What happened on December 25 ?

795 - Pope Adrian I Served as Pope from 772 A.D. to 795 A.D..

1156 - Peter the Venerable, Benedictine abbot of Cluny (b. c. 1092)

1635 - Samuel de Champlain, French explorer and founder of Quebec City (b. 1567)

1676 - Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England (b. 1609)

1676 - William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, English soldier, politician, and writer (b. 1592)

1683 - Kara Mustafa, Ottoman general (b. 1634)

1758 - James Hervey, English clergyman and writer (b. 1714)

1784 - Yosa Buson, Japanese poet and painter (b. 1716)

1824 - Barbara Juliana, Baroness von Krüdener, Russian writer (b. 1764)

1880 - Fridolin Anderwert, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1828)

1916 - St. Albert Chmielowski, Polish Catholic Saint (b. 1845)

1921 - Vladimir Korolenko, Russian writer (b. 1853)

1925 - Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (b. 1877)

1926 - Taisho Emperor, Japanese emperor (b. 1879)

1933 - Francesc Macià , President of Generalitat, Autonomous government of Catalonia (b. 1859)

1938 - Karel Capek, Czech author (b. 1890)

1940 - Agnes Ayres, American actress (b. 1898)

1946 - W. C. Fields, American actor and comedian (b. 1880)

1961 - Otto Loewi, German-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)

1963 - Tristan Tzara, Romanian-born writer (b. 1896)

1973 - Ismet Inonu, Turkish statesman (b. 1884)

1973 - Gabriel Voisin, French aviation pioneer (b. 1880)

1977 - Charlie Chaplin, English actor (b. 1889)

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

1983 - Joan Miró, Catalan painter (b. 1893)

1988 - Ooka Shohei, Japanese novelist (b. 1909)

1989 - Nicolae Ceau?escu, Romanian dictator (executed) (b. 1918)

1989 - Billy Martin, baseball player and manager (b. 1928)

1993 - Pierre Victor Auger, French physicist (b. 1899)

1994 - Zail Singh, President of India (b. 1916)

1995 - Dean Martin, American singer and actor (b. 1917)

1996 - JonBenét Ramsey, American beauty queen and murder victim (b. 1990)

1997 - Denver Pyle, American actor (b. 1920)

1998 - John Pulman, English snooker player (b. 1926)

2000 - Willard Van Orman Quine, American philosopher (b. 1908)

2003 - Nicholas Mavroules, Greek U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts (b. 1929)

2005 - Birgit Nilsson, Swedish soprano (b. 1918)