01011226 This Day In History, December 26

1135: The coronation of French-born Stephen of Blois as king of England. Stephen's reign was consumed by the Anarchy, a war within England and Normandy from 1135 to 1153, characterized by a breakdown in law and order.

1492: Christopher Columbus established the first Spanish settlement in the New World - in the Caribbean (for a map of all 4 of the voyages of Christopher Columbus, see Thanksgiving In History and Prophecy).

1620: Plymouth Colony was established by the England's Mayflower colonists (see also The Pilgrims).

1790: During the French Revolution, Louis XVI of France granted his assent to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.

1805: Austria and France signed the Treaty of Pressburg (also known as the fourth Peace of Pressburg).

1806: Napoleon's army was stopped by Russian forces at the Battle of Pultusk.

1825: Liberal rebels in Russia revolted against Czar Nicholas I.

1846: While snowbound and starving in the Sierra Nevadas, members of the Donner Party resorted to cannibalism.

1852: The sailing ship Marco Polo, built in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, was declared the fastest ship in the world. The ship had sailed from Liverpool, England, to Melbourne, Australia, and back in 140 days. The trip usually took 240 days.

1862: The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place when 38 Santee Sioux were executed in Minnesota for attempting to defend their homeland from white settlers.

1870: The 12.8 kilometer (8.5 miles) Frejus Rail Tunnel through the European Alps was completed.

1898: Radium was discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie in their laboratory in France.

1932: An estimated 75,000 people were killed by a severe earthquake in China.

1943: British naval forces sank the German battleship Scharnhorst.

1962: 8 East Berliners escaped to West Berlin by crashing through border gates in an armor-plated bus.

1972: Former U.S. President Harry Truman died at age 88. Truman was (to date) the only man to order the use of nuclear weapons on another country - the bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 in which hundreds of thousands of people were vaporized or severely burned.

1975: The Russian Tupolev-144 became the world's first supersonic aircraft to go into regular service, carrying mail from Moscow.

1979: The Soviet Union sent an additional 5,000 troops into the Afghanistan conflict.

1991: Jack Ruby's gun, that was used to murder Lee Harvey Oswald, sold for $220,000.00 in auction. Ruby's actual name was Jacob Rubenstein, a son of Polish-immigrant Jewish parents. He grew up in Chicago where, as a boy, he ran errands for the gangster Al Capone.

1991: The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union formally dissolved the Soviet Union.

1998: Iraq announced that it would defend its airspace against U.S. and British warplanes that flew in their declared "northern and southern no-fly zones." Iraq's attempt to defend itself from foreign warplanes in its skies was declared an act of aggression against the U.S. and Britain and used as a further pretext to bomb and invade Iraq.