Tidbits of History

December 26 is:

Boxing Day A holiday traditionally celebrated the day following Christmas Day, when servants and tradespeople would receive gifts, known as a “Christmas box”, from their bosses or employers. Also, a day when you pack up your Christmas gifts in a box for returning to the merchants for refunds.

“On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . . two turtledoves.”
For the Catholic interpretation of the significance of each day of Christmas, see: crosswalk.com

National Candy Cane Day

Alms for the Poor

Day of the Wren or Wren’s Day in the Republic of Ireland. See The Irish Used to Celebrate The Day After Christmas by Killing Wrens

George Washington defeated Hessians at Battle of Trenton in American Revolutionary War in 1776.

Publication of Federalist Paper #28: The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to the Common Defense Considered written by Alexander Hamilton in 1787. This paper continues the discussion of standing armies in peace time with the admission that there may be times when a national government will be required to use force to suppress seditions and insurrections. The safeguard against the use of force against the people is the legislature being representative of the citizens. Hamilton could not foresee a time when the federal government would maintain a military big enough to endanger the liberty of the entire population.

Four thousand people attended George Washington’s funeral in 1799 where Henry Lee III declares him as:

“First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

Trapped in snow in the Sierra Nevadas and without food, members of the Donner Party resorted to cannibalism in 1846.

James H. Mason of Massachusetts patented first US coffee percolator in 1865.

Birthday of Mao Zedong, (December 26, 1893), Communist leader of the Republic of China, founder of the People’s Republic of China which he governed from 1949 to 1976. Often referred to as “Chairman Mao”, he is credited with bringing China into the modern world, from an agrarian to an industrial society. He is also considered the person most guilty of democide (murder through government action) in human history, being responsible for the deaths of 40-70 million people through starvation, forced labor, and executions.

Judy Garland, 2½, billed as Baby Frances, made her show business debut on December 26, 1924.

Johnny Weissmuller announces his retirement from amateur swimming in 1928, goes on to be a particularly memorable movie star, especially as Tarzan.

On December 26, 1941, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

The Beatles‘ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There” are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level in 1963.

1972 – Death of Harry S. Truman, thirty-third President of the United States. He became president upon the death of Franklin D Roosevelt. Truman died in Kansas City, Missouri at age 88. He had pneumonia and multiple organ failure.

1982 – Time’s “Man of the Year” is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer.

The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union met and formally dissolved the USSR in 1991.

2006-Death of Gerald Ford (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.), thirty-eighth President of the United States. He became president upon the resignation of Richard Nixon. Ford died at age 93 in Rancho Mirage, California of arteriosclerotic cerebrovascular disease.

December 25 is:

Merry Christmas to all!

“On the First Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: A partridge in a pear tree.”
Teaching the Catholic faith was outlawed in sixteenth-century England. Those who instructed their children in Catholicism could be drawn and quartered. Thus, the church went underground. To hide the important and illegal elements of their teaching, clerics composed poems that seemed silly to most people. But these verses were veiled works that taught the church’s most important tenets. “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is said to be one of these teaching tools.

Most people today believe that the twelve days of Christmas start on December 12th or 13th and run through Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. But in fact, the first day of Christmas is December 25th and the final day is January 5th. Thus, for hundreds of years the Christmas holidays didn’t begin until Christmas Eve and didn’t end until Epiphany.

For the Catholic interpretation of the significance of each day of Christmas, see: crosswalk.com

National Pumpkin Pie Day

The American colonists used pumpkin in pie crusts, but not in the filling.
The type of pumpkin pie we know today was not made until the 1700s.
Every year, 50 million pumpkin pies are made using Libby’s canned product.
The world’s largest pumpkin pie weighed over 350 pounds and was made with 80 pounds of pumpkin, 36 pounds of sugar, and 144 eggs.

National “Kiss the Cook” Day

Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome in the year 800.

The foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary was established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary in the year 1000.

1621 Governor William Bradford of Plymouth forbid game playing on Christmas.

1651 Massachusetts General Court ordered a five shilling fine for “observing any such day as Christmas”.

1741 – Astronomer Anders Celsius introduced Centigrade temperature scale based on two easily reproducible natural standards, the freezing and boiling points of water.

1776 – George Washington and his army crossed the Delaware River to attack Great Britain’s Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey.

Publication of Federalist Paper #27: The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to the Common Defense Considered written by Alexander Hamilton in 1787. Hamilton addresses the fear that the federal government requires the aid of a military to enforce its laws. He argues that because the national Senate will consist of men chosen by State Legislatures, the representatives will be men of high morals and good judgement who will not pass laws which require military enforcement. He also says that the more interaction between the federal government and the citizens, the more respect and loyalty will be felt by the citizens.

1818 – Handel’s “Messiah” made its US premiere in Boston. George Frideric Handel’s Messiah was originally an Easter offering. It burst onto the stage of Musick Hall in Dublin on April 13, 1742. The audience swelled to a record 700, as ladies had heeded pleas by management to wear dresses “without Hoops” in order to make “Room for more company.” Handel’s superstar status was not the only draw; many also came to glimpse the contralto, Susannah Cibber, then embroiled in a scandalous divorce.

Read more at: Smithsonian Magazine

Birthday of Clara Barton, (December 35, 1821) the founder of the American Red Cross, born in Oxford, Mass.

U.S. President Andrew Johnson granted unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers in 1868.

“Stars & Stripes Forever” was written by John Philip Sousa on December 25, 1896.

1959: An apprentice engineer from Liverpool named Richard Starkey, then already eighteen, got his first real set of drums for Christmas (the young Starkey’s family couldn’t afford a proper set when he was a child). Later, he would become known as Ringo Starr.

1969: 16-year-old Robbie Bachman of Winnipeg, Canada received his first drum kit for Christmas and begins to play along with his older brother, guitarist Randy. Just three years later, Randy asks him to join his new band, named Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

Mikhail Gorbachev formally resigned as President of USSR in a televised speech on December 25, 1991.

December 23 is:

Roots Day encourages us to look into our heritage, families, family history and ancestry.

National Pfeffernuesse Day Pfeffernüsse are tiny spice cookies, popular as a holiday treat in Germany, Denmark, and The Netherlands.

National Bake Day

George Washington returned home to Mount Vernon on December 23, 1783, after the disbanding of his army following the Revolutionary War.

On this date in 1788, Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government. About two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.

A Visit from St. Nicholas, also known as “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement C. Moore was published in 1823. From our website at BenneyNLinda.com

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the luster of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen!
On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe in 1888.

The transistor was first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories on December 23, 1947.

First successful kidney transplant was performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray in 1954.
The procedure was done between identical twins, Ronald and Richard Herrick, to eliminate any problems of an immune reaction. For this and later work, Dr. Murray received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1990. The recipient, Richard Herrick, died eight years after the transplantation.

The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York was topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world. (1970) When completed in 1973, the South Tower became the second tallest building in the world at 1,362 feet. We lost both on September 11, 2001.

December 22 is:

National Date Nut Bread Day

Publication of Federalist Paper #26: The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to the Common Defense Considered written by Alexander Hamilton in 1787. Hamilton continues his discussion on the need for a standing military, controlled by the federal government. One of the duties of the federal government is to “provide for the common defense”. According to the new Constitution, the military will be approved for a two-year period by the legislature. Any attempt to increase the size or scope of the military will be noticed and stopped. Hamilton believed strongly that it was good for the citizenry to be suspicious of military power.

The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, was passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson in 1807.

Ludwig van Beethoven conducted and performed at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, in 1808 with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto (performed by Beethoven himself) and Choral Fantasy (with Beethoven at the piano).

Death of Rachel Jackson, wife of Andrew Jackson, of heart failure. She died between his election and his inauguration. She was buried on the grounds at The Hermitage wearing the white dress and shoes she had bought for the Inaugural Ball.

Savannah, Georgia fell to General William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his “March to the Sea”. On Dec. 22, 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln from Georgia, saying, “I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah.”

1st string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison in 1882.

1894 – French officer Alfred Dreyfus court-martialed for treason, triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus later vindicated).

Birthday of former First Lady, Claudia Alta Taylor(Lady Bird) Johnson (December 22, 1912), wife of Lyndon Johnson, first lady 1963-1969. She became the first president’s wife to advocate actively for legislation when she was instrumental in promoting the Highway Beautification Act, which was nicknamed “Lady Bird’s Bill” and sought to beautify the nation’s highway system by limiting billboards and by planting roadside areas.

The Lincoln Tunnel opened to traffic in New York on December 22, 1937.

1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge –German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: “Nuts!”

On December 22 in 1989, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate re-opened after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.

Richard Reid attempted to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63 in 2001.

The repeal of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, the 17-year-old policy banning on homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010.