Dr. William Husel, accused of ordering drug overdoses in the deaths of 25 hospital patients, sued his former employer (the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System and its parent organization, Trinity Health Corp.) for defamation, arguing that he did nothing wrong and did not deviate from hospital policy on end-of-life care.
(AP, 12/28/19)
2019 Dec 26, US stocks rose higher with the Nasdaq topping 9,000 for the first time, closing at 9,022.39. The DJIA rose 105.94 to a record 28,621.94. The S&P 500 rose 16.53 to a record 3,239.91.
(SFC, 12/27/19, p.D1)
2019 Dec 26, In northern Afghanistan a powerful suicide car bombing targeted an Afghan army compound in Balkh province, killing six Afghan soldiers. A roadside bombing struck a police patrol in eastern Khost province, wounding at least five policemen.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Burundi’s Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza (55) again indicated he will not run for another term next year in the politically volatile East African nation.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Iraqi President Barham Saleh refused to designate the Iran-backed parliamentary bloc's nominee for prime minister after he was rejected by anti-government protesters, saying he was prepared to submit his resignation to Parliament.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Japan executed its first foreigner in 10 years, a Chinese man convicted in the 2003 murder and robbery of a family of four.
(SFC, 12/27/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 26, In Lebanon a storm dubbed "Loulou," lashed the country causing flooding and landslides in some parts, while the first heavy snow fell on the mountains, forcing some road closures.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Mexican authorities ordered the temporary closure of a shelter housing Central American migrants sent to Mexico from the United States following an outbreak of chicken pox. 72 people, including 69 children, were diagnosed with the virus.
(AP, 12/28/19)
2019 Dec 26, Moroccan authorities sentenced a Youtuber who criticized the king to prison, and detained a journalist-activist who defended anti-government protesters in a tweet.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2019 Dec 26, In eastern Pakistan five al-Qaida operatives were arrested in a raid late today. The raid in Punjab province was carried out in collaboration with the country's top intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2019 Dec 26, The organizers of the weekly Palestinian demonstrations along the Gaza Strip's frontier with Israel said that they will significantly scale down the gatherings early next year.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Russian security officials searched the offices of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption foundation, with his team calling the raid a new bid to disrupt their work. Masked police dragged away opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
(AFP, 12/26/19)(Bloomberg, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Russia's Ministry of Communications announced that it has successfully tested a countrywide alternative to the internet. The government's "sovereign internet" law, which allows content to be blocked in an "emergency situation," took effect in November, and Pres. Vladimir Putin recently signed a law that bans the sale of devices without pre-installed Russian apps.
(Endgadget, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, A bus crash in southwestern Russia killed two people and injured eight others near the village of Yarkino in the Lipetsk region.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Turkey's president said that the UN-supported government in Libya has asked Ankara to send troops to help authorities in Tripoli defend the city from an offensive by rival forces.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported that the Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of Wikipedia, saying the Turkish government's two-year ban on the online encyclopedia constitutes a violation of freedom of expression. Turkey blocked Wikipedia in April 2017, accusing it of being part of a “smear campaign" against the country.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, In eastern Turkey a boat carrying migrants capsized in Lake Van, killing seven people on board. At least 64 migrants were rescued.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, The UN reported that more than 100,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured over the past decade, as it renewed calls to end the bloody 18-year conflict.
(AFP, 12/26/19)
2020 Dec 26, Expanded unemployment benefits for around 14 million Americans were set to expire today, as President Trump continued to hold off on signing Congress' $900 billion COVID-19 pandemic relief bill.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, California to date had 2,048,213 cases of coronavirus and 23,990 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 238,738 cases and 2,415 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 18,680,653 with the death toll at 329,355.
(sfist.com, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Illinois a gunman opened fire inside a bowling alley in Rockford, killing three people and injuring three others late today in what authorities believe was a random attack. Green Beret suspect Duke Webb (37) was in custody after the shooting at Don Carter Lanes. 35 people have been killed in the city this year, breaking the previous record of 31 in 1996.
(AP, 12/26/20)(NBC News, 12/27/20)(CBS News, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Massachusetts two male teenagers (15&16) and two female teenagers (15&16) threw bricks at moving cars in Worcester severely injuring one man who was struck in the face by a brick that went through his windshield. The teens faced charges including aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
(SFC, 12/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 26, Black astrophysicist George Carruthers (81) died in Washington, DC. He developed a telescope that went to the moon on Apollo 16, producing images of Earth’s outermost atmosphere, stars and galaxies.
(NY Times, 1/23/21)
2020 Dec 26, The Center for Economics and Business Research predicted that China is on course to overtake the United States as the world's biggest economy by 2028.
(The Week, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Afghanistan at least four people, including two police officers, were killed in a series of explosions in Kabul.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Bosnia hundreds of migrants were stranded in a burned-out squalid tent camp as heavy snow fell in the country and temperatures suddenly dropped amid a wintry spell of bad weather.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Brazil registered 307 new COVID-19 deaths, and 17,246 new cases of coronavirus. Brazil now has nearly 7.5 million confirmed cases and 190,795 deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Cases of a new coronavirus variant recently identified in the UK continue to be found in European countries. Spain and France confirmed their first infections of the variant today, while Italy, Denmark, and the Netherlands have reported cases in recent days. It has also been found in Australia, Singapore, and Japan.
(BBC, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, summoned Ant executives and ordered them to formulate a rectification plan and an implementation timetable of its business.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, Mainland China recorded 22 new COVID-19 cases, up from 20 cases the previous day.
(Reuters, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Egypt an intensive care unit at a hospital in the greater Cairo area caught fire, killing seven coronavirus patients.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Hundreds of Israelis protested against PM Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on the long-serving leader to resign just days after the country was plunged into a new national election.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Israeli aircraft struck several sites in the Gaza Strip early today after Palestinian militants fired two rockets toward southern Israel.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Archaeologists in Pompeii, the city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, unveiled a frescoed hot food and drinks shop that served up the ancient equivalent of street food to Roman passersby. Pompeii was home to about 13,000 people when it was buried under ash, pumice pebbles.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Japan registered a record 3,881 infections including a new record for the capital, Tokyo, of 949.
(BBC, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 26, In northern Lebanon more than 300 Syrian refugees were forced to flee an informal camp as a blaze raged through and burned tents to the ground.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, Mexico's health ministry reported 4,974 confirmed coronavirus infection and 189 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total to 1,377,217 cases and 122,026 deaths. The government said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than reported cases.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Montenegro Airlines ceased its operations after the small country’s new government refused to continue financing the indebted national carrier. The government said it plans to form a “completely new" airline in the months to come.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Russia the total number of cases of coronavirus infections crossed the 3 million mark for the first time after officials recorded 29,258 new cases in the preceding 24 hours and 567 deaths. Total cases rose to 3,021,964.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, George Blake (98), a former British intelligence officer who worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union and passed some of the most coveted Western secrets to Moscow, died in Russia. A Polish defector exposed Blake as a Soviet spy in 1961. He was convicted on spying charges in Britain and sentenced to 42 years in prison. Blake has lived in Russia since his daring escape from a British prison in 1966 and was given the rank of Russian intelligence colonel.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Sudan said it has taken control of most of the land it accuses Ethiopians of encroaching upon near the border between the two countries.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Sudan Ezzel-Din Ali Hamed (22) died a day after his release from police custody in Omdurman. He had arrested on Dec. 17 as part of an investigation into charges of robbery. Security officers implicated in Hamed’s arrest and death were being detained and investigated.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, The Swedish Health Agency said that the new variant of coronavirus linked to a rapid rise in infections in Britain has been detected in Sweden after a traveler from the UK became ill and tested positive.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Thai protesters demonstrated to demand more action to help seafood sellers hit by a COVID-19 outbreak as the government urged people to eat more shellfish.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Uganda suspended all campaigning for January's presidential poll in the capital and 10 populous districts, citing coronavirus risks, but critics said the real reason was the opposition's popularity in these areas.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Expanded unemployment benefits for around 14 million Americans were set to expire today, as President Trump continued to hold off on signing Congress' $900 billion COVID-19 pandemic relief bill.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, California to date had 2,048,213 cases of coronavirus and 23,990 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 238,738 cases and 2,415 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 18,680,653 with the death toll at 329,355.
(sfist.com, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Illinois a gunman opened fire inside a bowling alley in Rockford, killing three people and injuring three others late today in what authorities believe was a random attack. Green Beret suspect Duke Webb (37) was in custody after the shooting at Don Carter Lanes. 35 people have been killed in the city this year, breaking the previous record of 31 in 1996.
(AP, 12/26/20)(NBC News, 12/27/20)(CBS News, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Massachusetts two male teenagers (15&16) and two female teenagers (15&16) threw bricks at moving cars in Worcester severely injuring one man who was struck in the face by a brick that went through his windshield. The teens faced charges including aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
(SFC, 12/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 26, Black astrophysicist George Carruthers (81) died in Washington, DC. He developed a telescope that went to the moon on Apollo 16, producing images of Earth’s outermost atmosphere, stars and galaxies.
(NY Times, 1/23/21)
2020 Dec 26, The Center for Economics and Business Research predicted that China is on course to overtake the United States as the world's biggest economy by 2028.
(The Week, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Afghanistan at least four people, including two police officers, were killed in a series of explosions in Kabul.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Bosnia hundreds of migrants were stranded in a burned-out squalid tent camp as heavy snow fell in the country and temperatures suddenly dropped amid a wintry spell of bad weather.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Brazil registered 307 new COVID-19 deaths, and 17,246 new cases of coronavirus. Brazil now has nearly 7.5 million confirmed cases and 190,795 deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Cases of a new coronavirus variant recently identified in the UK continue to be found in European countries. Spain and France confirmed their first infections of the variant today, while Italy, Denmark, and the Netherlands have reported cases in recent days. It has also been found in Australia, Singapore, and Japan.
(BBC, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, summoned Ant executives and ordered them to formulate a rectification plan and an implementation timetable of its business.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, Mainland China recorded 22 new COVID-19 cases, up from 20 cases the previous day.
(Reuters, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Egypt an intensive care unit at a hospital in the greater Cairo area caught fire, killing seven coronavirus patients.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Hundreds of Israelis protested against PM Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on the long-serving leader to resign just days after the country was plunged into a new national election.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Israeli aircraft struck several sites in the Gaza Strip early today after Palestinian militants fired two rockets toward southern Israel.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Archaeologists in Pompeii, the city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, unveiled a frescoed hot food and drinks shop that served up the ancient equivalent of street food to Roman passersby. Pompeii was home to about 13,000 people when it was buried under ash, pumice pebbles.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Japan registered a record 3,881 infections including a new record for the capital, Tokyo, of 949.
(BBC, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 26, In northern Lebanon a scuffle broke out between Syrian refugees and residents of Bhanine. More than 300 Syrian refugees were forced to flee an informal camp as a blaze raged through and burned tents to the ground.
(AP, 12/27/20)(Econ., 1/9/21, p.40)
2020 Dec 26, Mexico's health ministry reported 4,974 confirmed coronavirus infection and 189 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total to 1,377,217 cases and 122,026 deaths. The government said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than reported cases.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Montenegro Airlines ceased its operations after the small country’s new government refused to continue financing the indebted national carrier. The government said it plans to form a “completely new" airline in the months to come.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Russia the total number of cases of coronavirus infections crossed the 3 million mark for the first time after officials recorded 29,258 new cases in the preceding 24 hours and 567 deaths. Total cases rose to 3,021,964.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, George Blake (98), a former British intelligence officer who worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union and passed some of the most coveted Western secrets to Moscow, died in Russia. A Polish defector exposed Blake as a Soviet spy in 1961. He was convicted on spying charges in Britain and sentenced to 42 years in prison. Blake has lived in Russia since his daring escape from a British prison in 1966 and was given the rank of Russian intelligence colonel.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Sudan said it has taken control of most of the land it accuses Ethiopians of encroaching upon near the border between the two countries.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Sudan Ezzel-Din Ali Hamed (22) died a day after his release from police custody in Omdurman. He had arrested on Dec. 17 as part of an investigation into charges of robbery. Security officers implicated in Hamed’s arrest and death were being detained and investigated.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, The Swedish Health Agency said that the new variant of coronavirus linked to a rapid rise in infections in Britain has been detected in Sweden after a traveler from the UK became ill and tested positive.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Thai protesters demonstrated to demand more action to help seafood sellers hit by a COVID-19 outbreak as the government urged people to eat more shellfish.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Uganda suspended all campaigning for January's presidential poll in the capital and 10 populous districts, citing coronavirus risks, but critics said the real reason was the opposition's popularity in these areas.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to December 27
Return to home
Boxing Day Only recently an official holiday, Boxing Day is celebrated in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, as well as other countries in the British Commonwealth. Although the tradition does appear to have arisen in Britain, falls on the Feast Day of St. Stephen and involves gift-giving to the less fortunate, its exact origins are the subject of debate among historians and folklorists. One explanation: December 26 was the traditional day to open alms boxes-placed in churches during the holidays-and distribute the contributions to the poor. Another origin may be when lords and ladies distributing Christmas gifts in boxes to servants on their estate, a custom which continued to include gift-giving to postal carriers and other service employees. It has often been a day of outdoor sports such as horse racing and hunting and also a time for family gatherings.
(HNQ, 12/26/00)
For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
268 Dec 26, Dionysius, bishop of Rome and saint, died. He served as Pope from 259 until his death.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Dionysius)
1194 Dec 26, Frederick II, German Emperor (1212-1250) and King of Sicily, was born in Lesi, Italy.
(HN, 12/26/98)(MC, 12/26/01)
1476 Dec 26, Galeazzo Maria Sforza (Il Sforza del Destino), duke of Milan, was murdered.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1530 Dec 26, (OS) Zahir al-Din Mohammed Babur Shah (47), founder Moguls dynasty (India), died. Babur left power to his son Humayun, who built a royal city called Purana Qila that is part of Delhi today. His memoirs, known as the Baburnama, are considered the first true autobiography in Islamic literature. The first English translation was made in 1922 by Annette Beveridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babur)(Econ, 12/18/10, p.80)
1716 Dec 26, Thomas Gray, poet, was born: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: “The paths of glory lead but to the grave."; also: “...where ignorance is bliss/’Tis folly to be wise."
(440.com)
1770 Dec 26, Pierre earl de Cambronne, French general (Waterloo, Elba), was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1771 Dec 26, Claude A. Helvétius (56), French encyclopedist (L'esprit), died.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1773 Dec 26, Expulsion of tea ships from Philadelphia.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1776 Dec 26, The British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the Revolutionary War. After crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey, George Washington led an attack on Hessian mercenaries and took 900 men prisoner. Two Americans froze to death on the march but none died in battle. There were 30 German casualties, 1,000 prisoners and 6 cannon captured. Four Americans were wounded in the overwhelming American victory, while 22 Hessians were killed and 78 wounded. The surprise attack caught most of the 1,200 Hessian soldiers at Trenton sleeping after a day of Christmas celebration. The Americans captured 918 Hessians, who were taken as prisoners to Philadelphia. The victory was a huge morale booster for the American army and the country. The victory at Trenton was a huge success and morale booster for the American army and people. However, the enlistments of more than 4,500 of Washington’s soldiers were set to end four days later and it was critical that the force remain intact. General George Washington offered a bounty of $10 to any of his soldiers who extended their enlistments six weeks beyond their December 31, 1776, expiration dates. The American Revolution Battle of Trenton saw the routing of 1,400 Hessian mercenaries, with 101 killed or wounded and about 900 taken prisoner, with no Americans killed in the combat. Four Americans were wounded and two had died of exhaustion en route to Trenton.
(AP, 12/26/97)(HN, 12/26/98)(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A3)(HNQ, 3/20/99)(HNQ, 4/11/99)(HNQ, 12/26/99)
1778 Dec 26, Juan Lovera, artist, was born: ‘artist of independence’: originator of Venezuelan historical painting: paintings commemorate Venezuela’s independence dates.
(440.com)
1785 Dec 26, Laurent Clerc, teacher, was born: 1st deaf teacher in U.S., helped establish American School for the Deaf in Connecticut.
(440.com)
1786 Dec 26, Daniel Shays led a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt. Shays was a Revolutionary War veteran who led a short-lived insurrection in western Massachusetts to protest a tax increase that had to be paid in cash, a hardship for veteran farmers who relied on barter and didn‘t own enough land to vote. The taxes were to pay off the debts from the Revolutionary War, and those who couldn‘t pay were evicted or sent to prison. [see Jan 25, 1787]
(HN, 12/26/98)(HNQ, 7/6/00)
1792 Dec 26, Charles Babbage (d.1871), English inventor of the calculating machine, was born.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1799 Dec 26, The late George Washington was eulogized by Col. Henry Lee as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
(AP, 12/26/97)
1806 Dec 26, Napoleon’s army was checked by the Russians at the Battle of Pultusk.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1822 Dec 26, Dion Boucicault, Irish-US actor and playwright (Rip van Winkle), was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1826 Dec 26, Franz Coenen, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1830 Dec 26, Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Anna Bolena," premiered in Milan.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1831 Dec 26, Vincenzo Bellini's opera "Norma," premiered at La Scala in Milan.
(www.musicabona.com/bellini_vincenzo/13853/cd/index.html.en)
1837 Dec 26, George Dewey, Admiral of the Navy, was born: Spanish-American War: hero of Manila: “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley."
(440.com)
1848 Dec 26, The 1st California-bound gold seekers arrived in Panama enroute to SF.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1854 Dec 26, Wood pulp paper was 1st exhibited in Buffalo.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1860 Dec 26, Major Robert Anderson, under cover of darkness, concentrated his small federal force at Ft. Sumter, SC.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1861 Dec 26, Friedrich Engel, German mathematician (group theory), was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1862 Dec 26, In Minnesota 38 Santee Sioux were hanged in Mankato for their part in the Sioux Uprising. This marked the end of the US-Dakota War. In 2012 a memorial was unveiled for the 38 hanged men, the largest mass execution in US history.
(HN, 12/26/98)(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A8)
1862 Dec 26-28, Battle of Dumfries, Va.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1865 Dec 26, James H. Nason (Mason) of Franklin, Mass., received a patent for a coffee percolator.
(AP, 12/26/97)(MC, 12/26/01)
1866 Dec 26, In San Francisco Lazarus Moses was fined $300 for selling goods stolen by the Hoodlum gang.
(http://www.frederickbee.com/faginfine.pdf)
1866 Dec 26, Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, head of the Department of the Platte received word of the Dec 21 Fetterman Fight in Powder River County in the Dakota territory.
(HN, 12/26/99)
1872 Dec 26, The 4th largest snowfall in NYC history reached 18 inches.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1878 Dec 26, The 1st US store to install electric lights was in Philadelphia.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1879 Dec 26, The "Tragic Overture" by Johannes Brahms premiered.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1890 Dec 26, Heinrich Schliemann (86), German businessman and archaeologist, died. He excavated the site of ancient Troy in 1870-1871.
(NH, 4/96, p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Schliemann)
1891 Dec 26, Henry Miller (d.1980), American writer, was born. His work included "Tropic of Cancer" and "Tropic of Capricorn". “Until we lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves." “Like ships, men founder time and again."
(AP, 3/16/97)(AP, 5/2/98)(HN, 12/26/98)
1893 Dec 26, Mao Tse-tung, founding father of the People’s Republic of China (PM 1949-76), was born in Shaoshan.
(HFA, ‘96, p.44)(HN, 12/26/98)(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A12)
1894 Dec 26, Antonio Molina, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1908 Dec 26, Jack Johnson (1878-1946) of Texas knocked out Tommy Burns in Australia to become the 1st black world heavyweight boxing champion. He was not officially given the title until 1910 when he beat Jim Jeffries in Las Vegas. In 1913 Johnson fled the US because of trumped up charges of violating the Mann Act's stipulations against transporting white women across state lines for prostitution. Johnson held the title until 1915. In 1920 he returned to the US, was arrested and served a one year sentence in Leavenworth in Kansas, where he was appointed athletic director of the prison.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_(boxer))(ON, 4/09, p.7)
1914 Dec 26, Richard Widmark, actor, was born: Judgment at Nuremberg, Murder on the Orient Express, The Halls of Montezuma, How the West was Won, The Alamo, Against All Odds, True Colors.
(440.com)
1917 Dec 26, Rosemary Woods, Pres. Nixon's secretary, was born.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1917 Dec 26, As a wartime measure, President Wilson placed railroads under government control, with Secretary of War William McAdoo as director general.
(AP, 12/26/97)(HN, 12/26/98)
1921 Dec 26, Steve Allen comedian, author, musician, composer, TV host, was born: The Tonight Show, The Steve Allen Show; films: The Benny Goodman Story, cameo with wife Jayne Meadows: Casino.
(440.com)
1925 Dec 26, Six U.S. destroyers were ordered from Manila to China to protect interests in the civil war that was being waged there.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1931 Dec 26, The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical play “Of Thee I Sing" opened on Broadway.
(AP, 12/26/01)
1932 Dec 26, Some 70,000 were killed in a massive earthquake in Kansu, China.
(HN, 12/26/98)(www.disaster-management.net/earthqu1.htm)
1936 Dec 26, The Palestine Orchestra was formed. It grew to become the Israeli Philharmonic.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.E1)(MC, 12/26/01)
1939 Dec 26-27, In Turkey a series of vicious earthquakes in Erzincan province, magnitude 7.9, took some 33,000 lives in Turkey.
(HN, 12/27/98)(MC, 12/27/01)(SFEC, 8/22/99, p.A17)(AP, 6/22/02)
1940 Dec 26, J.A. Fields' and J. Chodorov's "My Sister Eileen," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1941 Dec 26, Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.
(AP, 12/26/97)
1941 Dec 26, General Douglas MacArthur declared Manila an open city in the face of the onrushing Japanese Army.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1943 Dec 26, Count Claus von Stauffenberg tried in vain to plant a bomb in Hitler’s headquarters.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1943 Dec 26, The 32,000-ton German battleship Scharnhorst sank off Norway following an Allied attack led by the British battleship Duke of York. Only 36 of the 1,900 crew survived. Researchers found the wreck in 2000.
(CMW, 1968, p.589)(HN, 12/26/98)(SFC, 10/4/00, p.A12)
1944 Dec 26, Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago.
(AP, 12/26/97)
1944 Dec 26, In the World War II Battle of the Bulge, the embattled U.S. 101st Airborne Division was relieved by units of the 4th Armored Division. The Battle of the Bulge was the final major German counter-offensive of the war and thrust deep into allied territory in N & E Belgium and Luxembourg. US Gen Patton's tanks repulsed the Germans. Jimmy Hendrix (19) captured 13 Germans in two 88-mm gun batteries and rescued 3 Americans under enemy fire. Hendrix (d.2002 later awarded the Medal of Honor.
(WUD, 1994, p.195)(SFC, 9/1/96, T3)(AP, 12/26/97)(MC, 12/26/01)(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A25)
1944 Dec 26, In Italy two platoons of the segregated 92nd Infantry Division fought the German 14th Army at Sommocolonia. Of 70 “Buffalo Soldiers" and 25 Italian Partisans only 18 survived. In 1977 Lt. John Fox and 6 other black Americans were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. By the end of the war 2,916 Buffalo soldiers fell breaking the Gothic Line.
(SFC, 7/13/00, p.A15)(Ind, 1/11/03, 5A)
1944 Dec 26, In Slovakia American OSS personnel were captured in a surprise raid by a German intelligence unit. Slovak agent Maria Gulovich (1921-2009) helped 2 American and 2 British agents escape. In 2002 Jim Downs authored “World War II: OSS Tragedy in Slovakia."
(SFC, 10/2/09, p.E5)
1945 Dec 26, The Big Three, the US, Soviet Union and Great Britain, ended a 10-day meeting, seeking an atomic rule by the UN Council.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1945 Dec 26, The CFA franc was created along with the CFP franc, the currency used in the French overseas collectivities. The reason for their creation was the weakness of the French franc immediately after World War II. When France ratified the Bretton Woods Agreement in December 1945, the French franc was devalued in order to set a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. New currencies were created in the French colonies to spare them the strong devaluation, thereby facilitating exports to France.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFA_franc)
1946 Dec 26, The Las Vegas Flamingo Casino opened. Billy Wilkerson designed the Flamingo and sold a controlling interest to Bugsy Siegel when his money ran out. It was the 3rd hotel casino built on the Las Vegas strip.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.T8)
1947 Dec 26, Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours. A record 26.4 inches fell and led to 77 deaths.
(AP, 12/26/97)(Econ, 2/18/06, p.28)
1948 Dec 26, Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty was arrested.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1950 Dec 26, Emile Enthoven (47), composer, died.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1953 Dec 26, The U.S. announced the withdrawal of two divisions from Korea.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1954 Dec 26, "The Shadow," aired for last time on radio.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1957 Dec 26, The Ingmar Bergman film "Wild Strawberries," starring Victor Sjostrom, opened in Sweden.
(AP, 12/26/07)
1960 Dec 26, Musical "Do Re Mi" with Phil Silvers premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1962 Dec 26, Eight East Berliners escaped to West Berlin, crashing through gates in an armor plated bus.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1963 Dec 26, Beatles released "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There."
(MC, 12/26/01)
1963 Dec 26, "Gorgeous George" Wagner, perfumed and pampered wrestler, died.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1965 Dec 26, "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand closed on Broadway.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1966 Dec 26, Dr. Maulana “Ron" Karenga celebrated the first Kwanzaa, a seven day African American celebration of family and heritage. Dr. Karenga established Kwanzaa (“first fruits of the season" in Swahili), the African American celebration of unity and community values over the Christmas to New Year season. The 7 principles of Kwanzaa include: Umoja - Unity; Kujichagulia - Self-determination; Ujima - Collective work and responsibility; Ujamaa - Cooperative economics; Nia - Purpose; Kuumba - Creativity; and Imani - Faith. The holiday runs for 7 days from Dec 26 to Jan 1.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.C17)(SFC, 12/26/97, p.A30) (HN, 12/26/98)
1967 Dec 26, BBC-1 television aired "Magical Mystery Tour," the Beatles' critically drubbed one-hour special.
(AP, 12/26/07)
1967 Dec 26, Atlantic Richfield oil workers struck oil on Alaska’s North Slope at Prudhoe Bay.
(AH, 10/04, p.42)
1968 Dec 26, Jay Allen's "Forty Carats," premiered in NYC. It was adapted from the French original by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy. The 1973 film adaptation starred Liv Ullman.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Carats)
1968 Dec 26, Usher Fellig (Weegee), Ukraine-born (1899) American photographer, died. He worked in the Lower East Side of New York City as a press photographer during the 1930s and '40s, and developed his signature style by following the city's emergency services and documenting their activity.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weegee)
1968 Dec 26, A Palestinian terrorist attack in Athens on an Israeli civilian airliner killed one person. Mahmoud Mohammad (25) and Maher Suleiman (19) were later captured by Greek officials, In 1970, a Greek court convicted Mahmoud Mohammad for his role in the attack. In 1987 Mahmoud Mohammed Issa Mohammed entered Canada, where he was ordered to be deported in 1988. In 2007 he was still in Canada after some 30 appeals and reviews.
(http://tinyurl.com/35olct)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.48)(www.skyjack.co.il/chronology.htm)
1968 Dec 26, Jose Maria Sison founded the underground Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The armed wing of the Maoist group, the New People’s Army (NPA), began waging guerrilla warfare in 1969.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A6)(AP, 12/26/10)(Econ, 8/27/16, p.26)
1972 Dec 26, The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, died in Kansas City, Mo. In 1995 Robert H. Ferrell published the biography "Harry S. Truman: A Life." In 1999 Ferrell published "Truman and Pendergrast."
(AP, 12/26/97)(WSJ, 7/19/99, p.A13)
1972 Dec 26, In Vietnam the bombing over Hanoi resumed after one day of respite and bombs hit a residential street killing 283 civilians. North Vietnam agreed to resume peace negotiations within five days of the end of bombing.
(SFC, 12/16/97, p.B1)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1973 Dec 26, "The Exorcist," starring Linda Blair, premiered with an X rating.
(http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800062915/info)
1974 Dec 26, Comedian Jack Benny (b.1894) died in Los Angeles at age 80.
(AP, 12/26/98)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0000912/)
1975 Dec 26, The Soviet Union inaugurated the world's first supersonic transport service with a flight of its Tupolev-144 airliner from Moscow to Alma-Ata.
(AP, 12/26/99)
1978 Dec 26, In San Jose, Ca., Nolan K. Bushnell, inventor of the Pong video game, opened the 20,000-sq.-foot Pizza Time Theater, the world's largest pizza parlor.
(SFC, 12/26/03, p.E2)
1979 Dec 26, Robert Ben Madison (14) founded the virtual Kingdom of Talossa in his Milwaukee, Wisc., bedroom and migrated it to the Internet in 1996.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.85)(www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.03/kingdoms_pr.html)
1980 Dec 26, Iranian television footage was broadcast in the United States, showing a dozen of the American hostages sending messages to their families.
(AP, 12/26/05)
1980 Dec 26, Tony Smith (b.1912), sculptor, died. His work, "Ten Elements," is in the courtyard of the San Francisco Legion Of Honor Museum. He began his career as an architect and ended up as a founding figure of minimalism. His 3 daughters included artist Kiki Smith.
{Artist, USA}
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.B1)(SFC, 11/19/05, p.E10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_26)
1982 Dec 26, TIME magazine’s Man of the Year, in the issue dated January 4, 1983, was a computer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982)
1985 Dec 26, Dian Fossey (53), American zoologist who had studied gorillas in the wild (Gorillas in the Mist), was murdered in Rwanda. Her body was found the next day. Wayne Richard McGuire, a doctoral candidate working with Fossey, was later found guilty in absentia in Rwanda. A native tracker was also charged and died in jail. McGuire claimed total innocence.
(AP, 12/27/01)(SFC, 3/15/05, p.A7)
1987 Dec 26, A bomb exploded at a USO bar in Barcelona, Spain, killing one U.S. sailor and injuring nine others; a little-known group called the Red Army of Catalonian Liberation claimed responsibility.
(AP, 12/26/97)
1988 Dec 26, Another body from the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 was found, bringing the confirmed death toll to 240.
(AP, 12/26/98)
1988 Dec 26, An anti African student rebellion took place in China.
(http://tinyurl.com/z2b7t)
1989 Dec 26, Romanian television broadcast videotape of ousted President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, at their secret trial and footage of Ceausescu's body after his execution. That same day, a provisional government took control of Romania.
(AP, 12/26/99)
1990 Dec 26, The US government reported that its 1990 census had counted a total 249 million, 632,692 people. The US census for this year categorized the population as "White, Negro or Black, American Indian (tribe can be listed), Eskimo, Aleut, Asian or Pacific Islander, and other. Specific Asian nationalities could be checked off." The census counted over 1.6 million Chinese Americans with 40% of them in California.
(SFC, 12/26/97, p.A21)(SFEC, 2/6/00, Rp.10)(AP, 12/26/00)
1990 Dec 26, Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov to retain chess championship.
(http://tinyurl.com/hmp9d)
1990 Dec 26, Nancy Cruzan, the young woman in an irreversible vegetative state whose case led to a US Supreme Court decision on the right to die, died at a Missouri hospital.
(AP, 12/26/00)
1990 Dec 26, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev nominated Gennady I. Yanayev to be the Soviet Union’s first vice president. Yanayev helped lead an abortive coup against Gorbachev in August 1991.
(AP, 12/26/00)
1991 Dec 26, President Bush nominated businesswoman Barbara Franklin to be commerce secretary.
(AP, 12/26/01)
1991 Dec 26, On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average rose to a then-record high of 3082.96.
(AP, 12/26/01)
1991 Dec 26, Jack Ruby's gun sold for $220,000 in auction.
(http://tinyurl.com/s3gun)
1991 Dec 26, Sikh separatists killed about 50 train passengers in Punjab, most of them Hindus.
(AP, 12/26/01)
1992 Dec 26, Time magazine announced it had chosen President-elect Bill Clinton its 1992 "Man of the Year."
(AP, 12/26/97)
1992 Dec 26, Milan Panic conceded defeat to Slobodan Milosevic almost a week after Yugoslavia's presidential election.
(AP, 12/26/97)
1993 Dec 26, In Russia a 4-day drama ended as four masked kidnappers, who had abducted 11 teen-agers, landed their explosives-packed helicopter, freed their last hostages and fled with $10 million in ransom. The four men were captured the next morning.
(AP, 12/26/98)
1994 Dec 26, French commandos stormed a hijacked Air France jetliner on the ground in Marseilles, killing four Algerian hijackers and freeing 170 hostages. The Air France plane was hijacked by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria Dec 24.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A10)(AP, 12/26/99)
1995 Dec 26, Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority in a smooth transfer of power.
(AP, 12/26/00)
1995 Dec 26, Floods in eastern South Africa killed at least 130.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-1)
1995 Dec 26, Heavy snow covered much of Northern Europe and Japan.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-1)
1996 Dec 26, In Boulder, Colorado, 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family home 8 hours after the mother discovered a ransom note demanding $118,000. To date, the slaying remains unsolved.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A3)(AP, 12/26/97)
1996 Dec 26, In Algiers a car bomb exploded in a crowded suburb. At least 10 were killed and 86 injured.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.B3)
1996 Dec 26, In Belarus a $3.5-4 billion nuclear power plant was planned to be built over the next 3 years.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A4)
1996 Dec 26, In Burma two bombs exploded in Rangoon during an exhibit of a tooth believed to have belonged to Buddha. The military regime blamed student and ethnic Karen insurgents based in eastern Burma. Five people were killed.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 26, In Indonesia Muslims rioted in Tasikmalaya in western Java after police tortured 3 Muslim teachers accused of assaulting a policeman’s son.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 26, In Israel a top army official said that the focus of military training in 1997 will be to prepare for a possible war with Syria.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 26, In Japan former Prime Minister Tsutoma Hata took 12 members of the opposition party Shinshinto (New Frontier Party) with him to form the new Sun Party.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.B3)
1996 Dec 26, Honda Motor Co. announced the first human-shaped robot that can move independently and do basic tasks. It stood 6 feet and weighed 462 lbs. and took 10 years of engineering.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B10)
1996 Dec 26, In Mexico the Dept. of Commerce announced a 15% price hike in the cost of tortillas and pasteurized milk.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.B3)
1996 Dec 26, In Serbia riot police cleared tens of thousands off the streets of central Belgrade but allowed a smaller protest of 15,000 at the pedestrian Square of the Republic. Patriarch Pavle, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, said the street violence of the previous day was caused by the authorities. Montenegro threatened to print its own money to counter the inflated dinars of the Milosevic regime.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 26, In South Korea tens of thousands of workers went on strike to protest a new labor bill that gave employers the right to lay off workers and allowed flexible working hours. A spy bill also passed to crack down on dissent.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B9)
1997 Dec 26, It was reported that the US Centers for Disease Control had begun work on a “Bird Flu" vaccine in response to the 9 confirmed cases and 4 deaths in Hong Kong.
(SFC, 12/26/97, p.D1)
1997 Dec 26, From Texas it was reported that the Emu market had collapsed and that the 100-pound birds were roaming the countryside and being slaughtered by frustrated owners.
(SFC, 12/26/97, p.A4)
1997 Dec 26, In Japan Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the opposition Shinshinto, New Freedom Party, announced that the party would be disbanded.
(SFC, 12/27/97, p.A12)
1997 Dec 26, In Mexico sixteen Maya Indians were charged with first-degree murder in the Dec 22 massacre in Acteal.
(SFC, 12/27/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 26, In Peru police reported that a Peruvian family hacked 2 Japanese students to death. The students had rowed on the Amazon for hundreds of miles with plans to reach Manaus.
(SFC, 12/27/97, p.A13)
1997 Dec 26, Badly battered South Korean financial markets surged after the International Monetary Fund and the Group of Seven countries agreed on $10 billion emergency loans to Seoul. The South Korean won closed up at 1,498 to the US dollar compared with 1,836 on Wednesday.
(SFC, 12/27/97, p.D1)(AP, 12/26/98)
1998 Dec 26, President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, urged Congress to lower the blood-alcohol limit for drunken driving nationwide to 0.08 percent to conform with 17 states and the District of Columbia. The other 33 states have 0.10.
(AP, 12/26/99)
1998 Dec 26, In Angola a transport plane with 14 people aboard crashed near Vila Nova, an area of continued fighting. 8 of the passengers were members of a UN Observer Mission. UNITA rebels reportedly held some of the survivors. A rescue team reached the site Jan 8 and there were no survivors.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A22)(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A8)(SFC, 1/2/99, p.A9)(SFC, 1/9/99, p.A10)
1998 Dec 26, In Cambodia 2 aides of the late Pol Pot, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, emerged from the jungle and expressed in writing their desire to become ordinary citizens and allegiance to the government. Prime Minister Hun Sen welcomed them and spoke against a trial and reopening old wounds.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A22)(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A8)
1998 Dec 26, Iraq fired on Western aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone and said it would shoot at all military aircraft patrolling no-fly zones.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 26, In Sierra Leone residents in Freetown burned alive 2 suspected rebel spies. The rebel United Front reported that it had killed 60 Nigerian soldiers of ECOMOG. Defenses in Freetown were bolstered by Kamajor militia.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A23)
1999 Dec 26, The crew of space shuttle “Discovery" packed up its tools and prepared to return home after an eight-day mission of repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope that NASA declared a success.
(AP, 12/26/00)
1999 Dec 26, Time Magazine named Albert Einstein (d.1955) as the Person of the Century.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.C2)
1999 Dec 26, Curtis Mayfield, soul singer and songwriter, died at age 57 in Roswell, Georgia. His songs included "People Get Ready," "Superfly" (1972), Gypsy Woman," and "It's All Right."
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.C4)
1999 Dec 26, In Angola government forces with help from Namibian troops captured Jamba and took control of the southern border with Namibia.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A13)
1999 Dec 26, In China 4 alleged ringleaders of the Falun Gong were convicted and sentenced for 7-18 years for stealing "state secrets," organizing a cult to disrupt law and order, and causing deaths.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 26, In Europe heavy winds and rain killed 88 people in France, 17 dead in Germany and 13 dead in Switzerland. A 2nd storm hit a day later. Damages from the storms were later estimated to be at least $4 billion. The storms destroyed an estimated 400 million trees across France.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 12/27/99, p.A1)(SFC, 12/28/99, p.A8)(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A11)(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A1)(AP, 1/25/09)
1999 Dec 26, Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, scored a resounding victory in Guatemala’s first peacetime presidential elections in nearly 40 years.
(AP, 12/26/00)
1999 Dec 26, In Indonesia Frenchman Michael Blanc was arrested with 3.8 kg (8.4 pounds) of hash hidden in diving canisters. Blanc maintained his innocence, insisting that he was given the diving canisters to transport by a friend. In 2000 he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. On Jan 20, 2014 he was freed on parole.
(AP, 1/20/14)
1999 Dec 26, In Iran members of the opposition Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) crossed from Iraq and attacked Republican Guard barracks in Khuzestan.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A13)
1999 Dec 26, In the Ivory Coast Pres. Henri Konan Bedie fled with his family to Lome, Togo, following the military coup.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A13)
2000 Dec 26, Pres. Clinton signed a ban on cutting shark fins and discarding the fish back to the sea.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A6)
2000 Dec 26, Donna Shalala, US Sec. of Health and Human Services, blocked a GOP sponsored drug reimportation plan intended to reduce drug prices.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A3)
2000 Dec 26, Michael McDermott, a software tester at Edgewater Tech. In Wakefield, Mass., shot and killed 7 co-workers. He wielded a semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun. He was beset by both financial and personal problems. McDermott, convicted in 2002, was sent to prison for life.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/26/01)(SFC, 4/25/02, p.A7)
2000 Dec 26, Jason Robards (78), stage and film actor and winner of 2 Oscars and 1 Tony Award, died in Bridgeport, Conn.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/26/01)
2000 Dec 26, The Muslim holiday of Ramadan ended.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 26, In Montenegro 3 military commanders were dismissed by the Yugoslav top defense body as a concession to Pres. Djukanovic.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 26, In Nepal rioting began and 4 people were killed following a rumor that Hrithnik Roshan, an Indian film star, allegedly spoke of his hate for Nepal and its people. Roshan denied making such comments.
(SFC, 12/28/00, p.C2)
2000 Dec 26, In Serbia power shortages due to the summer drought caused cuts across the country.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 26, In Thailand an anti-corruption body ruled that Thaksin Shinawatra, the leading candidate for prime minister, engaged in financial wrongdoings that disqualified him from holding office.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A15)
2001 Dec 26, The Al Jazeera Arab network broadcast a new video-taped statement from Osama bin Laden that appeared to have been made in late Nov or early Dec. “Our terrorism is benign." The al-Qaida leader condemned the United States as a nation that committed crimes against millions of Afghans.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/25/02)
2001 Dec 26, Argentina planned a new currency, the argentino, to circulate along with the peso and dollar.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 26, In Brazil rescue workers searched for victims of earth slides and flooding that killed at least 49 people in Rio de Janeiro state.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A5)
2001 Dec 26, Actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne (72) died in Hertfordshire, England.
(AP, 12/25/02)
2001 Dec 26, In France some 550 Iraqi Kurds, Afghans, Iranians and other refugees from the Sangatte Red Cross center near the 33-mile Channel Tunnel attempted to reach asylum in Britain. All were captured by French police.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A4)(AP, 12/25/02)
2001 Dec 26, India deployed missile batteries and increased jet fighter patrols along its border with Pakistan.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 26, Israeli troops shot dead 1 Palestinian, Walid Saadi (50), in Jenin while in pursuit of gunmen. Some border restrictions were eased.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A4)
2002 Dec 26, Brigitte Boisselier, a chemist and head of Clonaid, said the world's first human clone, a 7-pound baby girl, was born by Caesarean section. She was associated with the Raelian religion, founded by Claude Vorilhon in 1973. The claim was subsequently dismissed by scientists for lack of proof.
(AP, 12/27/02)(Reuters, 12/27/02)(SFC, 12/28/02, p.A5)
2002 Dec 26, The Int'l. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said North Korea had moved 1,000 fresh fuel rods to a nuclear reactor that produces plutonium used in nuclear warheads.
(AP, 12/26/02)
2002 Dec 26, In Curtiba, Brazil, a C-95 Bandeirante air force plane crashed during an emergency landing, killing two people and injuring the other 14 people aboard.
(AP, 12/26/02)
2002 Dec 26, Israeli soldiers hunting militiamen in the West Bank killed 9 Palestinians in separate clashes across the West Bank and Gaza.
(AP, 12/26/02)(SFC, 12/27/02, p.A12)
2002 Dec 26, In the southern Philippines suspected Muslim rebels killed 12 workers as they rode in a truck to a Canadian-owned mine. Extortion was suspected.
(WSJ, 12/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 26, In Trinidad police reported that 4 people were slain over the Christmas holidays, bringing the number of killings to a record 164 this year.
(AP, 12/26/02)
2003 Dec 26, An avalanche in Provo Canyon, Utah, left 3 snowboarders dead.
(SFC, 12/27/03, p.A5)
2003 Dec 26, In northern China a fire raced through coal mine in Wu'an, a city in Hebei province, killing 26 miners.
(AP, 12/27/03)
2003 Dec 26, A 6.6 earthquake devastated the southeastern Iranian city of Bam, 630 miles southeast of the capital Tehran. It leveled more than half the city's houses and its historic mud-brick fortress. Some 31,000 people were killed and over 10,000 injured. Iran appealed for international help and promised to waive visas for foreign relief workers.
(AP, 12/27/03)(SFC, 12/30/03, p.A3)(AP, 1/2/04)(AP, 12/26/04)(AFP, 8/12/12)
2003 Dec 26, In Iraq an American soldier died in a rebel ambush and two others were killed in bomb explosions.
(AP, 12/26/03)
2003 Dec 26, Hamas, the Islamic group responsible for most suicide bombings in three years of violence, called off attacks inside Israel. In response, Israel will hold off targeting Hamas leaders but will still go after other Palestinian militants.
(AP, 12/27/03)
2003 Dec 26, Kelvin Stark, a new Zealand pilot, was killed while flying a new PAC 750XL airplane to California. The 17-passenger plane was billed as the 1st passenger aircraft built in New Zealand and was specially designed for skydiving.
(SFC, 12/27/03, p.A15)
2004 Dec 26, The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and southeast Asia. The initial estimated death toll of 9,000 soon rose to some 230,000 people in 14 countries. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964. The epicenter was located 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on Sumatra, and six miles under the seabed of the Indian Ocean. In Indonesia at least 166,320 people were killed.
Bangladesh reported 2 killed; India: at least 9,691 deaths: thousands were missing and possibly dead in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia: At least 101,318 people were killed on Sumatra island and small islands off its coast. Kenya reported 1 killed. Malaysia: At least 68 people, including an unknown number of foreign tourists, were dead. Myanmar: At least 90 people were killed. Sri Lanka: At least 30,680 were killed in government and rebel controlled areas. The Maldives, an archipelago of 1,190 low-lying coral islands and a tiny population of 280,000, at least 82 people were killed and missing. At least 42 islands were flattened in the low-lying atoll nation. Somalia: At least 298 were killed. Tanzania: At least 10 killed. Thailand: The confirmed death toll for Thailand reached 5,322, but many suspected Myanmar migrants were not counted. Some 230,000 people were killed in a dozen countries.
(SFC, 12/28/04, p.A1)(AP, 12/30/04)(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A12)(AP, 1/7/05)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.41)(AP, 12/25/09)(AP, 11/12/13)
2004 Dec 26, Thousands of Europeans died in the Asian tsunami disaster. The dead included 543 from Sweden.
(AP, 12/31/04)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.27)
2004 Dec 26, An unmanned cargo ship docked at the international space station, ending a shortage that forced astronauts to ration supplies.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2004 Dec 26, Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts broke Dan Marino's single-season touchdown pass record when he threw his 48th and 49th of the season against San Diego. The Colts defeated San Diego in overtime, 34-31.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2004 Dec 26, Reggie White (43), NFL defensive star, died in Huntersville, NC. White played 15 seasons with Philadelphia, Green Bay and Carolina. He retired after the 2000 season as the NFL's career sacks leader with 198. The mark has since been passed by Bruce Smith.
(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 Dec 26, In eastern Algeria a gas explosion killed 17 people and injured at least 40 others when a residential block collapsed.
(Reuters, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, In Brazil an angry mob destroyed police stations and a courthouse in two Amazon towns while trying to lynch murder suspects. One man was killed during the rioting and 44 people were arrested.
(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 Dec 26, In eastern France a gas explosion tore through a five-storey apartment building in Mulhouse, killing 15 people and injuring another 14.
(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 Dec 26, India issued a presidential decree to bring its patent laws into compliance with commitments under the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, Masked gunmen assassinated a high-ranking Iraqi police officer in southwestern Baghdad and wounded his bodyguards.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, The Independent reported that British PM Tony Blair has ordered the military to prepare to deploy up to 3,000 soldiers to the conflict-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, The Russian unmanned cargo ship, Progress M-51, docked at the int’l. space station with fresh supplies.
(SFC, 12/25/04, p.A5)
2004 Dec 26, A woman doused her body with gasoline and set herself ablaze in a busy Istanbul square to protest Turkey's maximum security prison system.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, Ukraine re-ran its presidential election.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, Uzbekistan held elections and all opposition groups were barred from running for office. Europe's top election watchdog criticized the parliamentary vote.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2005 Dec 26, "Monday Night Football" ended an unprecedented 36-year run on ABC TV with a lackluster game, a 31-to-21 New England Patriots victory over the New York Jets. The series switched to ESPN the following season.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2005 Dec 26, New Orleans Police officers shot and killed a man brandishing a knife in a confrontation that was partially videotaped by a bystander, setting off another internal investigation of the embattled department.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 26, John Diebold (70), a US consultant who preached computers to businesses, died.
(WSJ, 12/28/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 26, The US military gave details of its planned troop reduction in Afghanistan, saying the total number would shrink by some 2,500 from the current 19,000 under a routine troop rotation due very soon.
(AFP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Kerry Packer (68), Australian media mogul, died in his Sydney home. He built his empire on the Nine Network television station and the Australian Consolidated Press magazine publishing business but in recent years had concentrated his efforts more in the gaming industry.
(SFC, 12/27/05, p.B4)(Econ, 1/7/06, p.77)
2005 Dec 26, In Canada gunfire erupted on a busy Toronto street filled with holiday shoppers, killing a young woman (15) and wounding six other people. There have been 78 murders in Toronto this year, including a record 52 by gunfire, twice as many as last year. On June 13, 2006, 8 people were arrested in connection with the shootings.
(AP, 12/27/05)(Reuters, 6/13/06)
2005 Dec 26, News reports said China has closed 2,411 coal mines for safety violations, and will start requiring mines to post safety bonds. 12,990 mines were ordered to suspend operations for safety inspections.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Maxima Perez (33), a woman in the Dominican Republic, gave birth to the first sextuplets ever recorded in this Caribbean country.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 26, The EU announced a 166 million euros ($196.9 million) aid package for 10 African countries. The aid will go to Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Chad, Tanzania, Uganda, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Comoros.
(Reuters, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, India freed eight Pakistani prisoners as part of peace efforts between the South Asia rivals, while the two governments scheduled new talks to resolve their long-standing dispute over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Gunmen shot and killed 5 police officers at a checkpoint north of Baghdad. 6 vehicle bombs exploded in Baghdad, leaving another 5 people dead and over 40 wounded. At least two dozen people including a US soldier were killed in shootings and bombings mostly targeting the Shiite-dominated security services.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Two US pilots were killed after their Apache collided in mid-air with another helicopter just west of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 Dec 26, Israel said it will build more than 200 new homes in Jewish West Bank settlements, a blow to peace efforts despite word that Ariel Sharon's new party plans a major push for Palestinian statehood if it wins upcoming elections.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Japan's benchmark stock index topped 16,000 points, reaching its highest level since October 2000. The dollar rose slightly against the yen and euro.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, Character actor Vincent Schiavelli (57), who appeared in scores of movies, including "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Ghost," died at his home in Sicily.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 26, In southeastern Venezuela an accidental fireworks explosion touched off a blaze that raced through a busy strip mall, killing at least 12 people and injuring five others.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2006 Dec 26, Gerald R. Ford (b.1913), former Michigan Congressman and US President (1973-1976), died. He had declared "Our long national nightmare is over" as he replaced Richard Nixon, but may have doomed his own chances of election by pardoning his disgraced predecessor.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 26, A 21,000 gallon oil spill off the Texas coast resulted when a ship anchor hit an oil line.
(WSJ, 12/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 26, It was reported that a large study in Britain had found that taking such popular heartburn drugs as Nexium, Prevacid or Prilosec for a year or more can raise the risk of a broken hip markedly in people over 50.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, Talks between Belarus and the Russian state gas monopoly on Russia's demand for a price increase brought no resolution and a top company official said Belarus could face a New Year's gas cutoff. Gazprom said it failed to gain assent to double gas prices, but added that any cutoff would no affect EU nations.
(AP, 12/26/06)(WSJ, 12/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 26, Countryside campaigners said more than 300,000 people took part in traditional Boxing Day (December 26) fox hunts across Britain, claiming it proved a ban on hunting with dogs was not working.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, Canada deported a man who posed as a Canadian for years, describing him as a Russian spy who used a fake birth certificate to create a false identity and accumulate three Canadian passports. The man, who acquired passports in the name of Paul William Hampel, left Canada for Russia.
(Reuters, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, Chinese and Japanese history scholars met for the first in a series of government-mandated study groups aimed at smoothing over differences between the Asian powers on historical issues.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, An Iraqi appeals court has upheld the death sentence imposed on Saddam Hussein at his first trial, and a tribunal official said the verdict will be carried out within 30 days even if the presidency doesn't ratify it. Over 100 Iraqis died in attacks and bombings, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad. 3 US service members were killed in roadside bombings northwest of Baghdad. Another US soldier was killed south of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/27/06)(SFC, 12/27/06, p.A3)(WSJ, 12/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 26, Ayham al-Samaraie, a former minister of electricity with dual US and Iraqi citizenship, arrived in Jordan on a US plane. Al-Samaraie, who escaped from a Baghdad prison this month, was serving time for corruption when he escaped mid-December.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, In Nigeria a ruptured gasoline pipeline burst into flames as scavengers collected the fuel in Lagos, killing 269 people. Witnesses said thieves had broken into the pipeline after midnight and hundreds of men, women and children had been collecting leaking fuel in plastic buckets, cans and bags for hours before the explosion. 2 different armed groups lifted sieges of two oilfield stations, releasing more than 20 local workers. Shell resumed production at its Nun River facility. 4 oil workers were still being held hostage by a different armed group after an attack on Agip's Brass River export terminal on Dec 7.
(AP, 12/26/06)(AP, 12/27/06)(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Dec 26, Pakistan said it will plant land mines and build a fence on parts of its long, rugged frontier with Afghanistan to meet criticism it does too little to stop Taliban and al-Qaida guerrillas from crossing the border.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 26, Islamic fighters retreated as Somali government and Ethiopian troops advanced on three fronts in a decisive turn in the battle for control of this Horn of Africa nation. Ethiopia’s PM Meles Zenawi said up to 1,000 of the religious movement's fighters had been killed.
(AP, 12/26/06)(WSJ, 12/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 26, The Saudi government said it had released 18 men who were detained after returning to their homeland from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, President Omar al-Bashir said in the letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Sudan is ready to immediately implement two recent agreements endorsing a three-step UN plan to strengthen the beleaguered 7,000-strong African Union force in Darfur.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 26, Turkmenistan's top legislative body rewrote the country's constitution to allow the country's acting president, in power for less than a week, to succeed its late leader.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 26, The Vatican called on retired Bishop Fernando Lugo to give up his plans to run for Paraguay's presidency or face canonical sanctions. Lugo said he had already resigned from the priesthood to lead a planned opposition alliance and challenge conservative President Nicanor Duarte of the Colorado Party in elections scheduled for May 2008.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2007 Dec 26, Pres. Bush signed a $555 billion domestic spending bill and took a swipe at Congress for including pet projects totaling nearly $10 billion.
(SFC, 12/27/07, p.A3)
2007 Dec 26, The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that employers could reduce of eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.
(SFC, 12/27/07, p.A4)
2007 Dec 26, It was reported that Warren Buffet had agreed to pay $4.5 billion to buy a majority of Marmon Holdings, an industrial conglomerate, from the Chicago’s Pritzker family. Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway planned to buy the rest of the company by 2014.
(WSJ, 12/26/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 26, Online auction giant eBay said it has launched a microlending website, www.microplace.com, that lets people invest in entrepreneurs in poor communities around the world and get a return on their money.
(AFP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol exploded east of Algeria's capital, killing two officers and injuring two others. The attack came as authorities rounded up 11 suspected members of two suspected support networks for armed Islamic militant groups in recent days.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that British intelligence agents held secret talks with Taliban leaders on several occasions this year. Earlier this month, British PM Gordon Brown ruled out direct talks with Taliban insurgents, telling the House of Commons: "I make it clear that we will not enter into any negotiations with these people."
(AFP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, A Chadian court convicted six French aid workers of trying to kidnap 103 African children and sentenced them to eight years of forced labor. The French Foreign Ministry in Paris said it would ask Chadian authorities to transfer the six convicted to France. The countries have a bilateral judicial agreement that could allow for such a transfer.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Georgia's top television station suspended its broadcasts, saying it was protesting the pressure authorities have exerted because of the station's links to a billionaire presidential contender challenging the government.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In western Indonesia rescuers dug for survivors after landslides and floods triggered by days of torrential rain killed over 87 people.
(AP, 12/26/07)(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Iran's defense minister said that Iran had agreed to buy an S-300 surface-to-air missile system from Russia.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Iran and Malaysia signed a $16 billion agreement to develop two Iranian gas fields, in a deal described as the largest energy contract in Iran.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In Iraq a bomb explosion in the northern province of Ninevah killed three children and wounded another two. An Iraqi soldier allegedly shot dead two American troops while they were patrolling together north of the capital. Three other US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were wounded in the attack. An initial investigation indicated that the Iraqi soldier was linked to local militant groups.
(AP, 12/26/07)(AP, 1/5/08)
2007 Dec 26, Joe Dolan (68), one of Ireland's first pop music stars, died from a brain hemorrhage. He had entertained audiences for decades with Vegas-style showmanship. His last Irish No. 1 came in 1997, when he re-recorded "Good-Looking Woman" with a popular fictional TV comedian, a puppet named Dustin the Turkey.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited Egypt to discuss Israeli allegations that Egypt was doing too little to prevent arms smuggling to the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Egypt rejected Israeli complaints about weapons smuggling into Gaza.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, A ruptured gasoline pipeline exploded in flames, killing at least 34 people near Nigeria's main city of Lagos as they tried to scoop fuel from the gushing leak.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Pakistan's Pres. Pervez Musharraf and Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai vowed to boost intelligence cooperation to meet the menace of terrorism that was destroying both countries.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying 2 tons of supplies including holiday gifts, docked at the international space station.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Serbia's parliament overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that threatens to halt the country's integration into the European Union and cut off diplomatic ties with Western countries if they recognize Kosovo's independence.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, South Korea's cabinet approved a bill setting up a fraud inquiry into president-elect Lee Myung-Bak, one week after the conservative opposition candidate won a landslide election victory.
(AFP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, In northern Sri Lanka a wave of infantry attacks killed at least 66 rebels and 14 government troops.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 26, Turkish warplanes hit eight suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq, the third cross-border air assault in 10 days.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2008 Dec 26, In Hawaii a power failure during a thunderstorm blacked out Oahu’s population of about 900,000 people and thousands of tourists including vacationing President-elect Barack Obama.
(AP, 12/27/08)
2008 Dec 26, In Philadelphia a duplex fire apparently caused by fuel spilling from an overfilled kerosene heater killed seven people, including 3 kids, in a basement that had only one exit.
(AP, 12/27/08)
2008 Dec 26, In southern Afghanistan a Canadian soldier was killed and three others wounded in a bomb blast. 2 suicide car bombs took place in western Afghanistan, but only the attackers were killed in the blasts. 3 foreigners were wounded in an attack in Herat.
(AP, 12/27/08)
2008 Dec 26, Azerbaijan's parliament voted to hold a referendum next year on constitutional changes that could allow incumbent President Ilham Aliyev to stay in power when his current mandate runs out.
(AFP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, Brazilian police detained Regivaldo Galvao, a rancher suspected in the 2005 slaying of rain forest activist Dorothy Stang (73), for allegedly illegally acquiring titles to land the US nun died trying to defend.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, Chinese warships, armed with special forces, guided missiles and helicopters, set sail for anti-piracy duty off Somalia, the first time the communist nation has sent ships on a mission that could involve fighting so far beyond its territorial waters.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, China’s state media reported that nearly 5,000 higher-level Chinese government officials were punished for corruption over the past year.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, China National Offshore Oil Corp., the country's largest offshore oil and gas producer, signed four oil cooperation agreements with Taiwan's CPC Corp.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, A Chinese man and two Lebanese nationals were shot dead in a crime wave in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo that also left 10 Congolese dead this week. The mayor of Lubumbashi, Marie-Gregoire Tambila, said that 11 people had been killed in the last four days in her city, including a Lebanese national who was killed on Christmas day. In eastern Congo attackers, identified as members of the Lord’s Resistance Army, killed some 100 people at a church in Doruma. The UN said rebels had killed 189 people over 2 days.
(AFP, 12/26/08)(SFC, 12/30/08, p.A10)
2008 Dec 26, Three suspected al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents broke out of jail during a riot that killed six police officers and seven prisoners in the western city of Ramadi.
(AP, 12/26/08)(SFC, 12/27/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 26, Israel reopened its border with Gaza to allow deliveries of humanitarian aid, despite continued rocket and mortar fire from the coastal strip and growing expectations of a large-scale Israeli military campaign against Palestinian militants. A rocket fired by Palestinian militants fell short and killed 2 schoolgirls in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/26/08)(SFC, 12/27/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 26, In Mexico a gang of about 20 men armed with assault rifles robbed a train in the western state of Michoacan and carted off some of its freight. Dr. Laura Avila. Avila was found dead in the rural health clinic she was staffing in Jalisco state. Police soon arrested Ricardo Garcia Barajas (25), a farm worker, who allegedly hacked the doctor to death with a machete for refusing to treat his son.
(AP, 12/27/08)(AP, 1/2/09)
2008 Dec 26, Pakistan began moving thousands of troops to the Indian border, sharply raising tensions triggered by the Mumbai terror attacks.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, Russia's ruble fell to a three-year low against the dollar after the Central Bank allowed a third sharp drop in the currency in five days as the government continues to feel the heat of the global meltdown.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, Serbia arrested 10 former Kosovo Albanian guerrilla fighters suspected of involvement in killings and abductions in the former Serbian province of Kosovo in 1999.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, Spain approved a new provision that also allows anyone whose parents or grandparents were born in Spain but went overseas because of their political beliefs or economic hardship to become Spaniards.
(AP, 12/29/08)
2009 Dec 26, In eastern Afghanistan a heavily armed Taliban commander was killed during a pre-dawn shootout at a mosque in Wardak province. An ISAF service member from the United States died following an IED strike in southern Afghanistan. Two members of the Afghan National Police were killed when militants attacked a checkpoint in western Afghanistan. 3 other policemen were missing following the attack in the Qadis district of Badghis province.
(AP, 12/26/09)(AFP, 12/27/09)(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Dec 26, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales said that he plans to make it legal for Bolivia's farmers to grow small parcels of coca plants.
(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 26, China unveiled what it billed as the fastest rail link in the world, a train connecting the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan at an average speed of 350 km (217 miles) an hour.
(AFP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 25, A Greek-owned cargo ship, the Aegean Wind, caught fire off the coast of Venezuela. 9 crew members were killed and 5 injured. The ship was carrying iron ore from Brazil to Houston when the fire broke out.
(SFC, 12/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 26, In India Andhra Pradesh Gov. Narain Dutt Tiwari (86) resigned, a day after a television news channel broadcast a tape allegedly showing him in bed with three women.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, Iranian security forces beat protesters in central Tehran, a sign of mounting tensions ahead of planned opposition rallies to mark a religious festival and the death of a dissident cleric a week ago.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, In Iraq a roadside bomb killed three Shiite pilgrims in eastern Baghdad, the latest round of violence to strike worshippers during a revered mourning observance. Another pilgrim was killed in southern Baghdad late in the day when a bomb struck a procession.
(AP, 12/26/09)(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 26, Israeli soldiers stormed homes in the West Bank, killing three Palestinians suspected in the fatal shooting of an Israeli and testing an uneasy security arrangement with Palestinian authorities.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, In Indian Kashmir some 40 people were injured when police fired teargas and used batons to break up banned religious processions by Shiite Muslims.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, In Lebanon 2 members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas were killed in an explosion in a Beirut suburb that one report described as a bombing. The attack was said to have involved three bombs tied to each other.
(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 26, In New Zealand some 20 pilot whales died on Colville Beach after stranding but holiday-makers and conservation workers managed to coax 43 others back out to sea. Some 105 long-finned pilot whales, stranded on South Island, died.
(AP, 12/27/09)(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Dec 26, In Pakistan a blast in Karachi destroyed a car and injured 19 people near a procession of minority Shiite Muslims for the Islamic holy month of Muharram. Investigators were checking if a gas cylinder accidentally detonated or if a bomb went off. A suspected US missile strike killed three people in North Waziristan. A local government official said the Taliban had beheaded a tribal elder who fought against them in the Bajur tribal region. The remains of Gul Mohammad (45) was found in Mamund town near a road.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, In the Philippines a roll-on, roll-off ferry, carrying at least 88 people and nine cargo trucks, sank in the late evening off Verde Island. 6 people were confirmed dead and at least 22 were missing.
(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 26, Berlin-based Transparency International said nearly half a billion dollars in tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and over 600 million dollars has been spent on projects unrelated to the Dec 26, 2004, tsunami disaster.
(AFP, 12/26/09)
2010 Dec 26, Allstate Corp filed suit against Bank of America Corp, its Countrywide lending unit and 17 other defendants for allegedly misrepresenting the risks on more than $700 million of mortgage securities it bought from Countrywide.
(Reuters, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Arizona Gavin MacFarlane (28) opened fire inside a Phoenix strip club killing 2 people and wounding 2 others.
(SFC, 12/28/10, p.A6)
2010 Dec 26, In Massachusetts police officer John McGuire was shot dead while investigating a robbery in Woburn. Scott Hanwright (19) was charged for murder and Kevin Dingwell (51) was charged with being an accessory after the fact. A 3rd suspect, Dominic Cinelli (57) was fatally shot by responding officers.
(SFC, 12/28/10, p.A6)
2010 Dec 26, Geraldine Doyle (86), a Michigan factory worker used as the unwitting model for the wartime Rosie the Riveter poster, died. The term "Rosie the Riveter" stems from a 1942 song honoring the women who took over critical factory jobs when American men went off to war. The inspirational "We Can Do It!" poster was not widely seen until the 1980s when it was embraced by the feminist movement as a potent symbol of women's empowerment.
(AP, 12/31/10)
2010 Dec 26, Teena Marie (b.1956), Motown’s “Ivory Queen of soul" died. Her hits included “Lovergirl," and “Fire and Desire" with mentor Rick James.
(SFC, 12/27/10, p.C4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teena_Marie)
2010 Dec 26, The Afghanistan Defense Ministry said it will investigate missing US-donated medicines and pharmaceutical supplies meant for its army and police. "Numerous insurgents were killed" in two separate incidents in Helmand and Kandahar during a NATO operation targeting suspect vehicles. Several suspected insurgents were detained.
(AP, 12/26/10)(AP, 12/27/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Bolivia the government under Evo Morales announced an end to subsidies on many fuels. The measure involved a 73% increase in the price of petrol.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.36)
2010 Dec 26, London’s Underground drivers went on a 24-hour strike in a dispute over holiday pay. Members of the Aslef trade union voted to walk out after transport chiefs refused their demand for triple pay and a day off for working on December 26, the day after Christmas being a national holiday in Britain.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Dagestan eight men were killed in a shoot-out with police after they barricaded themselves in a house in the city of Makhachkala and refused to give up.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In the Dominican Rep. former President Salvador Jorge Blanco (84) died. He was convicted of corruption in 1991 under a political antagonist's administration but declared innocent in 2001 by an appeals court, died. Blanco was president from 1982-1986.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, Egypt said it has adopted a stimulus plan with the aim of injecting 10-20 billion pounds ($1.72-3.44 billion) into the economy in the 2011 calendar year. Gamal Mubarak, the son of Pres. Mubarak, said he will press ahead with bold new economic reforms that will be "more ambitious and more daring" than those that have come before, while still vowing to protect the nation's poor from any fallout.
(Reuters, 12/26/10)(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In southern Egypt a tour bus slammed into a truck, killing eight Americans and injuring 21 others in the latest fatal crash involving tourists.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Iran local media reported that a death sentence has been imposed on a man suspected of spying for Israel. A Tehran prosecutor confirmed that economist Fariborz Raisdana has been arrested for trying to subvert the recent subsidies plans in radio interviews.
(AP, 12/26/10)(SFC, 12/29/10, p.A3)
2010 Dec 26, Israel and Palestinian militants traded threats amid fresh skirmishes along the tense Gaza Strip border in which two Islamic Jihad fighters were killed. Nine French activists were arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at a major Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank.
(AFP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Ivory Coast allies of Alassane Ouattara called for a general strike to last until incumbent Pres. Laurent Gbagbo concedes defeat.
(SFC, 12/27/10, p.A4)
2010 Dec 26, In Malaysia 3 Singaporean tourists drowned and two others were missing after an overloaded passenger boat capsized near Sibu island.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Nigeria clashes left at least one person dead and a number of houses burned in the city of Jos amid tensions following a series of Christmas Eve bomb attacks.
(AFP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In the Philippines Communist rebels threatened more attacks despite looming peace talks with the government, as they marked the insurgency's 42nd anniversary by defiantly marching with their weapons in public view.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Russia several thousand people rallied in Moscow to protest the ethnic clashes that have rocked Russia, holding posters reading "Fascists disgrace Russia" and chanting "No to Fascism!"
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Russia icy rain shut down Moscow's largest airport for nearly 15 hours, coated roads with ice and left more than 300,000 people and 14 hospitals without electricity.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, Ukraine's security service detained former interior minister Yuri Lutsenko, the latest move in a crackdown on the previous government since Pres. Yanukovich took power. The state prosecutor's office this month charged Lutsenko with abuse of office, saying he had embezzled state funds. He denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
(Reuters, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 26, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made his first use of new decree powers to create a $2.3 billion fund for reconstruction after widespread flooding that left more than 130,000 people homeless.
(Reuters, 12/26/10)
2011 Dec 26, In London thousands of shoppers seeking post-Christmas bargains were delayed, but not deterred, by a subway strike that shut down parts of the network. Seydou Diarrassouba (18), was stabbed to death in front of horrified shoppers during a fight between two groups of youths on London's Oxford Street. 11 people were arrested the next day in relation to the fatal stabbing. 3 more people were arrested on Dec 31.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AFP, 12/28/11)(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 26, Anuj Bidve (23), an Indian student, was gunned down at point blank range as he walked with friends near their hotel in Salford, England. A boy (17) was soon arrested on suspicion of murder after a warrant was executed in the Salford area. 4 more people, including 2 teens, were soon arrested in relation to the murder. On Dec 2 Kiaran Stapleton (20), accused of the shooting, identified himself in court as “Psycho Stapleton." On July 26, 2012, Stapleton was convicted of murder. The next day he was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 12/27/11)(Reuters, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/28/11)(AFP, 12/29/11)(AFP, 1/2/12)(AFP, 7/27/12)
2011 Dec 26, A British-registered ship, the M/S Thor Liberty, held in a Finnish port after authorities discovered 69 surface-to-air missiles and 160 tons of explosives onboard, received permission to travel again, but without those materials or its captain. The Patriot missiles were an official shipment from Germany to South Korea. Finnish authorities said the explosives were a legitimate shipment for China, but the missiles lacked proper transit documents, and the explosives weren't safely stored. On Jan 4 the Finnish government authorized the transport.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 1/4/12)
2011 Dec 26, China's biggest milk producer, Mengniu Dairy Group, said it has destroyed a batch found to have excessive levels of a cancer-causing toxin, in another safety scare for the country's dairy industry. The problem was reportedly discovered before the milk containing high levels of aflatoxin was sold to the public. An expert review identified the mildewed feed as the cause of the excessive levels of aflatoxin in milk.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Colombia officials in Medellin inaugurated a giant, $6.7 million outdoor escalator for residents of one of its poorest neighborhoods. It provided the 12,000 residents of Comuna 13 a free ride up and down their steep hillside.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Grenada Oscar Bartholomew (39) of Toronto, was beaten into a coma after he mistook a plainclothes female police officer for a friend and lifted her for a hug in front of a police station. Bartholomew was visiting family on the island and died the next day. Officers Kenton Hazzard and Wendell Sylvester were detained on Dec 29. On Jan 1, 2012, police officers Edward Gibson, Shaun Ganness and Ruddy Felix were also arrested and charged in the beating death.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 26, In Guinea-Bissau soldiers demanding better pay attacked the headquarters of the armed forces and fanned out across the streets of the small west African state's capital as the country's president was undergoing treatment in France.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, India's Tata Motors offered to replace the starter motor on all old Nano models, but said the move was not related to safety concerns surrounding the world's cheapest car.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, An Iraqi Shiite militia group said it would join the political process. The Asaib Ahel al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, was behind the kidnap of a British consultant and his four bodyguards, and has been blamed for the killing of US troops. A suicide bomber set off a car bomb at a checkpoint leading to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, killing seven people and injuring 32 others. A roadside bomb hit a passing army patrol in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and injuring two others.
(AFP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, Extra Israeli police patrolled the streets of a small town near Jerusalem after a campaign by ultra-Orthodox Jews to segregate men and women erupted into violence.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Ivory Coast 4 people were killed and 15 were injured in inter-ethnic clashes near the economic capital Abidjan. The violence erupted when an Abidji youth clashed with a soldier of the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast (FRCI) and was killed in Sikensi.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked his billionaire son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, from his post as head of the sovereign wealth fund.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.26)
2011 Dec 26, Mexican medical officials said five recovering drug addicts died and dozens of others were sickened by soy sausage served for Christmas dinner at a rehabilitation center in Guadalajara. 37 people remained hospitalized.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, In South Africa 19 people were killed when an overtaking car smashed head-on into a minibus taxi in central Free State.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Syria intense shelling by government forces was reported in the center of the country, just hours before the Arab League monitoring teams were to arrive. Security forces killed at least 42 people, most of them in Homs.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, Yemen's military agreed to replace Maj. Gen. Ali al-Shater, a commander accused of corruption, apparently settling a brief strike by 1,000 soldiers. Yemeni soldiers battled al-Qaida-linked militants outside the southern city of Zinjibar, which remains partly under the control of the Islamists. Five soldiers and four fighters were killed.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2012 Dec 26, Los Angeles police traded gift cards for guns in a buyback program Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced as a crime-fighting response to the deadly shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut.
(Reuters, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, The Chicago Teachers Union sued the nation's third largest school district, saying Mayor Rahm Emanuel's campaign to reform or close underperforming public schools discriminates against African-American teachers and staff.
(Reuters, 12/27/12)
2012 Dec 26, A winter storm hit the northeastern US and led to at least 16 deaths.
(SFC, 12/28/12, p.A5)
2012 Dec 26, In eastern Afghanistan a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber exploded at the gate of Camp Chapman, a major US military base, killing the attacker and three Afghans. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Khost province.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Angry Central African Republic protesters carrying clubs threw rocks at the French Embassy, criticizing the former colonial power for failing to do more to stem a rapid rebel advance as fears grew that the insurgents aim to seize the capital.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, China opened the world's longest high-speed rail line, which runs 2,298 km (1,428 miles) from the country's capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in the Pearl River delta in southern China.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Egypt's Islamist Pres. Morsi proclaimed the country's newly adopted constitution as the dawning of a "new republic" in a television address, calling on the opposition to join a dialogue with him after a month of violent turmoil and focus on repairing a damaged economy.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Thousands of Iraqi demonstrators massed in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, determined to keep up the pressure on a Shiite-led government that many accuse of trying to marginalize them.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Shinzo Abe, head of the pro-business Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), took office as Japan's 7th prime minister in six years and vowed to overcome the deep-rooted economic and diplomatic crises facing his country. Abe unveiled a 19-member cabinet of radical nationalists.
(AP, 12/26/12)(Econ, 1/5/12, p.29)
2012 Dec 26, Myanmar Pres. Thein Sein publicly criticized his government for rampant corruption, bribery and inefficiency.
(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 26, In Nigeria a massive explosion ripped through a warehouse full of fireworks in Lagos, sparking a fire that threatened surrounding city blocks and sending a plume of thick smoke high into the sky. At least one person died and 15 others were wounded.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Angry Philippine residents beat a man to death and threw rocks at firefighters after a Christmas day shantytown fire in suburban San Juan city left thousands of people homeless. The man was reportedly drunk and was not responsible for the fire. The fire was reportedly started in a house where children were playing with lighted candles.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Russia’s upper chamber of parliament unanimously voted in favor of a measure banning Americans from adopting Russian children. It now goes to President Vladimir Putin to sign or turn down.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said shelling in an agricultural area of Raqqa province near the village of Qahtaniyeh killed 20, including eight children. It said at least five rebels were killed in the fighting that started after midnight and added that Syrian army warplanes attacked rebel positions in the areas.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 26, In Tunisia journalist Olfa Riahi posted receipts alleging that Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalam spent six nights at public expense, including one accompanied by an unidentified woman, raising suspicions of adultery. The minister has denied any wrongdoing and described the woman as his cousin. Riahi followed up these allegations on Dec. 29 with documents showing that the Chinese government transferred a million dollars directly into a Foreign Ministry account rather than going via the Finance Ministry or public treasury as is the custom.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Louisiana Ben Freeman (38), a nurse embroiled in a custody fight, attacked his former in-laws, his onetime boss and his current wife leaving 3 dead before killing himself.
(SFC, 12/28/13, p.A12)
2013 Dec 26, Bangladesh's opposition accused authorities of placing their leader under virtual house arrest, as tens of thousands of troops were deployed across the country ahead of general elections next month.
(AFP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, Brazilian officials said at least 44 people have died and more than 60,000 have been left homeless following torrential rain in the southeast over the past few weeks.
(AFP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Central African Republic Red Cross workers said they have recovered 44 bodies from the streets of Bangui after inter-religious fighting in the last two days. 2 African Union peacekeepers were shot dead in night time fighting. Assailants also attempted to attack the presidential palace, but were pushed back.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 26, Egypt escalated its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, detaining at least 38 of the group's supporters on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization the day after it was declared one by the government. A bomb exploded in a busy intersection near schools in Cairo, hitting a bus and wounding five people.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In France a surprise strike by Lufthansa workers at the main Paris airport prompted flight cancellations and brought a new headache to holiday travel. Lufthansa said in statement that only two flights were officially canceled, and that travel was resuming in the afternoon.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Guinea a 2-year-old boy in the remote village of Meliandou fell ill with a mysterious illness characterized by fever, black stools, and vomiting. He died 2 days later. He was later identified as patient zero in the current outbreak of Ebola, which was not recognized until March.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meliandou)(Econ, 12/13/14, p.49)
2013 Dec 26, In Iraq a barrage of rockets were fired on Camp Liberty, home to members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, the militant wing of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a Paris-based group opposed to Iran's cleric-led government. 3 residents were killed and over 50 wounded.
(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 26, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe paid his respects at the Yasukuni shrine honoring Japan's war dead in an unexpected visit that drew sharp rebukes from China and South Korea.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, Dozens of Libyan militiamen briefly blocked the entrance to the central bank, demanding the resignation of PM Ali Zeidan.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, A Russian probe into the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said it has found no trace of radioactive poisoning.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, Russian authorities issued visas to seven of 30 members of a Greenpeace ship crew that allow them to leave the country after dropping criminal charges against them over a protest outside an Arctic oil rig.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, A Russian plane crashed in Siberia, killing nine people. The Soviet-built Antonov An-12 plane belonging to an aircraft factory in Novosibirsk was carrying six crew and three others on a flight to another factory in Irkutsk.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Saudi Arabia a 73-year-old man died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 57 the number of deaths in the kingdom at the center of the outbreak.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In South Sudan heavy fighting raged in the key oil-producing north. Neighbors Kenya and Ethiopia said they had made "good progress" in efforts to broker an end to the civil war.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, Thailand's government rejected a call from the Election Commission (EC) to postpone a February vote. Violence erupted when protesters tried to storm a venue where a draw for election ballot numbers was being held and police fired teargas and rubber bullets to keep the rock-throwing crowd back. A policeman was killed and three were wounded by gunshots from an unknown attacker.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In Thailand a bus carrying New Year travelers plunged off one of the country’s highest bridges around midnight in the kingdom's northeast, leaving at least 29 people dead.
(AFP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 26, A Turkish prosecutor said he had been prevented from expanding a corruption investigation that has touched the heart of the government, alleging pressure on the judiciary.
(AFP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 26, In eastern Yemen tribesmen seized an oil ministry building in Hadramout province and exchanged gunfire with a pro-government tribe seeking to regain control of the premises.
(Reuters, 12/26/13)
2014 Dec 26, Data from Google's Transparency Report showed online traffic from China to Gmail fell precipitously and dropped to nearly zero on Dec 27. There was a tiny pickup on Dec 29. Tests later showed that China's government had blocked Google IP addresses in Hong Kong used by people on the mainland to access Gmail services.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec 26, Sony's PlayStation network remained offline on the second day of an outage that began roiling the online world just as eager video game players were unwrapping new consoles on Christmas morning.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, International credit and debit card company Visa Inc said it could no longer support bank cards being used in Crimea, following US sanctions imposed earlier this month.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Merla Zellerbach (b.1930), San Francisco philanthropist, author and former journalist, died of pancreatic cancer. Her last days were spent dosed with pain medication.
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A1)
2014 Dec 26, Former Harvard lecturer Stanislaw Baranczak (68), Poland's outstanding poet, translator and dissident, died at his home near Boston, Mass.
(AP, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Ohio a house fire killed a woman and 3 visiting grandsons in Fayette County.
(SFC, 12/27/14, p.A5)
2014 Dec 26, In Afghanistan an airstrike by US-led coalition forces killed 3 Afghan villagers who were "heavily armed" but not part of the Taliban insurgency. Villagers in the remote Ab Josh area of Logar province said the dead were civilians who were protecting their land from nomads. A woman and two men, members of the same family, were killed in southern Helmand province when the motorcycle they were sharing hit a roadside bomb. In Kandahar province 4 members of the intelligence service and a civilian were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Former Belgian PM Leo Tindemans (92), died. His support in European elections earned him the nickname "Mr. Europe."
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted the director of its Azerbaijani service saying that the office has been locked down since early today by prosecutors and armed police.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In China a monk was shot in the arm after police used teargas and opened fire during a clash with Tibetans outside a police station in the western province of Sichuan.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, China said it will increase official aid to Nepal by more than five times from fiscal 2015-16, to develop infrastructure in the landlocked nation.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In India a Japanese research scholar (22) escaped after being held hostage and raped for nearly three weeks near a Buddhist pilgrimage center in Bodh Gaya, Bihar state. By Jan 4 five men were arrested.
(AP, 1/3/15)(AFP, 1/4/15)
2014 Dec 26, Iran said it is to expand what it calls "smart filtering" of the Internet, a policy of censoring undesirable content on websites without banning them completely, as it used to.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, The US-led coalition pounded the Islamic State jihadist group with 31 air strikes, including 16 in Syria with 13 in the flashpoint Syrian town of Kobane and 15 in Iraq.
(AFP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Ireland's second-highest court ruled that life support should be removed from a brain-dead pregnant woman because her living 18-week-old fetus can't survive to birth.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Ivory Coast's former first lady Simone Gbagbo went on trial for "attempting to undermine the security of the state" in events leading to a bloody 2010-2011 crisis that left thousands dead.
(AFP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Mexico City some three thousand people, led by parents and other relatives and friends of missing students, took to the streets three months after the disappearance and likely massacre of 43 students.
(AFP, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Pakistan US drone strikes on two Taliban compound in North Waziristan killed at least 7 militants. Pakistani airstrikes killed 39 militants, including two rebel commanders, in the northwest late today and an ammunition depot was also destroyed. Troops raided a militant hideout in an area adjoining Orakzai and Khyber tribal districts. 16 terrorists were killed and 20 injured. Police said they arrested an important Taliban commander who was wanted for attacks on police and was also involved in killing a local journalist in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AFP, 12/26/14)(AP, 12/26/14)(AFP, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 26, A Palestinian man stabbed and lightly wounded two Israeli paramilitary border policemen at the entrance to Jerusalem's Old City. On Nov 11, 2015, Mussa Ajlouni (20) was jailed for 16 years after pleading guilty in a plea bargain to two counts of attempted murder.
(AP, 12/26/14)(AFP, 11/11/15)
2014 Dec 26, Philippine communist rebels freed two soldiers after four months of captivity as a goodwill gesture prior to a possible resumption of peace talks with the government.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin has signed a new military doctrine, naming NATO expansion among key external risks.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In South Korea 3 workers died after apparently inhaling toxic gas at a construction site for a nuclear plant being built by South Korea's monopoly nuclear power company.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Spain's PM Mariano Rajoy announced minimal increases to the minimum wage and for government-funded pensions and predicted the nation's economy will "take off" in 2015.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In central Sri Lanka at least 9 people were killed and 10 others were missing in mudslides triggered by heavy rains.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, Syrian forces killed Mohammed al-Ghazzawi, a former Sidney resident and the latest Australian jihadist to be killed fighting for the Islamic State.
(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.A4)
2014 Dec 26, Ukraine suspended train and bus services to the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula, citing security concerns. A day later an official said the suspension would be temporary. The government and pro-Russian separatists also swapped 145 Ukrainian servicemen for 222 rebel prisoners of war.
(AP, 12/26/14)(Reuters, 12/27/14)(AFP, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Ukraine rebels slightly stepped up their attacks on Ukrainian positions in the east of the country and one Ukrainian servicemen was reported killed in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Vietnam senior Chinese and Vietnamese officials agreed to settle their maritime disputes without resorting to “megaphone diplomacy," during a meeting in Hanoi.
(Reuters, 12/27/14)
2015 Dec 26, The United States and its allies conducted 28 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and five in Syria. Abdul Qader Hakim, who facilitated the militants' external operations and had links to the Nov 13 Paris attack network, was killed in Mosul by a US-led coalition air strike.
(Reuters, 12/27/15)(Reuters, 12/29/15)
2015 Dec 26, Chicago police shot and killed 3 people, including a mother of five who they said was shot "accidentally" when officers responded to a domestic disturbance.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 26, In Texas at least 11 people were killed in the Dallas area from a storm system packing torrential rains and unleashing a string of tornadoes that toppled homes, cut power lines and snarled transport for people returning from the Christmas holidays.
(Reuters, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 26, Britain's Meteorological Office issued two of its most severe weather warnings after days of torrential rain in northern England caused rivers to burst their banks and flood several villages.
(Reuters, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, In Burundi thousands of supporters of the president protested against the African Union's plan to deploy 5,000 peacekeepers to quell the country's escalating unrest.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, Guinea's President Alpha Conde appointed mining executive Mamady Youla as the West African country's new prime minister.
(AP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 26, Israeli policemen shot and killed a Palestinian as he tried to stab them in Jerusalem. A Palestinian motorist rammed his car into a checkpoint and lightly wounded a soldier stationed there. Troops on the scene opened fire at the attacker and seriously wounded him.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, Japanese authorities said that for the first time, an armed Chinese coast guard vessel entered its territorial waters off islands claimed by both countries.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, A Kenyan police official said an Islamic extremist died in the north when a roadside bomb he was planting exploded in Mandera.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, Serbian police arrested 80 people including a former minister on graft charges, stepping up an anti-corruption drive days after opening talks on joining the European Union.
(Reuters, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 26, Syrian government forces booby trapped a cluster of farm buildings in the southern Daraa province and detonated the explosives as several Islamic rebel factions gathered at the venue, killing 17 militants.
(AP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 26, A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab rebel groups, backed by US coalition planes, captured Tishreen Dam from Islamic State.
(Reuters, 12/26/15)(AFP, 1/2/16)
2015 Dec 26, Yemeni officials said overnight fighting between Shiite rebels and pro-government in southwestern Taiz province has killed 31 people, including 8 civilians. Yemeni loyalists killed at least 20 Iran-backed rebels in a pushback against insurgents seeking to retake positions to the northeast of the capital they control.
(AP, 12/26/15)(AFP, 12/26/15)
2016 Dec 26, In Rhode Island the occupation of a tribal government building by a faction of the Narragansett tribe entered its seventh day. Occupiers included council members who impeached Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and want him to step down.
(SFC, 12/27/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 26, In Afghanistan at least one police officer was killed after a car bomb exploded near the convoy of the deputy provincial police chief of southern Helmand province.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Argentine President Mauricio Macri sacked his finance minister Alfonso Prat-Gay, shaking up his economic team amid a stubborn recession that has made his center-right reforms deeply unpopular.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Bosnia a ban went into effect in Sarajevo on half of the city's cars from driving on city streets in an attempt to ease air pollution.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Brazil Kyriakos Amoiridis (59), the Greek ambassador to Brazil, was last seen. His wife Francoise reported him missing on Dec 28. On Dec 29 his burned-out rental car was found with a body inside. On Dec 30 police said Françoise and police officer Sergio Moreira had arranged and possibly carried out the killing of Amiridis in a home where the diplomat and his wife were staying in a poor section in the northern suburb of Rio as Officer Sergio Moreira (29) confessed that he killed the ambassador.
(AFP, 12/30/16)(Reuters, 12/30/16)(Reuters, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 26, A court in central China jailed Xiao Tian, a former deputy sports minister who once sat on China's Olympics committee for 10 and a half years, after finding him guilty of bribery.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Chinese authorities handed down prison sentences to nine protesters in Wukan, a fishing village that's received international attention for its demonstrations against land seizures.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, China and Sao Tome and Principe officially resumed diplomatic relations in a triumph for Beijing over rival Taiwan after the African island nation abruptly broke away from the self-ruled island last week.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Frenchman Thomas Coville sailed into the Brittany port of Brest completing his sail around the world alone, to set a new world record: 49 days, 3 hours, 7 minutes and 38 seconds.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Germany several hundred peace activists started what they say will be a months-long protest march from Berlin to war-ravaged Syria to urge an end to the fighting there.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Iranian officials said hundreds of thousands of birds have been killed in recent weeks as avian flu spread across seven provinces of the country. State news said 63,000 chickens, along with 800,000 fertilized eggs and day-old chicks, were culled at a farm in Qazvin province in recent days after an outbreak of the deadly H1N8 and H1N5 strains of the disease.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Officials said Japan and the US have agreed in principle on guidelines for limiting immunity from Japanese prosecution for civilian workers at American military bases, following a murder case this year on a southern Japanese island involving a Marine-turned-contractor.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe stopped at several memorials in Hawaii, one day before he visits the site of the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor during a trip intended to show a strong alliance between his country and the United States.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, A Kuwaiti criminal court sentenced a Filipina to 10 years in prison for pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, Forces loyal to Libya's eastern government carried out an air strike against opponents in the central Jufra region.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Hundreds of Mongolians braved frigid weather to stage a protest in the country's capital demanding that the government do more to address worsening air pollution that they fear is sickening their children and shortening their lives.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Nigerian troops foiled an attempt by two female suicide bombers to attack a cattle market in the restive city of Maiduguri. One of the bombers was killed, while the other was arrested.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Oman an appeals court lifted a ban on the Azamn (al-Zaman) newspaper which was forced to close in August after it published an article alleging government corruption. The court also decided to acquit journalist Zaher al-Abri and reduced prison sentences handed down by a lower court to editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Maamari and his deputy Yousef al-Haj.
(AFP, 12/26/16)(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Typhoon Nock-ten blew out of the northern Philippines after killing at least six people and spoiling Christmas in several provinces, where more than 380,000 people abandoned celebrations at home to reach emergency shelters and other safer grounds.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In the Philippines 18 crewmen were missing from the cargo ship M/V Starlite Atlantic after it sank at the height of Typhoon Nock-Ten. 14 other crewmen were rescued and one died after the ship sank off Mabini town in Batangas province.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 26, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops have found mass graves in Syria’s Aleppo with bodies showing signs of torture and mutilation.
(SFC, 12/27/16, p.A3)
2016 Dec 26, Saudi Arabia’s interior minister said more than 2,000 Saudis are fighting abroad with jihadist groups, with over 70 percent of them in Syria.
(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Serbian authorities arrested three men on suspicion of people trafficking after 77 migrants were found hidden in cargo vehicles.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Syria a US coalition airstrike killed Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti, a member of Islamic State's war committee, by the Tabqa Dam, a strategic objective in Raqqa city.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 26, Thailand said police have detained nine people suspected of hacking government websites to protest against amendments to a cyber security law that critics say strengthens the authorities' oversight of the internet.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2017 Dec 26, A suspected US drone attack along the Pakistani-Afghan border killed an Islamist militant commander from the Taliban-allied Haqqani Network.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, The US Treasury Department issued sanctions against two officials it describes as "key leaders of North Korea's unlawful weapons programs." The sanctions against Kim Jong Sik and Ri Pyong Chol block them from any property or interests in property within US jurisdiction, and prohibit them from transactions with American citizens.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Police in New York arrested a father (55) and his two sons (22 and 18) who had $25 million worth of counterfeit designer accessories in their possession. The knockoff Chinese merchandise was shipped to Kennedy Airport before being distributed to street vendors.
(AP, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 26, In upstate New York two women and two children were found dead in their apartment in Troy. Two men from Schenectady were soon arrested.
(SSFC, 12/31/17, p.A7)
2017 Dec 26, Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen (43), imprisoned for making a short documentary about Tibetan opposition to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, managed to flee China and arrived in San Francisco.
(SFC, 12/29/17, p.D1)
2017 Dec 26, In Afghanistan four border police officers were killed after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Faryab province. Five people were killed in Ghazni province.
(SFC, 12/27/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 26, In Afghanistan at least five coal miners were killed in a tunnel collapse in northern Samangan province. One miner remained missing.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Angola’s Russian-built AngoSat 1 satellite successfully entered orbit after launch from the Baikonur pad in Kazakhstan, but experts couldn't immediately establish contact. By Dec. 29 state-run Energia company engineers established communications with the craft and received data indicating that all its systems are operating properly.
(AP, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 26, China published its first "green development" index, listing regional governments which promote environmentally friendly development, with Beijing coming out top, though it came second-to-last in a survey of public satisfaction.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed that China did not export any gasoline, jet fuel, diesel or fuel oil to North Korea last month.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Prominent Chinese activist Wu Gan, who called himself the Ultra Vulgar Butcher as he mocked and pressured Chinese officials, was given an eight-year prison sentence for subversion.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, The state-run China Youth Daily reported that local officials in northern Shandong province have used fake data to help aluminum and steel producers avoid mandatory production curbs. The report cited a Ministry of Environmental Protection inspection team.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Dominican Republic authorities said at least a dozen people have died and 21 more hospitalized after drinking homemade liquor containing methanol.
(SFC, 12/27/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 26, Egypt hanged 15 men convicted of attacks that killed security forces in the Sinai Peninsula, in what appeared to be the largest number of executions on a single day since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office in 2014.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported the acquittal of Ismail Serrag el-Din, the founding director of the new Library of Alexandria, overturning a three-and-a-half year sentence on charges of squandering public funds.
(AP, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 26, An Egyptian court convicted a British woman Laura Plummer (33) of smuggling hundreds of powerful painkillers into the country, sentencing her to three years in prison. She has insisted the Tramadol tablets were for her Egyptian partner, who suffers chronic back pain.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, In Kosovo a non-governmental organization has hung hundreds of ties from the fence outside a government building to protest a pay raise for PM Ramush Haradinaj, who has said in TV interviews that he needs the money for new ties and shirts. Last week, Haradinaj's Cabinet decided to double his salary to 2,950 euros ($3,497) a month before taxes. The average salary in the country is 354 euros a month ($420).
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Kuwait’s interior ministry said five government employees have been arrested accused of posting a video on social media considered offensive to the Gulf state's crown prince.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Liberia held elections in a delayed run-off vote for the country's presidency. Former int’l footballer George Weah (51) and Vice-President Joseph Boakai joined voters in casting their ballots as they went head-to-head for the top office. George Weah easily beat Vice President Joseph Boakai gaining 61.5 percent of the ballot against 38.5 percent for his rival and winning in 14 of Liberia's 15 counties.
(AFP, 12/26/17)(AFP, 12/29/17)
2017 Dec 26, Libyan oil firm Waha Oil stopped pumping crude to the Es Sider terminal after a feeder pipeline was blown up.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Mexico's central bank said it will bolster the peso amid concerns US tax changes could reduce investment flows to Mexico.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Myanmar police said they would drop pending charges against two journalists working for Turkey's state broadcaster, their interpreter and driver, who were jailed in November for violating an aircraft law by filming with a drone.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Russia’s defense minister said it has started establishing a permanent military presence at naval and air bases in Syria, as parliament ratified a deal with Damascus to cement Russian presence in the country.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Saudi Arabia hosted a world chess tournament for the first time, nearly two years after the country's top cleric issued a religious edict against playing the board game. Players from Israel and Qatar missed the tournament due to regional tensions.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Saudi Arabia’s Okaz newspaper reported that authorities have released 23 of the 200-or-so powerful individuals detained since November on corruption charges after they reached deals with the government.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Sudan's foreign minister said Turkey will rebuild the ruined Ottoman port city of Suakin on Sudan's Red Sea coast and construct a naval dock to maintain civilian and military vessels. The restoration was agreed during a visit to the ancient port by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, Syria's government began to allow the evacuation of nearly 30 critically ill people from a besieged Damascus suburb, where hundreds requiring medical treatment have been prevented from reaching hospitals minutes away. At least five detainees were evacuated from eastern Ghouta late today.
(AP, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 26, It was reported that over the last year Venezuela's currency has weakened 97.5 per cent against the greenback, meaning $1,000 of local currency purchased then would be worth just $25 now.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 26, In Yemen air strikes hit a crowded market in Al Hayma sub-district of Attazziah in Taiz governorate, killing 54 and injuring 32.
(Reuters, 12/28/17)
2018 Dec 26, Pres. Donald Trump slipped into Iraq to greet US service members and show that his norm-busting presidency would hew at least to this tradition. He did not meet Iraqi officials while there but spoke on the phone with PM Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
(AP, 12/27/18)
2018 Dec 26, US Customs and Border Protection ordered medical checks on every child in its custody after Agustin Gomez (8) of Guatemala died a day earlier, marking the second death of an immigrant child in the agency's care this month.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, The Dow Jones industrial average jumped more than 1,000 points, its biggest point gain ever, as Wall Street had its best day in 10 years.
(SFC, 12/27/18, p.D1)
2018 Dec 26, In central California police Cpl. Ronil Singh (33) was shot and killed a few minutes after radioing in that he was pulling over a gray pickup truck that had no license plate in Newman. Gustavo Perez Arriaga was captured in Bakersfield on Dec. 28 after a manhunt following Singh's killing. Seven other people were soon arrested on suspicion of helping Perez Arriaga, including his girlfriend and two of his brothers. On Nov. 5, 2020, Paulo Virgen Mendoza, a Mexican immigrant in the country illegally, admitted to shooting Singh.
(AP, 12/27/18)(AP, 12/29/18)(AP, 11/5/20)
2018 Dec 26, Al Hinkle (b.1926), an original member of the Beat Generation, died in Los Gatos, Ca. He was a friend of Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassidy and accompanied them on their 1949 cross-country road trip that became the focus of Kerouac's "On the Road" (1957).
(SSFC, 12/30/18, DB p.50)
2018 Dec 26, Nancy Grace Roman (b.1925), NASA's first chief of astronomy, died in Germantown, Maryland. She took part in the development of the cosmic Background Explorer, launched in 1989, and oversaw the early development of the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Roman)(SFC, 1/2/19, p.C5)
2018 Dec 26, Colin O'Brady (33) of Portland, Oregon, completed a 932-mile trek across Antarctica to become the first prson to traverse the continent without any assistance.
(SFC, 12/28/18, p.A4)
2018 Dec 26, Albania's Defense Ministry said it has extended for a year its navy's participation in the search-and-rescue operations of the EU border control force Frontex.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Albania's government said it has fulfilled the demands of public university students, who boycotted classes for more than two weeks this month.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Argentine police said an Argentine woman kidnapped 32 years ago as a teenager has been found alive and well in Bolivia following a joint investigation between the two countries. Police liberated the woman (45) and her son.
(AFP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Sister Wendy Beckett (b.1930), a nun who became a BBC art critic star (1991-1996), died in East Harling, England. Her work included 15 books on art and religion and another ten of poetry and meditations.
(SFC, 12/27/18, p.C4)
2018 Dec 26, In Burkina Faso gunmen late today killed 10 gendarmes in Loroni village near the Malian border.
(Reuters, 12/28/18)
2018 Dec 26, Chinese police detained Qiu Zhanxuan, a well-known Marxist, at Peking University as he went to attend a memorial for the 125th anniversary of Mao Zedong's birthday that he organized.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, CongoDRC's national electoral commission (CENI) said an Ebola outbreak - the second-worst in history - was behind the postponement of voting until March in the eastern cities of Beni and Butembo and surrounding areas. It cited ethnic violence for the same delay in the western city of Yumbi.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Eritrea partially closed two border crossings with Ethiopia that opened this year after the former East African rivals made peace and restored relations. Only Ethiopians faced the restrictions.
(AP, 12/28/18)
2018 Dec 26, A legal source said French judges have dropped their long-running investigation into the deadly 1994 attack on former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, which sparked the country's genocide.
(AFP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Sea-Watch 3, a private rescue boat operated by a German humanitarian group, continued its appeal for a safe port. It has tweeted that 33 migrants were rescued from waters off Libya on Dec. 22.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Israel's army said it had located a fifth Hezbollah attack tunnel crossing into its territory from Lebanon and destroyed it with explosives.
(AFP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, It was reported that Israeli authorities have advanced plans for nearly 2,200 settlement homes in the occupied West Bank.
(AFP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, An Israeli official confirmed overnight attacks on several targets in Syria involved in Iranian arms transfers to the Hezbollah militant group.
(SFC, 12/27/18, p.A2)
2018 Dec 26, Japan announced that it is leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunts for the animals for the first time in 30 years, but said it would no longer go to the Antarctic for its much-criticized annual killings.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, In Nigeria militants attacked a military base late today in Baga, in eastern Borno state. 10 people were killed and clashes were continued as the militants tried to capture the town. The attacks in the Baga-Kawa area caused more than 6,357 people to flee east into Chad and some 20,000 others to flee to safety within Nigeria.
(Reuters, 12/28/18)(Reuters, 1/18/19)
2018 Dec 26, North and South Korea broke ground on an ambitious project to modernize North Korean railways and roads and connect them with the South, but without progress in nuclear negotiations, regular trains won't be crossing the border anytime soon.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Pakistani journalists, who have taken on military dictators and been beaten and jailed in the pursuit of a free press, said they now face a form of censorship that is more subtle but no less chilling, one spearheaded by the security services.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, It was reported that Qatar has airlifted 24 armored vehicles to Mali, in a move it said would help the countries of the African Sahel region combat terrorism.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, The Russian government approved a draft bill allowing the country to produce crops used in medicinal narcotics, saying this would reduce its dependence on foreign states that have imposed sanctions against it.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Russian blogger Alexander Valov, critical of the authorities in Sochi, was sentenced to six years in prison. He was charged earlier this year with extorting money from federal lawmaker Yuri Napso.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported that a Russian court has sentenced Igor Kiyashko, a Ukrainian lawyer, to eight years in a maximum security prison for espionage and trying to illegally obtain and export military goods.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, A magnitude 4.8 earthquake triggered by Mount Etna's eruption jolted eastern Sicily before dawn, injuring at least 10 people.
(Reuters, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, In northern Syria torrential rains washed away hundreds of tents in camps sheltering displaced Syrians as residents pleaded for help.
(AFP, 12/28/18)
2018 Dec 26, Tunisian authorities said 18 people have been arrested during protests that erupted after the death of a journalist who set himself on fire to protest economic problems in the North African nation.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Dec 26, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced an end to the 30-day martial law imposed after Russia seized Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2019 Dec 26, Broadway composer Jerry Herman (b.1931) died in Miami. His shows included "Milk and Honey" (1961), "Hello Dolly" (1964), "Mame" (1966) and "la Cage aux Folles" (1983).
(SSFC, 12/29/19, p.B3)
2019 Dec 26, In Hawaii a tour helicopter with seven people aboard disappeared. A search was underway in weather conditions described as challenging. The Eurocopter AS350 helicopter had taken off from the town of Lihue for a tour of Kauai's Na Pali Coast. The remains of six of the people on board were found the next day.
(AP, 12/27/19)(AP, 12/28/19)
2019 Dec 26, Ohio Dr. William Husel, accused of ordering drug overdoses in the deaths of 25 hospital patients, sued his former employer (the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System and its parent organization, Trinity Health Corp.) for defamation, arguing that he did nothing wrong and did not deviate from hospital policy on end-of-life care.
(AP, 12/28/19)
2019 Dec 26, US stocks rose higher with the Nasdaq topping 9,000 for the first time, closing at 9,022.39. The DJIA rose 105.94 to a record 28,621.94. The S&P 500 rose 16.53 to a record 3,239.91.
(SFC, 12/27/19, p.D1)
2019 Dec 26, In northern Afghanistan a powerful suicide car bombing targeted an Afghan army compound in Balkh province, killing six Afghan soldiers. A roadside bombing struck a police patrol in eastern Khost province, wounding at least five policemen.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Burundi’s Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza (55) again indicated he will not run for another term next year in the politically volatile East African nation.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Iraqi President Barham Saleh refused to designate the Iran-backed parliamentary bloc's nominee for prime minister after he was rejected by anti-government protesters, saying he was prepared to submit his resignation to Parliament.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Japan executed its first foreigner in 10 years, a Chinese man convicted in the 2003 murder and robbery of a family of four.
(SFC, 12/27/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 26, In Lebanon a storm dubbed "Loulou," lashed the country causing flooding and landslides in some parts, while the first heavy snow fell on the mountains, forcing some road closures.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Mexican authorities ordered the temporary closure of a shelter housing Central American migrants sent to Mexico from the United States following an outbreak of chicken pox. 72 people, including 69 children, were diagnosed with the virus.
(AP, 12/28/19)
2019 Dec 26, Moroccan authorities sentenced a Youtuber who criticized the king to prison, and detained a journalist-activist who defended anti-government protesters in a tweet.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2019 Dec 26, In eastern Pakistan five al-Qaida operatives were arrested in a raid late today. The raid in Punjab province was carried out in collaboration with the country's top intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2019 Dec 26, The organizers of the weekly Palestinian demonstrations along the Gaza Strip's frontier with Israel said that they will significantly scale down the gatherings early next year.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Russian security officials searched the offices of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption foundation, with his team calling the raid a new bid to disrupt their work. Masked police dragged away opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
(AFP, 12/26/19)(Bloomberg, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Russia's Ministry of Communications announced that it has successfully tested a countrywide alternative to the internet. The government's "sovereign internet" law, which allows content to be blocked in an "emergency situation," took effect in November, and Pres. Vladimir Putin recently signed a law that bans the sale of devices without pre-installed Russian apps.
(Endgadget, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, A bus crash in southwestern Russia killed two people and injured eight others near the village of Yarkino in the Lipetsk region.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Turkey's president said that the UN-supported government in Libya has asked Ankara to send troops to help authorities in Tripoli defend the city from an offensive by rival forces.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported that the Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of Wikipedia, saying the Turkish government's two-year ban on the online encyclopedia constitutes a violation of freedom of expression. Turkey blocked Wikipedia in April 2017, accusing it of being part of a “smear campaign" against the country.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, In eastern Turkey a boat carrying migrants capsized in Lake Van, killing seven people on board. At least 64 migrants were rescued.
(AP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 26, The UN reported that more than 100,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured over the past decade, as it renewed calls to end the bloody 18-year conflict.
(AFP, 12/26/19)
2020 Dec 26, Expanded unemployment benefits for around 14 million Americans were set to expire today, as President Trump continued to hold off on signing Congress' $900 billion COVID-19 pandemic relief bill.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, California to date had 2,048,213 cases of coronavirus and 23,990 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 238,738 cases and 2,415 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 18,680,653 with the death toll at 329,355.
(sfist.com, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Illinois a gunman opened fire inside a bowling alley in Rockford, killing three people and injuring three others late today in what authorities believe was a random attack. Green Beret suspect Duke Webb (37) was in custody after the shooting at Don Carter Lanes. 35 people have been killed in the city this year, breaking the previous record of 31 in 1996.
(AP, 12/26/20)(NBC News, 12/27/20)(CBS News, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Massachusetts two male teenagers (15&16) and two female teenagers (15&16) threw bricks at moving cars in Worcester severely injuring one man who was struck in the face by a brick that went through his windshield. The teens faced charges including aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
(SFC, 12/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 26, Black astrophysicist George Carruthers (81) died in Washington, DC. He developed a telescope that went to the moon on Apollo 16, producing images of Earth’s outermost atmosphere, stars and galaxies.
(NY Times, 1/23/21)
2020 Dec 26, The Center for Economics and Business Research predicted that China is on course to overtake the United States as the world's biggest economy by 2028.
(The Week, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Afghanistan at least four people, including two police officers, were killed in a series of explosions in Kabul.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Bosnia hundreds of migrants were stranded in a burned-out squalid tent camp as heavy snow fell in the country and temperatures suddenly dropped amid a wintry spell of bad weather.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Brazil registered 307 new COVID-19 deaths, and 17,246 new cases of coronavirus. Brazil now has nearly 7.5 million confirmed cases and 190,795 deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Cases of a new coronavirus variant recently identified in the UK continue to be found in European countries. Spain and France confirmed their first infections of the variant today, while Italy, Denmark, and the Netherlands have reported cases in recent days. It has also been found in Australia, Singapore, and Japan.
(BBC, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, summoned Ant executives and ordered them to formulate a rectification plan and an implementation timetable of its business.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, Mainland China recorded 22 new COVID-19 cases, up from 20 cases the previous day.
(Reuters, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Egypt an intensive care unit at a hospital in the greater Cairo area caught fire, killing seven coronavirus patients.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Hundreds of Israelis protested against PM Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on the long-serving leader to resign just days after the country was plunged into a new national election.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Israeli aircraft struck several sites in the Gaza Strip early today after Palestinian militants fired two rockets toward southern Israel.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Archaeologists in Pompeii, the city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, unveiled a frescoed hot food and drinks shop that served up the ancient equivalent of street food to Roman passersby. Pompeii was home to about 13,000 people when it was buried under ash, pumice pebbles.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Japan registered a record 3,881 infections including a new record for the capital, Tokyo, of 949.
(BBC, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 26, In northern Lebanon more than 300 Syrian refugees were forced to flee an informal camp as a blaze raged through and burned tents to the ground.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, Mexico's health ministry reported 4,974 confirmed coronavirus infection and 189 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total to 1,377,217 cases and 122,026 deaths. The government said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than reported cases.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Montenegro Airlines ceased its operations after the small country’s new government refused to continue financing the indebted national carrier. The government said it plans to form a “completely new" airline in the months to come.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Russia the total number of cases of coronavirus infections crossed the 3 million mark for the first time after officials recorded 29,258 new cases in the preceding 24 hours and 567 deaths. Total cases rose to 3,021,964.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, George Blake (98), a former British intelligence officer who worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union and passed some of the most coveted Western secrets to Moscow, died in Russia. A Polish defector exposed Blake as a Soviet spy in 1961. He was convicted on spying charges in Britain and sentenced to 42 years in prison. Blake has lived in Russia since his daring escape from a British prison in 1966 and was given the rank of Russian intelligence colonel.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Sudan said it has taken control of most of the land it accuses Ethiopians of encroaching upon near the border between the two countries.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Sudan Ezzel-Din Ali Hamed (22) died a day after his release from police custody in Omdurman. He had arrested on Dec. 17 as part of an investigation into charges of robbery. Security officers implicated in Hamed’s arrest and death were being detained and investigated.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, The Swedish Health Agency said that the new variant of coronavirus linked to a rapid rise in infections in Britain has been detected in Sweden after a traveler from the UK became ill and tested positive.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Thai protesters demonstrated to demand more action to help seafood sellers hit by a COVID-19 outbreak as the government urged people to eat more shellfish.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Uganda suspended all campaigning for January's presidential poll in the capital and 10 populous districts, citing coronavirus risks, but critics said the real reason was the opposition's popularity in these areas.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Expanded unemployment benefits for around 14 million Americans were set to expire today, as President Trump continued to hold off on signing Congress' $900 billion COVID-19 pandemic relief bill.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, California to date had 2,048,213 cases of coronavirus and 23,990 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 238,738 cases and 2,415 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 18,680,653 with the death toll at 329,355.
(sfist.com, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Illinois a gunman opened fire inside a bowling alley in Rockford, killing three people and injuring three others late today in what authorities believe was a random attack. Green Beret suspect Duke Webb (37) was in custody after the shooting at Don Carter Lanes. 35 people have been killed in the city this year, breaking the previous record of 31 in 1996.
(AP, 12/26/20)(NBC News, 12/27/20)(CBS News, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Massachusetts two male teenagers (15&16) and two female teenagers (15&16) threw bricks at moving cars in Worcester severely injuring one man who was struck in the face by a brick that went through his windshield. The teens faced charges including aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
(SFC, 12/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 26, Black astrophysicist George Carruthers (81) died in Washington, DC. He developed a telescope that went to the moon on Apollo 16, producing images of Earth’s outermost atmosphere, stars and galaxies.
(NY Times, 1/23/21)
2020 Dec 26, The Center for Economics and Business Research predicted that China is on course to overtake the United States as the world's biggest economy by 2028.
(The Week, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Afghanistan at least four people, including two police officers, were killed in a series of explosions in Kabul.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Bosnia hundreds of migrants were stranded in a burned-out squalid tent camp as heavy snow fell in the country and temperatures suddenly dropped amid a wintry spell of bad weather.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Brazil registered 307 new COVID-19 deaths, and 17,246 new cases of coronavirus. Brazil now has nearly 7.5 million confirmed cases and 190,795 deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Cases of a new coronavirus variant recently identified in the UK continue to be found in European countries. Spain and France confirmed their first infections of the variant today, while Italy, Denmark, and the Netherlands have reported cases in recent days. It has also been found in Australia, Singapore, and Japan.
(BBC, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, summoned Ant executives and ordered them to formulate a rectification plan and an implementation timetable of its business.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, Mainland China recorded 22 new COVID-19 cases, up from 20 cases the previous day.
(Reuters, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Egypt an intensive care unit at a hospital in the greater Cairo area caught fire, killing seven coronavirus patients.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Hundreds of Israelis protested against PM Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on the long-serving leader to resign just days after the country was plunged into a new national election.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Israeli aircraft struck several sites in the Gaza Strip early today after Palestinian militants fired two rockets toward southern Israel.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Archaeologists in Pompeii, the city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, unveiled a frescoed hot food and drinks shop that served up the ancient equivalent of street food to Roman passersby. Pompeii was home to about 13,000 people when it was buried under ash, pumice pebbles.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Japan registered a record 3,881 infections including a new record for the capital, Tokyo, of 949.
(BBC, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 26, In northern Lebanon a scuffle broke out between Syrian refugees and residents of Bhanine. More than 300 Syrian refugees were forced to flee an informal camp as a blaze raged through and burned tents to the ground.
(AP, 12/27/20)(Econ., 1/9/21, p.40)
2020 Dec 26, Mexico's health ministry reported 4,974 confirmed coronavirus infection and 189 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total to 1,377,217 cases and 122,026 deaths. The government said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than reported cases.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Montenegro Airlines ceased its operations after the small country’s new government refused to continue financing the indebted national carrier. The government said it plans to form a “completely new" airline in the months to come.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Russia the total number of cases of coronavirus infections crossed the 3 million mark for the first time after officials recorded 29,258 new cases in the preceding 24 hours and 567 deaths. Total cases rose to 3,021,964.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, George Blake (98), a former British intelligence officer who worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union and passed some of the most coveted Western secrets to Moscow, died in Russia. A Polish defector exposed Blake as a Soviet spy in 1961. He was convicted on spying charges in Britain and sentenced to 42 years in prison. Blake has lived in Russia since his daring escape from a British prison in 1966 and was given the rank of Russian intelligence colonel.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Sudan said it has taken control of most of the land it accuses Ethiopians of encroaching upon near the border between the two countries.
(AP, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, In Sudan Ezzel-Din Ali Hamed (22) died a day after his release from police custody in Omdurman. He had arrested on Dec. 17 as part of an investigation into charges of robbery. Security officers implicated in Hamed’s arrest and death were being detained and investigated.
(AP, 12/27/20)
2020 Dec 26, The Swedish Health Agency said that the new variant of coronavirus linked to a rapid rise in infections in Britain has been detected in Sweden after a traveler from the UK became ill and tested positive.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Thai protesters demonstrated to demand more action to help seafood sellers hit by a COVID-19 outbreak as the government urged people to eat more shellfish.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 26, Uganda suspended all campaigning for January's presidential poll in the capital and 10 populous districts, citing coronavirus risks, but critics said the real reason was the opposition's popularity in these areas.
(Reuters, 12/26/20)
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