Today in History in 1223 Saint Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are six days remaining until the end of the year. Christmas is celebrated on this day in many Christian and Western countries.

EVENTS

333 - Roman Emperor Constantine I promotes his youngest son Constans to the rank of Caesar.

336 - Ancient Rome holds its first documented Christmas celebration.

496 - Clovis I, King of the Franks, is baptized into the Roman Catholic faith in Reims by Saint Remigius.

597 - Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow labourers baptize over 10,000 Anglo-Saxons in Kent.

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

1000 - Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.

1066 – Coronation of William the Conqueror as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.

1130 - Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first King of Sicily.

1223 – Saint Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene.

1495 - Spanish forces defeat the Guanches, the native people of the Canary Islands, in the Battle of La Victoria de Acentejo - Tenerife is the last island to be taken over by Spain.

1553 - Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeat the Spanish conquistadors and execute Governor of Chile Pedro de Valdivia.

1599 – The city of Natal, Brazil is founded.

1643 - Christmas Island is found and named in the Indian Ocean near present-day Indonesia by Captain William Mynors.

1758 – Halley's Comet passes by Earth, just as Edmond Halley had predicted.

1776 – George Washington and his army cross the Delaware River to attack the monarchy's Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey.

1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" (Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria).

1837 – Battle of Okeechobee – United States forces defeat Seminole Native Americans.

1868 – US President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War rebels.

1868 – Ezo Republic founded in Hokkaido by Shogunate rebels.

1896 - John Philip Sousa composes The Stars and Stripes Forever.

1914 – Just after midnight on Christmas morning, German troops on the Western Front cease firing their guns and artillery and start singing Christmas carols. Crossing the No man's land, they trade gifts with the enemy forces that face them. The Christmas truce lasts for several days, depending on the location.

1917 – Why Marry?, first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre in New York City.

1926 – Hirohito becomes Emperor of Japan, succeeding the Taisho Emperor (Yoshihito).

1927 - The Vietnamese Nationalist Party is founded.

1932 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills ~70,000 people

1939 – Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was read on radio for the first time (CBS radio)

1939 – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is introduced by Montgomery Ward stores

1941 – Hong Kong surrenders to the Japanese.

1946 - The first European artificial chain reaction is initiated by the Soviet nuclear reactor F-1.

1947 – The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.

1952 – Queen Elizabeth II broadcasts her first Christmas message.

1953 – A fire broke out in Shek Kip Mei, Hong Kong.

1968 - Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans-Earth injection maneuver, sending crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from lunar orbit.

1968 - 42 Dalits are burned alive in Kilavenmani village in Tamil Nadu, India, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages from Dalit labourers. The Dalits are at the bottom of India's class system, which consists of castes.

1973 – The ARPANET crashes when a programming bug causes all ARPANET traffic to be routed through the server at Harvard University, causing the server to freeze.

1974 – Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Australia.

1974 - Marshall Fields drives a vehicle through the gates of the White House, resulting in a four-hour stand-off.

1977 – Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with President of Egypt Anwar Sadat

1989 – Nicolae Ceausescu, former communist dictator of Romania, and his wife Elena were condemned to death and executed under a wide range of charges by a court perceived by many as illegitimate.

1990 – First trial run of the World Wide Web

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day).

2002 – New Delhi Metro was introduced.

2003 – The space probe Beagle 2 goes missing on the planet Mars.

2004 – Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which will land on Saturn's moon, Titan on January 14, 2005.

2007 – A tiger escapes from San Francisco Zoo and attacks three people, killing one.

2009 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempts a terrorist attack, while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253.

2016 - A Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev-154 aircraft crashes into the Black Sea shortly after take-off from Sochi, killing all 92 people on board.

BIRTHS

4 BC – AD 1 – Jesus, Christian icon (The exact day and year are argued over.) (d. circa 33)

1250 - John IV Laskaris, Byzantine Emperor (d. 1305)

1584 - Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain (d. 1611)

1642 – Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician (d. 1727)

1717 – Pope Pius VI, Roman Catholic pope during the French revolution. (d. 1799)

1720 – Anna Maria Mozart, mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d. 1778)

1771 – Dorothy Wordsworth, English diarist and sister of William Wordsworth (d. 1855)

1821 – Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross (d. 1912)

1878 – Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver and automotive pioneer (d. 1941)

1899 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (d. 1957)

1907 – Cab Calloway, American bandleader (d. 1994)

1918 – Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (d. 1981)

1924 – Rod Serling, American television scriptwriter (d. 1975)

1946 – Jimmy Buffett, singer, songwriter

1946 – Larry Csonka, American football player

1946 – Gene Lamont, American baseball player and manager

1949 – Sissy Spacek, American actress

1954 – Annie Lennox, Scottish singer (Eurythmics)

1971 - Justin Trudeau, Canadian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Canada

DEATHS

1635 – Samuel de Champlain, French explorer (b. 1567)

1926 – Yoshihito, Emperor of Japan (b. 1879)

1946 – WC Fields, American movie actor (b. 1880)

1977 – Charlie Chaplin, English movie actor (b. 1889)

1979 - Joan Blondell, American actress and singer (b. 1906)

1995 – Dean Martin, American singer (b. 1917)

2006 – James Brown, American singer (b. 1933)

2008 – Eartha Kitt, American singer (b. 1927)

2016 - Vera Rubin, American astronomer (b. 1928)