December 26
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Featured Event
© Kevin Huver/Disc Golf Pro Tour
Flying saucers patented
The Wham-O Manufacturing Company was issued a U.S. patent on this day in 1967 for “a saucer-shaped throwing implement,” better known as a Frisbee-brand flying disc. These discs have their roots in the 1870s, when students in Connecticut tossed pie tins around for fun, and helped contribute to the rise of disc golf and other disc sports in the 1970s. [Read today’s edition of Today in History >>]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Mao Zedong, born this day in 1893, was a Marxist theorist, revolutionary, and, from 1949 to 1959, the first chairman of the People’s Republic of China. He was one of the most influential and controversial political figures of the 20th century, in China and abroad, not least because his sweeping reforms often had disastrous consequences for China’s people and economy.
Famous Birthdays
More on December 26
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Today
Boxing Day is celebrated as a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
© Sue Barr—Image Source/Getty Images
Today
The celebration of Kwanzaa begins. Each of its seven days is dedicated to a principle that affirms African family and social values: unity (umoja), self-determination (kujichagulia), collective work and responsibility (ujima), cooperative economics (ujamaa), purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba), and faith (imani).
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images Entertainment
2021
E.O. Wilson, an American biologist and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer known for being the world’s leading authority on ants, died in Massachusetts. [Learn how ants, together with bees and wasps, are one of the most ecologically important animal groups on Earth.]
Official website of the Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet (https://japan.kantei.go.jp/98_abe/meibo/daijin/abe_e.html - cropped)
2012
Shinzo Abe began his second term as prime minister of Japan, replacing Yoshihiko Noda.
White House Photograph Courtesy Gerald R. Ford Library
2006
Gerald R. Ford—who was the 38th president of the United States (1974–77) and the country’s only chief executive who was not elected as either president or vice president—died in California. [Sort fact from fiction in our presidents of the United States quiz.]
Philip A. McDaniel/U.S. Navy
2004
A massive earthquake shook the Indian Ocean floor west of the island of Sumatra, triggering a devastating tsunami that swamped coastal areas from Thailand to Africa and killed at least 225,000 people.
Liam White/Alamy
1985
The slain body of Dian Fossey—the world’s leading authority on the mountain gorilla—was found in Rwanda; it was widely suspected that she was murdered by poachers.
© 1973 Warner Brothers, Inc.
1973
The horror classic The Exorcist, an adaptation of a novel about a young girl possessed by the Devil, was released in the United States. The recipient of 10 Oscar nominations, including for director William Friedkin, it became one of the highest-grossing films of all time. [Test your knowledge of scary movies.]
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1963
The Beatles’ single I Want to Hold Your Hand, with I Saw Her Standing There on the B-side, was first released in the United States. Hugely successful, it helped launch Beatlemania. [Take our Beatlemania quiz.]
© Nextrecord Archives—Archive Photos/Getty Images
1946
Mobster Bugsy Siegel opened the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, driving the city’s transformation into a gambling and entertainment destination. [Learn more about the people, places, and events that shaped the 1940s.]
UPI/Bettmann Archive
1908
Jack Johnson defeated Tommy Burns in Sydney to become the first Black fighter to win the world heavyweight boxing championship. [Test your knowledge of boxing.]
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.15
1805
After his victories at Ulm and Austerlitz, Napoleon enforced harsh penalties on Austria with the signing of the Treaty of Pressburg, which enabled him to neuter Austria’s influence while he continued to wage war across Europe. [Test your knowledge of Napoleon.]
Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London
1791
Mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage, who is credited with having conceived the first automatic digital computer, was born in London. [How much do you know about computers and technology?]
© Photos.com/Getty Images
1647
Charles I and the Scots reached a secret agreement whereby the Scots offered to support the king’s restoration to power in return for his acceptance of Presbyterianism in Scotland and its establishment in England for three years. [Take our quiz about kings and emperors.]